SESSION BLOGS May 2006-November 2007 in reverse order

2007
THANKSGIVING CAMP
We had some challenging weather early in the session, and beautiful sunshine to end the week.  Coach John Rust treated the campers to a traditional Thanksgiving turkey dinner on the final night.  I heard they also got in some quality tubing on our tubing hill. 

FALL CAMPS 2007 UPDATE
Timberline just announced the reopening of the chairlifts for Fall skiing!!  Timberline's website is reporting a 24 inch base at the lodge.  What does this all mean?  It means our Fall Camps are up and running!! Give us a call for the latest information: 503-337-2230  Here's a photo I snapped from highway 26 this afternoon (Oct. 23). 

ADULT SESSION 2007 UPDATE
Summer camp 07 wrapped up with our adults only camp.  We had 30 adults ski racers, mogul skiers, and snowboard freeriders enjoying the final week of summer operation on the Palmer snowfield. 

SESSION 13, 2007 UPDATE
Heavy rain shut us down on Monday, but to make up for it, we took the kids caving at Mt Adams in Washington State, followed by movies at the Lloyd Center Mall in Portland.  Mother Nature took care of us the rest of the week with beautiful weather & excellent snow conditions.  

SESSION 12, 2007 UPDATE
Sunshine, short lift lines, and an amazing group of kids.  What more could you ask for?

SESSION 11, 2007 UPDATE
Sunny but cooler this session.   The cloud layer stayed in the valley while we all enjoyed the bluebird skies on the mountain. 

SESSION 10, 2007 UPDATE
Another outstanding week on the mountain.  Even camp director Mike Annett got out there and skied the slalom courses! 

SMITH ROCK CLIMBING CAMP 2007 UPDATE
Ten kids joined coaches John Rust, Joe Reis, and counselor Evan Mikkelson for a fabulous week of rockclimbing in central Oregon. 

SESSION 9, 2007 UPDATE
The sun returned, the lift lines were short, and we had a tremendous week on the Palmer Snowfield.  Ted Ligety was on the mountain this week and he took some time out for an autograph session, as you can see below.  Ryan Anderson, our snowboard videographer, captured some footage of a black bear wandering thru town.  His footage ended up on the 6 o'clock news, which you can see here.

SESSION 8, 2007 UPDATE
We battled some tough weather conditions this week.   The kids that dressed for the wet weather got the most out of the training.  The kids wearing nothing but cotton sweatshirts paid the price.   We had some spectacular fear-defying moments on the challenge course as you can see in the photos below. 

SESSION 7, 2007 UPDATE
We had a bit of a heat wave this week.  And on Friday, a short lived thunderstorm passed by the mountain delaying the opening of the ski area for 45 minutes.  Butterflies were plentiful as you can see in these photos. 

SESSION 6, 2007 UPDATE
Sunny weather and short lift lines were the story this week. On the 4th of July, camp employee Fritzy, put on a firework display on the camp soccer field.  The racers competed in dual slalom on the last day, the mogul lane got plenty of action, and kids were "killing it" in the terrain park. 

SESSION 5, 2007 UPDATE
Session 5 began with a cold and wet Sunday.  Campers who went on the hike to Lookout Mountain Sunday afternoon even saw some snowflakes.  Another bus load hiked down to camp from the Pioneer Woman's Grave a few miles away.
A wet Sunday meant lots of new snow on the mountain.  Several inches fell overnight making for solid free skiing conditions Monday.  Tuesday and Wednesday were both great days on the hill.  Excellent warm weather provided awesome training opportunities for everyone. Later in the week, we had some fog and low visibility challenges to deal with.
The summer is almost half over and attendance is strong.  For a chance of scene, Stratton Moguls and Franconia went rafting on the White Salmon River, instead of the usual route on the Deschutes River.  This raft section is on a much more wild river with more technical maneuvers and larger drops, according to staff and camper reports.  And as you can see in the photo below, our private clay tennis court was put to good use. 

SESSION 4, 2007 UPDATE
We had amazing weather, the kids had a great time, and our new Coho Lodge opened up. Here are a couple photos from our terrain park.

