2004
HAPPY NEW YEAR!! Here's your MHSSC January 11 update: Lots of snow in Oregon this past week. Even Portland got into the act with 5-6 inches of snow plus a pretty thick layer of freezing rain on top of that. Schools were closed for 4 days.....the Portland airport closed for 2 1/2 days, the Columbia Gorge highway closed for 2 days.......John Rust said the snow was 1/2 way up the volleyball net at the camp lodge. staff updates: Former MHSSC snowboard coach, Eric Baldwin, and wife Betsy are expecting their first child.....baby is due July 1. Congrats Eric! Andrej Jerman tore his ACL in the Beaver Creek world cup Super-G race a few weeks ago.......so his season is over. He said he skied too straight into a gate, hit a bad hole in the course, felt some pain in his knee, but was able to ski to the finish.............but had no idea the extent of the injury. He expects to be skiing again by June. I saw Mark Archer yesterday. Only you old schoolers will probably remember him. He was the SCOTT/SWANS rep back in the day. He owns a snowboard/skate shop in Sandy, Oregon.......his business is also an internet shopping site: www.skatensnow.com
February 4, 2004 update
Hi all! another camp
update.......Lots of snow on Mt Hood these days. Timberline has 181 inches
at the base.....Last year at this time they had about 60 inches on the
ground. http://www.timberlinelodge.com/conditions/conditions.asp
before im back in my prime Right now there are some side effects from all the drugs that they are still
trying to work out. skiing wise i have to take it easy and not do sketchy tricks and stuff cause the new kidney is in my lower stomach and is not to protected, but im looking for some sort of protection devise anyway other than a few side effects and a lot of pills and stuff i am at home and walking around some,and im kinda intrested in coming out for a week in april to do some snowshoeing depending on how recovery is going
That's about it from here in Oregon..........If any of you want to share your favorite camp memories, send them my way and I'll put them out on the next camp e-mail update........
first name |
last name |
Bob |
Geyer |
Brian |
Flanagan |
Carl |
Matzky |
Chip |
Simpkins |
Craig |
Moore |
Cynthia |
Ruskensas |
Dave |
Lawson |
Decoa |
Tucker |
Eric |
Steiner |
Greg |
Jerum |
Jason |
Ditmer |
Jesse |
Miner |
Kristen |
Daly |
Mike |
Meagher |
Mike |
Attolico |
Nancy |
Lopez |
Tom |
Davenport |
Vern |
Hadley |
Y'Vette |
Luglan |
March 13, 2004 update
Hi kids! I haven't sent out a
camp update in a long time, so I'll try and come up with something to write
about because I know all of you are at home checking e-mail everyday
with that small glimmer of hope of reading about camp stuff.......right?
Not much to report really...........MHSSC spring ski/snowboard camps are
starting up next week (March 7-13)........there are 6 sessions for spring
camps. I think the average size of camp each week for spring camps is 2-3
campers........if that. So these guys will be getting private lessons.
Sometimes they end up going to Mt Hood Meadows and/or Mt Bachelor for a day
or two.........a little variety! In the meantime, John Rust is up there
working in the office and helping out Mike with lodge guests 5-6 days a
week. I've been going up 1-2 times a week to help with sign-ups (typing
stuff into the computer!) Sign-ups started slow in January/February, but
are starting to pick up the last couple of weeks. Mike hired a cleaning
lady (Anita) to help clean the lodge from time to time. I think Mike
bought another small bus for camp..........and old Blue bus still sits on
Mike's home property in Odell, OR. Anyone have any creative ideas on what
should become of the blue bus? Sell it on Ebay? Make it into a museum?
Keep in mind it has no windshield and it spent 24 hours fully submerged
in the Deschutes river last summer......but apparently it still runs!
Please submit your blue bus ideas......or perhaps come up with a blue bus
poem that I could share with the masses. Still about 3 feet of snow at the
camp lodge.......lots of snow on Palmer. Anyone seen the movie "what the
bleep do we know?"..............I was an "extra"........actually saw myself
3 times in the movie.......all 3 of my scenes were brief appearances, but I
was well compensated for my work ($55 a day plus free donuts/coffee) It's a
different sort of movie about quantum physics........stars Marlee Matlin......some
animation thrown in there too......some humor.......narration......Not sure
if it's playing in too many markets out there. Let me know if you see it
advertised in your neck of the woods. www.whatthebleep.com thats about it.........no juicy gossip to report.
April 16, 2004 update
Good evening, Here's
another MHSSC update. Today was the last on-hill day for the spring
camps version of MHSSC. We had 5 snowboarders coached by Brandon Rothauge for spring session #6. They did a couple days
at Timberline, a couple days at Mt Hood Meadows and a road trip to
Mt. Bachelor yesterday. Mike let me out of the camp office
to join the group at Bachelor yesterday (see attached pic).
We had about 8 inches of fresh powder.........well worth the drive. Spring camps totals: Six sessions were scheduled, 8 campers total. 1 adult skier camper had a private lesson, coached by Timberline ski instructor Pedro. Last week we had 2 brothers do moguls/terrain park skiing with coach Paul (Timberline guy)........and then the 5 snowboarders from this week. John Rust took them rockclimbing at an indoor gym in Hood River. So as you can imagine, spring camps are a work in progress. Up until a few days ago, it's been warm and dry in Oregon for the last month or so, so the snowpack is back to just above normal levels for this time of year........but if you read Mike's latest camp e-mail update, you know that wet weather has returned with snow falling at the higher elevations. Staff updates: For you old timers (late 80's), Jennifer Otten is headed to kazakhstan as part of the Peace Corps. She's heading out in June and coming back in August 2006. She'll will be teaching English to 7th-11th grade in a high school. anyway, that's all I can think of. The Portland Trail Blazers missed the playoffs for the first time in 22 years, so I have nothing to live for........good-bye cruel world. Robin
Hi kids, 30 days till MHSSC 1st session. I think about a dozen or so campers have signed up so far for week #1. Mike & Lynne are headed to Hawaii May 4-14, so if you need to talk to Mike before he leaves, do so now or forever hold your peace. (or wait until May 15)..........The TV weatherman just informed me that Portland just experienced the driest March/April in recorded history. What does that mean to the Palmer snowfield? It means summer ski camp is cancelled......take up bowling. Mt Hood Summer Bowling Camp. (MHSBC) Actually the snowfield is hanging in there. It was a pretty wet above average snowfall winter, so we should be in good shape. Ever seen the TV show "SWITCHED"?.........I haven't either.........it's either on ABC network, or ABC-family cable channel.......anyway, its a reality TV show where they take somebody young (age 15-20 or so) and trade them places with another individual in a completely different environment.........for a 3-4 day period. And of course, cameras are there to capture everything. Anyway, "SWITCHED" has contacted MHSSC about taking 3-4 of our snowboard campers from this summer and "switching" them with 3-4 other people for 3-4 days. So........Mike and John Rust are considering ways to pull this off.........first of all we need to find 3-4 snowboarders willing to do it and they need to be older teens all from the same session.........any of you camper-staffers interested? SWITCHED sent us a VHS copy of one of their shows.......good stuff. It would make you famous beyond belief......and bring some free publicity to MHSSC. I vote for Lenny the cook........he'd make for good television.
Staff updates that I'm aware of: Jared McCrum suffered a significant knee injury.......in his words: "I ended up overshooting a 60 foot jump by 40 feet and landed flat. They said at the crown of the jump I was still going up. I
dropped about 30 feet straight down to flat. I tore my ACL, Medial Meniscus, Lateral Meniscus, and a small fracture of my fibula. Surgery is friday " I hate needles." Brandy Powell got her LEVEL 2 snowboard instruction! woo hoo........Britta Sorensen is training for her first marathon.......in her words: I will be running the San Diego Rock 'n Roll Marathon on June 6th. I am training with a group called Teams in Training which runs for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.
