2011
January 10,
2011
MHSSC update:
Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!
BREAKING NEWS:
Former mhssc staffer Jay Panther has made the U.S.
Freestyle Ski Team!
In Jay's words: I am writing today
filled with elation as I have accomplished my life long
dream...earning a spot on the U.S. Ski Team!!! I competed this
past week at the U.S. Ski Team Selections event in Steamboat
Springs, CO and finished second overall. This result also means
I get my first two World Cup starts in Lake Placid, NY January
21 and 22. I have attached a video from my second place run and
some pictures of the new suit. I have dedicated the last seven
years of my life to this moment and all the hard work has
finally paid off. The last couple of days have been a complete
whirlwind and it still has not all sunk in. I am doing my best
to embrace this time but am aware that this is just another step
(be it the best step I have ever taken). My goals are still set
on winning World Cups and ultimately the Olympics. Thank you
for all your love and support.
In God's Love
Jay Panther
U.S. Ski Team Member (It feels good just typing it)
Jay Panther's 2nd place video run --> HERE (you might have to right click that link and choose "save as". Save it on your computer, THEN you can play it. It's a ".mov" file.
More excellent news: Jack
Suierveld (mhssc ski race coach from way back when) is
getting married! Jack met his fiancé Corrin about a year ago, and they are getting married
sometime this coming spring. Congrats Jack!
And here's a little video flashback to 2001.....five hours after the lifts closed...
Latest mhssc testimonial video **(this is the long version that includes the extended silly "mthood.com's" at the end)
Emily Longfield ended up coming in in 4th place in the Canyon's Ski Resort ultimate dream job opportunity that you saw in the last mhssc update. 4th place out of over 400 people that applied! That's pretty impressive Emily! Emily was actually informed that she was in the top 3 before they ultimately bumped her behind former US ski team racer Kaylin Richardson (booooo!)
Jasper Newton is on the
Timberline Lodge website: http://www.timberlinelodge.com/explore/?photoid=5199386077
"Mt Hood Summer Ski Camps" is mentioned on Wikipedia --> HERE! You have to scroll down about 2/3 the page
and look at the paragraph titled "Summer Camps". MHSSC is
also mentioned under "references" at the very bottom of the
webpage. You are big time if you are on Wikipedia!
Some sad news to report:
Timberline Mountain Manager Steve Kruse's wife Syd lost her
battle with breast cancer on January 7, 2011.
Long-time MHSSC adult session camper, Kelly Babeon, was
injured when he was struck by a car alongside the highway.
Kelly suffered several injuries, but last I heard he was on the
road to full recovery. News story--> here.
Mark Stegall 1963-2011 (March 19 update)
It is with great sadness to let you guys know
that Mark Stegall was found dead in his room today in
Lake Tahoe. At this point of time, I don’t know any
other details. Mike Annett is trying to find contact
information for Mark’s family. If any of you guys have
contact info for his family, let me know, or let Mike
know:
Mike at home 541-354-2454
Mike’s cell 503-781-5841
Robin at home 503-760-0133
I’m sure this news is hitting some of you guys really hard right now, as it has me. At the very least, I will set up a memorial website for him. If you have any memories or stories/photos to share about Mark Stegall please reply back. And again, if any of you have contact info for his family, let me or Mike know ASAP.
Mark Stegall March 21 update:
Hey all, Some info to pass on....if it’s not
100% accurate, I apologize.
From Mike Annett: Freda called and said that Mark had a massive crash last Monday and following that started missing activities that he otherwise would have participated in. She said he was pretty broken and in some pain from that fall in the boarder cross course. Mike
From Brandy Powell: i talked with Rick Millet last night. He is meeting with Mark's family today to help them get to his belongings. I think he said the autopsy is today also. Brandy
From Lisa Stegall (one of Mark’s sisters): I
am flying up tomorrow, but probably won't be in Tahoe
until Tuesday. Will be at the Sheriff, etc. in Auburn
tomorrow and then picking up my sister in Sacramento in
the evening, as she is flying from Connecticut. Our
parents are in their 80's - this is just too hard a trip
for them to make. Lisa
There is a Mark Stegall memorial facebook group that
many of you have joined already. Here is the link: http://www.facebook.com/#!/home.php?sk=group_118208348256845
And a mthood.com Mark Stegall dedication page with more
photos and comments:
http://www.mthood.com/Stegall.htm
I’ll update this page as I get more stuff coming in from Mark’s friends and family. Feel free to contribute to this with your memories/stories/photos of Mark. Thanks for all the phone calls and email messages the last day and a half. I will be at MHSSC today (monday) and tomorrow too. So if you were to call me at home and I don’t answer, you’ll know why.
Robin Cressy
Scotty Veenis April 9 update
Hey all, Bad news tends to travel fast,
so many of you have probably heard about this
already. Scott Veenis was involved in a head on
automobile accident on highway 35 near Mt Hood
Meadows ski area late afternoon today (Saturday).
Scotty and one other athlete in his vehicle were
life-flighted to 2 different hospitals in Portland.
From what I know, Scotty is going to be ok. I just
left the hospital (OHSU) and we were able to speak
with one of the hospital staff in the intensive care
unit. We couldn’t go in and see him, as he was
already in surgery tonight for multiple leg
fractures. The ICU guy also said Scotty was able to
wiggle his toes and that was a good sign. There was
also some small brain hemorrhaging (sp?) that they
weren’t overly concerned with, and they will do
another CT-scan on him tomorrow to keep an eye on
that.
From what I was told, Scotty was driving 5 or 6 of his Rowmark ski team athletes on highway 35 near Mt Hood Meadows, when a Jeep going in the opposite direction passed another vehicle on a blind corner and struck Scotty’s vehicle. I saw post crash photos on somebody’s iphone and it was pretty extensive damage, especially to the drivers seat area, where Scotty was sitting. And Mike Annett saw the post wreck aftermath on his drive home from mhssc and had a hard time believing someone could have survived sitting in that driver’s seat.
Scotty’s going to have to endure a challenging rehab to get back to being “Scotty” and I’m sure he’d love to get some well wishes from you guys. Scotty’s email: scottyv84@yahoo.com Or facebook message him.
For those of you in the Portland area, we’ll probably try to go visit Scotty tomorrow if they allow visitors and if he’s up for it. Let me know if you want to join myself, J-Hey, & Sean Mailey for a Scotty visit. Scotty’s parents are flying into portland tomorrow at some point. Robin
Mark Stegall update
There was a "Farewell to our Friend" Mark Stegall memorial celebration at Schweitzer
ski area yesterday, organized by Pat Holland.
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Pat
Holland:
Attention Sandpoint Friends!
Farewell to our Friend. Sunday April 10 at 3pm at the top of the Schweitzer Quad to celebrate - honor Mark Stegall.. Marks family thought that Mark would want some of his ashes released on Schweitzer, a place where he loved so much. This will be gathering for Mark's friends to get together to share stories and pay tribute to a great friend. Please join us if you can. If your not riding that day, walkers will be allowed up the Quad to be present. Please meet with Pat Holland at the clocktower in the village at 2:45 and we will head up from there. We hope to see many old friends gather to celebrate a truly loving man. *photo courtesy of Nancy Kuster |
I believe there will be a Mark Stegall celebration of life event this summer at Mt Hood. When I know more, I'll pass that information along to you guys.
The Mark Stegall memorial page is getting bigger by the day. Many more tributes and photos have been added in recent days. Here's a photo his sister posted on FB: And there's a ton more content on Mark's facebook memorial page too.
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| this was the first BMW Mark had.
