2003

April 10, 2003 update
Hi all, Here is your MHSSC monthly update: Will Wasson had a baby!!!!!!!!!! Parker Blue Wasson born March 4 at 11;30 PM in Montrose, CO. Tom Sell and Mary are expecting baby #2: due sept.25! Andrej Jerman's world cup season results: . I scored points on 11 of 15 world cup races I started and finished season as 27th overall in downhill and 35 in super-g. My best place was 12th in super-g in Val Garedna, 16th in downhill on Birds of Prey, and 5th in combined in Wengen. Andrej is heading to Thailand this summer for 3 weeks, and is not likely coming to Hood, although brother Izi is considering coming. Hannah Horne, staffer from the early 90's, is getting married in 3 months. She lives and goes to school in Georgia. I think Craig Bowden is moving to Oregon next month. Anyone want my job this summer? I'm on the injured reserve list. (see attached pic) While skiing last week, I wrecked hard and ruptured my Achilles Tendon. (same injury Rogan had last fall) I had surgery a few days ago, and the healing/rehab is supposed to take 6 months. I might be able to skid down Palmer on one leg by August to do video on the hill, but we are looking for someone to fill in for me June/July. I might be MHSSC office boy employee the majority of the summer. Spring ski camps: If you didn't know, Mike added 5 sessions of spring ski/snowboard camps to the program. Sign-ups were minimal, but camp did take place all 5 weeks, establishing something for future years. I think a total of 9 or 10 campers signed up over those 5 sessions. All but two of them were snowboarders that Chris/Brandy worked with. I got to coach the 1 racer camper sign-up from session 3. We spent 3 days at Timberline, a day at Mt Hood Meadows and a powder day road trip to Mt. Bachelor. At the end of the timberline days, we'd ski/snowboard as a group down to Govy on the alpine trail, where Mike would come pick us up in the van. Timberline has 178" of snow now......so it looks a lot better now than it did at the end of February.

August 2, 2003 update
Good Morning, The infamous MHSSC blue bus took a swim in the Deschutes River on Tuesday.

I wasn't there to witness the event in person, but will try and describe what happened. It was a typical MHSSC rafting trip with about 15 kids, 3 staffers. After they floated the river, the kids were getting in the bus at Sandy Beach as the staffers (Micah, Fritzy and Scotty) were loading up the 3 rafts on the raft trailer. The bus had two big rocks underneath the wheels to keep it from rolling anywhere. The combination of the kids getting in the back of the bus and the rafts being loaded somehow unweighted the front of the bus enough for the bus to roll over the rocks that were being used as blocks......so the bus started rolling backwards (trailer first) into the river..........In a matter of seconds the bus full of kids was in the river.........I heard there were some anxious moments and a little bit of panic as the kids rushed to get out the front door of the bus before the bus was completely submerged. A brave girl camper tried to put on the brakes, but they didn't work. Everybody got out safely. Backpacks and other personal belongings remained on the bus.........most of that stuff was recovered once they towed the bus out of the river. The local portland TV news came up to camp and did a news story on the accident and they interviewed a bunch of the kids. It was the headline lead story (KGW Channel 8). I recorded it......Some history of the blue bus.......Mike bought it at an auction for $1500 in the summer of 1986. Coach Johanna Hall painted the MHSSC logo and mountain on the side of the bus. It only has a 20 gallon tank, so it's ran out of gas countless times on extended trips over the years. John Mulligan (former coach) was driving it to the Portland airport one day for pickups when all brakes went out......he crashed through one of those gates that go up and down......luckily he was able to downshift and coast to a stop without incident. One time the blue was stolen! The would-be-thiefs took it for a joy ride one late evening.......but they brought it back safely to Government Camp parked in a different location. No damage done. Do you have a favorite blue bus story you'd like to share? Do you think the blue bus will ever run again? Other camp news: It was blazing hot this week. 100 degrees in Portland on Tuesday. The snowfield is shrinking but there's still enough snow for training on the lower west lane and it's about a 1/3 mile walk from the end of the snow to the parking lot. The coaches finally won a softball game at the camp picnic. Score was 15-2 or something like that. Craig Bowden hit a home run......actually there were several homeruns, but I can't recall who else did it. the biggest session of the year is this coming week (session 11)........There's about 140 racers, 8 mogulers, 2 groups of snowboarders.........I think we have 6 brand new race coaches coming aboard........should be interesting.

