Varsity Trip
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The Varsity Trip is the official Oxford and Cambridge Ski and Snowboard trip each year. It was started as the facilitator of the Blues Ski Races between the University of Oxford and the University of Cambridge in 1920; at this time it was almost exclusively attended by the racers and their families, when skiing was an expensive sport. Today things have changed with the trip aiming to provide cheap skiing and promotion to newcomers to the sport. As a result of the Varsity Trip, the Oxford and Cambridge ski trips are respectively the two largest university snowsports trip in the world. Around 1500 students from the two universities go each year when it is held at the end of the Michaelmas university term with almost 1/3 of participants being complete beginners.
In the past few years, the trip has sold for under £300 for all-inclusive skiing, often to world-class resorts such as Tignes and Val d'Isere.
The largest Varsity Trip was in 2006 with 1408 people over the two weeks.
[edit] Varsity Trip Organisation
The trip is organised by a Committee of 8 from Oxford and Cambridge who have individual allocated roles with 4 from each university.
The organisation liaises closely with the Oxford and Cambridge Ski and Snowboard Clubs (OUSSC and CUSSC) and all trip participants automatically become associates of these clubs, making the ski clubs one of the largest societies in their respective universities.
| Year | President | Vice-President |
|---|---|---|
| 2007 | Mike Dowling (Mansfield, Oxford) | Persephone Bridgman Baker (Newnham, Cambridge) |
| 2006 | Charlie Steel (Merton, Oxford) | Lomax Ward (Gonville & Caius, Cambridge) |
| 2005 | Tim Wilkes (Clare, Cambridge) | William Hardyment (St Hugh's, Oxford) |
| 2004 | Sally Knock (Corpus Christi, Oxford) | Chris Aylard (Gonville & Caius, Cambridge) |
[edit] Blues Races and Competitions
During the Varsity Trip, skiing races in Slalom and Giant Slalom are held. A new event called the Combi was introduced for the first time which consisted of GS, Slalom, moguls and a jump all as part of the same competition. The top three racers in the first men's and women's teams are automatically awarded Half Blues. At the discretion of the Blues Committee, a Full Blue can be awarded to some competitors. In recent years, the competition has extended to snowboarders but this has not got Blues status although Ed Gunn, who has won the BUSA Championships for snowboarding at BUSC has been awarded an Extraordinary Full Blue.
| Year | Winning University | Men's Individual Winner |
|---|---|---|
| 2006 | Oxford | Freddie Clough |
| 2005 | Oxford | Adrien Geiger |
| 2004 | CAMBRIDGE | Adrien Geiger |
| 2003 | Oxford | Geoff Bamber |
| 2002 | Oxford | Geoff Bamber |
