2012

Session 1, 2012 MHSSC update:
Welcome back readers!  We last left you off at the staff coast trip some 9 months ago at the conclusion of last summer.  Before I dive into session 1, here are just a few nuggets from the past 9 months:  Last fall, Willy Johnson became a father of a baby boy!  "William H. Johnson III", nicknamed "Trey".  Trey already has a facebook page.  Sam Damon is engaged to Tory Amorello!  I "think" they are getting married sometime very soon.  Sam brought his Harvard ski team out to mt hood a couple weeks ago for a team camp.  Brandy Powell is also engaged!  Ricky Millett was chosen as "instructor of the year" at Timberline Lodge this past winter. Snowboard coach Ben Beavon broke his leg a couple months ago after landing wrong off a big jump at timberline.  It wasn't your typical garden variety broken leg.  It's one of those ones where you have to be life flighted to a Portland hospital and it takes a full year of healing and rehab. See pic below. 

 

Ok, now onto session 1 stuff:
We had about a dozen campers for session 1, two of which were from Australia.  Pat Tingle came in 2nd place in two of the four Golden Rose slalom events (see his trophy pic below).  Chase Kerzel trapped about a half dozen chipmunks in the lodge basement.  He spray painted 2 or 3 of them as a way to know if any of the chipmunks were repeat offenders.  (they weren't).  Spencer Raymond visited camp on Tuesday night.  He's working for Fuxi this summer and made this cool Fuxi store time lapse video. And speaking of Spencer, he ran his first 5k ever last night in the Starlight parade run in Portland last night.  He ran like the wind! A raven ate part of Chase Kerzel's lunch on the hill, unzipping his backpack and pulling the sandwich out.  The raven didn't eat the turkey (cannibalism?)  Terry McLeod was at camp for a couple days, exchanging some work on the challenge course, for lift tickets from Mike.  He also competed in a bike race in Portland on tuesday night.  We did the camp picnic at Hood River.  Palmer was only open on Monday and Friday last week.  It was closed for maintenance and putting in mid-station for the summer season.  *In the spring, you just ride OVER mid-station.  On Thursday, thick fog pushed us down from the magic mile for a training day on the Pucci chairlift.  There were 3 camps battling for hill space that day.  Marcus Caston was on the hill, coaching for Cascade Winter Sports Club.  Mike Annett was walking around the kitchen barefoot, stepping in bacon grease. There are giant black ants crawling around the lodge.  (see pic).  Arielle Richard has a bum knee and isn't skiing this summer.  I made some delicious (and healthy) smoothies for Darren and Terry (see pics).  Darren said it tastes just like "jamba juice" and he told his sister to invest in a vitamix blender.  It had broccoli, cucumber, spinach, and various fruits and seeds in it.   A camp vehicle, driven by Jackie Guy, broke down in Sandy on day 1, on an airport run and Mike had to go do a rescue. Jackie Reis showed up to camp on Thursday with little sister Hillary.  They drove cross country together. Mike is shopping for a 60 inch Plasma TV to go in the camp dining room to replace the 27" tube-TV.  Prescott McLaughlin's new nickname is "candyman". We had a strange talker lady join our camp for the last couple of days of session 1.  She talked a mile a minute and was sort of high maintenance.  Mike Syrovatka carried the salt monkey, a big bundle of gates AND his backpack up the chairlift all by himself on Friday (see pic).  Who does that?!  He's hardcore...

For those of you who know Grant Wilson (longtime adult camper), you should check out this wedding video.  It includes famous actress Nia Peeples, singing "Ride Sally Ride".  Terry McLeod's 2 daughters have a cameo at the 1:47 minute mark of the video.

 