 

SESSION 3, 2007 UPDATE
HEAD is our new camp sponsor, giving our campers the opportunity to try out Head's newest line of ski and snowboard equipment during their time at camp.  Mother nature threw us a couple curve balls this week.  We battled high winds on Wednesday, and low visibility on Friday, but otherwise we enjoyed some great training on the Palmer snowfield and in our private terrain park. 

SESSION 2, 2007 UPDATE
We had some challenging weather conditions this week that included some snow, rain, wind, fog, mist, hail, thunder & lightning, and even a little sunshine to end our week.  Most of the training this session took place on the magic mile chairlift where it was a little more protected from the weather.  Kids also got a chance to go caving (near Mt Adams), bowling/movies, and skateboarding in an indoor skate park in Portland.   On Thursday afternoon, we did white water rafting followed by our camp picnic at White River Falls State Park. 

SESSION 1, 2007 UPDATE
We kicked off summer this week with beautiful weather, plenty of snow, and a great group of kids.   We pretty much had the mountain to ourselves.  We had a good mix of ski racers, snowboard racers, mogul/freeskiers, and snowboard freeriders for our first summer session.  The racers set up a dual slalom on Friday and we had some good battles to end the week on a competitive note.  Snowboard freeride head coach, Mark Stegall and his crew were busy constructing our new rails and boxes for our private terrain park.  The volleyball court has been resurrected, the zipline has a new man-lift lowering system, and we are busy getting the new Coho Lodge ready to be occupied later this month.

We look forward to another great summer. 

NEW LODGE CONSTRUCTION UPDATE (mid-April, 2007)
The new lodge construction is coming along on schedule.  The electrical and plumbing is going in this week.  And now that we will have 2 lodges up and running, we decided to give our lodges official names.  Our main lodge is called "The Chinook Lodge" and our new building is called "The Coho Lodge".  Our entire camp property is called "The Lodges at Salmon River Meadows", which is the reason we chose the lodges to be named after different Salmon species.  Here are a few photos of lodge construction.

ANDREJ JERMAN WINS WORLD CUP DOWNHILL!!
Our own Andrej Jerman (one of our summer coaches) won the Garmisch Downhill last week, and proved it was no fluke by finishing 2nd place the very next day!  Congrats Andrej!  We're proud of you big time!

2006
LET IT SNOW, LET IT SNOW, LET IT SNOW!
Timberline Lodge is reporting 157 inches of snow at Lodge elevation (6,200 feet) with much more accumulation on the Palmer snowfield.  Logan Stewart, race director at Timberline, sent us these photo of the Palmer chairlift and of the Silcox hut.  We are looking forward to our spring camps starting up next week.  

NorAm Moguls
Our head mogul coach, Darren Owen, has his Focus Freestyle team ripping up the NorAm mogul circuit this winter.  In Darren's words: Today was the most successful day ever for Focus Freestyle! Jay Panther (who is one of our MHSSC coaches) scored his best score ever and placed 9th. At this level and on this tour, a top ten is a great accomplishment . Patrick Deneen (He trained all summer at MHSSC) also scored his best ever and won the event .........1st place............ The event was on fog hold for two hours with only the last quarter of the field left to run. I don't know how my boys skied so well after standing in the cold for two hours.  This could be the proudest moment of my coaching career. Today was one of those days I will never forget. We have to be the hardest working group in freestyle. The work is paying off in a big way!

Christmas Camps 2006
We just finished up our two Christmas camp sessions.  Great weather for both winter sessions.  Our campers got a chance to train at Timberline, Mt Hood Meadows, and Mt Hood Ski Bowl.  We also hosted an Oregon High School 4-day GS/Slalom camp over winter break at Mt Hood Ski Bowl. 

Mt Hood continues to get dumped on.  As of today (January 4, 2007) Timberline Lodge reports 15 inches new and a 107 inch base.  The weatherman is telling us that storms are stacked up in the pacific ocean.  We like that! 

NEW SNOW!
The first significant snow has made landfall in the Pacific Northwest.  Just in time for Thanksgiving camp.  Timberline ski area is reporting 20 inches of new snow last night, and a 38 inch base depth at the lodge (elevation 6200).   Here at camp (elevation 3500), we received 4-5 inches last night, as you can see in this photo.

