Day Trips – High Park Ski Club Blog

2024-01-17

Questions?

You may find the answer to your questions under the FAQ section under both the Downhill Skiing & Snowboarding and the Cross-Country and Snowshoeing tabs on the website. As we are a volunteer run club, this is often the fastest way to find out answers to your questions, such as bus pick-up locations and departure times and the deadlines to register and cancel for day trips.

New members can also reach out to their assigned Club Ambassadors for assistance but remember that they are also volunteers. Please allow time for refunds as they are also handled by volunteers.

The website also provides email addresses for specific areas. Please send cancellation requests to cancellations@hpsc.ca, not to info@hpsc.ca as this is only a general information email.

We have faced many challenges this year with a late start to the season and unpredictable weather issues. Always check the Day Trips Status page on the website for up-to-date information regarding day trips and any last minute changes such as the addition of a second bus.

2024-01-17

Downhill day trips need bus captains!

We cannot run bus trips without bus captains. There’s a fun way to meet new members, help run day trips and cover the cost of your next bus trip, $35 in savings!

Day trips bus captains help lead our Saturday, Sunday, Monday and Wednesday trips. Bus captains are responsible for preparing and delivering bus announcements on the day trip, taking attendance, answering member questions, handing out lift tickets and completing end of day paperwork to be submitted to the Director of Downhill Day Trips.

Bus captains receive 1 bus voucher for every trip they captain (value of $35).

Please attend an upcoming Zoom call to find out more information and to get some basic training on Thursday, February 1st, 8:00-9:00 pm.

Please email daytrips@hpsc.ca to register.

2024-01-17

Cross-Country finally has snow!

It was a long, frustrating wait, but we are back in business! Many of our ski areas got walloped with snow this past Sunday. It really does take just one good day of snow squalls. We ran our first trip to the snow globe that was Scenic Caves last Sunday and we are preparing for many more.

January 20 we are headed to Highlands Nordic and January 21 we are headed to Hardwood Ski and Bike. Both should have great conditions as it’s supposed to be a cold week.

Register for trips here: https://hpsc.ca/Cross-Country-Day-Trips-Registration. We are still opening trips on a week by week basis, be we should be able to move to our normal two-week registration window at some point soon.

If trips are full (people are keen to ski!), put your name on the waitlist. If enough people want to go, we can check with the resorts to see if we can bring two buses. Or, if there are cancellations, you could get moved on the trip. As I have mentioned, we know people like to ski Saturdays, but we can’t accommodate everyone who prefers that. Sunday often doesn’t fill up as quickly.

Let’s get out and enjoy winter!!!

2024-01-032024-01-17

IMPORTANT Update for Downhill Day Trips Drive-ups

Starting this season, Drive-up registrations will be opening on a weekly basis. Every Saturday by 8 pm, drive-up registration for all day trips will open for the following week.

A great benefit of being a member of HPSC is that you don’t have to be on the bus in order to take advantage of our free lessons. To ensure the best possible experience, we require drive-ups to register for their lesson. To manage class sizes and the number of instructors, we need to restrict the number of drive-up spots. The snow school and our day trips teams monitor the numbers closely leading up to the registration deadline and open up additional drive-up spots based on the numbers on the bus. These additional spots are first offered to those on the drive-up waitlist.

When a member “no shows” it means that others who may have wanted a lesson are not able to participate and we may have more instructors than necessary, which costs the club since we have paid for transportation and partially subsidised instructor lift tickets.

Over the last couple of seasons, the limited number of drive-up spots were booked up very quickly weeks in advance. However, since there is no financial commitment (unlike booking the bus) or penalty, there is a higher number of drive-up no-shows.

Starting this season, to hopefully reduce the no-show rate, we are opening drive-up registration only in the week prior to the trip, so you have a better idea of your schedule and the weather. This means that drive-up registration for all day trips will now open on the previous Saturday evening and remain open until the regular deadline, Tuesday by 6 pm. Further, to reduce the work for our refund team that handles cancellations, since there is no refund involved, we are allowing drive-up registrants to self-cancel up until the standard registration deadline.