Bought and completely rebuilt just
after the 240Z. Also in photo is
Lisa. :) ~Susan Stegall Eve |
Robert Johnson, mhssc year-round staffer, is
in the process of painting a Mark Stegall mural on the wall in the dining
room at MHSSC. Here is the mural after
"phase 1". I look forward to seeing the
finished product.
And finally, something "fun" to mention.....it
has probably snowed another 4-5 feet at
Timberline since I took this photo back on April
3:
Scotty Veenis & Mark Stegall April 11 update
Message from Scotty's dad Jay that he posted on
Scotty's facebook page:
The athletes said Coach Veenis swerved in order to take the full impact of the crash on his side of the vehicle.
Scotty Veenis April 13 update
Hey mhssc family, Just wanted to send out
a quick update. J-Hey and myself got a chance
to visit Scotty in the hospital today for about
a half hour. It was a good visit. Scotty
looked good. *I’m not just sayin’ that! Besides
messy hair, he looked pretty damn good! He was
pretty talkative and engaging and funny. Little
cuts and scrapes on his arms, but he shook our
hands when we got there and high-fived us when
we left. He was a little annoyed with this
oxygen thing that was hooked up to his
nose/nostrils. So he’d take it off for a few
minutes, then a little alarm on some computer
looking device would go off when some oxygen
number would hit a certain level and he’d put it
back on. And so the nurses and his parents have
to keep on Scotty about that. Like I said,
Scotty was engaging and was asking us how WE
were doing......he even asked about camp
sign-ups. His parents will be updating his
progress on this website: http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/scottyveenis
Scotty wasn’t shy about showing us his legs. The right leg was under a blanket and his foot was in a cast. His left leg was connected to a rod and bolts and stuff. Scotty called it the Forrest Gump leg braces.......so his sense of humor was intact.
I wasn’t really clear if it was now ok if Scotty could have more visitors in the immediate future or not. They had mentioned that once they move him out of ICU (intensive care unit) and into a normal hospital room, then he can probably have more regular visits from friends, and he’ll be able to talk to friends on his phone, etc. When we were there today, he did chat with his younger brother on his parents cell phone for a few minutes. So if you wanted to visit him or call him, I’d keep an eye on that caringbridge.org website and/or Scotty’s facebook page, and look for updates from his dad Jay. Or maybe the best idea is to call the hospital directly, ICU: 503-494-0400 if you wanted to visit him.
KOIN-TV portland news station did a report on Hank Shipman, the Rowmark racer that was also badly injured in the accident. take a look: http://www.koinlocal6.com/news/local/story/Ski-team-suburban-in-head-on-Highway-35-crash/uKhtfrikcUCasJzEcQnBMw.cspx
MHSSC May 21, 2011 update
Hello! Thought I'd send out
what could be my final MHSSC staff
update today, being that it's May 21, the
end-of-the-world-day. Session 1 is only one
short week away. The snowpack is plentiful and it
looks to be a good summer on the snowfield. Mike and Lynne are currently in France,
enjoying the French Open tennis tournament. Mike Foley is holding down the fort at the camp
office, Maks Gorham is doing the food shopping
and prepping the kitchen, and Rick Millett and
Co. and prepping the boxes and rails for the terrain
park. From what I've heard from a few
people, Scotty Veenis is making excellent
progress on his rehab in Utah. You can follow his
progress here.
There will be a Mark Stegall celebration of his life day at Mt Hood on Wednesday, June 15. Mark's two sisters Lisa and Susan as well as Mark's parents will be traveling to Oregon for this. I don't know exactly how the day will pan out, but I think that some of Mark's ashes will be spread on the mountain during the ski day, and in the afternoon/evening will be the camp picnic at Wildwood Park. ($5 to park at Wildwood) And I imagine that the over-21 crowd will make their way to Charlie's bar to toast Mark on Wednesday night. How much is a summer lift ticket? Probably around $60 bucks......maybe you could just get the 1-ride up the magic mile lift ticket for foot passengers ($15?) and walk to the terrain park? Just tossing ideas out there. It's probably a 20-minute hike/walk up the MHSSC terrain park from the top of the magic mile chairlift. You'd be walking across snow, so tennis shoes might not be the best choice of footwear!
Robert Johnson has spent the last several weeks painting the Mark mural at the lodge. It's pretty damn impressive, as you can see!
Other camp tidbits: Willy Johnson and his wife Jess are expecting their first child! Jess is about 20 weeks into the pregnancy. Congrats Willy! awesome! And former staffer Tommy Eckfeldt got married to Kim a couple weeks ago. You can see wedding pics here. His wedding was streamed LIVE on the internet. I watched it......they made a life-size cardboard cut-out of Scotty Veenis (as you can see in some of those photos) and they did a shout-out to Scotty right after the ceremony ended, all included in the live internet feed.......just awesome!
And if indeed, the world does come to an end today......or on October 21 or whatever, it's been great knowing you guys!
Robin
MHSSC Session 1, 2011 update
Hello out
there...Session 1, 2011 is in the books now.
21 campers, 6 coaches, 4 counselors, 3 videographers, 3
k-staff, 1 cleaning lady, 1 maintenance man, plus Mike
and Lynne. That's about a 1 to 1 ratio, campers to
staff. Monday thru Thursday, we had all kinds of
weather: sunny, foggy, snowing, a little thunder.
We skied on Pucci/Jeff Flood chairlifts on the lower
mountain 3 of the days. Palmer was open on Monday
and Friday. Friday was AWESOME! New
winter-like snow fell over night, bluebird day.
Really a spectacular day.
On Monday, a Raven got into Mike Syrovatka's backpack and ate his sandwich. Speaking of the bird species, I got to hand feed some birds at the bottom of the Jeff Flood chairlift. The lift ops down there let me join in on their fun, feeding the birds some poppy-seed muffins. One of the birds landed on my head. Unfortunately, I didn't have my camera with me. But I did have my camera when counselor ski racer Connor O'Brien tried out snowboarding. (see pics below). And snowboard race coach, Jon Winslow did a little skiing too. Jaime DuPratt and Co. skied all the way to Govy on Friday afternoon. She said it was "a little too sticky", but they did it for the adventure of doing it. So yes, there is still snow all the way to Govy. Nolan Willard is growing a mustache. Mike Annett gave Pat Tingle the "ok" to go buy a bench press for the camp on craigslist (see pic below). Prescott McLaughlin had ankle surgery a few weeks back, and probably can't ski until August. But he is here, working in the kitchen, and will rehab for the next several weeks. His new nickname is "one legged guy". (see pic below).
Former longtime staffer, Rogan Connell, got married to his long time girlfriend, Amy, on Friday, May 27. Congrats Rogan! You can see more Rogan wedding pics here. Rogan and Amy went to Mexico for their honeymoon.
