Looking to hit the slopes this winter? 

For students involved in SnowOSU, the ski and snowboard club at Oregon State University, this year’s winter sports season has presented opportunities to engage more students in club activities and events. 

Grisha Namyasenko, an ecological engineering major and SnowOSU president, founded the club in 2021 after noticing a lack of groups at Oregon State focused on winter sports. 

Namyasenko found a discord server started by another OSU student where people would discuss skiing, “I came in, and said, let’s do more. We started doing the wax nights, and from there, more and more events.” 

Wax nights are events where students can get their gear waxed for free while learning about how to maintain ski and snowboard equipment.

“The initial idea for me was to have a place for people who do snow sports to hang out,” Namyasenko said, explaining that the club started small, “just me, my friends, a couple of other people, like that’s it.”

The club hosts near-weekly on-campus events such as movie and game nights, hosts tailgates at nearby resorts and organizes trips to Mt. Hood and Mt. Bachelor. 

Additionally, the club offers discounted passes and gear rental prices to nearby Hoodoo Resort and helps arrange student carpools to resorts in Oregon.

The club currently has around 350 members, with 120 of them having attended events this year thus far. The club runs entirely from volunteer efforts, with officers and club members pitching in to organize and run events and carpools, managing social media accounts to share information and arranging sponsorships to support the club’s activities. 

Club officers have found the club’s efforts to be rewarding and a good way to bring people together. 

“It’s about building community, getting people excited about it,” said Ryan Hopkins, SnowOSU treasurer and industrial engineering, innovation management and sustainability major.

“For me what was really impactful was I heard some of the members saying ‘You know this was the most fun I’ve had skiing in years,’” said Hopkins about the club’s recent tailgates at Hoodoo.

Hopkins also noted that the club helps people organize carpool rides to local resorts and tailgates, including for students who might not have been able to get to them on their own. 

“People are like ‘I don’t have a car. This might be the only time I go skiing in the next two months.’ It’s very cool to be like ‘We’re helping people facilitate that.’”

Namyasenko echoed Hopkin’s sentiments and said, “It’s been great to see people meet at events and go ‘Hey we’re going to go skiing together.’ Like that was the idea, and to see it come together has actually been kind of precious.”

The club has future goals to reach more students and grow the club. 

“I know ski clubs at a lot of universities on the West Coast are the biggest clubs they have,” Hopkins said. 

Another aspiration of the club is to get additional funding for hosting off-campus events by instituting a small annual club membership fee and getting additional university support for transportation and club activities.

As years have passed, Namyasenko has seen and taken pride in the significant growth of the club: “I think our last tailgate at Hoodoo had 30-plus people. So it’s growing and it’s hitting the point where I feel like it’s about to take off.”

Upcoming club events include an affinity night event where all students new to winter sports can learn how to ski and snowboard for free. 

Those interested in joining SnowOSU for future events can find the club on Instagram at @snow.s.u, join the club’s discord and sign the participation waiver.