Birthdays for May: HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO THE FOLLOWING people:
Rogan: May 1 (he's old)
Liz Chouinard May 2
Ridgely Reece May 5
Amy Birtwistle May 17
Mike Langdon May 21
Elliot Halverson and Brandy Powell, May 23
ok, so everybody please send these people gifts............ok? If you haven't sent me your birth day date yet, you can by clicking here: http://www.BirthdayAlarm.com/dob/6561296a5227229b408
ok, that's all.............sincerely yours, love always, may the force be with you, regards, to whom it may concern: Robin
Hey Robin: Here's a story that many staffers may have encountered themselves years ago with Mike.
One week before Session 1, 2004 update
Hi kids,
Just one short week before summer camp 2004 session 1
commences. This is year #26 of Mt Hood Summer Ski
Camps existence. Technically it started under a different
name. The original name was "Eastern Downhill Camps." They
switched to "MHSSC" in 1984...........anyone care?
.......didn't think so. A few early-bird out-of-towner
staffers have been showing up and doing some work at the
camp lodge. Elliot has been here a couple weeks. If you
didn't know, Elliot had a kidney transplant this winter and
seems to be doing great. He has a somewhat restrictive diet
right now........he can't eat the yummy,
hard-to-resist, famous, delicious Mt Hood Summer Ski Camps
cookies. But since he is a camp cook, he gets to make the
cookies and look at them all day long.........so in honor of Elliots cookie dilemma, I'm initiating a "eat no cookies for
the summer" campaign. Do you have the willpower to go
cookieless for 3 months? For myself, I'm already putting in
a disclaimer that I'm eating cookies on my birthday, but no
other day. Are you up to the challenge? Let me know if I can put your
name on the "2004 no cookie list". Terry McLeod was here a week or so ago working on the new
extreme afternoon activities facilities. What's new this
year? Terry and Co. built a Log Walk.......it's about 25
feet off the ground.........a giant log suspended between
two other trees. Campers put on a harness, step up the
tree ladder onto the log walk......no handrails or
anything....if they fall, the rope catches
them..........it's set-up like rockclimbing with the coach
below lowering them by rope. The other new activity is the
trapeze..........campers climb up the tree ladder, out onto
a narrow plank suspended between 2 trees....they have to
then stand up (no hand rails again)....then jump out and
grab onto this trapeze handle........like in the
circus.......then they swing around and eventually
drop......via rope like the rockclimbing thing
again..........Last week Feeney showed up for the first
official guinea pig test for both events.......he's still
alive to talk about it........looks damn scary to me. No
way am I getting on that thing! All this stuff is up
above the soccer field, near the top of the zipline. Mike got back from Hawaii a week ago.........he's tan and
happy..........and won't have another day off for 15 weeks
plus...........Rust gets back from vacation May 26 for those
needing to speak with him. The official 2004 camp t-shirts
arrived this week..........yes the t-shirts are available
1st session! That hasn't happened in years.......I think
there are 2 color schemes........I saw the blue
version........has the MHSSC logo on the front.......and a purpley picture of Mt Hood on the back........I'd give the
new t-shirt a score of "8". Brandon and Brandy are also kickin around working here and there getting stuff ready. Brandy seems to be making a marvelous comeback from her
snowboard head into the rocks crash......she has a cool
looking broken finger with metal rods coming out of her
finger in several places. To invert or not to
invert?.........that is the question. Timberline, and all
the snowboard and freestyle camps.........and the insurance
companies.... are in debate of whether or not inverted flips
are allowed in the camp environment. What do YOU think?
And what exactly constitutes being "inverted"?..........was Jon Mosely inverted during his "dinner roll" at the last
olympics? National Alpine ski camp is copying MHSSC once
again......they finally broke down and added freestyle
skiing to their race training program.......only 10 or so
years behind us..........I wonder if they'll add
snowboarding pretty soon? You can see pictures of our own Tim Feeney "inverted" on their camp website.........they had
to use Brian Robb stock footage photos from other
camps for their freestyle program since this was year #1 for
them......... Rumor has it that Izi Jerman is making a
MHSSC comeback after a 2 year hiatus. He'll be coaching
session 5.......so all you Izi fans, be sure to visit him
that week........I think Rogan is coming back too after a
summer of laying on the beach in 2003. He'll be joining Izi for the largest session in camp history coming
up......more than 160 campers have already signed up for
session 5. I fear session 5. thats all folks............
Session 1, 2004 update
Good evening! We are now officially in operation up at
ol' MHSSC. We have a whopping 11 campers this
week..........9 racers, and 2 snowboarders. We've been
blessed with excellent weather, no lift lines, and an hour
later wake up schedule. The chairlifts run an hour later
than normal this time of year so we get to take advantage of
extra time in the morning.......normal hours begin next
week. Tomorrow is the last ski day of session 1, but here
are a few highlights that have occurred so far: Camp has
been invaded by big black flying ants! run for your life!
thousands of them.........and they are creepy......and they
like to land on you. Today I made the mistake of leaving
my car window open after skiing today, so a few of those
creepy bugs invaded my car. And they somehow have the skill
of making their way to my leg while I'm
driving...........icky!
Anyway............Counselor/former cook Heidi Holland celebrated her 19th birthday yesterday. Happy b-day Heidi!
The new extreme afternoon activities have been tested with
real live campers........on monday afternoon, Terry, John
Rust, and Bill Whalley put the campers thru the zip line,
trapeze leap of faith and log walk.........I witnessed some
brave campers......nobody got hurt........success!
Yesterday was the camp picnic at the Marina in Hood
River..........I didn't go.......actually about a 1/2 dozen
of us staffers stayed behind........we were left standing in
the lodge parking lot hoping somebody would give us a
ride. The one van that went was filled to capacity. Gas in
Oregon is $17.59 per gallon and trips to Hood River get
expensive..........ok, it's not really $17.59, but Oregon
currently has the 2nd most expensive gas in the nation. I
expect a lot more car pooling this summer.......Snowboard
race coach Nick Colavito is in the process of building a
mountain bike trail out back of the lodge. Last night, Nick made me a map of the new trail, so I thought I'd try it out
on foot..........Bill and Feeney were to start 10 minutes
behind me on bikes and meet me somewhere near the end of the
trail...........The trail was in descent shape and Nick's
map was pretty detailed as I found most of the landmarks he
mentioned.....but then there was this creek. I crossed it
and thought i was on the right track...........but
NO!!!!!!!! I got myself lost in the woods with no sign of
mankind. I couldn't even hear the cars on the highway
anymore.........no mans land.. and it was getting
dark......ok, I was only lost for an hour, but it seemed
more dramatic at the time. I eventually found my way back
to the highway. We have a camper/staff that is staying for
12 sessions! I think that about doubles the old record.
For you old timers who have no idea what a "camper/staff"
is.......Mike has a scholarship type of program where former
campers can sign up for a week of camp, then they work the
2nd week.........they don't get paid, but they get free camp
that 2nd week.........so we now have a guy camper for 6
weeks, followed by 6 weeks of work.........My job will be to
remind him on a daily basis how burned out he will
become.........Chipmunks have taken over the basement....run
for your lives!.........I think they are hiding from the
flying ants outside...uh what else..............Brandon reformatted the dining room computer hard drive last
night........yes the computer that everyone loves to hate.
It's unofficially the slowest computer in the history of the
world as is the internet connection. Early reviews is that
its working much better...........not breaking any speed
records, but it seems to be operating
better............actually scratch that...........when I
left the lodge this afternoon, I noticed a handwritten note
on the computer that read "don't touch"...........We
bantered around the idea of opening an internet cafe in
Govy. What do you think? Terry McLeod won "employee of the
month" for May, 2004. Congrats Terry! Terry earned that
honor by doing death defying work building the
trapeze........suspended high off the ground and working
while it was raining........he risked life and limb in
sketchy conditions a few weeks ago to get it ready in time
for session 1. so that's what happened so
far...............oh yeah...........Brian Robb hit another
deer with his car yesterday. He said it was his 4th road
kill deer...........$3 grand plus damage to his subaru.
bummer! Deer are taking over the forest..........run for
your lives! the end...........