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| The week before camp started, Maks Gorham and Nate Reuter went camping near Timothy Lake/Little Crater Lake. On their drive back to camp, they found a lost dog, a beautiful Husky, wandering on a gravel road. They opened their car door and the dog immediate hopped in. No collar or tags on this dog. We placed an ad on craigslist in the pet section to try to find this dog's owner. Anyway, within an hour of placing the craigslist ad, a random girl calls the camp and says that its her dog, and that she and her "dad" could come over within the hour and get it and take her home. Shortly thereafter they show up. Maks has the dog on a leash about 20 feet away from their car. The girl gets out of the car with open arms, calls the dog over......Maks releases the dog from the leash and from my angle, it looked like the dog was running toward the girl and I was about to witness a touching reunion between the dog and it's rightful owner......but that's not what happened! The dog bolted skier's left and went running into the woods. This dog wanted nothing to do with these meth using scammers that probably wanted this husky to sell, to support their drug habit. (Ok no, I don't have actual proof that they were meth users). But anyway, after Maks and this girl went into the woods to try to corral the dog, the dog somehow made it's way to the other side of the lodge. Meantime, a man gets out of the passenger seat...clearly not old enough to be this girls' father, then pulls an infant out of the backseat. The staff at this point, KNEW that these weren't the owners of this dog. They kept changing their story of when they lost this dog, how old it was, plus the whole "daughter/father" story etc. Jon Winslow proceeded to hide the dog in the lodge until these people left the premises. And finally Darren Owen went out and told them to leave the property or else the camp director would call the cops. They left. |
MHSSC Session 2, 2011 update
Good
afternoon! Yes, Mike Annett does have a
facebook account now. BUT, all friend requests
will be denied! He only has it for the purposes of
advertising on facebook. So if you've tried to add
him as a friend, don't feel bad when he denied you.
So with that being said, let's talk about the important
stuff that took place during session 2: Prescott McLaughlin a.k.a. "one legged guy" can now
sort of walk now...with the use of a walking boot cast. Pat Tingle set the GS course after lunch on
Friday (see pic below). Past staffer Chad
Kossar stopped by the mhssc Hood River picnic for a
short visit on Wednesday with his girlfriend (see pic
below). Chad
is now a full time resident in HR with a real job.
(*MHSSC is not a real job). Jon Winslow can
throw a football very very far (see pic below). We had a 5 year
old camper last week even though we don't really allow 5
and 6 years olds anymore. Nolan Willard had to
pick him up and load him on the chairlift each time. Mike and Mark Syrovatka set up a slack
line at the Hood River picnic (see pic). It was
very foggy on the mountain Tuesday and Wednesday.
There were dozens and dozens of Japanese tourists riding
up the magic mile on Thursday. They had an
impressive snowfall fight right near the top unloading
ramp where
skiers and snowboarders were trying to get thru in the
middle of it all. CIT (counselor in training) Ney-J Grant did not use sunscreen on Thursday and his
face was beet red....so we made a poster for the wall in
the lodge with his photo that said "use sunscreen".
(see pic below). Olympic silver medalist, Lindsey Jacobellis, was on the mountain on Friday. She
stopped by and chatted it up with Winslow and his
snowboard race group. This first photo is kinda
creepy and funny at the same time. That's his belt
buckle holding his drink up......get your mind out of
the gutter.
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| Kim Jong Yun, staffer from 8-10 years ago, stopped by camp for a short visit. That's his new wife next to him! Congrats Kim! |
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Olympic silver medalist Lindsey Jacobellis on the far left with Jon Winslow's group |
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MS = Mark Stegall |
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Ney-J Grant: Poster boy for forgetting to apply the sunscreen. *photo not photoshopped! |
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Nolan Willard mustache after 2 sessions |
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Prescott's
hand decoration sandwich thing
at the picnic... |
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| Mailey had baby #2. Isabel! Congrats to the Mailey family! |
Mark Stegall celebration of life on Wednesday, June 15:
The plan for Mark Stegall Day this
coming Wednesday will look something
like this:
1pm: Mark's two sisters, Lisa and
Susan will be in the MHSSC terrain park
to spread Mark's ashes. The
campers will be off the hill for this,
but staff is welcome to be there.
4:45 - 5:30pm'ish: Share your
favorite Mark Stegall memories at the
camp picnic and we will watch a memorial
video inside the camp shelter BEFORE we
throw down the burgers on the grills at
around 6pm. I'm guessing about
15-30 extra people outside of regular
camp will be in attendance.
Full Details here
*The
Stegall memorial video will be posted on
youtube, either Wednesday night or on
Thursday. I had version 1 of
the video done a couple weeks ago and
that's the version you'll see on the
youtube. I since changed the
original version of the memorial video
and tried to upload this new (and
improved?) version onto youtube last
night, but for some reason, the youtube
filter system blocked the audio portion
because of copyright issues. This
is weird because for version 1, I used
the exact same two songs and it did not
get blocked when it was uploaded a week
or so ago. For those of you at
this week's picnic, you'll see the
updated version.
Also note that Mark's sisters will be coming over the lodge on Tuesday afternoon to collect Mark's personal belongings in the lodge basement. If you have an afternoon activity on campus that day (such as trampoline or campus sports), try to keep the campers from filtering back into the lodge to play ping pong or whatever. ok?
Mark Stegall celebration of life...
It was an emotional week as we said our goodbye's to Mark Stegall. Mark's family arrived in Oregon on
Tuesday. Sister Lisa Stegall and Mark's parents from
Dallas, Texas and sister Susan Eve Stegall flying in from
Connecticut with her husband. Mark's sisters arrived at camp around
4:30pm Tuesday and went inside the mhssc lodge to see the Mark
Stegall
mural that Robert Johnson had painted.
Robert was there too to share in that moment.
Wednesday @1pm in the MHSSC terrain park, was to be the time and place to spread Mark's ashes. Mother Nature had other plans. 31 degrees, snowing, windy........STORMY! Lifts were open for skiing that day, but when Brandy Powell was going to help lead Mark's sisters (and Mark's entourage) to the terrain park around 12:30pm, the lift ops at the bottom of the magic mile told them they weren't letting anyone else up the lifts due to the stormy weather. Meanwhile myself, Darren Owen, John Rust, Emily Longfield and Ben Bevins were already in the terrain park waiting for everybody else to arrive. (see pic). As we waited there, John Rust suggested the name of the MHSSC terrain park should become "Park Stegall". So from here on out, the MHSSC park will be called "PARK STEGALL"!! The spreading of Mark's ashes delayed one day.
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| Here's what Palmer looked like on Wednesday morning at around 8am....chairs not loaded yet. |
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Wednesday 1pm....Where is everybody? |
The picnic went on as scheduled, despite the cold and the rain. Several ex-MHSSC-staffers were in attendance including Chris Hargrave, Emily Longfield, Ian Cary, John Rust, Christian Fritz, Dana Bakkensen, Megan Ginter, and Brandy Powell. *I apologize if I'm forgetting anyone! Because I forgot the DVD player back in Govy, the celebration of Mark Stegall part of the evening was postponed until after we ate our burgers, while I booked it back to Govy (driving the speed limit) to get the DVD player.
Several people shared
AWESOME Mark stories/memories. Darren Owen's
story was especially emotional.
*many of the photos below,
courtesy of Jasper Newton
"Mark was a pro at life..." ~Jay Belanger
As mentioned above, Mark's ashes were spread on Thursday. This day was sunny and beautiful. Big gathering in "Park Stegall" where more people shared memories, hugs, tears, smiles. I was honored to be there and will never forget that moment when Rick Millett tossed Mark's ashes into the sky.
Just wanted to thank everybody that helped make everything go smoothly this past week! You know who you are. :)
MHSSC
Session 4, 2011 update
Here's what
went down session 4 at camp......a camper got hit in the
mouth with a horseshoe at the picnic. From what I
was told, a camper tossed the horseshoe overhand and the
girl that got hit was texting during the accident.
So let that be a lesson to you.....don't be texting
while you are doing ANYTHING ELSE! Ryan
Boroughs did a 360 grab off the big mogul jump on
Friday. Sasha Karapetrova and Hannah
Follender rode the chairlift with Bobby Brown (from
X-games fame). I won't name names, but one of the
counselors locked the keys in the Stealth van.
