Long Trips

2020-09-07

HPSC Charter trips for this coming season!

1. Whistler – Early Bird Offer

For a very limited time, HPSC is able offer early bird pricing on our trip to Whistler! Until September 14^th.

This special all-inclusive price of $2,380 (per person, double occupancy) must be booked and all deposits paid by Sept 14. The trip is already open on the website for registration. Hurry if you want this discount.

The trip includes 7 nights at the Listel hotel with hot breakfast, 2 Queen or 1 King bed, 5 day lift pass, 6^th day $85 extra, direct flights on Air Canada to Vancouver and shuttle from the airport to the hotel in Whistler. The resort will be raising its lift prices next week, so our prices must increase at that point as well.

The Listel hotel is located in Whistler Village, steps from the main gondola lifts and includes the award-winning Bear Bistro restaurant. The trip departs Saturday March 6 and returns Saturday March 13, 2021, right in peak season. This is a fabulous chance to ski with reduced crowds this year, at one of the top ten resorts in the world.

2. St Moritz Club Med

St Moritz Club Med trip opens for registration on September 30.

Sign up for our Club Med St Moritz March Break trip is September 30. The trip will depart on Saturday March 13 and return on Sunday March 21. As those who have travelled to Club Med before know, it is truly all inclusive and offers a fabulous opportunity to experience exceptional guided skiing in the famed Swiss resort of St Moritz at the unbeatable price of $3,055, with a limited number of single rooms for $565 extra. As a reminder, HPSC will not be assigning roommates this year.

For those concerned about travelling during the pandemic, Club Med has included their own Club Med Covid-19 medical insurance within the pricing of all of their trips (details are available on their website). Spots are first being offered to those members whose Club Med Les Arcs trip was cancelled this past year due to the COVID shutdown, but all of the remaining seats will be available on Sept 30 to the membership.

3. More Charter Trips

Other Charter Trips include 2 IKON destinations and 2 BC Interior resorts

Canadian destinations in this year’s line-up besides Whistler include the usual favorites, Banff and Sun Peaks, but we also arranged trips to Revelstoke and Panorama. Registration for these trips will open on Thursday October 15^th.

Check out all of the charters and overnight trips on the HPSC website to read detailed trip descriptions by going to OUR TRIPS > Charter Trips , or > Overnight Trips and scroll down the page to see the list and then clicking on the specific trip. Don’t miss out on any of these fabulous trips! Contact your partners to arrange a roommate in advance of sign up or treat yourself to a single room this year. As noted, HPSC will not be matching up roommates on this year’s trips.

2020-07-282020-07-28

Long Trips vs COVID19

Day Dreaming about Winter 2021

The Long Trips team has been working on potential charter and overnight trips for 2021. We will follow all safety protocols to make sure our members stay as safe as possible from catching COVID19 on one of our trips. We know that travel will not be the same because of social distancing, face masks and hygiene principles. With safety as top of mind, we will make some critical decisions about the best way to offer trips.

The responses from the recent HPSC survey told us that there is little appetite for US or European trips. COVID19 has been rampant in US; who knows whether the situation this winter will be better… or worse. Thus we will plan only Canadian trips in 2021. Fortunately there are lots of great western and eastern ski resorts to select from and as usual we will try to get the best possible deal for our members. For those with Club Med credits from the cancelled 2020 trip, we will slide the next Club Med Europe trips into 2022. For those who were on cancelled Taos, NM, this trip will be run again in 2022.

Travel Insurance

Please reread the blog item below from April on travel insurance. We never plan on using our insurance but when we need it, it comes in very handy. By not buying insurance for your trip, you are “self insuring” and just hoping that nothing will go wrong. In March 2020 members found out that things don’t always go as planned. Through no fault of their own, two charter trips got cancelled and they had to rely on insurance to recover their losses.

HPSC has always strongly recommended trip insurance on our website and in our other documentation. For 2021 we may insist that every participant have it, ie, both medical and cancellation insurance. So when you sign up your next ski trip, keep a few dollars in reserve for insurance.

