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
Spring in Tremblant
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.
We want to thank you for participating in our snow school lessons or guided skiing and snowboarding throughout this past season. While cut too short we had a great time on snow while we were able. We recently sent out a survey to understand your experience taking lessons. Your responses will help the snow school executive to make decisions around our 2020-2021 snow school strategy.
The first in the history of the club virtual on-line election will be held on April 30 2020. https://hpsc.ca/event-3751842
Clark Seadon – Candidate for Finance Director
Skiing has been a huge source of adventure and excitement throughout my life. It really started with downhill ski racing for my local club in Edmonton, and grew to include cross-country, a little back-country and trips to Europe. I became a new member this year to do more XC skiing and have been delighted to find so many people who enjoy winter. I’ve had many enjoyable conversations, and look forward to meeting a lot more members. In terms of Finance I have some useful experience to share, having been Acting Treasurer for the Charity my wife is in charge of, having been a Commercial Banking Lender throughout my career, and being a CPA, CA. Overall I really look forward to helping others enjoy skiing and winter with the Club, while helping to ensure the Club remains financially sound for years to come.
Flying Clark – Local Edmonton Ski Club. “Those were the days my friends….”
Erika Clark – Candidate for Downhill Day Trips Director
When I moved to Toronto in 2017 I decided I wanted to learn to ski, and to meet new people, so I chose to join HPSC. I immediately felt at home and that I had created a new family of friends within the club. I began volunteering as a bus captain on downhill day trips and since then have also been a trip leader on the recent weekend Tremblant trip, as well as volunteering in other capacities with the club. I was the Downhill Day Trips Director for one season (2018-2019) and worked to increase the attendance on downhill day trips, partner with cross country to offer more buses, partner with new hills to offer members more variety to improve their ski and snowboarding skills, and continued to welcome and support members to get out on the slopes through our day trips. For the next two seasons, my goal as the Director of Downhill Day Trips is keep the momentum going. I want to build upon the fantastic success of the previous seasons and continue to fill buses, encourage new members and returning members to attend day trips and expand our ski and snowboarding program with HPSC’s snow school. With the help of the downhill volunteers, my desire is that every member looks as forward to, and enjoys, going on a HPSC day trip as much as I do. Joining HPSC is one of the best decisions I have ever made. I began as a new skier and have now travelled around Ontario, Canada and the US enjoying the best of winter skiing with my HPSC friends. Becoming involved as a volunteer has led to many wonderful opportunities. I encourage all members to get involved in any way they can!
Nemanja Davidovic – Candidate for Communications Director
I am an outdoor enthusiast. I spend most of my free time skiing, cycling or hiking, depending on the season. As a member of a ski club in my hometown in Serbia, I have skied downhill in European ski resorts. The first thing on my list when I moved to Toronto was to find and join the local ski club in my new home. I discovered HPSC and joined the club together my fiancée. So far, I have skied on daytrips with the club, and discovered some fantastic places in Ontario. Furthermore, I started learning how to cross country ski with amazing HPSC instructors. I find the club to be a great place to meet likeminded people, make new friends and grow your network. I bring volunteering experience from my previous ski club and project management skills from my day job. Life is better on the slopes!
Jennifer Beatty – Candidate for Marketing Director
(c)KenRockwell.com858 453-2099
I grew up in Calgary, Alberta and learned to downhill ski in Banff. I have skied several hill in Banff, as well as Golden, BC. And Whistler, BC. I moved to Toronto in October 2018 for a job in Marketing, and was looking for something to keep my active in the winter months. That’s when I discovered the High Park Ski Club and it’s been the best thing I’ve done since moving toToronto! Having never cross-country skied before this past winter, I advanced from Classic 1 to Classic 3. I also made some great friends, and had tons of laughs along the way! I’m a marketer in my day job, and also take marketing courses when I’m not skiing! – I’m excited at the prospect of using my skill set to further advance the HPSC member experience, and continue to attract new members to keep our club running strong for year to come!
