Every winter the Whitman Alpine Ski Team competes against a variety of colleges around the Pacific Northwest on the nearby snowy slopes. The team competes in downhill ski races throughout the season,...

Several Whitman students have become emergency medical technicians (EMTs) while they are in school, a path that they say is difficult but often rewarding because of the connections they forge with...

Throughout this semester, Whitties have benefitted from a Saturday morning ski bus to the Bluewood ski area, a service made possible by left over ASWC funds from previous years. To take advantage of this opportunity, all one has to do is find the sign-up list in the OP office, write their name down, and show up at 8:30 am on Saturday. This seemingly simple task, however, has proven difficult for many. Many students sign up for the ski bus and then fail to attend. Whether this is a result of late Friday nights, poor memory, or plain apathy, one thing is clear: signing up for the ski bus does not entail a lot of commitment.

It all started in Norway about 7,000 years ago. What Assistant OP Director Salmon Norgaard-Stroich calls a “granola," “hippie" and “retro" sport has been around long before the cavemen were replaced by sophisticated counterparts. This little piece of history—telemark skiing—was celebrated at Bluewood Mountain last weekend. Originally called “free heel skiing," telemark skiing was at one point the only way to ski. In the mid-1800's, skiing pioneer Sondre Norheim, a resident of Telemark, Norway, invented the “telemark turn." In the Winter Olympics, skiers are required to land in the Telemark position. The “Carrying of the Torch" still begins in Norheim's hometown.