Category: Downhill Skiing & Snowboarding

Posted on

Killington: The Beast of the East!

This place is huge! Massive acreage and a great vertical means you will have loads of territory to explore. Great glades and steeps for the hot shots and long cruisers for the more relaxed members amongst us. As if that isn’t enough, your ticket also lets you ski at Pico Mountain (shuttle bus will take you there).

Our lodging is right next to the base of the mountain…no need to worry about getting up early to catch a bus. Sleep in if you want, or knock off early if you’re spent.

They have had a good amount of snow recently. We still have some spaces available, so register now before they are gone! 

Posted on

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.

Posted on

Ski Beautiful Quebec with either our Quebec City based trip or Club Med Charlevoix!

Both trips feature Skiing, Dining and Exploring!

March 10-15 – Stay in Old Quebec City and Ski at Ski Mont St. Anne, Le Massif, Stoneham OR Cross-Country and Snowshoe

March 24-28 – Stay 4 nights at the luxurious new Club Med in Charlevoix with lifts and all meals, drinks, beverages included. Skiing is at Le Massif and you will enjoy guided skiing with the Club Med guides. The fifth night is spent with a stay in old Quebec City, where you can enjoy marvelous Quebec City dining.  The dinner is not included in Quebec City but you can wander the town with your new ski buddies and choose from the many options available.

March 17-22 – Killington, Vermont – A few spots still available to stay at the Killington Grand with its wonderful outdoor hot tubs with a view of the mountain and walking distance to the lifts.

Sign up for these trips before Registration closes!!

Posted on

Ski School Welcomes New Instructor Brian Pho!

I started skiing 15 years ago and quickly found out there is so much to learn about this sport. Skiing has taken me to parts of the world that I never would have seen otherwise (Switzerland, Japan, Western Canada). I earned my CSIA Level 2 in 2018, which led me to a whole new world of challenges and possibilities. The Learning Never Stops!

I am so happy to join the High Park Ski Club Snow School and have the pleasure of being able to transfer my skills and knowledge to all levels of the High Park Ski Club membership.
Posted on

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.
Posted on

New Uniforms for Our Downhill Instructors!

If you were wondering what was sparkling at MSLM last weekend… it wasn’t the freshly fallen snow, our instructors new goggles, or the smile of our Director, Laura Shepherd, excited to train with Level 4, Jason Young. No, that sparkle would have come from your instructors’ brand new uniforms, featuring our new HPSC logo!

Not unlike our very popular previous uniform, it keeps the basic brand colours with a snazzy touch! We might be even more visible on the hills!! This new uniform is the result of an incredible effort from design to distribution! Kudos and thanks go to Apolonija Battiston, Kathleen McCabe, David Manning, Rocco Romeo, and Mike Romano for such a great uniform, another one which will make us proud!
Posted on

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!
Posted on

Long Trips – What’s Available?

I was able to meet with many new and prospective members at the club’s Information Night this past Friday. There was lots of interest in our long trips so please don’t hesitate to sign up now! New members are snapping up the open spots. For some of our other trips, the due date is coming when we must release unfilled spots back to the tour operator.

Check out the trips on the HPSC website and contact the trip leader for specific questions on the trip. There is still limited space on Red Mountain, SilverStar (XC or downhill), Ottawa XC, Quebec City ski around (March break Downhill or XC), Killington Vermont, and Club Med Charlevoix /Le Massif. Join the waitlist (at no cost) if your desired trip is full. Spots can open up closer to the deadline. Kindly remove your name from any waitlists that you are no longer interested in so that those looking for a spot can get a realistic sense of how many others are ahead of them on the waitlist. When specific roommates (male or female) are needed, this will be posted on Facebook.

For those who have already paid their $100 deposit and have snagged a spot on a trip, be sure to watch for emails from your trip leader with instructions on how to pay the next deposit and final balances which may be to a tour operator or directly on the HPSC website, depending on the trip. Don’t lose your spot on a trip by missing these important notices and taking the required payment actions.

Kim Wiebe, Director of Long Trips

Posted on

Ski School News – More New Instructors!

As announced in the October 11 issue of SnoBiz, Ski School welcomed seven new instructors for this season. Today, we introduce you to Lina DiFelice and Izabella Wilczynska.
Lina DiFelice
I’ve been a member of HPSC for 12 years and started skiing when I was 11. Dad would sit in the chalet for hours, while my 2 sisters and I took ski lessons at Mount St. Louis/Moonstone, and Blue Mountain. We loved it and were hooked. My younger sister Donna went on to become a Ski Patrol, and was an active participant with HPSC in the 70’s.

Fast forward… after a long hiatus, I followed in my sister’s footsteps, and joined HPSC and renewed my passion for skiing. I’ve enjoyed many extraordinary ski trips around the world, received phenomenal instruction from attentive coaches and teachers, and have made many friendships on and off the hill.

With the support and guidance of the HPSC instructors, private lessons, and time on the hill, I grew as a skier. After retiring from a great career in teaching, moving to Collingwood, and growing my confidence, I decided it would be fun to give back the knowledge and gifts I’ve received.  I’m excited to share my love of nature and the joy one feels gliding down the mountain. 
Izabella Wilczynska
I fell in love with skiing as a little 4-year-old kid watching Olympics, and promptly used my plastic cross-country skis on the tiny hills in my hometown (Torun, Poland) for my first attempts of hockey stops. I didn’t get a chance to really try skiing on proper skis and hills until much later- my high school got a donation of downhill racing skis from an Austrian ski club and took us on a trip to Slovakia.  It was a great trip where I learned to fall well, and often (on my unsharpened 190s) but my passion for skiing remained.

Finally, many years after moving to Canada and discovering the traveling ski clubs, I was able to take proper lessons. I joined as a step 3 and worked hard to overcome my newly found (grown up) fear of speed. Fast forward 7 years and I am proud to be joining the HPSC ski school as a new instructor. I want to share my joy of skiing with others who may not have had a chance to learn earlier just like me. As a cautious skier, I will be there to encourage you to overcome your fears, and discover the reason we have winters.

In the off season, I am an avid stand-up paddle boarder (SUP), also certified as an instructor. I love the outdoors so if not on the water, I am camping, hiking, or exploring. 
Posted on

Trip Sign-up #4 – Overnight Bus Trips

Our overnight bus trip sign up night is tomorrow, Thursday, October 26 at8pm sharp. We have an exciting line-up of HPSC favourites including a March break trip to Quebec City with 4 days of downhill skiing at local resorts. Many of our trips will also appeal to our Cross-Country crowd. Be logged onto the HPSC website at 8pm sharp for the best selection of trips. Please note that these trips have been set up as group travel with special rates for the types of rooms listed, so other modifications are not allowed. You can choose a ‘No Lifts’ option and single supplement (limited availability), but there is no reduction if you do not take the group bus  Please read through the trip details in advance so that you choose the trips that are right for you. The $100 non-refundable deposit guarantees your spot and we will make every attempt to match you with a same sex roommate, if you sign up to share a double room. 

2024 Overnight Bus Trips

Mont Tremblant QC – Holiday Inn – Dec 15-17, 2023

Holiday Valley NY, USA – Microtel – Jan 12-14

Mont Tremblant QC – Holiday Inn – Feb 4-9

Gatineau /Ottawa XC – Holiday Inn – Feb 16-19

Quebec City QC ski around– Manoir Victoria – MARCH BREAK – March 10-15

Killington VT, USA – Killington Grand – studio kitchenettes and hotel – March 17-22

Mont Tremblant QC – Holiday Inn – March 22-24

Le Massif QC – Club Med Charlevoix – March 24-29

Good luck to everyone!