| 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. |
President’s Message – Let it Snow! Let it Snow! Let it Snow!
Dear HPSC Friends:
While we wait for more snow to fall here in southern Ontario, there is snow elsewhere. Our instructors have just returned from their annual training weekend in Tremblant where it appeared winter had arrived. I hope that everyone on the trip had a fantastic time.
As we approach the holidays, we are moving closer to starting our regular schedule of day trips, long trips and charters. January downhill day trips will open shortly with our first trip scheduled for Saturday January 6 to Mount St. Louis Moonstone. Please read all information you receive from HPSC to ensure you have the latest policies and registration deadlines.
As in the past, since cross-country resorts are more dependent on natural snow, the start of the season maybe delayed. Heather, Director of Cross-country and Snowshoeing, does a fantastic job of juggling to ensure that the trips are to the resort with the best possible conditions. Please watch for communications on when cross-country trips will be open for registration.
Just a reminder, if you have not yet renewed your membership you will no longer receive SnoBiz starting in January.
On a personal note, I am planning on my first ski day since before my injury in February 2022, over the holidays. I will likely be sticking to the beginner slope until I feel comfortable. I do hope to see many of you on our January 6 trip to MSLM.
Please take care over the holidays and stay healthy!
Happy Holidays!
Justin Graham
President, High Park Ski Club
Downhill Snow School Introduces New Instructor… Stephanie Kwok
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| I think I inherited my love of skiing from my grandfather, who skied into his early 80’s and took me on some of my first ski days to Mt St Louis and Horseshoe. I was hooked on the feeling a speeding down the slopes, but it took me a while to understand that turning is important. I eventually used my turns to earn my level 2 in 2018. I worked as an instructor in Hakuba,Japan in 2019/2020. The following two seasons, I instructed at Banff Sunshine, enjoying the stunning Rockies. Now I am back home in Toronto and looking forward to sharing my knowledge and love of skiing with people here. I believe skiing is the key to not hating Canadian winters, and maybe even loving them! |
New Uniforms for Our Downhill Instructors!
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| 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! |
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.
Spots on Long Trips Still Available!
March is a wonderful month to ski! Days are longer and temperatures start to warm up especially in Quebec. You can’t beat dining in Quebec City, with gourmet meals or hearty local Quebecois specialties. It’s not just a great ski vacation to Mont Ste Anne, Le Massif and Stoneham, but a wonderful dining and cultural experience.
Killington is known as the ‘The Beast of the East’ and this year the group will be together in the popular Killington Grand hotel and suites. Enjoy après-ski in the hot pools with unbeatable views of the mountain.
A very limited number of spots are still available at the Club Med Charlevoix at the end of March and for SilverStar in BC. Known as a mecca for cross-country, downhillers are also welcome for a ski in/out experience in the legendary BC interior snow.
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! |
President’s Message – Go!!!
HPSC Friends,
It has finally arrived!! The day we have been looking towards since last March!
The first downhill day trip is this coming weekend! For those venturing out this weekend, please enjoy but take care and remember you likely haven’t been on your skis since last season. There is no reason to push yourself too far on your first day. I won’t be able to join you this weekend but hope to in the New Year! For our cross-country members, registration for the special New Year’s celebration at Scenic Caves on December 30 will be opening soon.
As we begin the season, please make sure to read all of the communications we send out to ensure that you have the most up to date instructions and procedures.
Looking forward to seeing many of you at the First Tracks social this coming Friday!
Cheers!
Justin Graham
President, High Park Ski Club
Join cross-country skiers on long trips
There are a couple options for fun overnight ski trips for cross-country participants.
Our cross-country only February long weekend trip is headed to Ottawa and there are still spots left! Ski in beautiful Gatineau Park, participate in the loppett if you want to torture yourself, and skate on the canal! Still spots left.
There are cross-country skiers going on the Quebec City trip on March break. There aren’t many of us, so you may not have groups to ski with (just to manage expectations), but you won’t be getting dropped off and picked up alone! We are skiing at three beautiful trail systems, and you get to hang out in Quebec City in the evening. Best of both worlds! Still spots available.
Cross-country Schedule is Posted
The provisional schedule for cross-country is now posted online! It may change a bit (as it always does), but this will give you a good sense of where we are headed for the season. We begin December 30 and will end whenever the snow decides to leave us.
We have guided snowshoeing on almost every trip (thanks to our volunteer guides) and we are happy to bring back some of our special ski school programs this year. All this is indicated on the schedule.
Our awesome volunteers are starting to work on creating the registration modules. They will appear on the website as they are created (please be patient…it’s a lot of work). Registration does not open usually until a just a couple weeks before the trip (sometimes less) to give us flexibility in dealing with the weather. The first few trips will open for registration on December 18 at 9pm (if it looks like the weather is cooperating…if not, we may delay registration).
Heather Steel, Director of Cross-Country Skiing & Snowshoeing