2023-12-202024-01-17

IMPORTANT update for Downhill Day Trips Drive-ups:

Starting this season, Drive-up registrations will be opening on a weekly basis. A great benefit of being a member of HPSC is that you don’t have to be on the bus in order to take advantage of our free lessons. To ensure the best possible experience, we require drive-ups to register for their lesson. To manage class sizes and the number of instructors, we need to restrict the number of drive-up spots. The snow school and our day trips teams monitor the numbers closely leading up to the registration deadline and open up additional drive-up spots based on the numbers on the bus. These additional spots are first offered to those on the drive-up waitlist.

When a member “no shows”, it means that others who may have wanted a lesson are not able to participate and we may have more instructors than necessary, which costs the club since we have paid transportation and partially subsidised instructor lift tickets.

Over the last couple of seasons, the limited number of drive-up spots were booked up very quickly weeks in advance. However, since there is no financial commitment (unlike booking the bus) or penalty, there is a higher number of drive-up no-shows.

Starting this season, to hopefully reduce the no-show rate, we are opening drive-up registration only in the week prior to the trip, so you have a better idea of your schedule and the weather. This means that drive-up registration for all day trips will now open on the previous Saturday evening and remain open until the regular deadline, Tuesday by 6 pm. Further, to reduce the work for our refund team that handles cancellations, since there is no refund involved, we are allowing drive-up registrants to self-cancel up until the standard registration deadline.

For the first week of January trips, drive-up registration will open on Saturday, December 30.

2023-12-062024-01-17

Reminder: Cross-Country is not permitting drive ups

Another reminder that cross-country is not permitting drive ups for lessons this year. We simply do not have the instructor capacity to accommodate it. This likely will be the case for the next few years, as it takes time to find and train new instructors.

If you signed up specifically to drive up for XC lessons, please email membership@hpsc.ca and we can refund your membership. You may still drive up for alpine lessons (and need to be a member for that). Thanks for your understanding.

2023-12-062024-01-17

Cross-Country Ski School special programming is back

New to cross-country skiing? Our classic beginners series might be for you. Join instructor Vera (or Liora, depending on demand) for three consecutive weeks of beginner classes designed for new skiers. You will have the same instructor and classmates and learn to get moving on your skis. You must be available all three dates (January 7, 14, 21) and email crosscountry@hpsc.ca to register. If you can’t join the series, you can participate in our regular beginner lessons.

We are also offering special hill clinics that will give you more practice time than in a regular lesson. Our beginner hill clinic on January 20 will teach you to get up and down hills safely. For more advanced skiers who want to play around going faster (step turns anyone?), we are offering an intermediate/advanced hill clinic on February 4 (TBD as to whether it’s classic or skate). Sign up online during trip registration.

Also for more intermediate/advanced skiers, we are offering a classic trail handling clinic on February 24. Learn how to transition between techniques on the trail to ski smarter and faster. You will need some facility with all the main techniques – diagonal stride, double poling, one step double pole in particular. Sign up online during trip registration.

And for those who just want to get tips for a specific technique, we are offering two dates of skate and classic tips and tricks (February 10 & 24). Book 15-20 minutes with an instructor to work something specific – whatever you want! Sign up online during trip registration.

Please note that on the days we offer intermediate + clinics, we will not be offering any other intermediate/advanced lessons. We may schedule more clinics for later in the season as we assess how its going. If there is something in particular you would like a clinic on, let us know at crosscountry@hpsc.ca.

2023-12-062024-01-17

Downhill Day Trips

Registration for day trips on December 16th and 17th are now open!

Please register at: https://hpsc.ca/downhill-trip-registration-page

There will be NO LESSONS on both days. All instructors are training in Mont Tremblant that weekend.

January day trips will be open for registration before the holidays. Exact date will be announced on the next SnowBiz. Our awesome volunteer, Lisa Zielger, is creating each and every registration module. For just the month of January, there are 64 registration modules! Please be patient, the day trips team will open registrations as soon as we can. We also can’t wait to register for day trips in snowy January!

2023-11-222023-12-02

Cross-country ski school special programming is back