Last week's camp trivia question was answered correctly and first by Rogan Connell. Q:

Last weeks camp trivia question: Q: Mt Hood Summer Ski Camps operated under a different camp name during it's first few years of existence. What was the name of the camp? Answer: "Eastern Downhill Camps"

Part 2 Question: Who was the first ever "bumps, jumps, and moguls" coach at MHSSC? Answer: John Mulligan. Vance Lemley also answered both questions correctly.

This week's MHSSC trivia question: What former MHSSC coach got married at the camp lodge? Bonus question: Name of the person he/she married?

It's time to vote for the MHSSC employee of the month for July 2003. Current staffers who worked in July, please vote by replying to this e-mail before Sunday 10am......otherwise you can vote in person on sunday night at the lodge (dinner time). (Mike, Lynne, and Robin are ineligible).

that's about it. other stuff happened, but nothing that can hold a candle to the blue bus story. Send me your favorite blue bus story or perhaps submit a blue bus poem.......

Session 11, 2003 update
Hi, Just finished up the biggest session in CAMP HISTORY! 162 kids, 24 race coaches, 1 mogul coach, 1 terrain park ski coach, 2 snowboard terrain park coaches, and 1 race snowboard coach. 6 brand new coaches joined the workforce.......lots of new faces, including a couple of U.S. ski team coaches helping us out and the return of Kevin McDevitt who hasn't coached with us since the Summit Lodge years. Long lift lines, shrinking snowfield.......lots of camps competing for limited hill space. Oh before I forget, Joe Reis took 4 cookies on friday (double the maximum allowed). Mike bought a new bus to replace the drowned blue bus.........it's about the same size as the blue one, but it's yellow like any typical school bus. And it's 14 years younger than the blue bus. A camper took the "milk challenge".......trying to drink a gallon of milk in under 1 hour........he puked......some of which made it into the garbage can, the rest going on the floor. The camcorder Mike won on Ebay a couple weeks ago, lasted for about 15 minutes before it died........I'm hearing rumors about some ex-staffers (cooks) coming up to the lodge to be guest cooks this coming Tuesday........I wonder if they'll stick with the normal Pasta Tuesday night menu, or perhaps they'll come up with their own menu. Expected guest cooks: Andrew Lynn, Pierce Louis, Craig Bowden, and perhaps Scott Carlis....We had a tie for Employee of the month for July: Scotty Veenis and John Rust! Way to go guys! Taking the bronze was Mikey Evian. Barrett's dog "Gypsy" (sp?), got 1 vote..Last week's camp trivia question: What former MHSSC coach got married at the camp lodge? Bonus question: Name of the person he/she married? Answer: Michelle Annett, who married Phil Taylor. They had the actual wedding where the current volleyball court is and the reception was in the lodge and outdoor dance floor was set up where the handicapped parking spots currently are. Her sister Jennifer Annett (Bard), was the only person to answer both parts correctly.......Rogan came up with part 1. Michelle got married the day after camp ended a few summers ago......the leftover staffers that were still around, helped set everything up and helped cook the food.

This weeks trivia question comes from Ray Dicius, coach from the 1980's:

What MHSSC coach was kidnapped and taken away from condo night chaperone duties and taken down to the coaches bowling night out against his will, but still had a great time? Hint, this coach grew up skiing in the Mt. Hood shadow, was one of the oldest PSIA demo team candidates, and got to visit Mr. Oh and Mr. Kim (Korean skee coachezzs - if you had trouble guessing) at their homes in Korea.

Bonus round points - Who still holds the record for the longest golf drive off the top of the lanes? His ball was found near the bottom of zig-zag snowfield below the old mid-station on the mile lift one year later.

