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President’s Message – So It Looks Like We Made It!

Looking back last fall, we were unsure of how this season would play out. Would we have to adjust again due to another wave of COVID? Would the resorts retain their pandemic restrictions? Would members still want to go on long trips? Would our membership numbers rebound after 2 long years?

I am very happy to report that this season has for the most part been very successful – the issues we faced had far more to do with weather patterns, and bus issues, than public health concerns. While there are areas we can improve upon for next season, this season showed us that members are excited to be skiing, riding, and snowshoeing with HPSC.

At this point, I would like to specifically thank a number of our volunteer club Directors for their contribution to the club over the last three years and who have chosen to step down from the Board.

Director of Admin, Karen Snow who spearheaded our move from a physical clubhouse to our current virtual clubhouse set-up, as well being in charge of sourcing our new liability insurance policies.

Director of Downhill Skiing and Snowboarding (Snow School), David Manning who, in addition to leading the snow school through a number of difficult years, was also, as a former President, a very valuable member of the board in making sure we were discussing the right issues.

Director of Finance, Clark Seadon who ensured that the club remained in good financial health throughout the pandemic and helped to streamline a number of our processes.

Director of IT, Alex Radulescu who has kept our IT systems running, guided us in streamlining our various IT platforms, and set up and managed our hybrid AGM and Election meetings, thereby allowing more members to participate.

Thank you to each of you for your valuable contribution to the club!

Election night is April 26th – please register to attend in person or virtually.

And finally, I would like to thank all of you, our members, for supporting the club and continuing to make this a fantastic community of members.

I sincerely hope you all enjoy the summer!

Justin Graham

President, High Park Ski Club

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Call for more new member ambassadors!

We hope you all had a great season with HPSC! There’s so much work that goes into organizing our trips, all done by our amazing volunteers. One of our most important roles is our New Member Ambassadors. They welcome all our new members and answer all their questions so they are prepared and comfortable going out for their first trips. We could always use more, particularly snowboarders and those who have experience with both cross-country and downhill. If interested, please contact Linda Lavalee at hpsc.lindal@gmail.com.

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Trip Report: Marmot Basin–a jewel in the Rockies

Our diverse group of skiers found that Marmot Basin has something for everyone. Even though it was not a good snow year, the base was reliable and quite skiable. Located in Jasper National Park, the scenery is absolutely spectacular.

We stayed at the Crimson Hotel  — nice rooms, good facilities, extremely well-run. Après-ski was well attended, sharing a drink with friends on a sunny deck. Almost everyone on the trip showed up for pizza night and the group dinner at Fiddle River Restaurant, one of the many excellent restaurants on offer in the town of Jasper.

Those who took a day off to do the Maligne Canyon ice walk raved about the experience  — most highly recommended.

Ed Bezeau, Trip Leader

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Thanks for a Great Season!

Thank you to everyone who participated in our cross-country day trips this year. While winter got off to a very sluggish start, we ran 18 trips.

A huge thank you to all our volunteers who make it happen:

  •  Monica Sauer and Theo Kempe – who make sure that all the bus captains, DODs and guides have all the paperwork and info they need on every trip. Monica also volunteers on our long trips committee, organizing the long weekend bus trips.
  • Paul Moser – who does all the trip financial reconciliations and audits.
  • David Cloutier – who orders our buses every week.
  • Jean-Emile Paraiso and Gayatri Bharadwaj – who create all of our trip modules on the website.
  • Howard Gibson – who schedules all our bus captains.
  • Linda Lavalee – who runs our new member ambassador program.
  • All the bus captains – Monica Sauer, Marjanne Lyn, Carol Collinson, Howard Gibson, Jennifer Meyer, and Claire Patregion. Our thoughts are with Paul Dover, who we hope is well enough to rejoin the group next year.
  • Jeff Stainsby – who sets the schedule and does all the post-season administrative work for ski school.
  • All of our instructors who taught this season – Jean-Emile Paraiso, Regina Eiras, George Lorenz, Suzanne Denis, Owen Rogers, Nicole Pepper, Vera Polyakova, Adrian Butscher, Liora Freedman, Janine Jorgenson, Elaine Rennet, Andrew Mahoney, Ron Duffy, and Carine Wood.
  • Our snowshoe guides – Melain Cheung, Cynthia Johnson, Cynthia Wheatley, and Queena Kwok (who stepped in late in the season and will be leading next year!).
  • And the finance team, including Clark Seadon and Lisa Philpott, who ably and quickly dealt with our payment issues this season. Also, thanks to Hilary Childs, Richard Kinread, Steve Jonjev, Judy Chen, and Michele Williamson. There were a lot of refunds this year, due to the weather and the IT issues, and they did a great job.

