Contact Michael Kotsis for more information Michael@KotsisSkiClub.com

The 1st Annual

The Kotsis Ski Club originated in the winter of 1997.  It started out with a group of 7 people from Fraser High School in Fraser, Michigan.  Although this was officially the ski club's first trip, it was merely a continuation of an annual family tradition for myself.  When I was younger, my immediate family, along with my aunt, uncle, and three cousins, would stay at either Boyne Mountain or Boyne Highlands for a week every winter.  As time passed, it became more and more difficult for our families to continue this tradition, especially with our busy schedules.  

During my senior year of high school, I decided to start the tradition up again.  I was sick of skiing the local landfills - Mt. Brighton, Mt. Holly, and Pine Knob, and wanted to go for something more challenging and stay longer than just skiing for the day.  So I decided to get some friends together and make reservations at Shanty Creek for a long weekend.  Our weekend of choice turned out to be Martin Luther King weekend because it was a long weekend - so it would work out perfectly.  The original 7 - myself (Michael Kotsis), Casey Petz, DJ. Martin, Jennifer Pann, Heather Pann, Kristy Beasley, and Jessica Barr made the journey to Bellaire, Michigan.  

Back to the Top

The 2nd Annual

Upon graduation, all of us headed our different ways to different Universities to begin our undergraduate career.  It wasn't certain whether we'd be able to round up the people again to go on another trip during our freshman year at college.  As it turns out, I met people in my classes that were interested in taking a long weekend break from school and head up north to ski.  I decided to keep the same weekend date for the trip, since it gave us that extra day to hit the slopes.  

Nine people attended our trip to Boyne Mountain in 1998 including DJ Martin, Dave Jordan, Derek Schienke, Charlie Schwarze, Nathan Copenhaver, Brian Harleton, Sara Diepenhorst, Jessica Laginess, and myself.  We also carted three stragglers (Chelsea, Zhen, and Felipe) with us to their hometown, Charlevoix.  The trip was a hit and everyone wanted to come back the next year - so I decided to organize it again.

Back to the Top

The 3rd Annual

Once again, it was an adventure right from the start.  By the time we packed all of the cars and finally left south quad, of course it was rush hour on a Friday.  

First of all, as we were packing the cars, we found out that Nathan's car got towed.  So he was running around Ann Arbor trying to find it while we were getting everything together.  He eventually found it and said that he'd meet up with us at Boyne.  So after we finally got the cars packed we were off to Boyne!!  So it turned out that there was a huge accident on the expressway and we sat on main street for about 20 minutes in a major traffic jam.  Then over the CB's Dave screamed out 'everyone turn around now'.  So our 5 cars simultaneously turned around to go out a different way.  It just happened that we saw Nathan on the other stuck in the backup while we were backtracking to find another way to the expressway.  So I jumped out of the car and scared him pretty good when I started banging on his window.  So we were finally all together to go up to Boyne, but were were STILL in Ann Arbor!!!  We could have done without the 2 hour backup from a rather large accident on M-14/US-23.  But, hey, that would have been two hours that we didn't hear Ryley talk to himself over the CB radios.  OH yeah, the CB radios were "on loan" from the solar car team this year.  It was quite a long ride. 

So this trip was another hit.  Because of the large interest, of course another trip would be in the workings for next year.

Back to the Top

The 4th Annual

The fourth annual trip, during the winter of 2000, took place in Bellaire, Michigan at Shanty Creek Resort.  Actually attendance went down a bit this year to 16 people.  Shanty Creek proved to be a good skiing destination, although we pretty much conquered both the summit slopes and schuss slopes on the first day.  We had 3 condos this year because of a screw up by Shanty Creek.  We were suppose to only have 2 condos, but they didn't have enough bedding for everyone, so we finagled another condo out of the mix up.   A meal plan was included with our ski package, which turned out to be very convenient.  The food was excellent here.  I definitely recommend doing a meal plan if given the option - it was definitely worth it.   Again, the trip turned out to be a blast.  Since next year is our senior year, it appears we will only have one more ski trip before everyone heads off in their own direction in life.  