Session 1b, 2004 update
ok, more stuff happened session 1 at camp that I forgot
about........or I had selective memory as Bill Whalley reminded me with his comment about our game of "H-O-R-S-E": What's the matter??? Too ashamed to let everyone know you
lost your first game of horse, and that you are over the
hill, and can no longer play b-ball???? bill
yes, it's true, I no longer have basketball skill enough to trash talk or beat anyone........I'm 0 and 1 in games of HORSE so far.......In fact, the game wasn't even close..........Bill only had "H-O" when I was eliminated. One of his shots was a layup with his hand hitting the backboard.......I think my vertical leap is roughly 3 inches these days. sucks to get old.......rematch Bill? Add two more names to the "in honor of Elliot Halverson don't eat cookies all summer" list........Mike Langdon and Chris Hargrave have joined the quest...........do YOU have what it takes to go cookie free all summer? We are still accepting applications.........A correction from the last update: Brian Robb hit his "5th" deer in his car last week......and the damage was over $4,500 to his car. former MHSSC snowboard race coach Eric Baldwin and his lovely wife are only 4 weeks from being parents! congrats Eric! and former race coach Tom Wirth is attempting to qualify for the IronMAN in Hawaii..........he's running in a marathon in two weeks to try to qualify for Ironman. Elliot has so much stuff with him at camp that he decided to make a "free stuff" box to reduce his load. I scored a red hooded sweatshirt. I think Joe Mass scored a jacket. Darren set up the new trampoline harness system on our main trampoline. It looks pretty sweet. today was to be the golden rose celebrity ski race at Timberline...........Chris was to be the race announcer, Brian Robb, the photographer, and I was gonna do the video.........but horizontal rain and thick fog cancelled the event. oh well. I think the only actual celebrity that shows up these days is former olympic downhill champion Bill Johnson. former staffer Ridgely Reece is gonna make a guest appearance at Mt Hood this summer. welcome back Ridgely! Session 2 starts tomorrow...........40 or so campers.............7 coaches. Rain is in the forecast this week. so tune in next week, same bat time, same bat channel for the next camp e-mail update. You know you live for these updates........
Session 2, 2004 update
Here's your ski camp update for session 2, 2004:Where to begin......hmmmmmmmm.......Jamie the counselor was awoken by her alarm clock at some
god awful hour early in the morning on monday, while
she was sleeping in one of the girls dorm rooms at
the lodge. She reacted to her loud alarm beeping by
sitting up very quickly on her bed, and she
proceeded to catch her hair in the springs in the
bunk above her head......so there she was, alarm
going off, her hair stuck to the bed, and unable to
move......the girls in her room woke up and started
complaining about the noise.........anyway, a girl
camper finally came to Jamie's aid and freed her
hair from the springs above. the weather?Mixed
bag. We had everything this week: snow, sun, rain,
snow mixed with rain, high winds, fog, 2 days of
training on the magic mile. On thursday it was
raining on the magic mile and sunny on upper palmer
at the same time. Still no significant lift lines,
but we are seeing the signs that it's gonna get busy
on the glacier real soon. We only had 40 or so
campers.......105 come session 3. Add Brandy
Powell to the "eat no MHSSC delicious cookies all
summer" list. The list has grown to 5 people, and
so far nobody on the list has caved in and eaten a
cookie (to my knowledge anyway).....Feel free to
join the list. There are no enrollment fees or
annual dues.......speaking of cookies, there was a
cookie challenge between Joe Maas the cook, and Sage the cook............Joe bet Sage $50 that he
couldn't eat 50 of the MHSSC delicious chocolate
chip cookies in under 2 hours. The big event was
friday, but the opinions on whether or not Sage
could do it varied all week long leading up to the
contest. Most believed that they themselves could
consume 50 cookies no problem............Here's how
it played out: The clock started, Sage started
eating cookies at a rate of one cookie every 35
seconds or so, in front of an audience that was as
big as 15 people. Sage was kicking ass and making
believers of most audience members. At the 35
minute mark, Sage was half way thru.........25
cookies down, 25 to go. Sticking to his game plan,
Sage stopped eating, started reading his book, then
tried for a power nap, all while still sitting or
laying on chairs at the coaches table. In close
proximity was a barf bucket and a bottle of Mylanta
and a bottle of TUMS. John Rust had no idea what
was going on when he saw the tray of cookies sitting
there on the table, he grabbed one and almost took a
bite before he was stopped and informed of the big
bet..........John's comment: "what a waste of
cookie dough"..........anyway............after about
a 40 minute break Sage started in on cookie
#26........he took 2 bites and tossed it back onto
the tray and did some more reading, and lying
down. By then the audience had thinned down to
just me and Joe. Minutes later Sage started eating
cookies again......but only 2 or 3 cookies.......
Sage then grabbed the bottle of Mylanta (digestive
aid stuff) and poured a portion to
consume........Joe said "NO WAY, YOU CAN'T TAKE
THAT........THAT'S BREAKING THE RULES".....so after
some argument back and forth, Joe allowed Sage to
have two doses of Mylanta.........Then Sage tried
for a 3rd dose, and Joe grabbed the bottle away from
him............so Sage grabbed his bottle of TUMS
and more controversy insued............Sage finally
stopped his theatrics, stood up, took out his wallet
and paid Joe the $50. The contest was over and the
remaining 22 and a half cookies were immediately
consumed by the dozen of so campers that were in the
room at the time. Sage later told me that he knew
he couldn't win after eating cookie #10.....and that
his Mylanta consumption was just a ploy to try and
get the whole bet voided, so he wouldn't have to
cough up the $50. He also said it was a mistake to
eat chocolate chip cookies ( as opposed to the other
options) because the chocolate was sticking to his
mouth and he consumed too much water washing it
down. so that was the story of the
week...........could you eat 50 cookies? I made
some side bets with Jamie and Brandy........and won
$6. woo hoo! The freestyle skier groups decided
to build a little kicker jump on upper palmer just
above lane 1 race lane because the weather was so
sucky down on the terrain park on the
magic mile.............anyway, they were technically
out of bounds and I heard there were a few inverted
aerials happening..........they were starting to
gain an audience and eventually the angry ski
patroller came out of the shack and ended the
show.......oh well. Hiro captured some of it on
video, but I haven't looked at the footage yet.
Ex-staff updates: Britta Sorensen, the former
counselor, finished her first marathon last week in
just over 4 hours! way to go Britta! She raised
over $2800 for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.
that's all folks.........
Session 3, 2004 update
Here's what happened session 3................Eric
Baldwin had a baby! Way to go ERIC!
Happy father's day to all you dads out there. My Grandad took his trip to heaven this week. He was 99 years old. Only about 45 days short of the century mark. He was the awesome grandparent.
Here's what
happened at MHSSC last week: We had 105
campers. The moguls were finally built on
Thursday to the delight of Darren Owen and the
two mogulers in his group that had been drilled
to death on the flats for 3 days. We also
opened the MHSSC private terrain park. Same
location as last year despite the desire of High
Cascade snowboard camp to take over our real
estate. The snowboard staffers have added
several new features, pink rails, and more jumps
to the mix. They also have a snowboard contest
on Friday to conclude the session. Chipmunks
bit thru some of the wires at Timberline messing
up the magic mile chairlift on Thursday. They
took some of the kids up to Palmer via snowcat,
other's walked up to Palmer, and some ended up
riding the chair once they finally did get it
running. WIND was the theme of the week. It
was windy 4 of the 5 days. We added a new
snowboard videographer to the staff this week.
His name is Jeff Moore, from Alta, Utah. He
does video production in the wintertime at
Alta. 12-week Dave, has 9 weeks left. (12-week
Dave is the camper staff signed up for 12 weeks
of camp). I'm documenting his burn-out week by
week. So far, he's showing no signs of
burnout. The chipmunks that are roaming the
lodge basement are smarter than I anticipated.
