Hello MLC Instructors!
We survived this week – how did you weather the storm? From ice storms, to fallen trees, to power outages, to broken pipes, dead batteries, plowed in, shoveling cars out of the parking lot, to shoveling the stairs around the lodge, to shoveling the gates out at Cascade, to shoveling ____________________ – you get the idea – it’s been quite a week! Things are looking more “normal” around here and we are hoping for a “typical” weekend day – lot’s of guests, lessons and smiling faces.
In this update …
Weather Forecast
Busy Weekend Ahead – Leave Early
Nordic Center is Open – Thursday – Monday from 8:30AM to 4PM
Operational Updates via Text Message
Part-time Shift Commitments / Teaching Hours
Deep Snow Safety – paid training – 30 minutes
Weekend Clinics & Adaptive Training on Tuesday 1/23
Weather Forecast
https://forecast.weather.gov/MapClick.php?lon=-121.6688576341901&lat=45.34194381514135#.XiOSF8hKiUl
Tonight – A chance of snow before 3am, then a chance of rain and snow between 3am and 5am, then a chance of snow after 5am. Mostly cloudy, with a steady temperature around 29. Breezy, with a northeast wind 10 to 15 mph becoming south southwest after midnight. Winds could gust as high as 20 mph. Chance of precipitation is 30%. New snow accumulation of less than a half inch possible.
Saturday – A chance of rain and snow before 7am, then a chance of snow. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 30. Windy, with a south wind 17 to 22 mph. Chance of precipitation is 50%. New snow accumulation of 1 to 2 inches possible.
Saturday Night – Snow. The snow could be heavy at times. Low around 27. Windy, with a south-southwest wind 18 to 22 mph, with gusts as high as 25 mph. Chance of precipitation is 90%. New snow accumulation of 3 to 7 inches possible.
Sunday – Rain and snow before 11am, then snow between 11am and 1pm, then snow, possibly mixed with rain after 1pm. The snow could be heavy at times. High near 33. Breezy, with a south wind 16 to 18 mph, with gusts as high as 30 mph. Chance of precipitation is 100%. New snow accumulation of 3 to 5 inches possible.
Busy Weekend Ahead – Leave Early
This is the third weekend of programs with 200+ SnoBlasters, 75+ TrailBlazers/Adult programs lessons, plus 56 morning daily lessons (Youth and Adult) and half that in the afternoon. We also have a Girl Scout group coming for first time snowboarding lessons at 2PM – special start time, with 3 SB instructors needed. With everyone having cabin fever and not being able to get out and up to the mountain, plan for a longer than normal commute. Download the Daily Fact Sheet here: https://mhm.snowproportal.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/96/2024/01/DFS-01_20_2024.pdf
Nordic Center is Open – Thursday – Monday from 8:30AM to 4PM
With all the snow we received, all the Nordic Trails have been groomed and are open – check the Nordic Center conditions on the Conditions page on the website. The Meadows Nordic Center has daily lessons at 9:30AM and 1PM – just like Ski and Snowboard lessons, and also have a full rental fleet of Classic and Skate Ski equipment and 15K of groomed trails with some incredibly scenic portions and one of the highest alpine meadows on the west coast. Check out the Nordic Center at this link: https://www.skihood.com/explore/Nordic. Want to learn more about Nordic Skiing or take a lesson? Awesome – we are working on creating a Nordic Night for MLC Team members to come down to the Nordic Center after closing and get a Classic Lesson from 4PM to 5:30PM with a tailgater – details will be shared once we have a Saturday date in February scheduled.
Operational Updates via Text Message
You may subscribe to receive daily text message updates on MHM operational updates like when lifts open, terrain opens, etc. You can sign up at the link below. You are automatically unsubscribed at 11:59PM every night, so if you want to resubscribe you can simply go to the link below to sign up. Tomorrow, after you have been auto-unsubscribed, you can re-subscribe by replying to an update with “add” and you’ll be added back for the day. Sign up here: https://sms.skihood.com/
Part-time Shift Commitments / Teaching Hours
There has been many questions and concerns regarding whether your shift commitment and teaching hours are going to be met due to all the “No Work Available” for the days you’ve committed to working. Any day you signed up to teach and were assigned “No Work Available” counts towards your shift commitments. We will use a factor of 2.75 hours per No Work Available shift to factor your teaching hour goal. So if you were “No Work Available” for 5 shifts this would count for roughly 13.75 hours of your teaching hour goal for the season. This has been an unusual season with too little snow, then too much snow, and less lesson demand than we historically see. I am hopeful the next few weeks pick up, February Programs sell out, and we have an epic President’s Day Weekend. Once we get into Spring, the Spring Passes and Spring Pass Packages should boost lessons, too.
Deep Snow Safety – paid training – 30 minutes
Now with the increase in back country and “side country” skiing and snowboarding it became clear that everyone, whether in a lesson or free skiing/riding, should have some basic knowledge about snow safety. Prevention is one of the best ways to stay safe whether in the back country or within avalanche-controlled areas of ski resorts. We have a FREE course on the Instructor Portal that is required if you plan to take any students into gated terrain, however the course is extremely valuable for you individually, as well. It covers Tree Well and Snow Immersion Suffocation, What to Do if you’re caught, Prevention, etc. You may take the course here: https://mhm.snowproportal.com/courses/extremely-difficult-terrain-safety-protocols
You may put in 30-minutes of paid training for completing this course – please put in the comments, “Extremely Difficult Terrain Safety Protocols”
Weekend Clinics & Adaptive Training on Tuesday 1/23
We have some awesome clinics scheduled this weekend on Saturday and Sunday evening, including:
Big Mountain Tactics & Techniques – 01/20/2024
Level 1 Teaching Part 1 – 01/20/2024
Level 2 Cert Prep – 01/20/2024
Level 3 Cert Prep – 01/20/2024
SB L1 Prep – 01/20/2024
SB L2-3 – 01/20/2024
Level 1 Skiing Part 1 – 01/21/2024
Level 2 Cert Prep – 01/21/2024
Level 3 Cert Prep – 01/21/2024
SB Crossover (Paid) – 01/21/2024
SB Switch Stance – 01/21/2024
Ski Crossover (Paid) – 01/21/2024
Tuesday’s Adaptive Training is a full-day of paid training on 1/23 – see this: Adaptive – Intro to Sit-Skis (Paid) and Adaptive – Skiing/Riding Skills for Tethering (Paid). To see a super easy to view list of all the upcoming paid and voluntary clinics, please see the link below. https://mhm.snowproportal.com/events
Hope to see you this weekend!
Tyler