Back to the Top

The 5th Annual

The fifth and final skiing adventure took place at a more challenging resort, Blue Mountain: Collingwood, Ontario, Canada.  This trip had the largest attendance by far: 39 people traveling in 13 vehicles and staying in 5 condos.  Blue Mountain was an excellent change up of resorts for this trip - the runs were longer and more challenging than anything we had skied in Michigan.  This trip was the best trip so far - check out the pictures in the members section: Past Trips and see for yourself.  We continued our annual traditions of skiing through the woods, partying every night in the condos, chilling in the hot tub, playing our annual snow football game, and of course we continued our annual sledding down the mountain in the middle of the night!  This appeared to be our last trip since most of us were graduating seniors at this point.  Blue mountain was to be the conclusion of a skiing legacy throughout our college career, but another trip is in the workings!

Back to the Top

The 6th Annual

This year we continued our skiing tradition.  This was everyone's first time to Salt Lake City, and nearly everyone's first time out west.  This year we skied 3 resorts in the Salt Lake City Area - Brighton, The Canyons, and Alta.  Twelve people attended this year's trip to the Olympic City.  We rented a 5 bedroom house on the base of the rocky mountain range.  We had our own private outdoor hot tub (wow that was a definite plus after a long day of skiing).  This year we stayed 4 nights - flew in Thursday evening and departed Monday afternoon - so we had 3 full days of skiing.  Even though not as many people attended this trip - it was by far the best trip yet!  We also rented a Ford Excursion - for those of you that don't know what an excursion looks like, well, it's FREAKING HUGE!  We fit all 12 of us in the vehicle with all of our ski equipment - now that's one big vehicle!  It was a definite plus that Chris was able to rent us the car so we could go to any resort that we wanted to.  Also to put things in perspective - we rented the car for 4 days and went through an entire tank of gas - yeah so when I went to fill it up, it came out to 44 gallons of gas - that's absolutely ridiculous!  Lets just say that I'm glad I don't own one of those gas guzzlers.  The skiing and nightlife was incredible!  See the pictures and stores from this trip in the Past Trips section and follow the Salt Lake City link.  Since everyone had such a blast on this trip, I think that I'll keep up the tradition next year - it's good to get everyone together now that we're scattered all throughout the country!  Join us on MLK Weekend 2003 in Vancouver,  Canada when we dominate Whistler Resort!!

Back to the Top

The 7th Annual

The Seventh Annual was a blast!  We were initially planning on going to Whistler for this trip, but I abandoned the idea because of high prices.  So, in hopes of getting a good turn out, I picked an easier location that cost much less $$.   We stayed at the Sky Dance Lodge, right on Peak 10 of Breckenridge, Colorado.  This trip definitely set a new standard for our trips. 21 People flew in from all over the country and met up in Denver.  There we rented 2 Excursions and a Trailblazer for the 2 hour drive to Breckenridge.  Our accommodations were incredible this year.  The Sky Dance Lodge had 8 bedrooms, 7.5 bathrooms, outdoor hot tub, pool table, foosball table, Galaga arcade machine, and a home theater room with a 61" HDTV (not to mention that the house is over 6600 sq ft!)  Everyone flew in on Thursday evening, and departed on Monday (with the exception of James, Tom, and Jeff - they stayed a couple extra days).  Amazingly, everyone's flights got in on time, and we had no problems with our flights or accommodations this year - with a group this size, I think that's incredible!  So, our group had 3 full days of skiing - Day 1 and 2 at Breckenridge, and Day 3 at Vail.  We really lucked out with the weather again this year.  Breckenridge received 7 inches of snow the night before we arrived in town.  Saturday was a bit windy on the slopes so not everyone stayed out the whole day. Sunday at Vail was perfect skiing weather - in fact we were all getting hot out on the slopes!  This was also the first year that we had a video camera with us.  We took it out on the slopes and video taped some of our drinking games - check out the intro clip on the site!  As usual, lots of crazy things happen on the ski trips - checked out the nightlife in downtown Breckenridge, partied at our place (since it was awesome!), had a chocolate fight, got locked out of my bedroom by a drunken fool....... well there's plenty of stories and pictures (movie clips too!)  to better explain all the events of this year's trip.  Check out the pics in the "Past Trips" Section, and follow the Breckenridge link.