Amy Lam – Candidate for Social Director
I love being active and being outdoors. In past winters, I casually went skiing with friends, but never took any lessons or joined a club. Last winter, I wanted to improve my skiing skills and meet other skiers. I googled “ski club”, and found High Park Ski Club’s website. Since being member, I have been blown away with the quality of lessons and trips the club offers. My skiing has greatly improved since taking lessons with the awesome HPSC instructors. This year, I started to volunteer as bus captain for Saturday alpine trips. I have such a blast meeting members, and being part of such a positive, active and winter-loving community. I recently completed my two year term as the Social Director for the Toronto Triathlon Club. I enjoyed organizing and hosting social events that bring together the community of athletes of all levels. I love seeing the joy that social gatherings bring to members, after training sessions and at the finish-line of various races. It’s the best way to meet new friends and be inspired by their journeys to be active healthy. I hope I can use my “party organizing” skills to come up with ideas for social events and gatherings that bring our wonderful community of HPSC members together.
Justin Graham – Candidate for HPSC President
HPSC Volunteer of the Year – Silver Level – April 2019
Even before I started skiing as a teenager, I was aware of High Park Ski Club. I first learned about the club when it was profiled along with others in a local magazine. It seemed like so much fun! After graduating university, I talked a friend into joining with me, and was a member for about 6 years. After not skiing regularly for about 15 years, I wanted to get back into the sport, and since my old friends had stopped, decided to rejoin HPSC, and have been a continuous member since 2007!
I participate in most of the activities of the club (most weekends on alpine daytrips; a couple of snowshoe trips per season; a couple of long trips per season; SkiFit in the fall; Climb the Mountain each year; and many social activities) which has allowed me to develop a good sense of the various subgroups of members that make up our fantastic club.
We really are only as strong as a club as the connections we make with each other! Because of close friendships and a desire to give back to the club I started to volunteer. I have realized that the portfolios that I have assisted with have something to do with bringing our members together and in helping to make these connections! My desire as President is to ensure that our members continue to develop these friendships and as a result strengthen our club.
To paraphrase JFK, “Ask not what your ski club can do for you . . . “ My HPSC Volunteer Experience
Alpine Daytrips team lead as Assistant
Director of Alpine Daytrips (2019/20 season)
W6 Killington trip – Trip
Leader (February 2020)
SkiFit group leader (Fall 2018;
Fall 2019)
Alpine Bus Captain (2017-2020)
HPSC Volunteer of the Year –
Silver (2018/19); Bronze (2017/18)
Alpine Daytrips – Bus Captain
co-oridnator (2018/19)
Re-wrote Alpine Bus Captain
Training Manual (2018/19)
Assisted Communications and
Marketing teams by creating and editing a lot of the website content (2018/19)
Assisted Social Director in
planning and organizing social events (Fall 2018)
Attended numerous HPSC Board
meetings as delegate for Social Director or Alpine Daytrips director
(Summer/Fall 2018)
Wrote SnoBiz articles for
Alpine Daytrips and Social (2017-2018)
Profession and Education
Professional public opinion
researcher for approximately 25 years
MA, Public Policy and
Administration
Bachelor of Business
Administration, Marketing major
HPSC Charter Trip to Salt Lake City – February 2018 – Alta, Utah
David Manning – Candidate for Downhill Snow School Director
David is a downhill ski & snowboard (double double) instructor. David is also the past President, who has led the club successfully through the first wave of transformation and demonstrated the mindful leadership and long term vision for the club. David is the best candidate for the role, nominated by the entire Snow School.
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.
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.
While winter took a while to arrive, and the season ended sooner than we would have liked, 2019-20 ended up being a great season! We ran 17 day trips and a very successful long weekend trip to Sault Ste. Marie. We got to all of our favourite resorts – Hardwood, Horseshoe, Highlands, Scenic Caves, Wasaga, Kawartha, Arrowhead, and Georgian Nordic (and a few lucky members even got to go to Mansfield on a Wednesday!). We managed to get in four of our five races, our backcountry trip to Kolapore, and we offered lots of guided snowshoeing and lessons. Registration was amazing – we had 6 two bus trips this year! I look forward to more of the same for next year.
It takes a great team to make our season happen. Thank you to the following members in particular for all their invaluable contributions and leadership:
Weekend day trip coordinators: Monica Sauer, Theo Kempe, David Cloutier, Jean-Emile Paraiso, and Gayatari Bharadwaj
Finance coordinator: Paul Moser
Ambassador coordinator: Linda Lavalee
Snowshoe coordinator: Cynthia Wheatley
Bus captain coordinator/tour coordinator: Howard Gibson
Ski School director: Elaine Rennet
Ski School operations director: Jeff Stainsby
Ski School director of instructor training: Janine Jorgensen
And thank you to all of our bus captains, snowshoe guides, ski tour leaders, and instructors! I know our members appreciate everything you do for the club.
