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Sure, Pomona College soaks in Southern California sunshine
through most of the year. But that doesn’t mean students
can’t play in the snow.
 The Los
Angeles Basin and Claremont in particular are set against
a backdrop of sharply-rising mountains that get covered in
snow during winter storms. So we can drive to the snow for
skiing or play and return to our warmer roosts the very same
day.
Early on, Pomona started a “Snow Day” tradition of heading
up to the mountains for frosty fun at
winter’s first snowfall. Then one warm winter, “Beach Day”
replaced Snow Day. At some point these two rituals merged
into the popular tradition of Ski-Beach Day, where students
hit the slopes and the coast in a single day.
A separate Snow Day still lives on, though in much more
convenient form. Nowadays, students don’t have to bother
driving into the mountains. We bring the snow to campus.
 OK, it’s
not exactly “snow.” Organizers used to bring the real thing
down from the mountains until they discovered it was more
effective to purchase 15 tons of block ice, which is crushed
up in something akin to a wood chipper. Then it is spread
out on Marston Quad, where snowball fights quickly erupt.
Students from colder climes might have realized it wasn’t
real snow. But nobody was complaining on Snow Day 2004,
which fell on a perfect, sunny, 70-degree December day. Some
students donned gloves and hats; others wore shorts and
flip-flips. A couple guys showed up shirtless, which was
probably a bad idea in a snowball fight.
Maybe we Californians aren’t the experts in snow, but we
have realized one thing: It’s more fun to play in the stuff
when you know you won’t be shoveling it off your porch the
next morning.
Learn About Other Pomona Traditions.
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