Back to the Top

The 8th Annual

We headed out west again this year for MLK weekend 2004.  This time our destination was Lake Tahoe.  We stayed in Skyland, Nevada, which is 4 miles north of Heavenly Resort.  There was a pretty good turn out for this trip, even though it was so far away.  28 of us stayed at our huge house in Nevada and traveled in 3 gigantic  Excursion class vehicles.  The house (5500 sq feet) had 8 bedrooms, 5.5 bathrooms, an indoor swimming pool, indoor hot-tub, outdoor hot-tub, and a pool table - so there was plenty to do at our place!  There weren't too many problems getting to Nevada.  All but one flight made it into Reno, NV on Thursday night (Jan 15).  Linda got on a flight from Milwaukee the next day to head out to Reno.  The east coast was getting pounded with snow and frigid temperatures - luckily I was able to make it out of Boston!  While the rest of New England was breaking record cold temperatures, we made it out to Lake Tahoe where it was 40-45 degrees for the entire time we were there.  The area got pounded with 4 feet of snow at the turn of the new year - so we had plenty to ski on.  This trip had the best weather by far!  I didn't have to wear a hat any of the 3 days of skiing, and barely needed a coat.  Keep in mind that this is January that we're talking about here!  There was very little wind, and almost a completely clear blue sky everyday we skied!  We skied at Heavenly on Friday, Squaw Valley on Saturday, and most of us skied Sierra on Sunday.  The mountains were amazing, especially with the incredible views of Lake Tahoe!  There was also a usual amount of craziness on the trip - gambling at the casinos, partying at our place, picking up hitch hikers, getting the 4 wheel drive, massive, Excursion stuck in the snow, and listening to Mike Burke sing "Its My Life" by No Doubt repeatedly from 3am to 6am on Monday morning before we had to check out.  As usual, don't forget to check out all the pictures from the trip in the "Past Trips" section!  Once again, we had the video camera this year - so you can expect a Lake Tahoe video to be released soon!  

Back to the Top

The 9th Annual

This year’s ski trip was a fun time as expected.  We had 15 people attend the 9^th annual ski trip to Killington Resort in Killington , Vermont .  The trip was from Thursday January 13 through Monday, January 17, 2005.  We rented a house about 20 minutes south of the resort, large enough to accommodate 20 people in beds.  So that was more than enough space for all of us!  The house had all the fun stuff we usually have – a pool table, ping pong, foosball, and of course a hot tub too!   That kept us entertained throughout the evenings.  We actually stayed at the house every night this year, as opposed to last year’s adventures at the local Tahoe casinos.  I personally thought it was more fun this way – we actually had a chance to hang out, play games, and watch some movies. 

 This year most people were able to drive, since we went to a local east coast destination.  The only two people that flew were Jim Sahlaney and Michelle Patrick.  It was quite an adventure getting to the resort this year because of the crazy weather.  Temps got up to 55-60 degrees on that Thursday, which melted much of the snow in Mass, and VT.  That wasn’t the worst of it though.  Since there was so much snow on the ground, a layer of thick fog formed over the entire east coast for the entire day – so it made for very difficult driving conditions.  The original plan to head up to Killington was this:  Rent a SUV, pick up Marianne, and drive up to Manchester airport (about 1 hour drive) to pick up Michelle and Jim at 7pm, then arrive at Killington 2 hours later at about 9-9:30pm.  Well, it didn’t quite work out that smoothly.  The fog was so thick, that Marianne and I didn’t get to Manchester until 8pm.  This was ok, since their flight was delayed.  Infact it was delayed until 10:30pm – and, get this – it was rerouted to Boston since the fog hadn’t lifted over Manchester at all.  So, Marianne and I headed back to Boston to pick them up – we arrived at about midnight at Logan Airport .  We then picked up Jay since he was planning to drive up alone later that night anyway.  So the 5 of us began our trek back up to Killington once again.  The driving conditions were very difficult with the fog at night.  After having a bit of trouble finding the house, we arrived at 3:30am.  Wow, that was a long trip!   Instead of going right to bed, we unpacked, had a few beers, and played foosball for 2 hours.  We got to bed around 6:30, and got up at 8:30 to hit the slopes.   Everyone else made it to the house alright that night.  Jen and Matt drove up from Allentown Pennsylvania , Dan and Nanette drove in from Washington DC , Nathan and Monica drove in from Connecticut that night.   It took all of them much longer than expected with the fog too – so they all made it up before we did!  Good thing they figured out how to make it into the house since I had the keys – ha!  Derek and Emily drove in from Coxsackie New York , and Neal and Amber drove in from Boston on Friday night. 