Former staffer Nicole Duea had a baby. Congrats Nicole! see baby picture here===>>> http://pictures.sprintpcs.com/share.jsp?invite=HEor4XzxP5aGi7178hW0

Many of you guys have given me their favorite blue bus story, so I'm passing some of them onto the masses:

from Britta Sorensen:

The picture is priceless. I have so many fond memories of the blue bus. My first being in the summer of '88 when I was a camper. At that time the blue bus was actually the first load up the mountain every day and I always wanted to be on it. Oh, how times have changed. My most memorable recent memory was in the summer of '01, 13 years after my first summer! I was again a camper, but came to supervise students whom I coached on a high school race team. I ended up being an unpaid counselor that week. Coming
back from a rafting trip Jordan (kitchen staff) dared a camper (Adam) to drink river water from Pat's (counselor) rafting boots. The other campers upped the dare with a reward of $7.50. He did it! That same trip, the bus ran out of gas just about five miles from camp (we just reached the last ascent and didn't quite make it over). Staff members hitchhiked (basically they stood in the road until they were pretty much hit by cars) home. We returned at a very late hour. Just this last summer (I was a paid counselor by this time) Jared was driving the bus home from a rafting trip when we realized we hadn't done enough coasting and needed gas. As he drove into a gas station, he ripped part of the ski racks off because the bus did not fit in between the rows of gas pumps. The station was closed, but "XXXXX" (name protected) flirted her way into coaxing the owners into filling up the tanks. Needless to say, the owners were some of Oregon's finest PWT. I guess my stories are not really about what happened to the bus, but more like what happened on the bus, but they are great memories.

from Jennifer Otten:

hmm i dont think its appropriate...but i believe someone had sex in it. and it was NOT ME!!! [very important]

from Lindsay Murray:

The blue bus drowning was on the news all the way out here in Boston!! I was walking by my tv, and I saw a blue bus with "MHSSC" on the top sinking in a river and almost died. Poor blue bus.

from Ridgely Reece:

!the blue bus is the one Sundowner (her dog) used to eat the baggies of sandwiches from the campers left over lunch bags.....Many a great day in that bus, listening to Tracy Chapman.....with Nancy Schmeler and the girls on the way to raft. Hmmmmmm, many great memories

from Tim Feeney:

Robin, Here's my blue bus story, I feel it could be top five material. I'm sure you've got a bunch of other bus stories to send out to the list but this one's really good. Weekends at MHSSC in 2000 were much like the weekends of any other year previous or after. Saturday usually means all holdovers go to Lloyd Center for shopping and movies. Well this weekend in particular we had enough holdovers to warrant sending the Blue bus in to Portland, something we are always hesitant about since no one except Mike possesses a CDL and the since the bus has a history of acting up. In particular this summer the bus was having difficulty starting. Often the starter would not function properly; the remedy for which had become sticking a metal screw with plastic handle (a piece once crucial in securing the driver seat to the floor) directly into the starter and arcing the circuit. The mall trip was easy enough and I had everyone present and accounted for as I turned on the bus ready to depart. That was my first mistake. Most people will tell you unless you want to rev the engine before dropping it into gear the bus will stall out until it is properly warmed up, a solution not available in the tight parking and streets of Portland. I manage to manuever the bus to the red stop light at the Max tracks right next to the Lloyd parking lot and as the light turns green I pull forward as usual. Of course the bus stalls as I start toward the tracks but I put it in neutral and try to start the engine while coasting at which point I of course realize the starter isn't going to roll over on its own as we come to a stop on the middle of the tracks. By now I'm almost ready to panic and I turn and yell to my 24 passengers to GET OFF THE BUS!!!! Luckily a guest coach, Nick Brewster, was present so as I rush all of the kids off the bus in the middle of an intersection I yell to Nick to start the bus when I tell him. I jump off the bus, rip open the hood and stick my metal screw with plastic handle into the start. Thank God it worked. I close the hood, jump back in the bus and pull it off the tracks and load the kids. I was unaware but as I put the bus back in gear and pulled away the Max came through the intersection to its next stop. That should have been the end of excitement with the bus for the day but unfortunately there was another incident awaiting in Sandy. As the bus pulls through the end of Sandy shortly after where the Sandy loop comes back together I see flashing blue lights in my mirror. I pull over and the police officer approaches and unknowingly passes by the missing window in the back (an entire window,top and bottom, had fallen out on a rafting trip earlier in the summer). He asks me if I knew why he pulled me over and I said know since I knew there was no possibility that I was speeding even if I wanted to. It turns out the registration sticker on the back license plate was expired, I would later discover Mike had the current stickers in the clove box in his truck. The officer informs me he ran the plates and did not find any current registration listed, then he asks for my license. After a quick look he informs me I do not have a CDL. "OH, I didn't know I needed one, I just drive what they ask me to." I tell the officer. "Yes, any vehicle surpassing 16 passengers requires a CDL" I am quickly informed. Then he looks at my fire extinguisher, which I am convinced has the charged needle rusted in place, and asks me if I have my orange signal triangles. "No" I reply, "but I do have these orange cones." Apparrently cones are not acceptable. He goes back to his car and when he returns he hands me three tickets, one for driving out of class, one for no signal triangles and one for expired registration. He also tells me he is suppose to kick everyone off the bus and impound it but he's not about to let 24 kids stand on the side of the road and then he lets me go. I finally return to the lodge after an eventful two hours and tell Mike the whole story. At the end he looks at me and the other staff around the coaching table and I'm dead serious about this, he says, "Well, I guess the next time the bus goes through Sandy, we'll put one van in front of the bus and one in back, that way we can't get pulled over." That is my most memorable trip in the blue bus, I know it can't touch the drowning story or even Mulligan's airport story but I feel it may have top five story potential. I hope you were entertained. Feeney

