Varsity Trip is the official annual ski trip organised for students of
Oxford
Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...
and
Cambridge
Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...
universities. The first event was held in
Wengen
Wengen () is a mountain village in the Bernese Oberland of central Switzerland. Located in the canton of Bern at an elevation of above sea level, it is part of the Jungfrauregion and has approximately 1,300 year-round residents, which swells to ...
,
Switzerland
). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...
in 1922, with British students racing against each other and the local Wengen Ski Club. The event attracted 3,200 participants in 2011, and is the largest student snowsports event in the world.
History
Varsity Trip was founded as the facilitator of the
Blues
Blues is a music genre and musical form which originated in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads from the Afr ...
Ski
A ski is a narrow strip of semi-rigid material worn underfoot to glide over snow. Substantially longer than wide and characteristically employed in pairs, skis are attached to ski boots with ski bindings, with either a free, lockable, or partial ...
Races between the University of Oxford and Cambridge University in 1922; at this time skiing was an expensive sport and it was almost exclusively attended by the racers and their families. However, even by the early 1960s the trip had grown to over 500 people of a wider range of abilities. Whilst originally a Christmas and New Year event, the trip has also gradually moved earlier to take advantage of lower prices.
The trip now usually takes place in the first week of the university holidays in December, which is the first week of the season for most resorts. On all but a couple of occasions, the trip has visited the
Alps
The Alps () ; german: Alpen ; it, Alpi ; rm, Alps ; sl, Alpe . are the highest and most extensive mountain range system that lies entirely in Europe, stretching approximately across seven Alpine countries (from west to east): France, Sw ...
, with the majority of recent trips travelling to one of the larger resorts in the
French Alps
The French Alps are the portions of the Alps mountain range that stand within France, located in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes and Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur regions. While some of the ranges of the French Alps are entirely in France, others, such as ...
, such as
Val Thorens
Val Thorens (), is a ski town located in the Tarentaise Valley, Savoie, French Alps at an altitude of . It is located in the commune of Saint-Martin-de-Belleville in the Savoie department. The resort forms part of the Les Trois Vallées ski ar ...
and
Tignes
Tignes () is a commune in the Tarentaise Valley, in the Savoie department in the Rhône-Alpes region in south-eastern France, known for the highest skiable area and the longest ski season in Europe. It is located in the Savoie region with good tr ...
.
The Final Night Party is an extremely popular event each year, usually with performances from global superstars. In 2015,
Tinie Tempah
Patrick Chukwuemeka Okogwu (born 7 November 1988), better known by his stage name Tinie Tempah, is a British rapper. He has been signed to Parlophone Records since 2009, a subsidiary of Warner Music Group. He created his own entertainment compa ...
performed, with
Ms. Dynamite
Niomi Arleen McLean-Daley (born 26 April 1981), better known as Ms. Dynamite, is a British singer and rapper. She is the recipient of the Mercury Music Prize, two Brit Awards and three MOBO Awards.
Early years
She was born Niomi Arleen Mc ...
supporting.
Racing
The Blues race bears the distinction of being the world's oldest team ski event, with the racing event starting off as purely a
downhill
Downhill may refer to:
Arts and entertainment
* ''Downhill'' (1927 film), a British film by Alfred Hitchcock
* ''Downhill'' (2014 film), a British comedy directed by James Rouse
* ''Downhill'' (2016 film), a Chilean thriller directed by Patrici ...
event, with
slalom
To slalom is to zigzag between obstacles. It may refer to:
Sports
;Alpine skiing and/or snowboarding
* Slalom skiing, an alpine skiing and alpine snowboarding discipline
* Giant slalom, an alpine skiing and alpine snowboarding discipline
* Super-G ...
,
jumping
Jumping or leaping is a form of locomotion or movement in which an organism or non-living (e.g., robotic) mechanical system propels itself through the air along a ballistic trajectory. Jumping can be distinguished from running, galloping and o ...
and
langlauf counting for the first time in 1929. By 1955,
Giant Slalom
Giant slalom (GS) is an alpine skiing and alpine snowboarding discipline. It involves skiing between sets of poles ("gates") spaced at a greater distance from each other than in slalom but less than in Super-G.