 Luckily a cold front moved in on Friday morning, causing the fog to disappear.  We also received 3 new inches of snow that morning, which made the skiing much better (it was a little slushy though).  We ended up skiing Killington all 3 days – it was a fun resort to ski at, and had some good runs.  I agree that Killington is probably the best on the east coast, but it still doesn’t compare to the resorts that we skied at out west. 

 Like every year, this year was a different group of people than years past.  Despite everyone not knowing each other this year, everyone seemed to get along pretty well.  We ended playing some fun board and card games too.  Having meal groups worked out really well throughout the weekend as well.  Of course we ended up with more food than we needed, but that’s better than not having enough, and that’s definitely better than eating out every night! 

 Well, this year was the first year that I didn’t put a lot of extra effort into planning the trip because I didn’t have a lot of extra time with my hectic travel schedule.  I’ve been debating whether or not there should be another trip next year.  Most people on this trip seemed to be enthusiastic about another trip for next year.  They seemed to be interested in making the 10^th annual, MLK 2006, an international trip.   Possibilities include the ALPS in France , Italy , or Switzerland during MLK week in January 2006.  Another idea that I’m entertaining is postponing the trip until July 4 week 2006 so that we could ski the Andes in Chili.  I’m open to suggestions.  Thanks for a great trip this year everyone!!

Back to the Top

The 10th Annual

The 10th Annual MLK ski trip in January 2006 was the final ski trip :-(  It was a great trip as always - we all had a blast!   14 of us flew into Denver from Boston, Detroit, Austin, and D.C. We  had an amazing house about 3-4 miles from the Breckenridge lifts.  We skied at 3 different resorts throughout the weekend.  We skied at Breckenridge on the first day, some of us skied at Keystone on the second day, and the group split up between Vail and Abasin on the third day.  The skiing was great all 3 days.  I must say, we have really lucked out for the past 10 years everywhere we went.  We've been fortunate to have great skiing weather on all of these trips!  The movie room in the house was amazing - it was just like having a movie theater right at home!  We spent a good amount of time watching some funny movies after soaking in the hot tub after a long day of skiing.  Well, since everyone's situation in life is changing, its time to end the MLK Weekend ski trip tradition on a high note!  Thanks to everyone that was able to make it on these trips over the past 10 years.  It definitely created some memorable experiences!  Speaking of memorable experiences - here's a troubling one that I had on my flight home from Denver......  Keep in mind that I am not a novice at booking flights - I flew over 200,000 miles in the last 2 years......and this is the first time that I had a screw up like this one - go figure!

I did finally get back to Michigan .  Apparently I was retarded and booked my return flight for Jan 19 instead of Jan 16……I couldn’t get back to DTW on Monday night because all the flights were over sold…..i was looking on different airlines, but a new 1 way ticket would have cost $550 – so I decided against that pretty quick.  I ended up re-booking my flight for Tuesday morning at 5:40am through Memphis getting in at 12:40pm for only $56……then got a hotel by the airport for $45.   you think that’s the end of the story…….well there’s more….. I woke up at 3:30am to catch the 5:40am flight……..boarded the flight around 5:10am or so….no big deal..  We’ll we were still sitting at the gate at 6am and they wanted 3 people to get off the plane because they said that the plane was over weight…..so I volunteered to get off the plane and they put me on a direct flight leaving at 8am getting in at 12:50pm (only 10 minutes later than the other flight)……the cool part was that they also gave me a $300 voucher for volunteering to get off that flight! Cool, eh?!   The bummer was that they also lost my luggage in Memphis because it was still on the other plane.   From what I hear, they just delivered my suitcase to our house this morning – so that was good!   And that was my adventure home from Denver

Back to the Top

Copyright © 1997-2006 Kotsis Ski Club. All Rights Reserved.