Fall Camps 2006
Fall camps have been up and running since late September.   The conditions have been excellent.  You can still ski on and off the lift at mid-way Palmer.  Click here for more information about training at Mt Hood in the Fall. 

We are also making excellent progress on our 2nd lodge as you can see in these photos.  If you scroll all the way down to the bottom of this page, you'll see what this building looked like on June 1.

Post Summer 2006
About a 1/2 dozen employees have stuck around after camp ended to do construction on the new lodge, make improvements on the skateboard half pipes, and prepare for our Fall ski & snowboard camps.  Timberline is set to reopen the lifts for fall training soon with our camps beginning on September 21. 

Session 14, 2006 (adult camp) update:
We just finished up our 28th summer of operation with our adults only session.  A rare August snowstorm hit the mountain on Tuesday night giving us a couple inches of new snow to play in. 

We had a good mix of ski racers, mogul/freeskiers, and snowboard freeride adult campers this week.  A wine tour and a round of golf was added to the afternoon activity schedule for adult camp. 

There is plenty of snow left to end summer '06, and we look forward to our Fall camps starting on September 21. 

Session 13, 2006 update:
Butterflies have invaded the glacier!  Yeah, millions of the migrating "California tortoiseshell" butterflies have been swarming the ski area.  This photo will give you a better idea of what our campers are seeing during the late morning training time period on some of the warmer days on the hill.   A Portland TV news station came up and did a story on the migrating butterfly which you can watch by clicking here.

The British mogul team is finishing up their 6th week here at Mt Hood Summer Ski Camps.  As you can see, they are using some unorthodox ski training techniques. 

Session 12, 2006 update:
The amazing conditions continue!   This week we have racers from several Portland area high school ski teams, taking advantage of the excellent snow conditions, short lift lines, and amazing weather.   Below are two racers from the Southridge High School ski team.

Session 11, 2006 update:
You may have seen on the national news the story about the wildfires burning in and around Mt Hood.  On the evening of August 7, there was a reported 500+ lightning strikes in Oregon, sparking dozens of fires, some of which are located on the east side of Mt Hood.  Luckily, the ski area and our lodge campus are nowhere near the fires.  From the Palmer snowfield, we can see smoke to the east of us, but that's about it.   This photo will give you a better idea of where the fires are in relation to the ski area:

The training has been absolutely excellent this week.  We have the Heavenly Valley mogul team training with us this week.  Here's a glimpse of our mogul lane from the top looking down:

Here's a photo of camp director Mike Annett, a split second before he hit a double in the picnic softball game.

Hey check out the new camp sweatshirts here: 

Session 10, 2006 update:
Ten weeks down, four to go.  We have many racers here from the Tri-State race teams from back east.  Tri-State coach Rich Tingle has been bringing kids here for about 10 years and he said that this year has the best snow conditions and shortest lift lines he's ever seen.  I took this photo at 10:30am of the Palmer mid-way loading station.  NOBODY in line!  Kids are getting in a ton of runs. 
 
Also training with us this session is the mogul team from Winter Park. 

Chelsea Stamer, one of our camp kitchen staffers, won the Mt Hood Summer Ski Camps employee of the month award for July!  Congrats Chelsea.  You are doing a great job for us!

Session 9, 2006 update:
The fantastic training continues......great weather, excellent snow, short lift lines. 

Session 8, 2006 update:
Olympic Gold Medalist and former MHSSC camper, Ted Ligety stopped by our lodge today and played a little tennis on our private clay tennis court.  He was nice enough to pose for a quick photo and hold up a sign promoting one of the high school ski racing leagues in Oregon.

We have the Squaw Valley mogul team here this week training with us.  We are also hosting a men's training group from Rowmark ski academy, and a team from Milton Heights, Ontario, Canada.   Excellent weather all week. 

Session 7, 2006 update:
Seven weeks done, seven more to go.  Time flies when you are having fun!   This place rocks!!    "Dear mom and dad.....can I stay another session?...send more money."

Head Counselor, Bill Whalley took a group of campers to the Oregon coast for "surf camp" on the weekend.

