High Park Ski Club Blog – Page 32 – Read about all of the latest news and events from HPSC

2020-03-072020-03-07

Ski Demo Day at Caledon Ski Club during our one and only Sleep-in Saturday daytrip!

Our partner, Skiis & Biikes, will be hosting a Demo Day for HPSC members during our scheduled sleep-in Saturday daytrip to Caledon Ski Club on March 21^st. They will have a tent outside the Pro Shop, at the West Lodge, with 12-16 pairs of demo skis for guests to try.

This trip to Caledon is our one and only Sleep-In Saturday trip of the season. And is a great opportunity for those of you who usually only ski on the weekend to experience one of the private clubs in Ontario.

All pickup times will be 45 minutes later than usual with the first at 7:45 am at Bloor and Indian Rd., followed by Davenport and Yonge (8:05); Yonge and Eglinton (8:15); Yonge and York Mills (8:25), and finally 400/7 (8:45). If there are two buses we will adjust the times, but will still be leaving 400/7 at 8:45.

Why demo?

Buying new skis can be a major acquisition. All skis are different in their proportion, construction, and other features. It is always advisable to try before you buy. Even if you are not looking to buy new skis, demoing skis can tell you something about your individual style of skiing. Different skis behave differently. If you have read a rave review of a certain ski does not mean that they would be right for you.

A few considerations on how to make the best out of a ski demo:

Think of what do you want in a ski. Do you want something that is good on hardpack snow or powder? Something stable or a bit more playful?
Talk to the Skiis & Biikes reps and find out as much as you can about the skis they have to offer. They might suggest one you haven’t thought about.
Know your boot sole length in millimeters, and your DIN settings.
Use the same terrain to test each ski. It is a good way to compare them. Some skiers prefer starting on an easier slope, and then turning up the volume on a steep run.
Pay attention to how the skis feel at short and long turns, tern initiation, grip, edging.
Don’t hesitate to try the same model in a variety of lengths. You may hate the ski in one length, and then be wowed by the next size up of the same.
Be mindful of the time limit that the ski shop allows you to demo a pair.
Don’t demo new skis during the time of your lesson. There will be plenty of time after it – our bus departs at 4:30 pm.
You may want to take picture of the model and length of the skis you have just tested, and to take notes if you wish!

2020-03-072020-03-21

Spring is in the air

Silver white winters that melt into springs – these are a few of my favourite things. HPSC Social Committee

Spring reminds us every year about a new beginning, a fresh start… Spring skiing under the sun is the most delicious. Our 70th Anniversary season comes to the end and it only means that 71th season is about to begin. Our current Board of Directors is completing two years term and we are planning election night for April 30 2020. We now have very strong candidates for all Directors positions stepping forward or staying for re-election. Our club is very successful thanks to all volunteers work. If you are interested to join the force of volunteers – contact current Directors.

Meanwhile the celebration continues. Tremblant party trip with two buses is coming up. There will be a big party in Le P’tit Caribou! We are 60% sold out for the 70th Anniversary Snow Ball Dinner + Drink + Dance. There are teams forming up for the Trivia Challenge. The winning team will get additional sparkling wine for the table.

For the Apres party Drink + Dance we’ll have photo booth and a lot of dancing. Join the social event to learn how to dance Waltz. The first dance will be Snow Ball – couple who have met in the club, or join together will be invited to dance first, every time Dance Master will say “SnowBall” the couples will split up and grab another partners – until everyone is dancing. Oh what fun!

What good is sitting alone in your room?
Come hear the music play!

Enjoy the sun and the snow!

Stella, HPSC Volunteer President

2020-03-072020-04-06

All will be well! Keep calm and dream on!

Dear friends, we are living through challenging historical time. All of us in the Board of Directors send you warm wishes to stay well and healthy. Some things are beyond our control. What’s in our control is to take care of ourselves and our communities.

The current Board completes 2 years term. Our team has worked hard and has implemented a lot of changed to take our club to the new hight. Our membership’s record increase of over 20% is our biggest accomplishment that many of you have acknowledged. Our club is growing and blossoming with the new generation and members joining. Although the 70th Anniversary Season has ended suddenly and unexpectedly, we can say that it was an amazing season to remember. Coronavirus has rained on our parade – we had to cancel overnight trips to France, to Tao and to Tremblant. Today we’ve made a hard decision to cancel The Apres 70th Anniversary “Snow Ball’ in the interest of health and safety of our community and in the light of the growing concerns about economical situation. We’ll be back next season stronger and united more than ever to execute on our mission: to inspire and enable members to enjoy winter snow sports in a fun, friendly and supportive community. .