Our last trips of the season ended up being Mar. 7 and Mar. 8, although we didn’t know it at the time. These were great trips for different reasons. Mar. 7 at Georgian Nordic was on the cool side, and conditions a bit icy, but we had lots of fun making s’mores around the fire! Mar. 8 was 12 degrees and sunny at Horseshoe! Members shed the clothes and had a great day in the sun. We can always look back on those memories and look forward to next year. Check out pics below from this last weekend.
Everyone take care of yourselves and your loved ones! We’ll be back skiing before you know it.
Sincerely,
Heather Steel, Director, Cross-Country Skiing and Snowshoeing
While our 70th season ended a little more abruptly
than anticipated . . . it was memorable
all the same!
Despite weather that was a little unpredictable, HPSC Alpine
Daytrips successfully ran 39 trips of which half (18) were sold out. (Moral is to sign up early and sign up often!) The season started off with a successful and
sold out Kick Off and Test Drive trip on December 7 that resulted in a number of
new members.
In February at the height of the season we had for the first time in years a fully sold out weekend starting with the equivalent of three full buses (2 full buses and 50 registered drive-ups) for the rescheduled Double Double day, as well as sold out trips to Blue Mountain on the Sunday and Monday.
On Saturday of Family Day weekend, we ran what is becoming an annual daytrip to Holiday Valley – a rare trip that both sold out early and had a 100% attendance rate – that is there were zero no-shows. And at the end of February was our second successful Test Drive day!
In January and February out of the seven MSLM Saturday trips we ran, five were expended to two buses due to filling up the first bus early. Another success was the major uptick of those registering for our Sunday trips to Blue Mountain – so a shout out to the Sunday@Blue Crew!
And finally a big thank you to all of the volunteers who arrange and co-ordinate and run the day trips, and those on the back end who reconcile the trips and process the refunds. Without all of you the trips would not be able to run!
If you have any suggestions for daytrips please do not hesitate to send an email to daytrips@hpsc.ca.
Please stay safe over the summer and look forward to seeing you on the slopes next December!
The health and safety of our members and volunteers have always been our number one priority. Following recommendation against large events and public gatherings issued today by Ontario’s Chief Medical Officer of Health we have cancelled day trips and Tremblant trip. We feel that this is the most meaningful way to manage the risk. Members who have paid for the cancelled trips will be fully reimbursed. Our partners support our decisions and we are managing the minimum losses for us as a non profit organization. We will refund the full amount back to members credit cards. Please be patient because this is a lot of work for our volunteers. Long Trips committee is working on resolution for the remaining charter trips. These are unprecedented circumstances beyond our control. Let’s keep calm and carry on with our mission as a strong, fun, friendly and supportive community – High Park Ski Club!
At least we can say that we had a great season! It will definitely be a memorable one to go into history. We’ll monitor the situation to make a decision about 70th Anniversary Apres Season Snow Ball and will keep members updated.
Stella, HPSC Volunteer President & Board of Directors
It has been a great season so far . . . but it isn’t over yet!!
However, day trips will only run if members sign up. While buses in January and February were guaranteed to run, in March we need to ensure that trips are economically feasible. They will be cancelled if there are not enough members registered. And remember that if the bus doesn’t run, we do not provide lessons for drive up registrants.
Some highlights in March:
Our only trip to Beaver Valley Ski Club – home of
Avalanche, Ontario’s steepest groomed run, on Wednesday March 18th.
Our one and only ‘Sleep in Saturday’ on March 21st
to Caledon Ski Club. Pick up times are
45 minutes later than the usual Saturday times so you can sleep in. We will be departing from 400/7 at 8:45. If
you usually ski on the weekend, and don’t get a chance to go to the private
clubs, this is your opportunity!
There will also be a Skiis and Biikes demo tent
at Caledon that day (please see the separate article).
Due to the popularity of this year’s Sundays at
Blue trips, the board has approved adding in two more Sunday trips (March 15th
and 29th) that were not on the original schedule. Way to go to the Sunday@Blue
Crew for coming out regularly and making this possible.
Due to popular demand, the Davenport and Yonge
pickup location has been added to all weekend daytrips in March.
Come enjoy some spring skiing and before saying goodbye to our 70th HPSC season!