I also got this poem placed in my video order forms box last week:

roses are red
the blue bus is blue
now that it's gone

folks are less likely to sue

Anonymous

So there's your session 11 update. Hope you enjoyed the blue bus stories. I'm attending my 20 year high school reunion this weekend. Last night was the meet everybody at a local Portland bar function. Great time! About 150 (out of 550) fellow grads showed up. Tonight is the formal part (get dressed up) of the weekend function at one of the nice Hotels in Portland. I'm hoping to see my 6th grade girlfriend tonight, although she was a no-show last night.

Session 12, 2003
Hey, the attached picture was taken on Thursday, August 14. For those of you who weren't on my mhssc e-mail list last year, you may not have known that one of our MHSSC campers skied into the rocks on lower palmer and was killed a year ago. His name was Kees Nederhand, age 14, from New York. Thursday was the one year anniversary of the accident. Brandy helped put together the plaque you see in the picture in his memory. Mike and Brandy are working on getting a more permanent Bronze plaque to be put up in the near future. Several of the kids and staff took some time off from training on thursday morning to visit the memorial site, add some flowers, and made it all look nice again.

Sorry to start off on such a sad note.........

Camp is winding down. Only 2 weeks left. Training is still pretty good despite the low snow cover. On Thursday night, it was Kareoke (sp?) night at Charlies. Pete Deisroth got up there and sang "Louie Louie" in his low darth vader voice. Great job Pete! Feeney also sang a duet (that song from the movie "Risky Business") with some random chick. Nobody else was brave enough to grab the mic. Tuesday night, several staffers trekked down to Trillium Lake to watch the meteor shower. I personally didn't see anything flash across the sky, but I think I was the only one. Sage Dunham celebrated his 17th birthday on friday. He's now eligible to see "R" rated movies without a guardian. He's skiing wicked fast these days. Tuesday night was guest cook night........the old Parham cook crew showed up and made a few popular dishes from the past (the ever popular "Kentucky hot brown").....Guest cooks that showed: Andrew Lynn, Pierce Louis, Scott Carlis, and Craig Bowden traded in his coaching duties for an apron for the night.

Nobody got last week's camp trivia question correct, although there were several guesses. Last week's trivia question came from MHSSC 80's coach Ray Dicius: (see answer below)

Answer: "Doug Howell" was the kidnapped coach that went bowling and "Ray Dicius" was the guy who hit the golf ball.

This weeks MHSSC trivia question: Name 4 former and/or current MHSSC coaches that have competed in the winter olympics?? Bonus question: Which ONE of these 4 coaches competed in FOUR different winter olympics?

The ever popular "Emily Questions" have returned after a 2 week hiatus. here you go:

1. If your spouse had an affair 10 years ago that you didn't know about, and everything is going great now, would you want them to tell you now?

2. If you could travel thru time either 1000 years back or forward to live the rest of your life, which way would you travel?

