No joke: Aggies’ man-made ski slope thrives in College Station

Texas A&M has long been steeped in tradition but one of its unofficial ones would be more at home in the Rocky Mountains than in heart of the College Station.

It’s not new, but still as popular as ever.

Since 1972, there’s always been a man-made ski slope somewhere on the Aggie campus.

Atop Mt. Aggie, a 35-foot man-made hill near the Mitchell Tennis Center and behind Reed Arena, students wearing shorts and T-shirts are learning to ski down the 130-foot-slope. The elective class, called “Beginning Snow Skiing” teachers between 150 and 200 students each semester.

While there’s no ice or snow, water is run across the surface to mimic a ski slope.

“When they finish they can ski green and blue, the beginning and intermediate slopes,” ski instructor Mike Hanik said in a telephone interview. “By the end of semester, I would say 99 percent can get down the hill safely.”

The original Mt. Aggie was located on a different spot on the A&M campus and consisted of leftover Astroturf from nearby Kyle Field. The first slope was the idea of health professor George Jessup, who later retired to the slopes of Park City, Utah.

By Hanik’s estimate, about 30 percent of his students make the trek to Colorado over the winter break.

“A lot of times students are jumping in so they can go skiing with their friends over the winter break,” Hanik said, with the most popular destinations being Breckenridge and Keystone.

There was a time when students were allowed to sled down the slope but liability concerns ended that practice several years ago.

Hanik, who grew up skiiing on the West Coast of Canada near Vancouver, has been teaching the one-hour elective course for 15 years. He occasionally posts photos of himself skiing in the middle of summer to his friends back home.

“They kind of chuckle,” Hanik said. “They probably think we’re a little crazy.”

This story was originally published September 9, 2016 at 11:59 AM with the headline "No joke: Aggies’ man-made ski slope thrives in College Station."