Reed College Ski Cabin

It's back-to-school season...so I thought it would be a good time to check out a school's ski house.   The Ski House of the Day is the Reed College Ski Cabin, located in the village of Government Camp, on Mount Hood, in Oregon.

The ski cabin is located about 60 miles from Reed's campus...a little over an hour's drive.  (Reed is among the most unusual colleges in the country combining intellectual rigor with non-conformity and social freedoms.  With much less structure than most other colleges, Reed College has produced many Rhodes scholars and others of distinction, and produces a very high percentage of students who go on to complete their PhDs and other graduate degrees.  Reed College is said to be characterized by an absorption in thinking, something which the rest of the country could use more of ).  I guess it's safe to say that the skiers in this ski house are independent thinkers...and that's a good trait for skiing on Mt Hood where there are various ski areas, plus some very challenging back-country skiing for experienced adventurers.

The ski cabin was originally built in 1949 by the college Outing Club.  Well used over the years, the cabin took its share of wear and tear, and evolved into a ski house with a quaint and quirky aesthetic....like its well-recognized candy-cane striped poles supporting the front porch...

But, recently a group of alumni (including a very generous mountaineering enthusiast, an architect, a furniture-makers, and even the owner of a sustainable forest who donated the Douglas fir wood to be used)  from the decades spanning the 1960's through the 1990's, came together to produce some serious upgrades to the ski cabin that was so meaningful to them during their years skiing there.  Renovations included a newly added front deck...

....plus many upgrades to the interior...

 They even created a finished basement with game room and work/ski wax area...nice feature in any ski house, but particularly in one for college kids!

A beautiful, functional college ski cabin is the end result:

On its centennial website, Reed graduates are said to be identifiable by their willingness to challenge conventional wisdom, wide-ranging curiosity, and their conviction that the world can be a better place.  In its own small way, this ski house bears that out...these Reed graduates challenged the conventional original 1949 structure of Reed Ski Cabin, engaged their curiosity to envision the wonderful improvements, and made the world a better place by creating the upgraded cabin for future generations of independent-thinking skiers to continue the Reed Ski Cabin tradition.   Check out the video tour of the newly renovated Reed Ski Cabin.

Back-to-school...think of the possibilities!