The beloved Urban winter tradition is back: On Friday, Jan 20, 40 Urban students will depart on a bus to the Squaw Valley ski resort at Lake Tahoe and embark on the annual ski trip.

Unfortunately, for the first time since the ski trip has been running for over 22 years, students missed a year last year.

Sarah Atkinson (’12), who was the student co-leader of the trip among with Dorren Rosenbaum (’12) during her freshman and sophomore year, said “last year, the trip was cancelled because there was a lack of faculty motivation to make it happen again.”

According to Atkinson, the ski trip is one of the hardest trips to plan “because of the amount of money needed, the number of students, the hotel arrangements, and the ski resort arrangements.” The cost for students to attend is $433.

The cancelled trip was a setback for the students who attended the trip the year before. Atkinson said she was “upset just because it was the one time a year that I was ensured a trip to the slopes.” Rosenbaum missed being able to “talk and laugh with people on the bus for hours,” he said.

This year, the trip needed someone to take the trip into his or her hands, and no one was more suited for the task than Athletic Director Greg Angilly.

When asked why he wanted to run the trip, Angilly said, “I love to ski and snowboard.”

Head of Admissions Bobby Ramos, who began chaperoning the trip in 2005 “showed me a video two years ago of everyone on the bus the way back from the trip, and it looked like so much fun and looked like something so many students enjoy,” Angilly added.

For those who have not been on the trip before, the trip goes as follows: Leave after school on Friday, Jan 20 and come home on Sunday, Jan 22.

“For the most part, it’s get up early on Saturday and get out on the mountain and have some fun,” said Angilly.

He added that he has “some fun things in store on the bus that the students will find out and will surely enjoy.”

Unfortunately, the Nov 10 deadline for signups has passed for the trip. So if you plan on making a trip to the snow next winter, be sure to consider the Urban Ski Trip for your visit to the mountains.