Another un-named counselor forgot to unhook the battery
charger from the camp vehicle and drove 3 miles down
highway 26 dragging the battery charger with it. And a
3rd counselor broke 3 busses in one week. A CIT
(counselor in training) had his laptop computer
confiscated for a week when he left it on the staff
table during meal time. The rule is "no
computers on the dining room tables during breakfast or
dinner or your computer will be confiscated for 1-week".
And we (ok, it was ME) actually enforced the rule.
Speaking of computers, there are now 5 desktop tower
computers in the lodge for campers use. 3 in the
dining room, and 2 in the basement. The person who
donated and fixed some of our dining room computers said
one of our dining room computers had 1,600+ viruses on
it, an office record! Jacquelyn Reis and
myself attempted to hike to crater rock on Wednesday
after the ski day ended. Jacquelyn lead the way,
hiking thru insanely soft snow. She was sinking
down to her hip most of the way. I had it easy,
just following in her deep footsteps. It was just
too warm that day and we got the late start (1:30pm).
We made it about 3/4 of the way to crater rock (2 hours
of sludging thru the DEEP mush) before deciding to turn
around and ski down. (see pics below).
Skiing down that mush was no easy task either.
Lift lines were long on monday. Crazy windy and
cold on Thursday. Lots of camps are at mt
hood right now. But there is snow EVERYWHERE, so
there are racing lanes on both sides of upper and lower
Palmer and both sides of magic mile too. I beat Joe Sulpizio in a game of H-O-R-S-E for $1 and also
beat him in ping pong 21-14. Joe said he didn't
give me his best in ping pong, but I refused to give him
a rematch. And speaking of pong, Pat Tingle wants to challenge pong guru Chad Kossar (who's
living in Hood River these days). We had a handful
of camper injuries this week. Nolan Willard was able to do a skateboard "wheelie" all the way from
the from the front door of the lodge, across the
cat-walk, make a turn and go down the paved part of the
parking lot entrance maintaining that one perfect
wheelie! It was very impressive (see pic).
It took him about 25 attempts. Mike Annett skied for the first time this summer on Friday. He
crashed on his first run at the very top of lane 6.
He said it was his first wreck in 2 years. Kevin Malone dunked a soccer ball (see pic). Jon O'Brien, Josee Lacasse, Chris
Hargrave, and Uros Pavlovcic, all former
mhssc coaches, were coaching other camps this past week.
Former staffers Lyndsay Strange is working at the
Reliable Racing store and Willy Johnson is
working at Speedy's (Mark Archer) store this summer.
"Robicsek, what's your 20" was said on the radio,
approximately 47 times this past week. The Husky
dog that Maks Gorham and Nate Reuter found
the week before session 1 on a camping trip near Timothy
Lake and they were taking care of, unfortunately escaped
out the back door of Bloomquist cabin and hasn't been
seen since. You can watch the Jay Panther "webisodes"
on youtube. Or you can find the links on the MHSSC
staff facebook group page here. Scotty Veenis continues to make
progress with his rehab....Session 5, coming up, will be the biggest
session of the year. Grant Wilson called me
today. He REALLY misses camp.
Jasper Newton put this edit together last week! check it out!
Jonah MHSSC 2011 from Jasper Newton on Vimeo.
MHSSC
Session 5, 2011 update
Session 5 was the biggest
session of the 2011. About 120 campers. Many
people have asked me what the biggest session of
ALL-TIME is. I don't really have an answer, but
I've heard a variety of answers from other random
staffers, ranging from anywhere from 180 to 220.
I'll ask Mike and get back to you on that one.
Part of the 120 this past week was 25 or so campers with
Stratton Moguls. They eat breakfast late, dinner
early.......you never really see them. They train
on lane 17 which is way on the east side of the
snowfield. Coaching with Stratton moguls again
this year is Jay Panther. I saw Jay jump
over the rail on the cat-walk at the lodge after dinner
one night for about 2.7 seconds and but that was it.
He's elusive!
Here's a brief rundown
on session 5. There is some very gross stuff in
this paragraph, so it's rated PG-13. We are still
battling some ugly weather conditions. On Tuesday,
the Palmer chairlift broke down for about an hour.
By the time they got it up and running on the back-up
diesel engine, thick fog rolled in and that day pretty
much turned into the shit-show! The
Wednesday picnic was very cold and wet! And
on Thursday, it was the longest "lifts are on
stand-by" that I can remember EVER! My
memory isn't perfect, but it wasn't until 10:20am when
they finally opened the magic mile. I stood at the
bottom of the magic mile for 3 and a half hours with Mark Syrovatka. At the beginning, there were
probably 10 other camps coaches waiting to load the
chair. By 10am, it was just Mark and I.....and
some ski patrol. All the other camps (besides
MHSSC) had bailed. We ended up with a decent day
of training for the kids....maybe a half dozen runs in
the courses before we pulled the plug. Cayley
Christopher turned 21 on Wednesday. She
actually went home for her birthday week, but we made a
sign and took a bunch of pics to celebrate her turning
21. (see LOTS of pics below). I even got the FedEx
guy to pose for a photo. Rebecca Zell and Matt Chirico both took wicked hard crashes in
race courses last week. Now to the PG-13
stuff.....both involving urine! I think it
was Monday, when staff members in the lodge noticed a
girl over at the CJ's Chevron gas station hiding behind
the diesel fuel pumps.......she looked around thinking
she was shielded from any onlookers, squatted and
urinated on the ground. And on the same
subject, there was a mean spirited camper that took
another camper's contact solution bottle, emptied it
out, urinated into it......then sprayed his urine on the
kid and on other kids too. Yeah, pretty effin'
disgusting, wouldn't you say? Who does THAT?
OMIGOD! His punishment was cleaning all the
toilets in the lodge.
........subject change....Darren Owen went to the
RUSH concert on Tuesday night in Richfield, WA (north of
portland a bit). He said it was great.
We had about 40 freeskiers at camp last week....that's
the most ever! Maks Gorham can ski moguls
VERY fast. Newbie CIT Aydan Crumrine broke
his collar bone in the terrain park on friday. Roger
Bay bought a new shower-head at a thrift store for
Parham. It's sweeeet!
 |
 |
| Look closely at the first photo. That's CIT Noelle Gillis skiing the GS course and you can spot her cell phone bouncing down the snowfield on the left side of the photo. I saw it sliding down the mountain and dove on it.....it looked like a candy-bar at high speed! Then a minute later the phone rings and it's Matt Chirico on the other end telling me who the phone belonged to. |
National Alpine Ski Camp (NASC) used a photo I posted on mthood.com home page (see below) to promote their camp in an email newsletter campaign and also posted on their facebook page (twice!) and they refused to pay a dime for their copyright infringement. Small claims court? Or should I let it go? I'm undecided. The photo had the graphic "mthood.com" on it in big font!......that should have been a major clue not to use it, don't ya think?
MHSSC
Session 6, 2011 update
Summer might have actually
arrived here at mt hood SUMMER ski camps.
FIVE sunny days in a row! yay! The
K-staff made an American flag cake (see pic below, *photo by Darren Owen)
for 4th of July dessert. Prescott
McLaughlin, Patrick Tingle, and Chase
Kerzel (plus safety/fire guy Bill Toney) were
in charge of the MHSSC annual 4th-of-July firework
display on the camp soccer field. The firework
show was going just fine..........UNTIL.......well,
until one of the big box fireworks tipped over after it
was lit, and there were fireworks shooting in every
possible direction horizontally instead of vertically.
It was quite the scene. The kids and staff were
screaming and running for the lives plus a tree caught
on fire. Haley Hankins yelled to Mike
Annett: "should I call the fire department".
