The Department of Kinesiology and Nutrition will celebrate its 50th annual class ski trip this winter. The department is planning special events for the trip this year, including an alumni celebration dinner and a slideshow highlighting photos from past trips.

Associate Professor, Dr. Lynn Luttrell teaches Beginning Snow Skiing and Board in the fall and takes his students on a trip the week before the spring semester starts. Almost every year since the beginning of this class students have gone to Red River, New Mexico to learn how to ski.

The first group of students to attend the trip was in 1975, where Luttrell’s father-in-law taught the very first class. Luttrell then attended himself just three years later when his wife gifted him the trip as a graduation present. 

However, due to the change in requirements to receive a degree, the ski trip numbers have dwindled over the years. Starting in 2023, ACU no longer required students to take a physical education credit for their degree.

“We’ve got fewer students than ever that are in it for credit,” Luttrell said. “Next year, we’re going to have the third year in a row where nobody has to have a PEAC credit for anything to graduate from ACU.”

There is also a snow skiing and boarding class in the spring that Dr. Odies Wright, an associate professor, teaches. The spring trip typically goes to different skiing places, but recently, not enough students have signed up for the class, which canceled the spring trip last year.

Even though fewer and fewer students are taking the class for credit, many families, alumni, staff and friends attend Red River with the class. 

“I’ve got lots of students and I’ve got families that are just going along on the trip because it’s a good price for a fun trip to be off in the mountains for a week,” Luttrell said.

Students receive four days of lessons from the professional teachers at Red River, five nights of lodging and four days of skiing equipment rental for a discounted price.

“If you’re gonna pay for all the stuff we get, it’s outrageous for what it is at other places,” Luttrell said.

Luttrell said the class’s students spend the fall semester learning everything they need to know about skiing and other safety tips.

Both Luttrell and Wright said the best part of the ski trip is building relationships with the students, faculty and families that tag along.

“Because it involves students and faculty and friends, it makes for an enjoyable trip,” Wright said. “It’s just fun, interacting, and finding out things about people. People ask interesting questions, and I just enjoy the surprise of it all.”