Hello Mt. Hood Meadows Instructors!
With the end of our first 4 week SnoBlaster programs last weekend, we are embarking on the start of another 4 week session. If you have been assigned to be working SnoBlasters this weekend you will be receiving information from Jeremy Dirk in another email. The skiing and riding yesterday was super good … cool, crisp, the sun came out and Heather Canyon opened for the first time this season! Be sure to go with a buddy in Heather, as there are still lots of open creek areas at the bottom and a massive slide came almost all the way to the flats of the run out — so, please be careful! The weather does look “interesting” this weekend, however some of the most fun (and memorable) days I’ve had in conditions we’re expecting this weekend (I didn’t say the word!).
Sundays – Sundays – Sundays!
This may sound like we are repeating ourselves, and we are! We need help on Sundays. If you have called in sick and need to make up a day or have been working mid-week days and not getting the chance to enrich people’s lives (or get the hours you need or want), please switch your schedule to Sunday, make up your sick day on Sundays or just pick up an additional shift on Sundays. If you are able to add Sunday please either use this link: https://mhm.snowproportal.com/schedule-change-requests or email myself or Mark.Fischer@skihood.com to add SUNDAYS.
Sunday sweetening the deal: For those of you working on meeting your schedule commitment this season, if you are able to switch or pick up 2 or more commitment days for February Sundays we will count them as 1.5 shifts. For example, if you are able to switch 4 of your currently scheduled commitment days to the 4 Sundays in February we will count them as 6 shifts! More specific details can be found on this page of the instructor portal: https://mhm.snowproportal.com/information/february-sundays-shift-details
Fun Fact – Days are getting 3 minutes longer each day!
The days are getting longer during the month of February in Oregon by 3 minutes per day! So, by the 20th of February we’ll have an hour more of daylight, which makes for really great evening clinics. In fact, sunset on February 28, 2018 will be almost 6pm! You can check the day light tables here for you location: http://aa.usno.navy.mil/data/docs/Dur_OneYear.php and then simply Google, “Sunset on [enter date]” and Google will return the sunset time for your location – pretty cool, eh?
Jenn Lockwood – Ski & Snowboard School Admin and Alpine Training Coordinator
Jenn is a PSIA-NW Technical Team Member, Alpine Trainer, etc. is helping out with Ski & Snowboard School training coordination and administration. She will be here one day midweek (usually Fridays) and most weekends. She can assist you with schedule changes, locker assignments, nametag requests, clinic sign ups, Alpine Level I Exam information, etc. Jenn has been with Mt Hood Meadows for 15 seasons and is a wealth of knowledge, so please hit her up with your questions on just about anything, including fitness!
Enrich Yourself with Evening Clinics – and it’s still light out!
Evening clinics are happening at 3:45 this weekend. Adaptive, Alpine and Snowboard! For those of you who are a bit tired at the end of the day and want to chillax we have two alpine indoor clinics this weekend too. One is on Movement Analysis (Saturday) and the other is on Professional Knowledge for those training for an Alpine exam this season (Sunday), both led by Jenn Lockwood. There are also evening on-snow clinics for both Alpine and Snowboard. Be sure to check the Clinic Calendar here:
https://mhm.snowproportal.com/calendar
This Week’s Guest Comments …
· My instructor was Amber and she was great! I was really nervous about skiing for the first time as a 37 year old, but she made the process easy to digest and learn and was really reassuring. Would take further lessons from her when I return.
· Greg is a gem! I was so lucky to get to have a lesson with him. He gave me great pointers and I feel so much comfortable skiing now.
· David was a very polite ,friendly and well knowledge instructor.
· Taba: Tyler (our son) had a great time and is showing improvement on his turns already.
· Andre was incredibly helpful and made the experience so much fun for our son!
· Chris Hudson is amazing. I made the fastest progress with Chris in my two private lessons. He got me in the lift and down beginner run and eased all my concerns. He was very patient and it made the experience fun for me. He was also very, very detail oriented in all aspects (placement of skis, how my feet should be in the boots, where poles should go, balance). Highly recommend him.
· Eric was AWESOME! We had signed up for morning lessons and she had so much fun we stayed for the afternoon lesson too! We will be back next winter for sure!!!
· Heidi: She was super nice and knew exactly what I needed to work on. She also let me take it one step at a time and only had me work on one or two things at once.
· Brandon was wonderful. He was patient and provided me with many tips and tricks to break the bad habits I had previously formed on the mountain. He was patient and attentive.
Today We Minted 18 New Level I Instructors!
If you see these instructors congratulate them! The day started out pretty amazing – the sun popped out – and we finished in a downpour (I said it!) – but these 18 people endured and passed the Level I exam! New Alpine Level Is: Eric Callahan, Ryan Coussens, Patrick Duane, Jack Director, Humaira Falkenberg, Brandon LaRosa, Patrick Lane, David Mackintosh, Connie Ozimek, Nate Pascal, Paul Petrusich, Ryan Colesar and Jeff Ely. New Snowboard Level Is: Lindsay Dixon, Derek Grant, Ali Hamerstadt, Cole Heili, and Katie Knight. Congratulations – this was one of the best prepared groups I have witnessed!
Housekeeping – Housekeeping: Your Mom doesn’t live here I’m pretty sure!
Can we please help keep the instructor lounge a little more tidy than it has been? Please clean up after yourselves, empty the fridge of your food (before it goes bad), if you are coming up tomorrow, by all means, put our boots on the boot dryer. If you are NOT coming up tomorrow, don’t leave your boots on the dryer. They’ll end up on the floor, and wax scraping (and garbage) will end up in them.
Thank you everyone and see you this weekend – and don’t forget, please signup to work Sundays!
Tyler
p.s. I skied with Henny and Terry yesterday too! They say “hi” to all you old timers!