Session 2, 2012 MHSSC update:
Not that much stuff happened session 2, but I took a bunch of photos.  Anyway, here are some of the happenings of session 2:  The van full of kids ran out of gas on the way up to Timberline on Tuesday morning.  Pat Tingle and Co. built a "squat rack" in the lodge basement.  He tried to convince Mike to buy a squat rack for $99 on craigslist, but after being denied, he made one out of wood that was at camp after searching and finding for design on google.  A handful of staffers are working out in the basement on a regular basis and Pat is the personal trainer of some of them (he's certified, and will make you sign a release form that says "death" is a possibility).  We had a couple picnic former staffer guests at the Wednesday picnic at Hood River marina:  Chad Kossar and Luke Wendel both made appearances (see pics below).  Both of those guys live in Hood River these days (the town, not in the river).  Bill Toney fixed up the paintball stuff (see pic).   We trained on Pucci chairlift 4 of the 5 days due to 2 rainy days and 2 stormy snow blizzard type days.  Wednesday the sun came out and we made it up to the magic mile so the kids could get sunburned.  Palmer chairlift hasn't really been part of camp yet this year.  Sysco foods is the new MHSSC food supplier.  They deliver the food directly to camp, so less trips to United Grocer in Gresham?  I managed to capture Mark Syrovatka dancing/moonwalking on video tape, while he waiting for his group near the top of the GS course on Friday.  Chipmunks are still running amok in the lodge.  Former staffers Mike Hay and Polly Hopkins were on the mountain this past week (see pic).  Polly was testing skis and Mike works for Timberline a couple days a week.  For the first time in my 26.2 years of working at camp and going to approximately 326 camp picnics, I accidentally flipped my burger thru the cracks of the grill into the hot coals below (see pic). On Wednesday, I beat newbie CIT Michael DuHain in a game of H-O-R-S-E for $1.  Mike Syrovatka, went the extra mile and helped out on the hill Thursday and Friday despite not being on the payroll this past week.  Keep in mind it was either raining or snowing those days.  According to my sources, one of the camp videographers dropped his camcorder and it went rolling down the hill on Friday (we're gonna have to let you go.)   There was some chatter about bringing back the MHSSC "employee of the month" award.  Anyone want to take that on?  I tried to pass the torch on this a year or two ago, but to no avail.......anyone?  Bueller? The "staff table" is tiny now. I think Mike is sending us a message to sit amongst the common people (campers) during meal time......And that's a wrap on session 2.

More wet weather in the forecast this coming week...yay! (*sarcastic yay) 

'

MY BURGER! Noooooooooooooo!

 

Session 3, 2012 MHSSC update:
First of all, Happy Father's Day to all the MHSSC dads out there!

Session 3 marked the return of Scotty Veenis to the MHSSC coaching staff, after taking a year off to rehab from some big-time injuries sustained in a big-time car accident some 14 months ago.  What an awesome person to have back at mt hood!!!  

There were 3 staff birthday's at camp this past week:  Prescott McLaughlin turned 20, Reid Lambres is now a man (18) and Connor O'Brien can now go to Charlie's Bar & Grill and enjoy a beverage of alcohol (21).   Jackie Guy re-injured her surgically repaired foot/ankle after crashing up on Palmer.  As of this writing, I don't know the extent of her injury.  Jackie Guy also ran the session 3 Sunday-night camp orientation meeting while Mike was gone playing tennis.  The meeting was very quick:  "don't ski into the rocks, wear sunscreen, drink water"...........and "don't do anything stupid".....BAM, done!   Mark Syrovatka lost his cell phone while coaching on upper palmer.  I told him "it's possible that it slid down to the bottom of the lanes and could be just below the road, above high cascade"......Mark thought it was a lost cause......BUT at the end of the day, I found it there and became the cell-phone-finding-HERO!  Darren Owen did a good deed and gave his out-of-money-12-year-old camper $5 bucks so he could buy a delicious ice cream cone at Volcano Cone's on Friday.   We had 3 nice weather days out of 5.  Tuesday was rain/fog, training on Stormin' Norman chairlift.  Wednesday was cold and windy......a good chunk of the campers stayed on the magic mile to avoid freezing to death up above.  Monday, Thursday and Friday were great weather days.  There are lots of camps going on right now. Only a handful of them are training on upper palmer.  Many camps setting courses on the magic mile this time of year.  Some ex-staffers on the hill this past week:  Uros Pavlovcic coaching for Sailer camps (see pic below with Mark Archer), and Luke Wendell (coaching timberline camps starting this coming week) and Barrett Stein, coaching for NASC.  The Palmer chairlift has yet to open up on time in the morning.....hurry up and wait!   Rebecca Rist signed a "will-only-eat-2-cookies-per-session" contract as a way to eat more healthy. Rebecca tore her ACL not too long ago and will be rehabbing this summer (no skiing).  On the same note (health wise) I'm trying to convince Mike to order whole wheat hamburger buns for the camp picnic.  Maybe I will start a petition.  Pat Tingle and Co. re-designed the squat rack in the basement.  Quite a few staffers are jumping on the work-out bandwagon.  Ben Beavon is getting around on crutches now after his big-time broken leg injury (see pic below).  And he's wearing a tie to boot!  Jackie Reis' group did a human pyramid group photo......it was epic! (see below). Mike Foley and Chase Kerzel did the 3-day white water rafting training course (friday-sunday). 