3. What cartoon/comic character are you most like?

4. If you found $10,000 cash on the street, would you keep it or turn it in to the police?

5. Coke or Pepsi?

6. Would you go on Reality TV?

7. Would you rather be addicted to alcohol or cigarettes?

8. If you were offered true love and a plane ticket and house to a remote location with this person, would you leave EVERYTHING behind for your new life? (no contact with family or old friends and location would be outside of United States)......

More blue bus memories or comments from some of you:

from Tom North:

Has the Blue Bus ever been this clean?

from Chris Cota:

Seems I remember something about Brian Maguire, old coach Mad Jack S., and myself, along with a trailer full of rafts, Mad Jack driving at top speed with one hand, while flipping off slow tourists with the other. Eyeballs just about popping out of his head, foaming at the mouth, and screaming at the top of his lungs about how much fun we were gonna have.(We were new.) .............................. and scared.

from Britta Sorensen:

Robin, Okay things are starting to get freaky! For the past 2 nights I have had dreams about...the blue bus.

My 20 year high school reunion last weekend was excellent. I didn't see my 6th grade girlfriend, but I did see the only girl I had ONE date with in high school. She's divorced now, and I so asked her for a 2nd date, but she denied me......she has a new boyfriend. oh well.

from Will Wasson on his annual snofari trip to South America:

Robin, Snofari is in chile we had great skiing in valle nevado and la <parva baged a chute named the chimneyan
and scouted some out of bounds runs today we ski <portillobuen dias W

that's all for this week.

Session 13, 2003

It aint over till the fat lady sings........1 week of mhssc to go. Mike told me last night that this was the biggest summer in camp history as far as number of campers that signed up. We only had about 70-80 campers this past week. It seemed like nobody was there......just two weeks ago, there were more than twice that many. Pretty much zero lift lines this past week. Kids were getting in 15+ runs per day. The snow is a bit dirty. It's melted down to some ancient blue ice in spots. Some of the ice has a thin layer of dirt on top, but it's such hard ice that the groomers can't blade the top layer of dirt off the top. It rained on us a little bit on the mountain on friday. Not enough to shut us down, but it ended a very long dry streak. Big forest fires south of Mt Hood making for very smoky skies. Timberline Lodge had a big power surge on Wednesday. I heard it caused a small electrical fire.....or something like that. It warranted two fire engines to show up and even a local TV news crew came up to cover the story. Tatsu from Japan came back to Mt Hood with about 8 racers this past week. Tatsu recruited me at the picnic for a 10 minute English lesson for his group of kids. And we had about 35 new racers and their 5 coaches from "Georgian Peaks" (Ontario, Canada) race team train with us for the last 2 weeks. Coach Catherine Crim dislocated her shoulder on tuesday while windsurfing in the Gorge. She spent 6 hours in the hospital waiting room before she saw the doctor. Scotty Veenis filled in as substitute coach the rest of the week for her group. A camper broke her leg this week crashing in the GS.

Last week's mhssc camp trivia question: Name 4 former and/or current MHSSC coaches that have competed in the winter olympics?? Bonus question: Which ONE of these 4 coaches competed in FOUR different winter olympics?

Brian Case was the first to answer both questions correctly. Feeney also answered correctly but was too slow. Trivia Answer: Andrej Jerman (2002 salt lake city, Men's DH, combined) , Josee Lacasse (1988 Calgary olympics, Women's GS and slalom), Uros Pavlovcic (2002 salt lake city, Men's GS), and Minna Karhu. Minna competed in 4 different olympics in women's moguls.

This week's mhssc trivia question: Name two coaches that have coached at both Mt Hood Summer Ski Camps, and National Alpine Ski Camp ? Bonus question: which one former MHSSC coach went on to coach at Gilboa ski camps?

Tim Feeney turned 25 today. Happy b-day Tim! He says that at age 25, he can now rent a car in all 50 states........

More "Emily Questions" for you to ponder......

1. What is your dream job?

2. If you were the MHSSC camp director, what changes would you make?

3. What was the worst day of your life?

4. If you could be any age and had to stay that age forever, what age would you pick?

5. What is your least favorite food? Would you eat that least favorite food for a week for $4,334.00 (no other food could be eaten that week)

It's masters session this week.......adults only. So I expect to see beer flowing at video analysis at the lodge each day after skiing. And ice packs on knees and other ailing body parts. I think we have 2 age 70 plus campers signed up.

