‘The New Snow Trip’ was only made available originally to students of New College. It is now open to all Oxford University students. The trip will take place two in the Easter Vacation, from the 15th-23rd March, and will take place in Val D’Isere.

Last year Varsity trip sold out in six hours, and within 28 hours in 2010, and 3200 students attended. This year tickets did not sell out, and the Varsity Trip Facebook page was still publicising availability 45 minutes before the deadline.

Late snow last year and a third consecutive return to Val Thorens have been suggested for the reasons for slow ticket sales, however this is uncertain. Fewer third years are believed to have signed up, and would have potentially been to the same resort twice before. 'The New Snow Trip' offers a different location and a better chance of late snow. Nonetheless sales are still higher than any other year barring 2011, when additional places were offered at the last minute to facilitate the unprecedented demand. After 3000 tickets sold out, another 200 were created for initially disappointed students. 3,500 places were made available this year.

Chiara Quadranti, the President of the New Snow Trip, told Oxford student newspaper Cherwell:

“We want to provide students with a fresh alternative. While Varsity is huge, quasi-corporate and intimidating (to some) we want to propose another option: something a bit different, more likeable, more personal.”

One New College student, Matthew Kain, said: “Better snow, no dirty Tabs, same lash – should appeal for people who actually want to go skiing rather than watching some crap like Ms Dynamite”.

However, Vice-President of the Varsity Trip, Rohan Sakhrani, denied that this is a cause for concern: “Ticket sales have been broadly in line with previous years, and we got a record 2000 people through our new, revamped booking system last Saturday morning in the first 80 minutes. Sales have been continual through the week since then.”