Emily helped me set rat traps to end the
chipmunk rule............we put peanut butter on
little pieces of bread for bait........at 5:30am
on Wednesday morning, the chipmunks made their
move toward the food source at the big trap. I
watched the whole thing from about 10 feet
away. I braced myself for what I expected a
violent end to this particular chipmunk, but
instead the chipmunk sat next to the trap,
reached over and nibbled lightly on his newly
found snack..........he continued munching away
for about a minute......until the food was
gone............trap still set......chipmunk's
stomach full. Chipmunk wins round 1. Stay
tuned for future chipmunk reports. Nick Colavito, our snowboard race coach, suffered an
arm injury on Thursday. In a freak accident on
the skateboard halfpipe, one of the campers was
to drop in from the platform, when he bailed,
Nick tried to catch him, and the kids' helmet
rammed into Nick's arm, severing (sp?) or
partially tearing one of the major muscles in
his upper arm. He finds out on monday if
surgery is needed which might end his summer.
bummer! Add two more people to the "eat no
cookies at camp" list.......New to the list are
race coaches Barrett Stein and Joakim Nord (we
also have spelled his name "Juke" and "Jocke".........by
the end of the summer, we'll figure it
out)..........So the no cookie list as of today
includes: Elliot, myself, Chris, Mike Langdon, Brandy, Barrett and Joakim. Barrett wanted me
to start a new list called the "eat no lunch
meat" list..........founding member is
Barrett......and it's probably safe to put Brandon (vegetarian) on the list. Mike Annett is leading us in our weekly jog/run at the camp
picnic every wednesday. There is now a sign-up
sheet: "run with the camp director".......last
week we had 4-5 people join Mike on the forest
trail at wildwood park. ex-staffer Scott Bell is moving to Park city and is looking for a good
roommate........in his words: In September I am moving to Park City for the
winter to work and ski and see what it is like
living in the mountains. I have a great place
to live, but am looking for a roommate. If you
could do me a favor in the next group email
could you just tell people I am moving there and
am looking for a roommate. We had 4 brand new race coaches
on the hill this week..........Dave Kerwynn, Chrissy Haas, Greg Hardy, Paul Planz. I think
we add more new faces this coming week. Tom
Sell and Vance, where are you? This is the
first year in camp history we won't see Vance or
Tom.........kinda weird not having them around.
HUGE session coming up.....I think around 170
campers. Sessions 4 and 5 are insanely huge.
so stay tuned for future updates.........same
bat time, same bat channel.
Session 4, 2004 update
Hey, we had 170 or so campers last week. 20
coaches. Despite the huge numbers, things ran
relatively smooth. Two race coaches went down
with illness. Scotty Veenis filled in all week
as substitute coach for Dave Kerwynn's group,
and Scotty and Jamie Hinderliter filled in for
an ill Greg Hardy the last two days of the
session. And the 3rd counselor thrown into
coaching duty was Heidi Holland, as she coached
a low intermediate skier all week. The
theme for the week was WARM WEATHER.........I
don't think it ever got below freezing up at
Timberline all week. We used a ton of salt and
the public lane became a slush mogul field by
10am everyday. The last run down at the end of
the day was sloshing thru big mounds of slushy
muck. I'm hearing some predictions from a few
people that Timberline will close early because
of a lack of snow...........I've seen at least 3
years with less snow for this time of year
including last summer.........so I'm not jumping
on the "close early" bandwagon predictions. We
are still skiing all the way to the parking
lot. Florjan is off to New Zealand to coach the
rest of the summer (winter down there)....Jon
O'Brien is up at t-line this week coaching some
of his top kids from his program in
Utah......some of those kids are wicked good.
Also had a Ryohei (Yohay) sighting in the mogul
lane.. Yohay is living in Portland and making
Sushi at a portland restaurant. New
afternoon activities were added to the mix this
past week: We have a new golf cage up at the
soccer field. I haven't seen it yet, but it got
good reviews. Also new is Kite Boarding. I
haven't seen that one either, so I can't say
much about it. We had a worried mother
this past week. Her son came to camp, never
called home the first 3 days of camp.........the
mom called the camp phone number on Wednesday
while everybody was away at the picnic (nobody
answered the phone), so the mother panicked and
called the cops to find her son. So cops from
Sandy, OR (30 miles away), came to the lodge at
11pm Wednesday night to inform us that they had
a worried mom on their hands. So they woke the
kid up and made him call home..............At
the picnic we had the first ever "Tamppuke-o
Challenge". What is the tampuke-o challenge?
Each of the 6 camper participants were to try
and drink a gallon of juice..........first one
to consume his gallon of juice wins a new
skateboard. It was a barf-a-rama, crowd
pleasing, gross-out event of the week. I
happen to have the video camera there, so I
captured some of the highlights........one kid
puked 12 times. It took about 25 minutes for
the winner to finish off his juice..........the
two remaining contestants gave each other a big
hug and the crowd went wild. A new
Yurt was built on the lodge campus.........It
houses the terrain park digger crew at this
time............not sure if it's just a
temporary fixture, or just there for the summer
months. Two people from the "no cookie"
list have failed and have been removed from
membership...........Mike Langdon grabbed a
couple of chocolate chip cookies and said "I'm
eating a cookie.......who cares"........The
other cookie failure was Elliot Halverson.......booooooooo.
Former MHSSC race coach Chris Cota who hasn't
worked at camp in about 8 years told me to add
him to the no cookie list...........And Will
Wasson, former mogul coach told me a story about
having a cheese and lettuce sandwich at
camp........and he bit into a moth that was
hiding in the lettuce! gross! Izi comes to
camp this week in his glorious
comeback..........he wants on the no cookie
list. It's almost time to vote for
employee of the month for JUNE, 2004. If you
are a current staffer, you can vote for who you
think deserves to win, via on-line voting (reply
to this e-mail).........or just tell me your
vote sometime this week. Shameless self
promotion: it's my birthday on friday (July
2).........The plan is to meet up and go bowling
in Gresham friday night. 8:30pm, Eastmont
Lanes in Gresham: 2000 E Powell Blvd, Gresham,
OR 97030 503-665-9000. After bowling,
perhaps the dog track.....gambling on dogs
that run fast. From Mt Hood, as you drive into
Gresham, go left at the "Y"......Powell
Blvd........If you went past Fred Meyer, you
went too far on Hwy 26..........Once you are on
Powell, it's only about 1/3 mile on the right
side of the street........it's easy to
miss.......small sign. Same place as last
year..........high score wins
something............that's about
it...........don't forget to vote for employee
of the month.........and join us for bowling on
friday.
Session
5, 2004 update
Hi kids,
two huge sessions down, the rest of the
summer will be Gravy...............the
snow is melting fast, but we can still
ski all the way to the parking lot.
