Winter Weekends

These last few weekends have been pretty great. I'm so excited that it has been cold and snowy for an extended period of time. There are lots of fun things to do in the winter at Saint Mike's and around Burlington. Last weekend Smugglers Notch was finally 100% open which was awesome since I had not been able to ski the glades at all this season yet. I was able to get off campus by 11:30 on Friday which allowed me to get to Smuggs by 12:30. Even though I got there pretty late I was still able to get in eight solid runs. Being able to go to my class and give a tour in the morning and still get in a decent amount of runs in the afternoon is one of my favorite things. It feels so good to get so much done by 5pm in one day.
Sorry for the hand but still a good view from the chairlift!
On February 8th I participated in my first Penguin Plunge which is a fundraiser for the Special Olympics. It consists of people running into Lake Champlain which is kind of crazy seeing as it is so cold this time of year. They had to bring in some heavy machinery to cut out the ice sine it has been so exceptionally cold this year. The water was 33 degrees which is as cold as it can get without freezing.
Another plunger Brendan and I posing before plunging.
Saint Michael's College had a pretty good sized team and it was a blast. Before running in we all changed into our bathing suits then went to the pump up room. Everyone just starts chanting and going crazy to build up adrenelin before opening the doors and making the run to the lake. The water actually didn't feel that cold. I think we were all so excited that it didn't have much of an effect. It still felt good to dry off and change in the warming room though.
Molly meeting the mascot.
Later that day I went back to the waterfront with some other people who did the Penguin Plunge and my roommate Justin to walk on Lake Champlain. The ice was extremely thick so we were able to walk out past the breakwater and ended up sliding around for a long time. The views were pretty great.
Looking back at Burlington from the ice of Lake Champlain.
To end the day Saint Mike's sponsored free ice skating at the nearby Cairns Arena. It was only open to SMC students and there were a good amount of people there. I hadn't skated in a long time but I did pretty well. I didn't knock anyone over or fall so I consider that a win. By the end of the night I was almost able to stop which was a big achievement.
What looks like liquid is actually black ice which is where we went sliding around.
A lot of people are looking forward to spring but I'm really enjoying winter right now. That being said I am counting down the days to Spring Break and our cruise!

Bonus pic of campus right after some snow!

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