Groups

The house is available for MIT groups during the season, specifically as follows:

• Christmas (Dec 23-28) $1500: full house (up to 10 people)
• New Years: (Dec 28-Jan3) $1500: full house (up to 10 peole)
• Weekend Ski Trip $1500: one weekend will be made available, first come first serve, to the first MIT group who wants the house from Fri-Sun on a "random" weekend during the season. Secure with a 50% deposit.
• Week-day Ski Trip: $1000: up to two MIT groups may choose a weekday trip from Mon-Fri for up to 10 people. Also first-come-first-serve, secure with a 50% deposit.

Note: a limited number of members (1 or 2 at most) might be at the house during these trips to take care of the house. They will not use bed space, but will have access to the house.

Pictures (more...)

House details

• Many beds: 1 queen, 2 bunks (4 beds), 1 full futon, 1 queen sofa bed (sleeps 8-10)
• 2 baths
• Full kitchen
• Living room, dining room, family room
• Fireplace!
• Washer/dryer
• Deck

Car

A car is needed in general:

• To go Boston to/from Ski House
• To go Ski House to/from Sunday River you have an option, since the "Explorer" bus stops 500m from the house.

Whether you need a car depends on how many people with cars sign up! Last year enough members had cars and shared rides that nobody was ever without a ride. If you don't have a car check with us (sr-skihouse) because many members may already have cars and be ready to give rides.

Membership Details

The ski house is a like a "cooperative"! That is, all of us who join are part of group working to make sure the house is successful and the costs break even. The total expected costs of the house, including utilities, will be $10000 for the season. Past experience has shown this is possible without pain, but that's because everyone works together to make it happen. It does mean we'll need to rent the house out at least on Christmas/New Years Weeks (Dec 21-Jan 3), President's Weekend (Feb 12-19) and/or one other weekend (to raise ~$4000 in rentals).

As a cooperative, the goal of the ski house is to have a break-even winter where up to 15 MIT students, alumni, and staff can go throughout the season. The different types of memberships were created to give as much flexibility as possible, while at the same time trying to raise the full amount before the season starts.

To do this, the three types of memberships have the following benefits:

Details:

• Anytime
  • You can be at the house any night, including during the week.
  • Because of that, the cost is double since your share of utilities should be higher.
  • You can have up to 18 guests included in your membership; any extra guest nights are $20 per night.
  • We hope to have 3 Anytime members.
• Normal
  • You can be at the house up to 24 nights during the weekends (Fri & Sat nights, holidays)
  • You can use up to 12 of those nights to invite guests; any guests beyond 12 nights need to pay $25 per guest per night. The nights you use for guests count towards your 24 total nights.
• Half
  • You can be at the house up to 12 nights during the weekends (Fri & Sat nights, holidays)
  • You can use up to 6 of those nights to invite guests; any guests beyond 6 nights need to pay $30 per guest per night. The nights you use for guests count towards your 12 total nights.
  • ONLY Students can buy Half memberships

NOTE 1: none of the members can be there for the few selected holiday "blackout" weekends. These will include: X-Max & New Years week (Dec 21-Jan 3), and President's Weekend (Feb 12-19).

NOTE 2: If the total costs are not covered everyone will have to pitch in at the end of the season to finish covering costs, although this has never happened in the past 4 years of running the ski house.

About the House

The ski house began five years ago, when we rented a beautiful cottage in Greenwood, about 20 minutes away from Sunday River (about 2 miles from Mount Abrams, but we never went there!). The second year we ended up in Songo Pond, about 7 miles south of SR. The third year we had a house on the road to Jordan, thanks to contacts of Daniel Massimini, previous SnowRiders president. The fourth year we rented a house at Powder Ridge, about 3 miles form SR. Alvar Saenz-Otero has been involved with the organization of the ski house since the start, especially at Songo Pong and Powder Ridge, but also helping with all the other houses...

This year Alvar (ie, me, now a Research Scientist in the Space Systems Lab, no longer a student) decided I was tired of working to collect about $10k for rentals, and instead bought the ski house. Even though I own it, I'm willing to open it up to any MIT student who has a snowrider account (including alums). I missed the opportunity to go skiing a lot as a student, and I don't want others to miss it, so I do my best to make it affordable and possible for students to do it! That's why the $350 membership is for students only... although a $600 for alumns is nothing to complain about (given that many places want over $1500 for the season!).

We've never had any problems with things breaking or we owing "security deposits" to people, so I don't expect anything like that to change. The only difference this year is that when I'm up, I get dibs on the bedroom I setup for myself; there is still plenty of space, as the house can sleep 12 people without a problem.

I hope that all the members this year enjoy the house, and that we can make it a great annual place for MIT student to escape to the snow!