Tonight (sunday, session 4 arrival day) is "dress-nice-for-dinner-night".....so wear something nice.  Wondering what Prescott will wear? 

 

Former staffers Tory Amorello and Sam Damon just got MARRIED!  *photo courtesy of Emily Sampson

 

On a sad note, an experienced climber from Portland, fell to his death on the hogsback area of Mt Hood on Thursday morning. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Session 4, 2012 MHSSC update:
We are 4 weeks in and still waiting for summer weather to show its face.  I think 2 nice sunny days in a row is the current record these first 4 sessions.  Monday was a blizzard......both lifts closed.......all the other camps went home.  Mike said "hike".....we hiked.  Turned out to be a decent 90 minutes or so of hike/training on a chunk of snow just above the bottom of the magic mile.  Tuesday they opened just the magic mile (bad weather up top) and said "no gates on the hill", so it was a insanely-long-lift-lines freeski/drills day.  Wednesday and Thursday were nice.....and Friday it was raining the majority of the day.  Yep, hoping mother nature is kind to us soon. 

MHSSC got a "new" bus....On Wednesday Jon Winslow, Mark Syrovatka, Scotty Veenis, and Jackie Reis hiked up to almost the top of Mt Hood. (see pics below that Scotty took).   Arielle Richard has a new website advertising her crocheted hats/headbands. Scott Houser used the salt monkey for the first time last week.  The snowcat ran over one of the mhssc salt boxes up top of lane 5 and pretty much destroyed it. (see pics).  There was lots of new snow that buried all of our stuff.  Somebody on the mhssc staff, took a picture of his (or her?) buttocks on my camera when I was not with my stuff up on palmer.  The photo made me throw up in my mouth a little bit and I refuse to post it here to spare your own possible vomit situation.  My request for whole wheat hamburger buns at the picnic was fulfilled!  (see pic).  Long-time-ago mhssc coach Tom Sell is in the house! (see pic).  He's coaching Killington these days and his son is training too.

We have an adaptive skier, Jim Polehinke here training with us last week and this coming week.  He was the sole survivor in a plane crash some 5 years ago.  49 died, 1 survivor.  How crazy is THAT?  Nice guy.  His goal is to qualify for the next paraolympics.

Congrats to Ryan Boroughs!!  He just become a father!  Harrison Boroughs born on June 21 in the afternoon, checking in at 6 pounds and 6 ounces, 18 and 3/4" tall. 

Scotty's hiking pics:

and more random session 4 pics

 

Session 5, 2012 MHSSC update:
So far, this feels like the 2nd wettest summer in my 27 years of camp.  I do remember a year during the snowbunny lodge era when Portland received precipitation roughly 350% above normal.  Perhaps this summer will challenge for 1st place?  hope not.  This past week:  Monday cold and cloudy.  Tuesday snowstorm/blizzard event (magic mile only chairlift running).  Wednesday and Thursday were sunny and nice.  Friday was intensely foggy on upper palmer, so we were able to grab a lane and a half on "celebrity" lane (lower palmer) to set a GS and a slalom course just to the west of the mhssc terrain park where it wasn't as foggy.  It even rained on us a bit too to add insult to injury.