Lift lines were big this week. Just
finished session 5 with 170 or so
campers. Seemed to have more than our
share of injuries on the hill this past
week.........two brothers went home
injured........what are the odds of
that? MHSSC Employee of the month
for June 2004 went to office boy Tim
Feeney...........Feeney gathered a huge
portion of the votes..........congrats
TIM!!!! keep up the good work. There
was a 3 way tie for 2nd place in the
voting: Jamie Hinderliter, Brandon
Sequoia, and Bill Whalley tied for the
silver medal. A name from the
past surfaced on Palmer this week: Ara
Papazian was training with the Tichy ski
camp. He was a camp counselor about 12
years ago.........maybe longer
ago........it's all a blur to me. He's
now married, is a lawyer, and still
competes in triathathons
(sp?)...........He's famous for hitting
a deer in the mhssc coaches van and
taking out the headlight! We went
bowling last night to celebrate my 39th
birthday.....yes, I'm THAT
old............about 15-18 staffers
showed up for the 2nd annual bowling
birthday bash. High score went to Hiro.......130.......2nd
place Feeney with 114, I took the bronze
scoring 113. As you can see from these
scores, we don't possess significant
bowling skilz. Low score? fifty
something. The big softball game at the
camp picnic was dominated by
the counselors/campers
team...........the coaches team had the
traditional 9 players, while the
counselor/camper team had 19 ball
players............so no matter where
the coaches hit the ball in the field,
there was a player there to catch
it.............I think the final score
was 7 to 2 in favor of the
counselors/campers team.............Izi made his triumphant return to MHSSC
after a two year layoff. And Rogan returned after being away for one
summer. welcome back.......Our
snowboard alpine race coach, Nick Colavito, had successful surgery on his
arm and is already back on the snow
working with one good arm. Will Wasson says hi from South America where he is
scouting out new routes for his Snofari
vacation ski trips that he hosts. Scotty Veenis and James (terrain park
digger) challenged the mighty Deschutes
River down the famous Oak Springs rapid
on an inner tube. Both survived and did
it multiple times. A mouse ran the
slalom course yesterday on lane 6. A
small mouse decided to move into my
camping chair that I had folded up
and stored inside a bag and left at the
top of Palmer overnight...........I go
to unfold my chair in the morning half
way down lanes 5-6, and sitting there in
my chair, was this mouse. At first he
just hung out on the chair and
underneath the chair...it
pooped.......then it went running across
the snow, right to a blue slalom pole,
and then it ran UP the slalom
pole..........true story! I captured it
all on video. Maybe I'll send the
footage to America's funniest home
videos. After it came back down the
blue slalom pole, it ran to the red
pole........and ran up the red pole
where Hiro caught it in his hands and
he carried it back to my
chair.........we put it in the cup
holder on the chair, and it hung out for
about an hour. It ran away when we
weren't looking...........but returned
at the end of the day........it ran
around, across my leg.....and eventually
made it's way to a GS gate in lane 5.
It dug itself into a hole next to a GS
gate base in the snow and was still
there after pulling the gate out at the
end of the day. Maybe next week, the
mouse will make its way to the Super-G
course...............Tonight is blues
fest at portland's waterfront
park............here's the schedule if
you can make it down there. Look for
me. There will only be 5,000 or so
people, so I'll be easy to find.
Session 6, 2004 update
Hiya, 6 sessions down, 8
to go. I've only witnessed
small signs of burnout amongst
the current staff (self
included). 12-week camper-staff
Dave is holding up strong. He
just ended his 6 weeks of being
a "camper"......now he puts in 6
weeks of the staff part of
his journey. Friday was likely
the last day we could still ski
all the way to the parking
lot......unless the groomers
feel like pushing a ton of snow
near the bottom of the canyon
(unlikely). Chipmunk
update.............Brandy invested in one of those "catch
- and - release" traps for the
chipmunks that are roaming the
lodge. It's very effective. We
caught 4 chipmunks in 4 days.
I've been releasing the
chipmunks at the old Wapanitia
building about 250 yards away
from the lodge basement trap
area...........so there's the
possibility that we keep
catching the same set of
chipmunks over and over again.
Mike suggested that I spray
paint the chipmunks that we
catch in the trap so we know if
they are repeat offenders. Is
paint toxic? Robin Cressy (yeah
me) saved MHSSC breakfast on monday morning. Two breakfast
cooks (identities not revealed)
had issues with their alarm
clocks and were not there to
cook breakfast............I got
to the lodge at 5:30am and
noticed the kitchen was deserted
and all the lights were
off.......that was a solid
clue. I trotted over to Mike
and Lynne's trailer to wake him
up and tell him the
situation........he calmly said
"turn everything on........I'll
be there in a
minute"............so we put our
aprons on and went to
work.........the sleepy cooks
eventually showed up to finish
the job. Wednesday was
dominated by high winds up on
Palmer. Definitely one of the
windiest (windyest?) days I've
seen in recent memory where they
were actually running the
lifts...........anyway, most of
the kids bailed after a run or
two and eventually timberline
decided to shut the lifts around
10:30am........so they took the
kids to the movies and then to
the picnic on the way back.
Another mouse found it's way
into my chair bag (read last
weeks' update about mouse
#1)..........anyway, this mouse
was a little smaller, and we
named her "Lynne
Annett".......Lynne enjoyed
running on the palmer snowfield
like mouse #1 (named "Mike), but
didn't attempt to climb any
slalom gates. I'm sending in
the mouse #1 slalom video
footage to the animal planet TV
show.........they pay $100 for
any clips they use on the air.
plus you get a free "animal
planet t-shirt"..........Some
ex-staffer updates: Mike
Byrne's daughter Sierra (former
camper) got married a couple
weekends ago. Congrats to the
Byrne family! Will Wasson is
still down in Argentina......he
says there's not much snow down
there........and he might take a
guest appearance at Mt Hood
sometime in August. Former
MHSSC cook, Andrew Lynn says
hi: I wanna chime in and say HI to
everyone from NYC. I am
working as the youth media ed.
Coordinator at Manhattan Public
Access. Camille Frederick (the voice of
timberline) is getting married
(again) in September. Forgot to
mention last camp update that Scotty Carlis made a MHSSC
comeback.........he was guest
counselor for session 5. He's
living in Portland these days. I
beat 4 suckers in a game of
"H-O-R-S-E" on thursday.........$1
to get in, winner takes all.
easy money! like taking candy
from a baby. Terry McLeod & Co.
took me thru the MHSSC ropes
challenge course on Thursday
afternoon. No campers signed up
for the activity, so Terry used
the afternoon to train
counselors Tory, Fritz, and Shawna on operating the 3 event
challenge course. I was one of
the guinea pigs. I have to
admit that I was slightly scared...........the log walk
was the sketchiest
event......Shawna braved the log
walk too.........but she didn't
yell obscenities when she jumped
off the log like I did. And we
did 2 mock rescues on the
zip-line.........Fritz saved me
from sure death......and I don't
recommend hanging in that
harness for long periods of
time. ok, I just realized that
most of what I have written this
week is about me..............me
me me me. Me me me! It's all
about me. ME! Illness has hit
camp. Staffers are puking,
coughing, sore throats
etc.........some people are
blaming food
poisoning..........who knows.
ok, that's all folks.....
Session 8, 2004 update
Good Evening, This is my 3rd attempt today to write
this weeks’ camp update.
I was done writing the
first draft earlier
today, when I blew the
circuit in my place and
everything shut
off…….right before I was
to hit the "send"
button. It was 101
degrees in portland
today….I had 6 VCR’s
running, 3 TV’s, the
computer/monitor, air
conditioner…….then I
decided that wasn’t
enough and I tried to
heat up some leftovers
in the microwave
oven…….pop goes the
circuit! 2nd attempt at this e-mail
update and my computer
froze about 4 paragraphs
in……….so this time, I’m
writing it in Microsoft
Word, saving as I go,
then cutting and pasting
it to the e-mail………so I
hope you appreciate the
sweat and tears I put
into this update. I am
actually sweating……..not
lieing about the 101
temp. Yesterday was 103
temp…………Palmer snowfield
has melted……camp is over
for 2004. The end. Ok,
not really…….looks like
enough snow to get us to
Sept. 4, the last day of
camp. This just in from
former staffer Pierce
Louis: MHSSC is in Outside
magazine as the top 63
skill camps in the
world. Way to go!!!!!
Highlight event of the
week: Cook staffer, Hannah Tsai, took a
softball to the face at
the picnic on Wednesday.
Hannah was playing 2nd base, some coach
(unknown) hit a
line-drive toward
Hannah……..she missed the
ball with her glove, and
it struck her just below
her eye on her cheek
bone. Luckily the x-rays
came up negative, but
her eye was swollen shut
the next morning. She
resembled Rocky from
"rocky 1"…….the scene in
the 14th round, when rocky says
to his manager "I can’t
see out of my eye……..cut
me Mick…….cut
me"……anyway, Hannah’s
eye looked much better a
few hours later and she
is on the road to full
beauty status. It was a
big masters adult week
on the glacier this
week. The yearly masters
race is taking place
this weekend with a GS
and slalom race. Lots of
the camps had adults on
hand. Mike Syrovatka (a.k.a. "Dr. Love")
coached most of our
adult female campers
this week. I wonder if
Mike is related to the
original Dr. Love (Wayne Amsbury) who worked at
camp during the end of
the snow bunny era. Joe
Reis and wife Anne made
their yearly 1-week
appearance this
week…….Joe was one of
the early coaches back
in the original camp
years……..even before I
worked. Then he took
about a dozen years off
before making his
comeback. He said this
year was the first time
he was here and didn’t
see Vance. Vance, where
are you? Tom Sell? Dr.