He said "no". The tree fire was short
lived. You can see all the firework photos below.
Nobody was injured or burned. Joe Sulpizio was in charge of the hose. One of the stratton
mogul kids tried to steal a high cascade logo sign that
was stuck in the snow near the chairlift. But he
was quickly run down by some HCSC staff and there was
some yelling & screaming (f-bombs and other fantastic
works like that) and shoving that took place down near
the parking lot. Willy Johnson and I got on
the Palmer chair at mid-station with 2 other kids.
The kid on the far left had all kinds of room to his
left side, so the rest of us were totally squeezed
together. Willy said to him "hey, could you
scoot over please?".....the kid answered back:
"I don't speak English". Willy said "I
don't care, scoot over"......this poor kid had no
idea what he was saying, so he tried to pull the safety
bar down, thinking that was the issue......Willy finally
just scooted this kid over himself, so we could all sit
there comfortably. It was really funny......you
had to be there. I think the kid was from Russia.
There were poachers going thru the mhssc terrain park
more than once.....finally Kevin Malone chased
them down and scared them off forever! I heard the
words "banned for life". I was shooting interviews
of the freeski kids at the picnic on Wednesday.
There were kids who were squirting some of my
interviewees with a squirt gun.....repeatedly.
I asked them to stop, but they continued......so I
finally confiscated their squirt gun.......and destroyed
it with my foot right in front of them. Yeah, I'm
mean! It was very windy on the mountain on
Friday. At one point a gust of wind took a camping
chair and Jacquelyn Reis' helmet down the snowfield from
the top of lane 6 at a very rapid speed. I
witnessed all of this from my video spot, 75 yards or so
down the mountain. With my super-fast reflexes, I
clicked on my skis and took off down the hill to try to
catch this speeding helmet (I think the chair ended up
resting in the moguls, while the helmet easily jumped
past the mogul lane)......anyway, the helmet got by me 2
or 3 times until I was finally able to corral it near
the bottom of lane 11. The crowd roared with
approval (ok, maybe 1 or 2 people near me were
impressed). In case you didn't know, there's a
MHSSC staff facebook group. It's open group to
anyone that has worked at camp past or present (not
counting volunteer diggers or camper-staff).
Here's the --> link. A friend of Olivier Lacaille almost ran me over when he blew out of the slalom course
on Wednesday and was aiming right for me. I was in
a full on sprint (in ski boots) back towards the mogul
lane, but he also bailed to skier's left to try to avoid
me. He narrowly missed me, but went straight into
the moguls at full speed. Luckily it was a warm
day and the moguls had softened a bit by then or he
might have been in a world of hurt. The groomers
ran over Darren Owen's shovel, breaking it in half
(see pic). Hannah Follender was triple
event person on Friday, doing ski race training in the
early morning, terrain park freeskiing and also hit
Darren's mogul jump. Mike Syrovatka wore a
surgical mask on Friday to protect his lips from the
harmful effects of the sun.....and then to perform
surgery later that day? Roger Bay fixed my
car and will be rewarded! Mark Syrovatka took the week off to go fishing in British Columbia. Mike Foley was on the magic mile the majority of
the week teaching a 9 year old how to ski better.
By friday, the kid was skiing GS on upper palmer. Scott Houser crashed before he could even get to
the first gate on Wednesday (on video no less!).
Later that day, he crashed right above me and I had to
run away to avoid a collision. Sasha
Karapetrova drove all the
way to Bend, Oregon with Connor O'Brien in a camp bus to
take her CDL test, but the tester guy called in sick (or
something like that), so she was denied her test and now
has to go to Eugene to take her test there. Ted
Ligety (aka Noelle Gillis/Matt Chirico?) gave me
a giant Hershey's chocolate bar for my birthday last
week. It was autographed and everything. Joe
Sulpizio outlasted me in an intense game of
"knockout" on Thursday night. Jay Panther did
some double backflips off the big jump in the stratton
mogul lane. Some random Dad guy (not from our
camp) dropped his 5-year-old son near me where I shoot
video on lane 5-6, hikes up the hill and skis down the
moguls......he does this a few times. I became the
babysitter for this poor little 5-year old kid for 5-10
minutes at a time. (pics below). Bill
Toney is digging a ditch to lay down an internet
cable to the Coho lodge (see pic). There was a
freeski camper that looked like a miniature version of Nolan Willard (see pic). They called him
"mini-Nolan". Nolan refused to pose with him for a
photo.
Here's an excellent well-written article from the Parkrecord.com website about Scott Veenis and the progress he's made since the car accident on April 9. Scotty might visit Oregon in August. hope so!
4th of July fireworks photos!
This is when all HELL broke loose.......kids running for safety! tree on fire!
 |
 |
| Random dad guy leaves his 5-year old kid with me, so he can go ski moguls.... |
Mini Nolan!
On a very sad note:
14 year old freeski camper from session 5, Tanner Olson, died in a head-on car accident in Montana the day after he got home from camp. Three people died in the accident, including Tanner's 19 year old cousin Trevor. Tanner was friends with mhssc CIT's Riley Slaughter and River Lucas. Check out this memorial video a friend of his made. This kid had incredible talent.
Tanner Olson *Ski In Peace* 1997-2011 from Bobby Jahrig on Vimeo.
MHSSC
Session 7, 2011 update
FYI,
I'm using my cressyvideo website to host this weeks'
mhssc staff update. "mthood.com" hosting ISP
"earthlink" is having technical difficulties right now,
so I'm unable upload any changes right now.
Anyway, this will be short and sweet. We are officially halfway thru summer. I can only remember one other summer when we've had so much adverse weather. I thought we had finally got over the crappy weather hump during session 6....but I was wrong! Tuesday was cold, raining, foggy. The race coaches went up Palmer to check out the scene. Too foggy. Mike Syrovatka was able to borrow some hill space on the magic mile when one of the other camps bailed. It rained at the Wednesday picnic........and Thursday was THICK fog. K-staffer Taber Engleken stopped in the middle of his fog-filled GS run on Thursday and said "I'm scared". It WAS scary up there. CIT Charlie Ruehl turned 18 this week. He's now a MAN! Roger Bay spotted a deer walking around the snow on the magic mile on Tuesday. Campers took turns tossing each other's baseball caps onto the roof of the picnic shelter on Wednesday. It was quite the scene. Sasha Karapetrova and Cayley Christopher ended up stranded in Salem, Oregon after the bus broke down on the way home from taking the CDL bus test in Eugene. Former mhssc staffer Lyndsay Strange drove to Salem to rescue them (I think?) as the bus was towed to a repair shop to get fixed the next day. On one of the rafting trips, 3 kids plus Sasha Karapetrova fell out of the raft at Oak Springs rapids......the 3 kids got rescued, while Sasha ended up stranded on the rocks on the middle of the river. Olivier Lacaille's raft paddled upstream to rescue her. The kids that went cliff jumping on Thursday ended up getting stranded for an hour or two waiting for their ride home. I don't know all the facts, but I heard there were some red-neck types hanging around where they were waiting: drinking, smoking pot and other related activities. And when the kids finally got picked up by the bus, one of the red-neck dudes "mooned" the kids, while one of the red-neck ladies flashed her boobs. When Hannah Follender went to take her CDL bus test, she said that the bus tester guy was asking her if she'd like to hit up the Portland strip clubs with him and his wife. Mike and Lynne's oldest daughter, Jennifer Bard, visited camp last week with her two kids, Sierra and Simon (see pic). I made a snowman on Monday and named it "J-Hey". Then the real J-Hey came down and gave "himself" a kiss. (see pic). Mark Syrovatka was setting/salting/coaching on one ski this week. He's coaching a group of Korean kids for a month. Matt Chirico tried his luck with ski blades on Friday.