Giant slalom and slalom make up t ...
had been introduced, and the downhill and non-alpine events dropped. This is the same format that the competition takes to this day, with teams of 6 competing across the two disciplines. The combined time for each team is the 4 fastest racers in each discipline. A separate women's event was first run in 1980.
More recently, a selection of supplementary events have been trialled including the Combi and Super G events. The most recent competition to be introduced was the Super G event in 2007, which was won by Ben van Zwanenberg (Oxford).
The sport now has a
Half Blue
A blue is an award of sporting colours earned by athletes at some universities and schools for competition at the highest level. The awarding of blues began at Oxford and Cambridge universities in England. They are now awarded at a number of other ...
status at both universities, but this was not originally the case with the matter still being debated prior to the 1930 races. The top four racers in the first men's and women's teams are automatically awarded Half Blues. At the discretion of the Race Captain, another two Half Blues can be awarded; and, if certain conditions have been met, a Full Blue can be awarded. In 2014, the competition extended to snowboarders.
Notable past competitors include
Roger Bushell
Squadron Leader Roger Joyce Bushell (30 August 1910 – 29 March 1944) was a South African-born British military aviator. He masterminded the "Great Escape" from Stalag Luft III in 1944, but was one of the 50 escapees to be recaptured and sub ...
who captained the Cambridge side and won the slalom event in 1931, and physicist
Ondrej Krivanek
Ondrej L. Krivanek (born Ondřej Ladislav Křivánek; August 1, 1950) is a Czech/British physicist resident in the United States, and a leading developer of electron-optical instrumentation. He won the Kavli Prize for Nanoscience in 2020 for his ...
who won the slalom in 1975. A number of Olympic skiers have also competed in the event including
James Palmer-Tomkinson who won for Oxford in 1935 prior to competing in the
1936 Winter Olympics
The 1936 Winter Olympics, officially known as the IV Olympic Winter Games (german: IV. Olympische Winterspiele) and commonly known as Garmisch-Partenkirchen 1936 ( bar, Garmasch-Partakurch 1936), were a winter multi-sport event held from 6 to 16 ...
(the first Olympics at which
Alpine Skiing
Alpine skiing, or downhill skiing, is the pastime of sliding down snow-covered slopes on skis with fixed-heel bindings, unlike other types of skiing ( cross-country, Telemark, or ski jumping), which use skis with free-heel bindings. Whether for ...
was an event), his son Christopher Palmer-Tomkinson who also won for Oxford in 1961 before attending the
1964 Winter Olympics
The 1964 Winter Olympics, officially known as the IX Olympic Winter Games (german: IX. Olympische Winterspiele) and commonly known as Innsbruck 1964 ( bar, Innschbruck 1964, label=Austro-Bavarian), was a winter multi-sport event which was celebr ...
, and V. Goodwin in 1955.
Controversy
In January 2011, the December 2010 Varsity Trip's "Valley Rally" was criticised in the press after photographs were published on Facebook showing half naked students taking part in debauchery and lewd contests. The Scott Dunn travel agency, provider of prizes for the event which was held at
Val Thorens
Val Thorens (), is a ski town located in the Tarentaise Valley, Savoie, French Alps at an altitude of . It is located in the commune of Saint-Martin-de-Belleville in the Savoie department. The resort forms part of the Les Trois Vallées ski ar ...
in the French Alps, issued a statement saying that they did not endorse the "inappropriate behaviour" and that they "will have no future involvement" with the student-run event. The dean of
St Anne's College at Oxford, Dr. Geraldine Hazburn, warned students that such behaviour was against school regulations, and that they should not "intentionally or recklessly engage in conduct likely to bring the college into disrepute".
The "Valley Rally" has not taken place on the trip since.
References
{{Reflist
External links
Official Varsity Trip WebsiteCambridge University Ski and Snowboard ClubOxford University Ski and Snowboard Club
Skiing in the United Kingdom
Sport at the University of Cambridge
Sport at the University of Oxford
Skiing
Skiing is the use of skis to glide on snow. Variations of purpose include basic transport, a recreational activity, or a competitive winter sport. Many types of competitive skiing events are recognized by the International Olympic Committee (IO ...
Recurring sporting events established in 1922