It's nearing the end of August, so it's time to vote for the MHSSC employee of the month for August. So if you worked in the month of August, send me your vote via e-mail. There's only about a dozen staff left for masters session, so many of you can't vote in person.....so vote on-line.........

Congrats to those of you that worked all 14 sessions........

Session 14, 2003
Hi kids, We just concluded another successful summer at Mt Hood. Last week was our adults only session. We had about 25 campers.......The snow held up to the very end. The groomers did a great job at pushing snow, so we could ski onto the loading ramp at midway Palmer and also at the bottom of Palmer. See attached picture of the snowfield as it looked yesterday. As you can see, the middle 4 lanes were nothing but dirt. Luckily timberline gave us lane 1 to finish the summer. There were absolutely no lift lines all week. Only a handful of other camps were up there. Brandy, Darren, and Jeff Woodson were all hired to coach private lessons to 3 of the adults. We had one racer from Nepal. Here are a few highlights from last week: An unnamed coach overslept the first morning of camp. Luckily the video man (also unnamed) went to his place and woke his ass up. Once he realized he had overslept, he said the "F" word approximately 11 times. He also told me that if I mentioned this event in the next staff e-mail newsletter update, he'd kick my ass. Terry McLeod took his ski off, and it proceeded to go down the palmer snowfield, unmanned. It ended up stopping in the mogul lane. Terry also had 3 of his racers ski into the rocks.....luckily no injuries. Bryan Rooney visited us the last few days of camp. He had a "real" job in Vail now, working as an event manager. Camper Katrina took a wicked hard fall in the GS, and sustained a mild concussion (caught on video). The adult campers took on the staffers in the final picnic softball game of the year. I was the pitcher......for one pitch. I did a practice pitch to one of the masters, and he proceeded to hit a hard line drive into my lower leg ending my career as the pitcher. The game ended in a tie and was cut short do to darkness. Mike and Lynne joined Terry and a few of the masters for afternoon activity golf. Terry hit his ball thru somebody's glass door and the owners came running out. Sage fell asleep before dinner in Govy.......nobody woke him up to give him a ride to dinner at the lodge. So he ran in his sandals from Govy to the lodge (5 or 6 miles).......The K-staff (cooks) put out individual bowls of jello for dessert a few days ago for the masters........the masters then grabbed some napkins and wrote "we want ice cream" on the napkins and covered each bowl of jello with their ice cream signs. It worked! They got their ice cream......and chocolate topping, and whip cream. The adult campers played "beer pong" at the picnic with some of the staffers. Elliot and Co. took some of the fireworks that were confiscated from the campers and built a bomb with the explosive material found inside. It actually worked. Speaking of Elliot, he and Joe tried to hitch hike from the lodge to Govy around midnight a few days ago. The first car to come by was a cop car. They ran into the woods as the cops approached them. Last week's camp trivia: Name two coaches that have coached at both Mt Hood Summer Ski Camps, and National Alpine Ski Camp ? Bonus question: which one former MHSSC coach went on to coach at Gilboa ski camps? The answers: Lori & Pete Deisroth coached at both MHSSC and NASC, and bonus answer: Annik Boulva coached at MHSSC and Gilboa. The first person to answer correctly was Rogan Connell. 2nd place went to Bill Whalley. Good job guys......you win nothing and like it.

This week's MHSSC camp trivia question: Name 8 MHSSC coaches, past or present, that are originally from Slovenija? Bonus question: Name the one MHSSC coach (past or present) that came from Slovakia?

MHSSC Employee of the month for August update: Hardly anyone has voted yet. I only have received about 8 votes so far....... SOOOOOOOOO, please vote via e-mail if you worked at least 1 session during the month of August, 2003: The deadline to vote will be Tuesday, September 2nd at midnight. VOTE VOTE VOTE! please (the magic word). that's about it. I'll send out more mhssc updates throughout the winter from time to time. If you want to be removed from my camp staff e-mail update list, write remove in the subject line.......Be sure to go see the movie "Elephant" this fall. I think it opens in theaters in early October. I'm an "extra" in that movie. I play the role of "high school basketball coach". I'm in only one scene......walking down the school hallway carrying a clipboard, as I talk to one of my student athletes. The movie is about a shooting that takes place in a high school. I heard it won "best director" at the sundance film festival. (director Gus Van Sant).........