More stuff happened, but I'm on brain overload and sleep deprivation.......I went to my 28-year high school reunion last night (pic below)....yeah 28 year......we have reunions on weird years......that's how we roll.
**Session 8 is "nice camp" week! Invented by Terry McLeod some time ago, "nice camp" is an annual thing we do.......So be kind to each other and go the extra mile...Just be especially nice this week! ok?
Some photos from last week...enjoy!
My 28-year high school reunion pic: I got "name-tag'd" to death....
MHSSC
Session 8, 2011 update
I don't have a lot to write about this week, so I'll try
to use random filler to try to keep you guys
entertained.
But first, check out this Scotty Veenis MHSSC "get-well" video! We miss you tons Scotty!!!!
Session 8 was "nice camp". What wasn't all that nice was the weather.
Tuesday was pretty brutal. Rain, wind, fog.
Palmer was closed and Timberline didn't allow anyone to
set gates on the magic mile. Thursday was no
picnic either. Thick fog on the lower mountain,
but sunny on the top half of Palmer.......sunny for
about an hour anyway......THEN, the cloud worked its way
up the mountain to end any chance of decent visibility.
We've only had one completely nice weather week this
entire summer. The benefit of all this cool wet
weather is the snowpack is melting slower than normal.
We are still skiing all the way to the parking lot and
that might be the case well into August this year.
Darren Owen received a $100 tip from one of his adult campers.....but with the requirement that the hundred dollars had to be put into an account at Charlie's bar to only spend it there. One of the girls in Scott Houser's group, crashed in the GS course and went slamming into the mogul lane.....looked brutal.....yes, it's on video. I was ready to call ski patrol....but moments later she got up and was fine. Matt Chirico and Rebecca Rist got significant sunburns (see pic of Matt's back below). Somebody's bra was found near video station #1 in the lodge basement. And a beer was found underneath a camper's bed (see pic). I confiscated it for evidence.......;) On my picnic run, I came across some "people" that were smoking pot in the woods. I don't know if they were campers or random people. I kept running......At that moment, I was experiencing "runner's high". Jacquelyn Reis and Co. went to Circuit Rock Gym on Tuesday afternoon, then they ate at the Spaghetti Factory.
Check out Jasper
Newton's mhssc blog/video link!
Jay Panther's latest webisode!
Tim Feeney found this MSNBC article about the 10 most expensive "camps". High Cascade snowboard camp made the list. $1,950 for an 8 day camp (wondering if day 1 and day 8 are travel days, making it a 6 day camp?)
Ok, I'm out of material for the update. Only 6 weeks left of camp. It's going by really fast. We only have about 55 campers signed up for session 9. Then it goes back up to about 80......then we drop off significantly the rest of the summer.
Double rainbow in Govy----> what does this mean?
Former staffer Lyndsay Strange sent me this photo of Scott
Houser coming out of the start gate at the annual
"summer fun nationals" yesterday.
MHSSC
Session 9, 2011 update
July is over. Still skiing to the parking lot.
On Sunday night, around 12:30am (technically it was
monday morning), there was an impressive lightning storm
and insane rainfall. The stormy weather lingered
into monday's ski day, as the lifts were on standby for
a short period of time. Camper-staff Jack grabbed
a plateful of food for breakfast on Tuesday, including
several tater tots......when Jack got up to get a glass
of milk, Timmy Johnson ate approximately a dozen
of Jack's tots in a matter of seconds. Timmy also
squished a moth that was flying around the staff table.
He said the moth would be ok and could be nursed back to
health. At the camp picnic, William Zell worked on calculus. Also at the picnic, bus #25
was being inspected by the......well, the inspectors or
course! I don't know the whole story, but
the bus did not pass inspection and said we could not
drive it until the necessary repairs were done.
Keep in mind that we had 2 busloads of kids at the
picnic and somehow they squeezed everyone into one bus
for the ride back to camp. Bus 25 has since
been repaired and is back in service! William
Zell suffered a concussion on his 3rd back-flip
attempt in the terrain park on Friday. Check out
the 3rd photo below.....that's the leg of Brian Robb,
photo man! A random snowboard girl crashed into
Brian, reinjuring his already bad hamstring.
Session 9 was the annual smith rocks rockclimbing camp,
with John Rust leading the way. Thomas
Lowney also worked the smith rocks camp. At
last weeks' "summer fun nationals", Scott Houser took 2nd overall in the men's GS and 3rd overall in
slalom. Former staffer, Lyndsay Strange won
both the GS and slalom events on the women's side.
Former staffer Spencer Raymond treated myself, Jacquelyn Reis and Thomas Lowney to the
Portland Timbers' Major League Soccer game last night,
vs Toronto.....game ended in a 2-2 tie. "They" are
re-roofing, the roof of the Wy'East day lodge......using
tax payers dollars to help stimulate the economy.
In case you know Logan Stewart (timberline
mountain manager), he's getting married in September!
Since I clearly have very little content this week, I thought I'd send out a few "Emily Questions"....
1. On an airplane you are talking pleasantly to a stranger of average appearance. Unexpectedly, the person offers you $10,000 for one night of sex. Knowing that there is no danger (STD's) and that payment is certain, would you accept the offer?
2. If you had to spend the next 2 years inside a small but fully provisioned Antarctic shelter with one other mhssc staff member (past or present), whom would you like to have with you?
3. You become involved romantically but after 6 months realize you need to end the relationship. If you were certain the person would commit suicide if you were to leave and were also certain you could not be happy with the person, what would you do?
4. For $1,000,000 would you be wiling to never again see or talk to your best friend?
5. In a nice restaurant, after getting the check for an excellent meal, you notice that you were not charged for one of the items you ate. Would you tell the waitress?
A new ski movie is being filmed on Mt Hood this summer. Check out this trailer:
On Top of THE HOOD Tease from SammyC on Vimeo.
MHSSC
Session 10, 2011 update
Session 10 was shark week. But I didn't see any sharks on mt
hood. Here's what happened at mt hood during
session 10: Shorty-40 bus broke down in Gresham on
Sunday night with a bus full of kids from a ski team
from New York. And I heard 11 pairs of their skis
ended up in the wrong city. Not a great way to
start their week of camp. We had about 80 kids at
camp this week, most of them ski racers. We could
still ski all the way to the parking lot this past week,
although that may come to end soon.....unless the
groomers decide to push a little snow in a couple spots
in the last section of the mile canyon. On upper
Palmer, I've yet to see any sign of rocks sticking up
anywhere, which is pretty impressive considering we are
into August now. Prescott McLaughlin skied
for the first time this summer, after rehabbing his
surgically repaired ankle the past several weeks. Rick Millett and Jasper Newton (and a few
others?) went up for a sunset session in "Park Stegall"
on Wednesday night. Jasper took some amazing
photos of Rick going BIG! The mhssc tennis
court is now in operation. I noticed Bill Toney was a major factor in getting it ready.....and saw Mike and Lynne playing there on Friday
afternoon. A mhssc employee (whom shall
remain nameless) was busted for trying to use a
timberline summer season pass of another mhssc employee
that had already gone home for the summer. The
punishment was "community service"......which ended up
as "garbage picker-upper" in the canyon just east of the
timberline parking lot. Whenever it's windy,
that's where all the garbage piles up. "They" are
remodeling the inside of the Wy'East day lodge. I
think I mentioned that "they" were putting a new roof on
the lodge in a recent update.......now they are doing
the inside too. Hopefully they are adding more
places to sit down. If you've ever been in there
in mid-winter on a Saturday, you know how ridiculously
small it is in there to accommodate a big crowd. Jacquelyn Reis joined me for picnic fun run this
week. She also was brave enough to use my homemade
lane 7 urinal in the mogul lane (see pic below).