Session 6, 2006 update:
How many people on earth can say they skied or snowboarded on the 4th of July?  We'll add 145 people to that list.  Another excellent week of training on the hill this week. On the 4th, our camp counselors put on our own private firework display on the camp soccer field to help celebrate Independence Day.   We acquired 25 mountain bikes and a new basketball hoop this week to add to our extensive collection of camp toys!   We have a group of kids from Italy here this week. 

Session 5, 2006 update:
HOT HOT HOT!  Sunscreen was the word of the week.   Despite all the hot weather, there's still enough snow that we can ski all the way to the parking lot at the end of the day.  The hot weather prompted the majority of our campers to sign up for the water related afternoon activities such as kiteboarding, white-water rafting, & cliff jumping.  We hosted race teams from Franconia, Killington, and the Stratton Mogul Team.   Mark Stegall, our head snowboard freeride coach was voted by his peers as the MHSSC employee for the month for June.  Our private clay tennis court was repaired and back in operation after the local Elk spent time putting their footprints on it.    Here's a photo of our campers battling for bragging rights at the camp picnic in a game of basketball "knockout". 

Session 4, 2006 update:
GREAT WEEK!  Perfect weather, excellent snow conditions. 
Lots of happy faces all week long.  AWESOME!

Session 3, 2006 update:
One of the wettest sessions in recent memory.  Summer hasn't quite shown up in full force here in the Pacific Northwest, but we hope it shows up soon. We had everything from rain, wind, fog, mist, snow, sunshine, and thunderstorms this session.  We took the entire camp bowling  Monday after skiing to escape the damp conditions.  Despite the not-so-perfect weather, the kids stayed positive and worked their tails off.  We are proud of them!

Mark, our head snowboard freeride coach, did some skill building just outside the Wy'East Day Lodge with his group during the rain delay.
 

Our two newest rails in

Here's a glimpse of some of our coaches, kitchen staff, counselors, videographers, camper-staff, and CIT staffers at the session 3 camp picnic.

Session 2, 2006 update:
Session 2 saw a little bit of everything last week.  Cold nights provided great snow for race training and summer sun and temps loosened up the snow for the freestylers and snowboarders.  Our normal Wednesday hike to Crater Rock was postponed due to lingering clouds, but that didn’t stop the entire camp from indulging in some of the best spring corn on the planet out on the Zig Zag glacier when the clouds burned off later in the morning.

Racers, freestylers, and snowboarders were all seen with big grins as we skied 2000’ vertical feet of open bowls and backcountry steeps right back to the chair lift.  The new MHSSC terrain park has been built and our rails transported to the hill.  The speed bumps in our race lane have been built and they are large.  The mogul lane is in great shape and the table top at the bottom of the line is nearing completion.  Our twenty-six staff  and twenty-eight campers enjoyed the laid back atmosphere of early summer before schools let out and Palmer snowfield becomes a scene of the “who’s who” of snow sports.  Our trail crew put the final touches on the mountain bike course and counselor Fritzy has everything ready to start playing paintball.  The Deschutes River is running high, making for an excellent raft trip and coach Terry McLeod has our high ropes course up and running for another summer.  We start Session 3 tomorrow with 110 campers, officially ending early summer and jumping us into the heart of our season.

Session 1, 2006 update:
We kicked off summer this week with beautiful weather, plenty of snow, and a great group of kids.   As you can see in the photo's below, we pretty much had the mountain to ourselves.  We had a good mix of ski racers, snowboard racers, mogul/freeskiers, and snowboard freeriders for our first summer session.   A couple hours of light rain moved through the area on Thursday morning, but the training went on as planned.   Snowboard freeride head coach, Mark Stegall, has rebuilt our two on-campus skateboard halfpipes and is busy getting all our rails and boxes ready for our private terrain park.  We have a new trampoline, the volleyball court has been resurrected, and we are busy adding miles to our mountain bike trail system. 

We look forward to another great summer. 

Mid-way Palmer view on May 31	We were the only camp on the hill this week!

Public terrain park on the magic mile	Our mogul campers ripping it up!

Snowboard coach Mark prepping the rails.	Our 2nd lodge in phase 1 of construction.

 

 

Mt. Hood Summer Ski Camps
P.O. Box 317
Government Camp, OR 97028
PHONE/FAX (503) 337-2230

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Last Modified: 4/17/2007