For both seasoned veterans on the slopes and bunny-hill beginners, the 5C Ski & Snowboard Club & Team aims to make winter sports more accessible for all students. With a blend of expertise and enthusiasm, 5C Ski has their sights set high both at home and across the country.
Mia Rechsteiner PO ’24 is a captain on the team and has skied for most of her life. Despite years of experience in the mountains, she described how joining the team last year has led to new and exciting experiences with the sport she loves.
“[Growing up] I trained in moguls and free ride which is not the same as racing, which is what we do here, so it was definitely a shift,” Rechsteiner said. “I had been on a ski team before, but nothing like this. It has been so great, meeting people around the 5Cs, especially as someone who came in during Covid and only had three years on campus.”
Now as a leader on the team in her role as a captain, Rechsteiner said she aims to improve both the culture and the structure.
“I really wanted to get involved in actually organizing the Ski Team,” Rechsteiner said. “[I want to] make it more accessible and more organized. That’s why I became one of the captains.”
Unlike Rechsteiner, Donny Lu PO ’25 is one of the novice members of the team. Only having started snowboarding when he began attending college in the United States, as he grew up just outside of Hong Kong with little access to snow, Lu is now one of the team’s most committed members.
After attending a “Beginner Days” trip, introductory ski lessons hosted in Big Bear by 5C Ski, Lu found a spot on the team. He said that as a beginner, joining the ski team can be daunting, but that the people on the team are welcoming and encouraging of new members.
“When I first joined it was kind of intimidating because the people I was skiing with all grew up skiing so they were really good at it and I was so bad,” Lu said. “But the environment was really, really nice, people don’t judge you for how bad you are. Even though I will fall on tricks and I’ll always injure myself, people always hype me up.”
Lu also described the positive change that joining the Ski Team brought to his routine in college.
“[Being on the team] exemplifies what college experience should feel like for me,” Lu said. “Before I joined the team, my weekends were pretty boring, I just did homework. But the team has a really good atmosphere where you can actually meet people and get really close with them.”
Similar to Lu, Carolyn Coyne PO ’25 skied for the first time when she was a senior in high school. Along with the anxiety that she said many beginners experience, Coyne discussed some of the barriers the team aims to overcome, highlighting the sport’s exclusive history.
“Skiing and snowboarding in general are historically white male-dominated, it’s a very privileged sport,” Coyne said. “But I think the people in leadership and the new people are really committed towards making our environment different from that. You have to pay team dues, which is definitely a financial barrier. But our captains are really great about having open conversations about what that means financially. I know that if people need aid there’s a system setup for that.”
In addition to helping members with finances, significant hard work from leaders and members put into encouraging more athletes to join has paid off. Rechsteiner described how the team has expanded dramatically in just the last year. She talked about the effect this could have on their performance in the upcoming nationals competition and in following seasons.
“This year we have a much fuller team,” Rechsteiner said. “Overall, we almost doubled in size since last year. This year we have just so many talented people. I’m so confident in our performance and nationals.”
After a strong performance at their Regional Championships last weekend where the team competed against schools from across the West Coast, 23 athletes, 18 skiers and five snowboarders, will be moving on to the National Championships. With team members competing in almost all events, Claremont will be well represented the weekend of March 4 in Lake Placid, New York.
“We’re definitely super hyped,” Rechsteiner said. “It’s happening in New York this year so it’s going to be a long journey to get there. We have both women’s and men’s Alpine and women’s and men’s free ski as well as our boarders competing. So we’re super excited.”
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