September 16, 2003 update
Hi kids! Congrats to Tom and Mary Sell. They had their 2nd child yesterday. From Tom: Maria Kathleen Sell was born today at 11:05 am. 7lbs, 14 oz, 18.75 inches long. Mother and Baby doing great, Dad And big brother blown away! Vance is getting married to Eva this coming weekend at Aspen. I believe the ceremony takes place at the top of the tram. The last camp trivia question I sent out a couple weeks ago: Name 8 MHSSC coaches, past or present, that are originally from Slovenija? Bonus question: Name the one MHSSC coach (past or present) that came from Slovakia? Rogan answered correctly. I think Rogan won at least 3 of the trivia question contests this past summer. There were more than 8 coaches from Slovenija, and here is the list: (no last names) Urban, Uros, Izi, Katja, Andrej, Matjaz, Florjan, Ales, Miha, Marjan, Janez, and Tina. The bonus question, who came from Slovakia: Answer: Maja. MHSSC Employee of the month for August 2003 went to: DARREN OWEN! Way to go Darren! Darren doesn't even have an e-mail account, so he'll never read this. There was a 3 way tie for 2nd place in the voting: Fritzy, Nicole Taylor, and Jeff Woodson. Way to go! And Honorable mention goes to: Terry, Joe Maas, Matjaz, and Scottie. K-staff too. It's snowing up at timberline lodge today. The rain has returned to oregon, and freezing levels are pretty low. I hope this is a good indicator for heavy snowfall this winter. A few staffers stayed at the lodge for some post camp work: Fritzy, Rust, Terry, Craig, Jared, and Scotty Veenis. (probably more people than that, I'm getting my info 2nd hand) I wasn't part of the crew but heard they did some work on the zipline, fixed some stuff in the dining room/kitchen, and noticed they were cleaning up and organizing those side rooms in the basement. I think 3 or so skiers signed up for Mike's fall ski camps........I think Rust and Chris Hargrave are coaching those campers this fall. Bill Whalley left mt hood at the end of August for a ski trip to South America. He writes: Hey, I am in south america right now, the skiing is pretty good considering the lack of snow, had about 4inches new and the terrain is unbelievable, unfortunately you have to hike a lot, and i am completely out of shape.
That's about all I can think of. Have an excellent day. Robin

October 4, 2003 update
Hi mt hood staffers past and present, Camp update: Timberline closed lift operation after trying it for two weekends in September. In case you didn't know, Mike expanded camp and now has 3-day weekend camps in the fall (friday, saturday, sundays), Christmas camps during winter break, and 6 sessions in the spring offered as well. One freestyle skier signed up a few weekends ago. Chris Hargrave coached him. Chris said they set up a rail and so they did a lot of rail riding, and freeskiing. Mike and Lynne treated us (Chris, his wife Amy, myself, and the one freestyle camper) to a night of pizza and Hockey in Portland. Portland doesn't have an NHL team, but they have the Portland Winterhawks, which is basically a developmental league for the NHL, with players as young as 16. Last weekend an adult racer came to train with the fall camps. Unfortunately Timberline decided to close the lifts but didn't tell anyone before this adult camper showed up. But John Rust made it happen anyway. They drove Mike's truck up to the bottom of Palmer and they hiked up to the snow from there. There was enough snow for slalom training on lower palmer so they made the best of sketchy conditions. They did two days of training and Mike took the guy sailboarding one of the days, and I heard he had a great time at camp. Employee of the month for October would have to go to John Rust. He had to carry his own skis, gates, drill, wrench, & video camera up several hundred yards from the bottom of Palmer to the one patch of dirty snow, set up everything, slip the course, shoot video, and coach this one guy. I was at the camp lodge yesterday. Rust has completely cleaned and organized the basement........those rooms off to the sides (under the porches) with all the crap in them.....completely clean, organized, old crap was chucked. He's in the process of making one of those rooms into a repair shop of sorts. Janet (Lorton) Moran had a baby boy last month......named "Max". Mommy and baby are doing just fine.