Love?
1. If you could be the opposite sex for 6 months, would you do it?
- Would you sacrifice your life to undo the 9-11 tragedy?
- If you had 10 minutes to live, would you have sex if there was a HOT willing partner that you’ve never met before?
- Would you rather win the Tour de. France or Wimbledon?
- Would you prefer to have an ACL injury or Dislocated shoulder?
- If a camper was apparently drowning at Oak Springs (biggest rapids on the Deschutes river), would you jump in and try to save him? (no life jacket for you)
- Would you live in a tree fort for 6 months for $17,342.19 by yourself (no human contact)
- Would you go to jail for 2 years to protect your parents who actually were the ones that committed the crime?
- Would you take a shit on National TV for $4,000?
- Would you rather run the marathon (26 miles) or swim 8 miles?
- Would you name your first born child "Mayo" for $23,411.00?
- Would you chop one of your toes off (your pick of toe) to save the life of your pet cat or dog?
Snowboard race coach Nick Colavito turned 40 yesterday……..happy birthday Nick! Nick and Bill Whalley have been taking campers to the coast each of the last 2 weekends to learn how to surf. From what I’ve heard, it’s been a great time. It’s almost time to vote for July employee of the month……..give me your vote by replying to this e-mail or tell me in person sometime this week………Barrett left this past week, and he already voted for EOM. There you go Barrett……….I mentioned you in the camp e-mail update……..congratulations on getting mentioned! Shaquille O’neal has been traded to the Miami Heat………make a note of it. The summer olympics happen next month……steroids anyone? Ok, I’m out of material as you can see………..I really mentioned very little about actual camp events, but I managed to fill up lots of space……….my goal has been accomplished …… I forgot to mention in the 7th session update that we had a 22 year old camper that got drunk a lot and missed 2 days of skiing because nobody could wake him up……..he absolutely refused to wake up. The chipmunk population in the basement has been reduced………the Brandy trap and release set up has caught a total of 6 chipmunks……….most I think are too scared to come back……….although I have no guarantee that I haven’t caught the same one 6 times. The best bait seems to be banana………they didn’t seem to go for the cheese…….so much for that stereotype. Ok,……..I need to end this.
Session 9, 2004 update
Hi y’all, JAMIE
HINDERLIGHTER is
the recipient of
the Employee of
the month for
July 2004!
Congrats Jamie,
YOU ROCK! You win a new
car. (see Mike
about the car
thing)
There was a
two-way tie for
employee of the
month runner-up.
Cleaning lady Anita and
Cook/coach Sage
Dunham shared
the silver
medal. You guys
rock too……….but
you win nothing. Craig Bowden received one
vote (he hasn’t
worked in 2004
yet, but is
working these
next 3
weeks)………and one
person voted for
"the entire
kitchen staff". Tim Feeney,
office boy, has
told me he is
burned out
working in the
camp office
(stage 2:
acceptance……stage
1 is denial) He
said, and I
quote: "people
weren’t made to
sit in little
cubicles staring
at computer
screens all day
long" Short
lift lines this
week for the
most part. We
only had about
80
campers…….only
60 or so this
coming session. Shawna Riley knitted me a
thong……….I’d be
willing to wear
it at the next
camp orientation
meeting for
$10,000. So
start collecting
funds. It’s
pretty skimpy
and has the
letter "R"
knitted in the
front part. Emily Longfield wanted me to
mention that she
was skiing well
on Friday. Emily
also renewed a
past afternoon
activity called
"mystery
activity"…………a
few kids signed
up……..the
mystery activity
was
rollerblading
followed by
getting ice
cream in Govy.
About 10 years
ago, Mike Annett had his own
"mystery
activity"……Mike’s
magical mystery
tour……We took
the blue bus
full of kids to
the Bagbee hot
springs in the
middle of
nowhere………..I
remember a very
long bus ride
and arriving
there at 6:30pm
(dinner
time)………there
were naked
people
there………and I
think we ran out
of gas on the
way home. One thing I
forgot to
mention in the
last camp e-mail
update: a camper
woke up at 4am
scared for his
life thinking Mt
Hood was about
to erupt……….he
awoke
counselor/video
guy Jeff Moore with his
fear……Jeff
helped calm the
kid and had the
kid call his
parents (keep in
mind the 4am
thing)……anyway,
the mountain did
not erupt and we
are all still
alive. That’s
all I got this
week…………5 more
weeks to go………..
Session 10, 2004 update
Session
11, 2004 update
The
question
of the
week:
what is
your
favorite
summer
olympic
event? I
enjoy
the
field
and
track
plus
men’s
basketball.
Swim
racing
just
doesn’t
do it
for me.
But
that’s
just me.
How many
swim
events
are
there in
the
olympics
anyway?
Ok, on
to the
camp
update
for
session
11,
2004.
Both
presidential
candidates
were in
Portland
on
Friday.
Neither Bush nor Kerry visited
the
Palmer
snowfield,
so they
obviously
don’t
care
about
us.
Kerry
actually
spent
today
(Saturday)
in the columbia
gorge
hoping
to do
some
windsurfing,
but the
winds
were
dead……..he
might
come
back if
the
winds
are good
on
Monday
or
Tuesday.
Question
#2 of
the
week:
Are you
voting
for Bush
or
Kerry?
(if you
vote by
replying
to this
e-mail,
keep in
mind,
the vote
won’t
actually
count)…….speaking
of
voting……..Sage
Dunham turns 18
tomorrow……..he
can
vote……..he
can go
see
adult
movies,
he can
be tried
as an
adult,
he can
buy
cigarettes…..welcome
to
adulthood.
Have
fun. Two
names
from
MHSSC
past
appeared
this
week. Mike
King,
staffer
9 years
ago,
showed
up with
his
girlfriend
for a
short
visit.
He was
camping
out west
and made
a pit
stop in
govy.
He’s
into
snowboarding
now……..can’t
stand
putting
on ski
boots.
And
making
his
MHSSC
coaching
comeback
this
past
week was
none
other
than John
Mulligan.
Mulligan
was a
camper
back
when I
started
working
in
1986…….he’s
legend
around
here.
These
days
he’s
back
working
as the
ski
technician
for Kristina Koznick……..
and for
you
gossipers……he’s
no
longer
engaged
to Picabo
Street…..yet
they
remain
friends. Craig
Bowden is back
coaching
for 3
weeks……….he’s
planning
on
buying
the blue
bus from
Mike for
$1,
driving
it to
"burning
man" in
Northern
California
in late
August………http://www.burningman.com/
for
details.
I saw Heidi
Gamma do
a
helicopter
off a
tiny
jump
while
holding
a gate
wrench
in her
left
hand…….and
she
rotated
the
opposite
direction
of her
more
comfortable
direction.
Impressive
stuff! Bill
Whalley was at
level
"15"
burnout
(on a
scale
from 1
to 10)
last
week,
but he
said he
made a
comeback
and it’s
back
down to
level
2.5 this
week. He
and Nick Colavito have
been
leading
the
stayover
MHSSC
campers
to the
oregon
coast
for
"surf
camp"…..kids
that
stay
more
than one
session,
can pay
a fee,
camp
out, get
surfing
gear,
lessons,
food,
and have
a great
time at
the
coast on
the
weekend…….11
campers
are
there
right
now. Shawna turned
30
yesterday…….it’s
just a
number.
