Skiing in your backyard sounds like a dream for many, but for Christian Fuicelli (12), that dream is a reality.
Fuicelli’s backyard fosters connection within the skiing community and creates a welcoming environment to host meetings within the Freeski Club.
“Anytime we get some snow down here, we get the club together at my house,” Fuicelli said. “We put some rails together in my backyard and try to throw down some new tricks.”
Fuicelli and the club host these freeski meetings in his backyard after every big snowfall. Provided there is enough snow on the ground, this group of skiers builds their own personal ski park to train for the mountain.
“We will usually throw together some PVC pipes and make a little rail setup in someone’s backyard,” Fuicelli said.
Taking hours and hours packing heavy snow around PVC pipes to build ramps and rails in a backyard isn’t a common club activity. Their hard work and dedication show the group’s passion for skiing.
“There was never really a dedicated community or space for people to meet up and interact with each other,” President Drew Smith (12) said. “So that was the original mission of the club.”
Smith hopes to continue expanding the club’s following and gain more members to join their backyard meetings.
“We’ve definitely expanded this year. Last year, it was smaller, but this year we have a lot more underclassmen in it,” Smith said. “It’s super fun skiing with those dudes. They bring a lot of energy.”
Starting this year, the Freeski Club is making an effort to give the club more opportunities for collaboration. They will have games of ‘Slush’ on the mountain, a competitive skiing game that involves two people going back and forth, setting trick after trick.
“We do games of Slush, which is kind of like Horse or Pig, but ski tricks. You set the trick, and then the person you’re playing against does it,” Smith said. “It’s really just a way to build a community of freeskiers at Monarch.”
This year, the Freeride Club has almost doubled in popularity, as Smith, along with co-founders Fuicelli, Cameron Nicholson (12), and Evan Moynihan (12), has been working hard to set up these meetings on and off the mountains.
“Everyone’s welcome to come swing by and give it a shot,” Smith said.