Election night for the new Board of Directors is scheduled for April 30 2020. Please note that we are testing the opportunity to conduct the meeting on-line using collaboration tools. The registration for the meeting will start two weeks prior. The registered 100 participants (maximum capacity of the tools that meets our quorum criteria) will receive an email invitation to join the meeting from the comfort of your homes. Our past President David Manning has started a very important initiative of Club house virtualization, which we have continued. Now we are forced to speed it up.

Please know that very strong new candidates step forward to volunteer for the Board for the next term of two seasons 2020-2022. Election rules and documents are posted on the club’s web site before the meeting. You’ve received by now an official notice of election via email. Remember, our not for profit club is managed by volunteers to keep the cost of our activities and membership low. If you are interested to volunteer – please contact me, current directors or new candidates – they will be building the new teams. It takes many awesome people to run our club.

Below is the list of the candidates for the HPSC 2020-2022 Board of Directors, based on the submissions to Colin Marsh, who is leading Election Nomination committee. Adrian Popescu is a Nomination Committee member and will conduct the meeting. New nominations can be submitted to Colin via marketing@hpsc.ca.
New candidates for HPSC Board of Directors 2020-2022:

President – Justin Graham
Marketing – Jennifer Beatty
Finance – Clark Seadon
Downhill Day Trips – Erika Clark
Communications – Nemanja Davidovic (recently appointed by Board)
Social – Amy Lam

Downhill Snow School – the candidate will be nominated by the Snow School

Directors who are running for re-election for their current roles:
IT – Alex Radulescu
Admin – Victor Schroter
Overnight Trips – Bill Bates
Membership – Ruth Schefter
Cross Country skiing – Heather Steel

Spring is taking over from winter. All will be well. The cherry trees will blossom in High Park again soon. Keep Calm and Dream On about big mountains and fresh white blossom of snow… Please stay socially connected on-line!

Stella, HPSC Volunteer President 2018-2020

2020-03-06

Spring skiing awaits!

Our March 1 trip to Wasaga. Snow and sun!

March brings spring skiing…some of our favourite skiing. Yes, conditions aren’t always great, but throw in warm temperatures and sunny days, and it feels so good to be outside in the trees.

There are plenty of opportunities to ski this March. As long as there is snow on the ground, and people willing to ski on it, we’ll send buses! Our trips up to March 15 are presently sold out, but the wait lists are generally small, so if you get yourself on the list, you probably will get on the trip.

Mar. 14 – Kawartha Nordic (guided snowshoeing). If Kawartha doesn’t have the conditions, we will find somewhere that does (likely Highlands or Scenic Caves…or maybe Arrowhead)

Mar. 15 – Hardwood Hills (Race #5)

Mar. 21 – Mystery Destination (module will open soon; destination confirmed closer to date). LAST CHANCE TO TAKE LESSONS!

Mar. 22 – Highlands Nordic (module will open soon)

After Mar. 22, we will take the weather and conditions as they come. Many members often ski until the last day of March, so if conditions warrant it and you want to go, we’ll do our best to send buses!

Please note that March skiing can bring changeable conditions – it can be icy, slushy, sunny, snowy, and everything in between. As usual, we will try and find the best conditions if our scheduled destinations don’t work out. Let’s get outside and enjoy the last bits of winter!

When it’s 3 degrees you can have a marshmallow roast! Wasaga, Mar. 1, 2020

2020-03-06

Race weekend had a bit of everything – bonus points, a costume preview and marshmallows

Race weekend – races on both days – was a huge success! Thanks to all our participants for their enthusiasm. You all make our club awesome! We had awesome conditions thanks to a 40-60cm dump of snow a few days earlier. Bring on Snowmageddon!

Feb. 29 we held our annual “Choose Your Own Adventure Freestyle Race” at Horseshoe Valley. We start and end from the same place, and there are two courses to choose from – a beginner course and a more advanced course that sends racers up Geunther’s Grind! If racers did both, they got bonus points!

Congrats to Graham, Sonia, and Janine, who did both courses. Graham lead the day with the fastest time. And congrats to Jennifer, our “beginner winner”, and to her three friends who did Patrolller’s Hill THREE times. Were they supposed to? Nope!

Mar. 1 at Wasaga we held our annual Pine Trail Classic, a classic only race that winds through the lovely Pine Trail. We started and ended at the fire shelter, where racers were treated to a marshmallow roast courtesy of Linda. Graham and Sonia practiced skiing in costume to prepare for the final official costume race. What a great end to an amazing day of skiing.

Congrats to Graham for his second win of the weekend, and to everyone for finishing in under 25 minutes and getting bonus points!