2020-04-062020-04-06

Front-of-the-Line (FOTL)

Coronavirus cancelled charter trips C7 France and C8 Taos. Members on these trips are now waiting for their insurance claims to be processed. It will be a lengthy process to get their money back due to the many thousands of claims from passengers all around the world on ski trips, vacation packages, cruise ships, flights, etc. But there is a small bit of good news for these members; they will be getting a FOTL privilege for 2021. When we reschedule the Club Med and Taos trips for 2021, the FOTL privilege will be used to get a jump on the rest of the membership to register before these trips go on sale. Since some C7 and C8 members received a credit instead of claiming a cash refund, the FOTL privilege will ensure that they can use their credit to get onto the trip.

What’s your next dream ski vacation destination?

Travel Insurance

This unprecedented stop of travel has highlighted the need for proper trip insurance. With 84 members affected by C7 and C8, we discovered that some members did not have cancellation insurance. With cancellation insurance, there will be full recovery of the amount paid or most of the amount paid. Without cancellation insurance, there is only a credit. Hotels and airlines are not obligated to give cash refunds. Where a refund is offered that is a bonus.

One member wrote, “Going forward, HPSC might want to re-emphasize the need for trip insurance and refer to this spring’s experience and remind club members that in most cases they will have to rely on insurance to get cash back and be the ones who have to chase after their refunds as the travel agents, resorts and airlines are not likely to refund payments and, at best, provide credits, often with deductions. Further that it is the members themselves who will have to do the bulk of the legwork and spend a lot of time chasing people and filing claims and then waiting for the refunds.”

HPSC has always strongly recommended trip insurance on our website and other documentation. For 2021 we may insist that every participant must have it, ie, both medical and cancellation insurance. Without it, you could not register for a trip.

W8 Tremblant-March

Tremblant-March was planned to be our biggest and wildest trip of the season… but now cancelled! Boo hoo! Now be patient, refunds are coming. It’s a big job and our volunteers are busily working on it. You’ll see the refund back on your credit card by mid-April.

2020-03-212020-03-21

Trips Cancelled: C7 Les Arcs, France, and C8 Taos, New Mexico

Disappointment reigned supreme last week as the last two charter trips of the season were cancelled due to the corona virus. Both trips had been sold out since October so these members were eager to finally get to ski those two beautiful resorts. Alas it was not to be! Refunds are now being pursued and members will call on their travel insurance policies to recover any loss. We will try to put on these same trips in 2021 when the smoke has cleared on COVID-19.

2020-03-212020-03-21

Trip Cancelled: W8 Tremblant

Coronavirus has rained on our parade – two bus trip to Tremblant. We’ll be back next season!

Over 100 members on our overnight Tremblant trip were very disappointed to miss out on the biggest ski party of the season. What an event we had planned! What a shame to have it cancelled by the corona virus. Full refunds are coming. Refunds will take some time for our volunteers to do so please be patient. Rest assured whatever amount you paid for W8 will be refunded back to your credit card.

2020-02-242020-02-24

HPSC discovers Sault Ste. Marie

On the family day long weekend, a full bus headed up to Sault Ste. Marie to experience some of the best cross-country skiing Northern Ontario – and indeed Canada – has to offer! We stayed in Sault Ste. Marie and skied two days at Stokely Creek and the final morning at Hiawatha Highlands. Both places delivered amazing skiing.

Konstatin is pretty tired after all that climbing!

Stokely Creek is not for the faint of heart. With over 100km of trails and some serious climbing, you are sure to get a workout! But, there are some lovely easier trails too if that’s more your style. And the snowshoeing looked lovely!

There was a huge base of snow, so no worries about bad conditions on this trip! It also snowed all day on Saturday, creating a lovely winter wonderland. Then the network was freshly groomed entirely for Sunday.

Members had all kinds of fun. There’s 6 huts to explore throughout the network and we hit all of them at some point! Norm’s cabin even offers full tea and cookie service! The sun peaked out on Sunday and gave us views of Lake Superior. Lots of members challenged themselves to climb King Mountain. Others explored the snowshoe trails.

Four of our members – Heather, Paul, Ian, and Jean-Emile – took on the 6 Hut Challenge on Sunday. That’s all 6 huts in one day. And what a day it was. In the end, this foursome skied 40km and climbed about 1000m! You don’t get that kind of climbing in Southern Ontario. They’re waiting for their t-shirts to be mailed.

The last hut!!! Then the death march home commenced.