After we wrap up the season, we will be taking a well-deserved break over the summer. We will ramp back up in late summer, but the schedule won’t be posted until November. You can expect the same pattern – the season will begin December 30 and then we will have trips every Saturday and Sunday thereafter until the snow disappears at some point in March. Registrations for the first few trips likely will open around December 18. Nothing for you to do before then except renew your membership and get in ski shape!

Have a wonderful summer!

Heather Steel

Director of Cross-Country Skiing and Snowshoeing

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Celebrating Instructor Successes!

The Downhill Snow School is excited to celebrate some significant instructor achievements! Please join me in congratulating our instructors: 

Kerry Kupecz has attained her Level 2 certification. The CSIA Level 2 is a significant step up from the Level 1 and a milestone in every instructor’s development.

In addition, Laura Shepherd challenged the Level 3 teach exam and has now attained the Level 3 partial – teach certification. The level 3 exam is an advanced certification and recognized internationally.

Lastly, I challenged the ski exam and attained full Level 3 certification.

Congratulations to our instructors for their success on exams. You have made our snow school proud!

David Manning
Snow School Director, Director of Downhill Skiing & Snowboarding
…and new CSIA level 3 🙂

Kerry Kupecz

Laura Shepherd

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David Manning

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President’s Message – Spring is here

As it does every year, spring has arrived.  And with it a slight sadness since it also means the end of our active ski season. The conditions in March were some of the best of the season after a slow start. I want to congratulate our Director of Downhill Daytrips, Amy Lam, and our Director of Cross-Country and Snowshoeing, Heather Steel, for running successful seasons.  

Seeing all of the pictures from our recent club trips to Pragelato Club Med in Italy, Jasper, Tremblant, and for the first time the new Charlevoix Club Med in Quebec, I admit to being a bit jealous. Thank you to Kim Wiebe, our Director of Long Trips and her Long Trips Committee for planning and executing such a fantastic collection of trips.  Looking forward to seeing what is being planned for next season!

The end of our season also signals the club Election night when new Directors are elected.  Election night this year is April 26 and we will again be conducting a hybrid meeting, in person at the National Yacht Club and online via Zoom.  The bios of those running for the open spots will be published in the next SnoBiz. The official notice will be sent out in the next couple of weeks.

I want to acknowledge and congratulate some outstanding recent achievements by members of our Snow School.  David Manning, our current Director of Snow School, achieved a long-time goal of obtaining his Level 3 Instructor certification. Laura Shepherd, successfully achieved her Level 3 Teaching certification.  And Kerry Kupecz received her Level 2 certification.  Congratulations to all of you!  And to all of our members of the Snow School and cross-country instructors for doing such a great job teaching our members.

And finally, it was also a pleasure meeting and talking with so many members at our St. Patrick’s Day event at the Quail and Firkin.  Thank you for coming out and supporting the club social events.  In my view it is one of the things that binds together the various parts of our club!  I want to thank our Social Director, Jennifer Beatty for organizing such a successful event.  