Camp trivia question: name the only coach in MHSSC history that has coached all 3 disciplines at camp: "ski racing", "mogul/freestyle", AND "snowboarding"? bonus question: What former MHSSC staff member has run the Portland marathon 3 times?

Another round of Emily Questions for you to ponder:

1. If a homeless person walked up to you and offered to give you a $100 bill, would you accept it?

2. Who's the most famous person you've ever met in person?

3. Disneyland, Disneyworld, or Eurodisney? which would you prefer to visit?

4. What was the scariest moment in your life?

5. If you could only watch only one TV show the rest of your life, what would you watch?

6. If you lived in California, would you vote for Arnold Schwartzenegger for Governor? (sp?)

7. What's the funniest thing you've ever seen?

8. Worst movie you've ever seen?

I hiked up the mountain yesterday and took a picture of the snowfield. see attachment. I think that's the least amount of snow I've ever seen up there. The KISS/Aerosmith concert is on my schedule next weekend in Seattle. I'll give you my concert review next time. ok, that's all.

October 11, 2003 update
Vance's wedding!

December 15, 2003 update
Hi Kids! Another camp update and a few camp memories too. I recently added Johnny O to the MHSSC list (John Orlando). John worked at camp in the early 90's. He alive and well, living in Los Angeles......in his words:

I'm living in La La Land, CA - working in big, bad Hollywood. Good times. I'm working for a Film/TV co. called John Wells Prods. (West Wing, ER, White Oleander, blah, blah....) doing development work. We look for the next projects, directors, writers, etc And do any of you old timers remember Holly Kasun? She worked at MHSSC those last couple of snow bunny lodge years. She now lives in Portland, Oregon. Michelle Annett (Taylor) randomly ran into her at the Vancouver Tennis Center (across the big river from Portland)........Since we last saw her, she's lived in Australia, New Zealand, Bend, Oregon and back home in Minnesota.

From Holly Kasun
One of the first days of a summer session, I was riding up the chair with a young camper, maybe a 12 year old. I didn't know he was with MHSSC and he didn't know I worked there either. He sat really still and quietly on the chair and then all of a sudden I heard this big gasp and a whimper. I turned to him and asked him what was wrong. He was crying, tears running down his cheeks. He said that he was really upset because his parents had sent him to, "K-Mart Camp". I started giggling and asked him what was so bad about his camp. He said that the van he had to ride in didn't have working doors, and that it was held together with a bungee cord and duct tape. I asked him what camp he was at, knowing full well that it was MHSSC and that he didn't like Dark Blue very much. I was right. I told him that he'd have a good time, he just had to give it a chance. Near the end of the session, the camper came up to me and asked me if I'd call his parents and ask them if he could stay for another session. Johnathan Georgiates (don't know if that's how to spell his name) singing the Soul Glow song from Coming to America. I have a few more, but have to write them later. Thanks Robin!

December 24, 2003 update
HAPPY HOLIDAYS EVERYONE!
Here's your Christmas Eve MHSSC newsletter update: White Christmas in Oregon? The weatherman predicts snow for those areas above 1000 feet, so Portland is left in the rain zone. I was at the MHSSC lodge last weekend, guest coaching for the Aloha high ski team. John Rust was coaching the one and only camper for session 1 MHSSC winter camp.....I think a half dozen or so campers are signed up for session 2 winter camps which start right after x-mas. The BLUE BUS is ALIVE! Here's an instant classic MHSSC memory to add to the list: As John Rust describes it: Dec. 16, 2003: Today was memorable - Mike driving the bus from Maupin to Parkdale - the temp was 30 degrees, there was no front window and he had his goggles and a down jacket on - the bus hav'in been through everything it has - fired on the first try!!!! So there you have it. Mike said it's unlikely the infamous blue bus will return to the fleet of MHSSC vehicles, so it's ultimate fate has yet to be determined. For the few of you that have no idea what happened to the bus this past summer, it took a little swim into the Deschutes River after a MHSSC white water rafting trip......
Happy new year! Robin