And she also pointed it out to me that she was the only
female on the mhssc coaching staff this entire summer. Darren Owen took some of the picnic brownies and
made them look like poop! (see pic)......he
"stole" this idea from John Rust. Mark
Syrovatka's mom came to visit mt hood. She was
at the picnic. There is now wifi internet at coho
lodge. Now more people can come to ski camp to sit
in front of a computer screen and surf the net.....or
watch sharks on the discovery channel....that's why you
come to mt hood summer ski camps! That's former
staffer Marcus Caston, ripping up the moguls in
the photo below. Check out his new website
marcuscaston.com. Jay Hey went to the Fish
concert. A 6-pack of staff rode mountain bikes to
the picnic together (see pic). Rebecca Zell sat down at Darren's
mogul jump (lane 7) to watch the US freestyle ski team
do amazing inverted aerials on lane 17. I just
noticed that Jacquelyn Reis made into the first 5
photos this week....camera hog? 10 weeks down, 4
to go. I'm currently experiencing burnout
level 3 (of 10).
Hey check out this new "how to cook your burger" video! starring the mogul instructor.....
MHSSC
Session 11, 2011 update
Monday, August 8, was the last day you could ski all the
way to the parking lot. If you didn't care about
your skis too much (like a certain mogul coach), then
you extended that skiing to the parking lot thing
another day or two. Chase Kerzel and Bill
Toney hiked up to crater rock this week. Timmy Johnson broke his wrist in a snowboard jump
gone wrong incident in the terrain park (see pic).
The creepy CDL bus tester guy that previously had asked Hannah Follender about going to strip clubs in
portland, asked counselor Kim Nania out on a
date, when she went to take her CDL bus test. By
the way, this guy has a wife. I heard thru
the grapevine, that kids were looking at porn on the
computers in the lodge basement. A camper/helper
guy dropped a salt bag on friday and it went sliding
down the mountain into the high cascade terrain park.
Fortunately, this happened on Friday........the last day
of operation for high cascade (and Windells) was
Thursday, so no people were down there during the salt
bag incident. An 11 year old camper named "Wilson",
received 9 care packages in the mail in the 2 weeks he
was at camp. Me? I've received ONE care
package in 26 years. Only 3 short weeks left of
camp. It's all going by so fast. Lifts are
opening at 7:30am (regular time was 7am) starting this coming
week and we have to start carrying our skis up the magic
mile too. The MHSSC terrain park (Park Stegall) is closed for the
year now......our snowboard and freeski campers will do
their training in the public terrain park these last 3
sessions; which is where high cascade had their park.
Mark Stegall's family spread some of Mark's ashes in Vail last week. Photos here.
You gotta try one of these delicious "mudslides"! Here's how to make one (starring Katrina, the lovely bartender at Charlie's)...
Today (August 14) is the date of two sad mhssc anniversaries.
A year ago today, Spencer Nelson died in a climbing accident in Colorado. There is a "hike for Spencer" event at Winter Park today. More info -->> here.
Today is also the 9 year anniversary of the passing of camper Kees Nederhand. Kees was a 14 year old camper, that was killed when he skied into the rocks on lower palmer during a warm-up run.
MHSSC
Session 12, 2011 update
On Monday, our streak of nice sunny weather came to an
end, as we experienced a little bit of fog and wind.
The rest of the week was sunny and warm......t-shirt on
the mountain warm! CIT Erica Carras F'd her
ankle in the halfpipe. Luckily no broken bones,
but she has been in a soft cast and walking with
crutches all week. Nolan Willard broke his
skis this week. But he found a pair of his super
old skis in a random room in the lodge basement to use
for the rest of the summer. He said this was the
original pair of barely-still-alive-skis that he brought
to camp when he first started working at mhssc (2004).
(see pic below). Snowboard video man Jeff Holce has tripled his work duties: Now he also shoots
video for the freeski group and is also working as
k-staff. Not much else happened this past
week....Only 2 sessions left....staff beach trip planned
for the end of the summer. Scroll down to the bottom for
details.
Attention Alpine coaches who are looking for a winter gig.......this from former staffer Janet Lorton Moran
 |
Post summer
Oregon coast staff trip is being planned!!
What: MHSSC
staff vacation at the Oregon coast
Where: Seaside
area
When: Monday
(Labor Day) September 5 thru Wednesday Sept 7 (give or
take a day or two on each end of that)
Why: Beer,
food, relaxation, surfing, kite flying, sticking your
feet into the pacific ocean, etc. We also plan on
spreading some of Mark Stegall's ashes at one of
Mark's favorite surfing spots.
Who: So far
who's coming that I'm aware of: Robin Cressy, Darren Owen, Roger Bay, Rick Millett, Mark Syrovatka, Nolan Willard.....and some
"maybe's" on the list: Ryan Boroughs, Mike & Lynne, Jasper Newton...can't remember
who else.
Got tent? I think most of the people plan on camping
out. I'm staying at a motel sept. 5-7 (hillcrest
inn, seaside). Camp ends on Saturday, Sept. 3, so
perhaps some of the staff will head down before I get
there. Come join us! Portland area
ex-staffers wanna come down? The more, the
merrier! *Motel rooms are sort of expensive in
Seaside, but perhaps you can find a deal on hotwire.com,
priceline, etc. I'll find out more about where
people are camping and post that next week.
MHSSC
Session 13, 2011 update
Scott Veenis showed
up at camp this week! Scott was up in Seattle for
a wedding, then spent a night in Seaside, Oregon
(coast).....then met up with his surgeon at OHSU
hospital in Portland, then made his way up to Govy on
Tuesday evening. (see pics below). On
Wednesday, Scotty decided it his time to go skiing
again.......his femur leg wasn't quite ready for skiing,
so his first day back on snow was on ONE ski! who
does THAT? Anyway, it was just remarkable to see
Scotty back here in his element, only 4 and a half short
months after his head-on car accident.
The racer sitting directly behind Scotty in the car
wreck was Hank Shipman. Please take a few
moments to read this inspirational update about Hank that his mother
Julie wrote.