The final day took us just outside Sault Ste. Marie to Hiawatha Highlands, the local nordic ski club. A smaller trail network and not nearly as challenging (thank goodness!), but also beautiful. The sun came out and everyone wished we had time to stay the whole day.

All in all, this trip was a massive success and we’ll add it to our roster of long weekend destinations! Special thanks to trip leader Monica, who always does a fantastic job.

Norm’s Cabin offers tea and cookies to weary skiers! Our members got a little comfortable…

2020-02-112020-03-07

Update on Long Trips

There are just a few seats still open on our overnight and charter trips. If you are interested in a trip, add your name to the waitlist because cancellations happen from time to time, sometimes very close to departure.

NEW for the Lake Placid trip is an option for XC. Here is your chance to ski and snowshoe the Olympic Cross Country ski trails of Mt. Van Hoevenberg. See Lake Placid details on the website, Learn More https://hpsc.ca/event-3508545

1. Lake Placid, 1 seat left to match a male roommate, register NOW!

2. Tremblant March, 2 buses… what a party! There are still seats open although the Register button isn’t showing. The rooming needs to be sorted out so add your name to the waitlist for a seat.

3. Taos, 1 seat for a Male to match rooming.

If you need to cancel the trip, please review and follow long trips cancellation policy. Learn more https://blog.hpsc.ca/2020/01/long-trips-7/

Our ski trips are like trips back to the childhood, when someone takes care of everything and we are just having a blast and come back for dinner after playing in the snow with the red cheeks and big smiles… Our ClubMed trips definitely have it all to feel like a child on a snow carousel.

2020-01-242020-01-24

Cancelling a Long Trip

Cancelling from a trip is no fun. You miss out on a great time and have to stay at home to deal with your injury, illness or whatever. Our cancellation policies have not changed in many years but they might not be familiar to new members. The policies were set up to be fair to all members and respect the financial responsibilities of the club.

The first step in cancelling is to notify the Trip Leader in writing as soon as you decide. You must get a reply back from the TL acknowledging your cancellation. This sets the ball rolling to find a replacement for your seat and the amount of refund you’ll receive.

In all cases, the non-refundable $100 deposit is non-refundable. This is the deposit you initially make to register for a trip.

Refund For Overnight Trips

The refund you’ll receive depends on the date you cancel. If you cancel any time before 45 days from departure, you’ll get a full refund of the Stage-2 payment. Between 45 and 8 days, the refund amount is the Stage-2 payment less $100… provided a replacement is found for your seat. Without a replacement there is no refund. But it is rare that a replacement is not found because the very next member to register becomes your replacement. So the earlier you cancel the greater the likelihood of a replacement. Within 7 days, there is no refund at all. Even if you are replaced in the last week there is no refund of any amount. The policy is on the website click here and applies to everybody without exception. Refunds will be returned to the card used for payment and could take 2-3 weeks depending on the speed of your own bank to credit it.

Refund For Charter Trips

Refund policies are set by the tour operators and not by HPSC. Generally here is how they work. The first deposit of around $500 when you registered is not refundable. Plus if you purchased cancellation insurance from the tour operator, that payment is also not refundable. A cancellation after the date for the balance payment, then the total amount of the trip is not refundable. Each trip will have a different cancellation policy as listed in the detailed description pages.

Insurance

HPSC has always strongly recommended that you have trip insurance. Members are responsible for arranging their own trip cancellation and medical insurance as the club cannot do it for you. Some members purchase an annual policy, some purchase just for one trip and some rely on their credit card benefits. Some members don’t buy any insurance feeling that they can assume all the risk themselves.

Cancellation insurance allows you to be reimbursed if you get sick or injured before the trip. Medical insurance covers if you get injured during the trip. Keep in mind that the Ontario Government has stopped paying for out of Province medical. If you are on a US trip, it is foolhardy to go without insurance as a minor injury will be expensive, but a major injury will cost thousands.

If you have to make an insurance claim, you can retrieve your invoices from the website to attach to your claim form. Login, click on your name, click on ‘Invoices and Payments’ and scroll down. If your insurance company requires a letter from HPSC to justify the claim, just ask the TL and it will be provided. All insurance claims must be made by the participant to their own insurance company.

Bill Bates,Director.