30 aint
shit! Mike
King is
30…….Zvi was
combo
counselor/cook
this
week……..at
5:43am
on
Monday
morning
as he
put the
strawberries
out for
breakfast,
he said
to me "I
like the
strawberries
when
they are
just
unfrozen"………."and
you can
put THAT
in your
next
newsletter"………..so
there
you have
it. Camp
is
winding
down……staff
is
slowly
getting
smaller.
3 more
weeks.
Some
rocks
near the
mid-way
loading
station
on
Palmer……..As
of
Friday,
lane 5
was
still
full
length…….lane
6 has
rocks
near the
top.
……We ran
dual GS
on
Friday…..I
challenged Mike
Annett to a
race,
but he
declined. Chelsea Stamer sent the
MHSSC
staff a
care
package
full of
food
goodies
and
pens……..there
are
never
pens
around
when you
need
one, so
Chelsea
saved
the day.
Thanks
Chelsea!
I
encourage
more of
you to
follow
Chelsea’s
example……That’s
all for
this
week……..
Session
12, 2004
update
Hey hey
hey,
Here’s
your
session
12 MHSSC
update………….welcome
3 new
people
to the
infamous
MHSSC
staff
e-mail
newsletter
list: Eva
Gonzales (race
coach
from Mt
Baker,
originally
from
Spain), Mateja
Gombac (college
racer
for
Boise
State,
originally
from
Slovenija),
and
former
mhssc
coach Matt
Brown (he
worked
at camp
in the
late
80’s,
resides
in Sun
Valley
these
days).
I know
this is
an
update
from
what
happened
this
past
week,
but this
is an
official
reminder
that
it’s Tim
Feeney’s
birthday
on
Monday.
I don’t
know his
age………twenty
something?
He’s had
some
epic
birthday
bashes
at Charlies
bar and
grill in
the
past, so
there’s
potential
for a
school
night
event
like no
other
come
Monday
night. Terry goes to
bed at
9:55pm,
so you
better
start
early Tim, so Terry can be
part of
the
festivities………I
can last
till
10:18pm
or so.
Happy
birthday
Tim.
Speaking
of
birthday’s, Sage celebrated
his 18th birthday
last
Sunday,
by
slicing
his
finger
open
while
cutting
potatoes
in the
kitchen.
He has
several
stitches
to close
the
wound……..18?
one for
each
year? Sage also had
some
alarm
clock
issues
this
week……..but
he more
than
covered
his butt
by
having
breakfast
ready at
the
usual
time. 12-week
Dave had
his
final
ski day
yesterday…….he
was
promoted
to
counselor
his last
week…….and
actually
was on
the
payroll.
(I
think)…..could
you
handle
12 weeks
of ski
race
training
on the
palmer
snowfield?
If he
was
burned
out, he
hid it
quite
well.
Speaking
of a
long
summer
at
camp……..trivia
question………can
you name
7 mhssc
staffers
from
2004
that
worked
all 14
sessions?
Since we
just
finished
week 12,
you’ll
have to
be able
to see
into the
future.
(clue Lynne
Annett did not
work
session
1). We
had a
double
bus
breakdown
on the
way back
from
white
water
rafting
on
Thursday……I
heard
the
short
bus
overheated………..so
they
piled
everybody
into the
big
bus……..and
20 miles
later it
overheated.
We sent
two
rescue
vans……..not
sure
when the
kids got
back for
dinner……..9ish?
Photographer Brian
Robb drove
one of
the
vehicles
in the
Presidential
candidate John
Kerry’s
trip
from
Portland
to Hood
River.
Kerry
was to
do some
windsurfing
last
Sunday
in the
Gorge,
but the
winds
didn’t
cooperate………Kerry
instead,
signed
autographs. Emily had an
excellent
slalom
run on
Friday……..thought
it was
worth
mentioning.
Video
boy Jeff
Moore was
almost
crashed
into
twice
this
week.
He’s
good at
keeping
the
crashing
person
in the
frame
while
he’s
being
mowed
down by
a
sideways
skier……..If
you
remember
the
session
1 camp
update,
I
mentioned
that the
ABC
family
cable
channel
TV show
"switched"
was gonna do
a show
with
mhssc
this
summer………well
we sorta
dropped
the
ball,
and they
instead
did
their
show
with
Windell’s
ski and
snowboard
camp……..it
airs on
the ABC
family
cable
channel
on
August
23, 3pm
I think.
Check
your TV
guide……..It’s
a show
where
they
take one
kid from
one walk
of life
and
"switch"
them
with
another
person
for a
few
days……..so
they did
the
switch
with a
Windell’s
snowboard
camper.
I’ll set
my VCR
to
capture
the
action…….speaking
of
national
TV, did
you
happen
to see
MSNBC’s
story on
the U.S.
ski team
training
on
Palmer?….it
was part
of their
olympic
footage
yesterday.
They
were
saying
the
skiers
were
preparing
for the
winter
games in
2006 by
training
in
august.
OMIGOD,
team USA
mens
basketball
just
lost
again………..they
must go
3-0 from
here on
out to
win the
gold.
There
was a Pete Deisroth sighting
on the
hill
this
week. Pete is
coaching
his
Rowmark
ski
academy
kids. Lori,
where
are you?
The snow
is
holding
up
pretty
good
this
August……definitely
more
snow
this
year
than
last
year……..although
there is
a
mudflow
river
thing
going
down the
middle
of the
mogul
lane
right
now.
Darren
hopes
they can
cut a
new set
of
moguls
on
another
chunk of
the
snowfield………the
racers
are
moving
the
lanes
2-3
these
last 2
weeks.
No lift
lines
lately
which is
nice……kids
are
getting
in tons
of
training
runs.
Wet
weather
is in
the
forecast,
so it
could be
a cooler
week
coming
up. It’s
raining
right
now in portland
as I
type
this up.
First
rainfall
in
awhile.
Apparently Robin
Cressy (me) has
been
awarded
the
mhssc
employee
of the
month
for
August.
They
said
there
was a
secret
vote
behind
my back
even
though
there is
still a
week and
a half
to go in
this
month.
I’m
guessing
about 3
people
voted…….
So I
guess
I’ll
have to
do my
best to
live up
to the
award
these
next 9
days…….If
you
didn’t
get to
vote and
you feel
cheated
out of
your
MHSSC
rights,
you can
file a
formal
protest
to the
camp
director
for a
recall
election.
…
quit this job last April, but they spoke me to stay and I did. Now I really envy my desision and I am in a process of finding a new job... so therefore I find it really hard to motivate myself every morning...I still do some mogulcoaching here in Southern Finland. We have freestyle world-championships in Finland next winter, so I go and work a bit there that I can meet the old friends... (the oldest ones have quit though... but some are left). As you might know I have a dog and I do dog agility with him. We started competing this Summer and I must say we are quite fast... sometimes too fast, so mistakes happen but one day we will be world-champions!! (kidding) It is a fun hobby to do with your
dog... Then I go to aerobics and gym, sometimes I bike to work and back (2hours) and sometimes I run... So those are the things I do on my freetime. And in winter time I try to ski as much as possible... I still love skiing!! That's what is happening in my life!
…that’s about it from Annett world. 2 weeks to go………thanks for reading.