Other session 13 tidbits: Some random videographer guy from lane 8 snowboard camp decided to just sit in my homemade urinal hole that I had dug in the mogul lane. Yep, he was just hanging out in the yellow snow zone! (see pic). ewww! I beat Olivier Lacaille in a game of H-O-R-S-E thus earning a $1 dollar. Olivier blamed some of his poor shooting skills on the 5 bee stings he got on his leg a few hours earlier. There was a half power outage at the camp lodge on Thursday night. Yep, the lodge's power is sort of split in two, where both halves are independent of each other...yeah, it's weird! Anyway, most of the kitchen stuff was not powered up, so the rookie k-staffers (Jeff Holce and Makai Bradley) had to prepare a meal without the benefit of the convection oven and the griddles and who knows what else. With the help of Mike Annett, it turned out to be the best leftovers night of the year. They served up like a dozen different things. And then, around 8pm, the power went completely out! Zero lights, zero nothing......and a huge stack of dirty dishes! Mike eventually fired up the generator, so they could do some dishes. Full power came back on around 1am. A 16 year old camper from Germany named Konstatin, (also known as "constant pain") paid counselors Kim Nania and Erica Carras $60 each (plus gas money) to drive him to Portland on Monday to go to the mall. *Konstatin is the shirtless character in the photo at the bottom of this update. He was a high maintenance kid, who broke windows in two busses, broke the basketball hoop, smoked cigarettes and did other not-so-good things while he was at camp for the past FIVE weeks! Mike and Lynne have already put him on the "no way" list for next summer. Yep, there's an actual list. On Friday morning, around 5am, the most intense lightning storm that I've ever experienced up close and personal in my entire life, swept thru Govy. It was crazy! It also happened right as the annual "Hood-to-Coast" event was getting started. As I drove thru Govy during the storm, it was pitch dark, lightning every few seconds, crazy loud thunder, and POURING rain. The hood-to-coast runners and volunteers were running for their lives, ducking for cover. It was mass hysteria! This Portland TV news crew was able to capture a little bit of the storm. Former staffer John Rust's wife, Lisa Rust, was on one of the Hood-to-Coast teams. The lightning storm also caused a small fire between Timberline Lodge and Govy (see pic below). Mike went fishing on the Salmon River (just down from the lodge) and came back with 5 or so fish (see pic). Jasper Newton did some awesome back-flips off of the mogul jump. see pics.
Only 1 more week of
camp left. yay! Adults-Only session this coming
week. Still TONS of snow left. See pic below
of lower west lane. I don't remember ever seeing
this much snow at this time of the summer on lower
palmer. Zero sign of any rocks popping up in lanes
1-8 on upper palmer. We are down to having only
one cook still hanging around, Jeff Holce.....and
he's the snowboard videographer! Rumor has
it that Michelle Schmitt is coming out of K-staff
retirement to make a guest appearance to help Jeff out
for 3 days this coming week.
Staff post-camp coast trip is only 1 session away! yay!
come join us! Sept 5-7.....some people might be
there as early as Sept 3 or 4.
 |
| See that little puff of smoke? That's a small forest fire that was caused by Friday morning's lightning storm. *photo taken from the bottom of Palmer |
future staffer?
Joe Reis,
former mhssc coach, wanted me to send out this job
announcement:
I know you broadcast far and wide
to a group of bright hard working people. Although most
if not all of us would prefer to work fulltime in the
ski industry, sometimes we have to get "real" jobs as
well. I have two entry level software sales jobs,
one in Healthcare Electronic Medical Records and the
other in the Credit Union space. These jobs have a
typical starting salary with a fast track opportunity to
a 6 figure income. The jobs are initially located
in Maine with opportunities to relocate to another east
coast location once established. If you could get the
word out to our alma mater I would appreciate it. Oh,
and if these folks want to coach on weekends I have
taken a weekend program director job and could use
coaches as well :).....contact Joe Reis: 1reisj@gmail.com
MHSSC
Session 14, 2011 update
DONE!
Happy to be done. We had 23 adult campers for the
final session, 6 coaches, 2 counselors, 1.5 cooks, and 1
videographer.....oh, and 1 camp director....and I almost
forgot: 1 rafting helper guy on Tuesday (Mark
Syrovatka) Not a whole heck of a lot happened
during the final week of camp. Everybody was on
auto-pilot, the weather was nice, no lift lines, no
injuries. Former K-staffer Michelle Schmitt,
came out of retirement to help cook the final 3 days of
camp....and speaking of former staffers, Stu
Halverson, also made an appearance on the hill for a
few days, making a few late summer runs thru the public
terrain park. There was a wild fire on the north
side of Mt Hood, sort of near Parkdale. As you can
see in a couple of the photos below, the smoke managed
to make it's way to our side of the mountain. Rick Millett coached snowboard race this week (1
camper). The adults stopped by a tavern in
Maupin after white water rafting on Tuesday for adult
beverages/dinner. Roger Bay, Ryan
Boroughs and Mike "Axel" Foley dressed up in
suits on the last day of camp and ripped up the moguls.
It was stunning! They bought their jackets &
ties at a Hood River thrift shop during "wine tasting"
afternoon activity. In the 26 years I've
been working at mhssc, this was definitely in the top 2
(if not #1) for snowpack left at the end of the summer.
Zero rocks showing in lanes 1-7. And still plenty
of snow to train on lower west of palmer.
Adult camper, Kamilo F, was telling us about an
invention of his: A smart phone application, where
the user could urinate on some kind of card, then you
insert the card into your smart phone and it would
instantly tell you if that person had any sexually
transmitted diseases. Yep, we get interesting
campers with all sorts of backgrounds coming to mhssc!
That's about it from Planet Annett.
Next up: COAST TRIP! If you are in the area, come join us at the beach for some rest and relaxation on the oregon coast. Who's coming?: Myself, Darren Owen, Roger Bay, Nolan Willard, Jeff Holce, Jasper Newton, Rick Millett.....and maybe Mike & Lynne Annett, Fuxi, Ryan Boroughs, Mike Foley, Stu Halverson, Mike Hay...I'm probably forgetting somebody. When? Monday thru Wednesday (sept 5-7). Most are camping out. Surfing, relaxing, drinking, eating, kite flying, long walks on the beach...are all on the menu. Spreading some of Mark Stegall's ashes is also happening on this trip. Nothing is really set in stone as to what beach or beaches we'll be hanging out on. The weather is supposed to be pretty good.....some morning fog and then sunny.....temps in the upper 60's and lower 70's. I plan on having dinner/drinks at Dundee's bar & grill in Seaside, Oregon on Tuesday night, around 8pm'ish. Here's the Dundee's link. It's on the main strip (Broadway street) maybe 4-5 blocks from the beach. Join me for a burger and a coors light!
MHSSC post-camp beach trip Sept 5-7, 2011
Hey all! We had an excellent staff trip to the coast a couple days after the adults-only session. In all, 10 of us made it down there, including Mike & Lynne. While it was foggy and somewhat cool in the town of Seaside for much of the 3 days, it was sunny and warm down at Short Sands, where we spent the majority of our time. Roger Bay, Darren Owen, and I spent some time at "Funland" (video games place in Seaside). Some 13 year old girl schooled me in a game of moving hoop basketball, score was 20 to 8. Darren played an intense game of "Galaxia" (80's arcade style game) and ended up with the 3rd highest score on that machine. Sweat was pouring off his head as he intensely hit the "fire" button some 2,300+ times. Rick Millett managed to carry his surfboard, his fancy camping chair, big backpack and a cooler full of budweiser/ice/food down the half mile trail from the parking lot to the beach. Mike and Lynne treated us to a nice dinner at the Dundee's Bar & Grill on Tuesday night. Jeff Holce had to sit by himself in the "under-21" family area at the bar. We also randomly ran into former mhssc race coach, Craig Daniels at short sands. A random dog (black lab) played fetch with us all day long on Tuesday. We thought the dogs' owner had abandoned him, but at the end of the day, the dog found his owner who had been surfing all day.
On my drive home to Portland, I witnessed a one-car wicked bad wreck. This mom and 2 young daughters flipped in the car 3 times into somebody's yard, just a few miles east of Seaside. Luckily no major injuries. Car was traveling the opposite direction than I was. Freaked me out! Kids were in strapped in their child seats as they should have been. They were crying hysterically. Not sure why I included this story in this mhssc newsletter. Just one of those moments where you realize that things can change in an instant.
On day 3 of the coast trip, some of Mark Stegall's ashes were spread at shorts sands, one of his favorite surf spots. (photos at bottom)
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That's former mhssc race coach Craig Daniels on the right |
Day 3.....spreading Mark's ashes at short sands...