Justin Graham

President, High Park Ski Club

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Trip Report: Banff

The Banff trip is always popular with members, and for good reason! This year, 43 lucky members travelled to Banff with the club, and enjoyed a myriad of fun activities. Spa treatments, skating, cross-country skiing, museum visits, shopping, dining, live entertainment and of course, world-class downhill skiing and boarding were a hit. Banff is a fun playground, attracting people from all over the world, and HPSC members certainly took advantage of all the area offers. The weather felt a little cold at times, but the warmth of HPSC members and their joy of life will live warmly in our memories for years to come.

Caro Thompson, Trip Leader

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President’s Message – Winter is just too short!

Dear HPSC friends

Despite what your non-ski friends insist, winter is not that long in southern Ontario. In fact, we have just a couple of weeks left in our season. Skiing in the sunshine of March is the payoff for the cold and darkness of January. Luckily for our cross-country and snowshoe members the weather in the last couple of weeks means that they will likely be able to run trips to hopefully for a few more weeks. On the downhill side, we have scheduled trips on the weekends and on Mondays till the end of March so long as there are enough butts in the seats.

We are once again participating in the Ikon group sales program for the 2023/24 season. Purchasing through the HPSC group program will enter you into the possibility of earning back the value of your pass (the number of winners depends on the level of sales through our group program). If you are a current pass holder and plan to renew or plan on purchasing a new pass this year, please send a message to ikon@hpsc.ca. We will send you instructions on how to purchase through the group program.  

And finally, we are re-establishing our St. Patrick’s Day pub night tradition.  Except this time, we have a set space booked at a pub – The Quail on Yonge St, north of Rosedale subway and south of Summerhill station. I hope to see many of you on Friday night!

Cheers!

Justin Graham

President, High Park Ski Club

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Be in the Room Where it Happens!

To paraphrase the hit musical Hamilton – you want to be in the room where it happens! 

High Park Ski Club is a volunteer run organization managed by the elected Board of Directors. It is the Board that decides club policies and ensures that the club runs smoothly. For younger members, being on the executive is a great item to be able to include on your professional resume.

This coming April there are three executive positions that will be open to the general membership for election for a two-year term:

  • ·         Director of Administration
  • ·         Director of Finance
  • ·         Director of IT

To qualify you need to be a member in good standing for at least the current membership year.

In addition to managing the specific portfolio, directors are required to participate in the monthly executive meeting (mostly conducted via Zoom), submit a monthly report, as well as an annual report for the AGM.

As a director, you are eligible for one Front of the Line trip access (for you and a travel partner) for one charter or overnight trip per season. As well, Directors receive a cash honorarium as approved by the membership at the AGM.  Election night is scheduled for Wednesday, April 26 at the National Yacht Club.

For more information on the roles, please contact me at President@hpsc.ca

Be in the room where it happens!

Justin Graham

President, High Park Ski Club

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Bringing a guest? Here’s how to register them:

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On some trips, members are allowed to bring a guest. Guests are allowed to come ONCE per season (even if they know multiple members) and members can bring one guest per trip. If people are keen to ski with us, we encourage them to join. The club is only able to run because of its membership-based structure. But guest days are a good chance for people to try us out.

Registering you and your guest happens separately. First, register yourself on the trip. Then, when guest registration is available (typically the last day of trip registration), you can register your guest. Find the trip registration module again and click “Register”. On the next screen click the “New Registration” button. The next page will show the email associated with your account. If it is filled in, click “Next” (if not, fill it in with the email you used to sign up for the club and click “Next”). Then you can choose “Guest” and proceed with registration and payment. Essentially, you are just registering that you are bringing a guest; there is no place where you actually put in their name or other identifying information.

You pay for your guest and your guest pays you back. Remember that you are responsible for ensuring that your guest follows the policies and procedures of the club. You must also ensure that your guest brings a signed copy of our waiver (link to it), or you must bring it for them to sign on the bus. No waiver means they will be denied participation.