Session 14, 2004 update
Happy Labor Day! Summer MHSSC is officially over. Woo Hoo! Or boo hoo. A combination of both perhaps? I’m sad to see it end…….although I look forward to sleeping in and not putting my ski boots on for awhile. ****I had an error in the session 13 update………Mike Langdon bowled a "141", not "144"…..and 2nd place went to Chris Hargrave (score of 122?)" Here’s what happened this past week………Masters adult camp. We had 20 or so adult racers, 2 mogulers and 3 snowboarders…….coaches: Rust, Terry, Craig Daniels, Darren and Chris……….plus 2 other snowboarders who rode with coach Brandy. And technically Mike Langdon made a guest appearance on the hill on Saturday……..2 videographers (myself and Jeff Moore)……..2 counselors (Bill and Fritzy) 3 cooks (Sage, Joe, and Nolan)…….plus special guest camper staff wannabe Shawna Riley……as she volunteered to do lots of dishes. I probably forgot somebody (don’t hold it against me please) The adult campers had this huge cooler on the front porch of the lodge all week full of beer……not sure who kept it well stocked, but there were lots of beer and wine on campus all week. The bad weather returned this session shutting down the chairlifts on Wednesday and Thursday…….We drove the hardcore campers up to the top of the magic mile in the camp vans on Wednesday for training in the horizontal fog, rain, wind……..Racers had a 30 gate slalom in the mile canyon while the snowboarders and mogulers built a jump down lower in the canyon. Bill and Fritzy drove van shuttles so the racers didn’t have to hike each run (although 2 hardcore adults hiked all day and made more runs than everybody else) ………Thursday, we had the same shitty weather, but add new snow to the mix. Mike tried to drive his 4-wheel truck up to the top of the mile to see if we could do another day of hiking in the mile canyon, but the new snow made it impossible………so instead we opted for a day off of snow…..Bill and Darren took a vanload of adults to the oregon coast for surf camp. I heard it was a great trip……nice weather…..and they got back to govy around 1am. Another group headed to Hood River for golf with Terry, caving with John Rust @ mt adams……..Friday the nice weather returned and we were blessed with a few inches of new snow on the ground………it turned to glue around 11am, but it was fun while it lasted. Because of the crapola weather for 2 days, Mike offered an extra ski day (Saturday)to the menu for these guys…….About 18 of the 25 adults stuck around and got an extra day of gate training and the 2 snowboarders got another day in the terrain park…….Terry and Bill ran the challenge course for the adults on Tuesday……..it’s quite entertaining to see some of these guys as old as 64 go screaming down the zip-line and jumping off the leap of faith trapeze event. Bill Whalley got launched off the ground a few times while belaying some of the larger contestants in the leap of faith and log walk. We had one stranded female in the zipline, so Terry had to do a real live rescue…….speaking of Terry, I downloaded the magic mile chairlift with him on Friday and he urinated off the chair…….keep in mind we didn’t have the safety bar down. There was a pancake food fight on Thursday morning with the leftover breakfast. Not sure who won although the final pancake was coated in whip cream. Beer pong was one of the events at the picnic on Wednesday……..2nd annual. Did a final summer run with Mike Annett and Shawna (and Fritzy’s dog Sara) at the picnic……Non camp news: Craig Bowden is down at burning man right now……he didn’t have enough time to get the blue bus ready for burning man 2004, but hopes to bring it out of retirement for burning man 2005.
Some random stats of summer 2004:
Days missed skiing due to shit weather: 2 (out of 71 possible)
# of salt bags MHSSC used on Palmer: approximately 1775 (71,000 pounds) (please pass the pepper)
# of video tapes used: 253
# of campers: 967 (3rd most ever I think)
# of chipmunks caught in Brandy’s catch-and-release trap in the lodge basement: 9 (2 of which we painted their tails pink)
# of times the breakfast cooks overslept: 3
# of weeks 12-week Dave was at camp: 12
# of staffers that worked all 14 sessions: 6 (plus 2 or 3 others that worked 13 and a half sessions)
that’s all I got for ya………another great summer!
September 23, 2004 update
Hi All! So much to write, so little time.........actually just the opposite. Lots of time, and nothing to write about. I haven't set my alarm clock since camp ended 2 1/2 weeks ago. Sleep is a good thing. But sleep is overrated. I'm over it. This is my first camp e-mail update since I did the reformat of the hard drive of my once dying computer. Just for the record, my computer hard drive did not officially CRASH, but it got to the point where just moving the mouse in a funny direction was enough to cause the computer to freeze up and in need of a re-boot. I was able to save all my folders/documents to zip disks before the reboot, so all wasn't lost........except my entire e-mail address book. In rebuilding my e-mail address book, I noticed that I had nuked a few of you off my old MHSSC e-mail list at some point in the past year or so. Probably because your particular e-mail address stopped working and I kept getting reject messages back from your account. So if this is the first MHSSC e-mail you've received from me in a long time.......welcome back. I now have one giant MHSSC staff e-mail list now......151 names on it! To some internet providers, sending an e-mail to 151 people might classify my e-mails to you guys as "SPAM", and some programs may nuke my e-mails or put them in the dreaded "bulk folder" in yahoo or hotmail……….so if you have spam blocker or something similar, you’ve been warned……….spam is good and you should accept it with open arms. MHSSC e-mail spam is good anyway. When’s the last time you actually ate "SPAM"? I personally haven't eaten spam since the 1970's. Look I wrote a whole paragraph about nothing and I haven’t mentioned one thing about MHSSC yet. Keep reading…….MHSSC lodge quickly became a ghost town shortly after the last ski day for the masters. There was no last party or long good-byes…….most everybody just jumped in their cars or on a plane and away they went……..myself included. The lodge was left in shambles! Stuff was everywhere. Mike & Lynne took off the east coast and went to the U.S. open tennis tournament , Rust took a rockclimbing vacation, and I took off for the oregon coast meeting Craig Bowden and Darren along the journey…….Craig and I went to a bar in Seaside, OR, where it was Kareoke (sp?) night. It was a most pitiful scene where 2 locals took turns sharing the mic singing horribly……..Craig said " this is the most depressing thing I have ever seen"......at one point,I noticed that Craig had fallen asleep………2 nights later, I met up with Darren Owen…….again we went to a bar in Newport, Oregon…….the bar sign read "live music"…….so we went in…….more Kareoke……..It was like groundhog day…….same scene, different bar. But they did have a pool table and we played doubles with the locals. We also checked out the famous "oregon coast aquarium"……Keiko the whale (star of "free willy" movies) once lived there as the main attraction, but they moved Keiko back to the open seas of Iceland where he was born. Keiko has since died……anyway, there was a cool shark aquarium to replace keiko……..and a live bat display too. To be honest, the Aquarium cost too much and it’s overrated…….so if you wanna go see live animals, you should go spend your hard earned dollars at the Oregon zoo in portland. Anyway, a week and a half after camp ended, Rust and I went back to the lodge to clean up the mess and prepare for fall camp session 1, while Mike put the office back together in the lodge and paid bills and answered a weeks worth of phone messages and e-mails. There were 3 campers for session 1 fall. 2 racers and 1 freestyle skier. Craig Daniels coached the 2 racers, and Hargrave took on the freestyle skier. Fall camps a mini 3-days on snow camps…….they ski Friday thru Sunday (only 3 days the lifts run this time of year)……anyway, bad weather closed the lifts the first 2 days. But they arranged for a snowcat to do all the hauling those first 2 days……..I wasn’t there, but I heard they had some wet weather, some new powder snow, some fog, and some sun…….the weather was better Sunday and the lifts opened up (an hour late after chipping ice off the chair) and I heard the 3 campers had a good time and got stuff accomplished. And I heard Pierce Louis made a guest appearance on the palmer glacier on Sunday. He told me he votes for Mike Annett as employee of the month for September. Pierce said the Mike not only cooked the food for fall camp, but he was also there to hand out the lift tickets on Sunday……..what other cook in MHSSC history has cooked breakfast and managed to make it to timberline lodge in time to hand out lift tickets (Pierce insisted that I mention this)……….If you read my last camp e-mail update, you know several people already cast their votes for the month of September, but of course there is still more of September left……and not everybody has voted yet……I’ll wait until september is over before counting all the votes and revealing the winner. I still haven’t received a vote from the following people who worked at least part of september (Mike Annett, John Rust, Craig Daniels.....did I forget anyone?)……vote NOW, or forever hold your peace. Everything you say, can and will be used against you in a court of law. Do you understand your rights? …….Next topic……Please share your favorite 2004 MHSSC memories with everyone………reply back to this message and tell me your favorite MHSSC memories from this past summer. I’ll pass them on in the next e-mail update. Enjoy the fall season