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01/15/2020 07:30 AMPatryce Murphy Cintron has been skiing since she was a young child—and she’s hoping to entice others into it, as vice president of the North Haven Ski Club.
“I feel like I was born into it,” she said. “My parents used to take us on [ski] trips when I was in elementary school.”
For Patryce, a good day on the ski slopes is “when it’s snowing or right after a snowstorm. Those are the perfect days. You want all that powder. I’m not going to lie,” she says.
Or, when the Patriots are winning.
“Last year we went to Killington and they were playing, and it was so dead, everyone was inside watching the game. It was like the perfect day,” Patryce says. “You go up in the chair lift and come back down and get back on the chair lift instead of standing in line.”
Killington is just one of the mountains that the North Haven Ski Club frequents during the winter ski season.
In her role with the club, Patryce helps record memberships and coordinates ski bus trips to and from Connecticut. In total, there are about 300 members, comprised from individuals throughout New England.
The club’s economical pricing is a factor in achieving such a following, says Patryce.
“There are other ski clubs [in Connecticut],” she says. “Our membership prices might be what attract people. They are not that bad…ours are pretty affordable and with a family membership you can add up to seven people and that’s a lot.”
In addition to pricing, the bus trip offers other conveniences and a chance to socialize.
“I don’t like driving sometimes,” Patryce says. “When we wake up in the morning, we put all our stuff on the bus, and I can fall back asleep for two or three hours.”
Those extra hours of sleep benefit skiers with increased energy to tackle the slopes. And on their return home, the club stops at the Vermont Country Deli.
“The food—it’s so good and it’s convenient,” Patryce says.
The club isn’t just for skiiers, she notes—although she started off on skis, Patryce says, “I’m a snowboarder. I skied all my life, so I wanted to try something different.”
Her interest in snowboarding was timed with a rise in popularity of the sport.
“When I grew up, everyone was skiing and then the transition to snowboarding happened,” she says.
Her parents, avid skiers themselves, “let us try it. They got us the snowboard and boots. We took lessons…I broke my tailbone.”
The injury that she experienced as a first-time snowboarder didn’t deter Patryce.
“I wasn’t that good at first, but I liked it,” she says. “Now I’m better than I was.”
Although she admits that some of the gear for skiing is uncomfortable, she would readily try it again.
“I’m more fearless when I’m skiing,” she said. “But with snowboarding, I wouldn’t even dare. With skiing, it was just, you had no fear in the world.”
Patryce’s involvement with the club has not only given her an outlet to pursue her passion in snowboarding, it also helped her make a connection with her now husband.
“It was really random,” said Patryce. “It was St. Patrick’s Day, seven years ago this March.”
The club had taken a trip to Stratton Mountain in Vermont.
On the way home, “I sat in front of him and we got to talking…about iPhones. Snapchat had just come out back then and I was like, ‘Add me as a friend,’” she recalls. “That is how our relationship grew.”
The couple stayed connected through the use of social media, and it eventually led to marriage in 2018.
In that time period, Patryce graduated from Mount Ida College with a degree in psychology.
With two young sons, she balances work and family life with a part-time position at the Amazon Fulfillment Center in North Haven.
She and her husband, Anthony, who is the club’s treasurer, hope to pass on their love of skiing to their children.
“We’re going to be putting him on a snowboard when he turns three,” said Patryce. “We’re pretty sure three is the age. He’s going to be my little Olympian, here.”
Patryce’s understanding of the importance of making a recreational sport one that the whole family can enjoy, is not lost in her recruiting efforts with the North Haven ski club.
Patryce and her mother, Ski Club President Annette Murphy, are “trying to grow [the club]…so it’s more family based. We accept anybody, but we’re trying to get families that have little kids,” she says.
In this way, as Patryce’s parents did, other parents can pass their knowledge and love of the sport down to generations.
“[It’s the] handing down the totem pole thing,” Patryce says. “That is basically what my mom’s done with me.”
For information about the North Haven Ski Club, contact Annette Murphy at 203-234-1985 or dapdmurph@aol.com.