The podium finish – first to third (left to right)

Racers have one more chance to rack up points for the overall standings on Mar. 15 at Hardwood. It’s our Spring Fling Costume Race! Graham and Sonia are only two points apart at the top of the overall leader board and we can’t wait to see what costumes they have in store for us!

We finished off with a marshmallow roast. Fun fact: sloths like marshmallows

2020-02-24

Congratulations to our XC instructors

This year we had three members successfully pass CANSI certification courses!

First, we welcomed Ron Duffy to the instructor ranks when he passed the CANSI Level 1 course in January. Congratulations!

Second, Charles Ma and Heather Steel successfully passed the CANSI Level 2 course in February. Congratulations!

The L2/3 course – Heather is second from the left and Charles is last on the right. Thanks to Wendy Grater and Francoise Chatenoud for the excellent instruction!

Furthermore, a few of our instructors are in the process of completing their Level 3 certifications. Hopefully we will bring news of more successes in the coming seasons!

Our instructors are dedicated to improving their skiing and teaching skills to serve our members better. Thanks to all of them for their enthusiasm and dedication to our sport and our club.

2020-02-24

Race weekend – with bonus points – is coming!!

Race Results

Our first race of the season, Frisbee Biathlon, was a big success! Held on the new flat open area at Highlands (Teal’s Tango), members of all levels were able to participate in the fun. While our races are all about fun, there are results. And here they are:

Race #1 – Frisbee Biathlon

David Zoratto & Trevor Leech

John Kane & Frances Zeng

Sonia Dyett & Rob Dyett

Patty McVitty & Jaques Belik

Rubina Khan & Amanda Hollingsworth

Carine Wood & Ludmilla Chubey

Jennifer Beatty & Andrew Kerr

Maria Bridgemohan & Charlene Phillips

Our second race of the season was held at Scenic Caves – You Can’t Get Lost on the Northwest Passage Freestyle! It was warm and sunny and 10 skiers, including some newbies, put their skills to the test on a 1.5km course. No one got lost! And the results…

Skate:

Jeff Stainsby
Andrew Mahoney
Jiurong Li

Classic:

Andrew Osmond (who serenaded us in Italian as he crossed the finish line, meaning bonus points for all!)
Andreas Gierke
Andrew Patterson

Race Weekend!

Race weekend returns after a few year’s hiatus. What is race weekend? Races on BOTH daytrips with some serious bonus points! Check it out…

Feb. 29: Our annual Choose Your Own Adventure Challenge at Horseshoe Valley. Choose between two courses – a shorter easier one that uses Patroller’s hill (suitable for more beginner skiers) and a longer, hillier route that uses Geunther’s Grind. If you do both, you get bonus points!

Mar. 1: The annual Pine Trail Classic at Wasaga is back! This is our race director’s favourite race for two reasons: 1. It’s a beautiful course that winds through the pine trees. 2. Someone ALWAYS gets lost. It’s been years and this never fails! There will be bonus points for those who finish the course in under a certain amount of time.

Our races are all about fun! Participants accumulate points through the season and we crown our overall winners at our fun year end party in April. Join us!

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…

2020-02-232020-03-07

Let’s all celebrate and have a good time

“Let it snow!” Gala celebration of 65th Anniversary was a memorable event.

Celebration of 70th Anniversary of our club continues. Many overnight trips are completed or upcoming very soon. Every weekend we have buses taking hundreds of our happy members up North. Are we having a good time? Tickets are on sale on February 25th for the Après-Season “Snow Ball” Dinner + Drink + Dance to celebrate in style the end of this amazing season with friends. The number of tickets is limited to 150 although there are tickets for the Apres party: Drink + Dance. The earlier you sign for the event with your friends, the better seats you get. Let’s all celebrate and have a good time.

Our club has reinvented itself multiple times. “Be the change that you wish to see in the world.” ― Mahatma Gandhi. We’ve implemented many changes and have welcomed a lot of new members in the last two years. We’ll be looking for a new volunteer to become The President of High Park Ski Club to lead our club higher during the next two years. My new stellar job has found me and I am moving on to the next chapter of my life to focus on the greater good. If you are interested to become The President of HPSC, to learn about the role & responsibilities in the next two month before the election night on April 30 2020, contact me: president@hpsc.ca

Our club blossoms! Cheers for the blossom of snow and the spring to come!

Stella, HPSC Volunteer President

2020-02-20

International Women’s Day – HPSC Social

If you are a current member of HPSC and you are or identify as a woman, we invite you for a special women’s event on March 6th to gather and meet all female members of our club. Just 2 days before the International Women’s Day, it’s a perfect occasion to chat, have a drink and start celebrating being a woman among like-minded ladies! Please use the Register for the event and mark your calendar!

More details: https://hpsc.ca/event-3741141