Here's some staff stuff from session 5: Mike and Lynne were gone from camp 3 or 4 days starting Saturday morning, as they were playing in a tennis tournament in Bend, OR.  Counselor Jackie Guy held down the fort in the office while Mike Syrovatka ran the sunday night camp orientation meeting.  Pat Tingle celebrated his 20th birthday on Monday (see pics).  Arielle Richard and crew made him a birthday cake, but Tingle was in the basement working out during "desert" time.....so the staff brought the cake to him in the basement.  And Jonathan Winslow celebrated his 25th birthday on Thursday.  He went to the comedy club in portland with some other staffers.   Mike Annett rode a bike from the camp lodge to the picnic on Wednesday.  He road on the highway....no helmet.  There was a staff vs campers softball game at the picnic.  Riley Slaughter and Jonathan Winslow both hit homeruns in a blowout win for the staff.  A session 5 camper looked like former mhssc coach, Marcus Caston (see pic below).   If there still was an employee of the month award at mhssc, Darren Owen told me that his vote for June would have been for Jackie Reis.  Joining me for long picnic runs in the last couple of weeks:  Bill Toney, Joe Sulpizio, Sasha Karapetrova, and Pat Tingle.  Former mhssc camper Ted Ligety did an autograph session (organized by Mark Syrovatka) on Wednesday afternoon outside of the Reliable Racing store.  Darren Owen posed for a quick photo with him (see below).  Ted also skied in Darren's mogul lane and Ted shouted to him "how am I doin' coach?".  Pat Tingle made his mhssc coaching debut this past week.  There was a big spider on Scott Houser's hand at the picnic (see pic).  Both Jaime DuPratt and Jackie Reis screamed and ran away from the spider.  Scotty Veenis posed for picture with 1984 Olympic Gold Medalist Phil Mahre. (see below)  Joe Sulpizio, Chase Kerzel, Rebecca Zell, Tori Chrupalo, Matt Chirico and Noelle Gillis all went skiing with at Mt Bachelor (with a handful of campers) on Friday.  Mark Syrovatka and newbie coach Mike Bansmer both carried 4 salt bags each from top of palmer to "celebrity lane" on Friday in the thick fog/bad snow conditions.  Impressive!  And speaking of Mark Syrovatka...he's on a mission to close his eyes every time I try to take a picture of him.  I served up some yummy healthy smoothies (soy milk, broccoli, celery, Kale, green grapes, strawberries, blueberries, almonds, flaxseed, greek yogurt, peaches, ice cubes) to Jay Hay and Sean Mailey this past week.......they farted a lot afterwards.  Like dozens and dozens of farts as we watched the NBA draft on ESPN......Darren Owen walked in and propped the door and windows open to air the room out.  Jaime DuPratt peed on her ski pants by accident at the top of Palmer on Friday.  Yep, it's come down to farting and urination stories on this blog.......I saw on facebook that Jackie Guy, Joe Sulpizio, Pat Tingle and Connor O'Brien headed to Seattle this weekend to catch the Seattle Mariners/Red Sox game.  Facebook also informed me that former staffer Eva Gonzales-Dellis had a baby boy!  Dorian Antares Dellis - born June 27th at 6:23pm, Albuquerque, New Mexico.  Bill Toney left camp abruptly this week to go be a fireman and put out a forest fire somewhere.  He'll be back (I think?).

For you 80's staffers, I stopped by snowbunny to take a couple pics.  It's kinda sad to see nothing there anymore.  The building completely gone.  But then I pulled out the 1987 camp promo video and watched it with some current staffers.  Some notable things about the 87 video:  The majority of the staff were doing an ab and leg workout routine at the picnic.  Remember those?  Bob Geyer leading the leg workout......coach Dave Martin with the killer abs routine.  I was skinny.  Mike was coaching in his blue with white stripes addidas sweat suit.  And we had a water-ski boat in those days.......making the current staff quite jealous.  And speaking of 80's era, Eric Price was at camp this past week, coaching with his Franconia team.  Eric brought his daughter Sierra to camp (see pic).

Get to know the MHSSC terrain park diggers! 

	Jeff DeForge Jeff, our head digger, is from Adamant, Vermont.  He was part of the park staff at Sugarbush.  His favorite foods include pizza, ice cream and maple syrup.  Jeff roots fore the Boston Bruins.  He's been working at MHSSC since 2011.
	Charlie Mayforth Charlie is a snowboarder from Montpelier, Vermont. He's attending Savannah College of Art & Design.  His favorite foods include waffles, turnips, ranch, but ketchup and mayo is good too. He roots for the Boston Celtics.  He's been working at camp since 2011.
	Jake Rose Jake is a snowboarder from Wasilla, Alaska. He worked on the park staff at Mt Spokane. His favorite food is leftovers, and his favorite website is NOAA.gov.  He lives in his van.  Jake has been working at camp since 2012.
	Thomas Graham III Thomas is a snowboarder from Maggie Valley, NC.  He attends Western Carolina University and has worked on the park staff at Cataloochee ski area. His favorite website is yobeat.com and favorite foods are pizza, pasta, and shrimp.  He roots for the Pacers, Colts, and Braves.  Thomas has been working at MHSSC since 2010.

Former staffer Spencer Raymond, who is working for Fuxi this summer, had his car stolen in Govy this past week.  In Spencer's words:  So I wake up Tuesday morning to find the FUXI truck parked in my spot at Collins Lake. My car was gone! After reporting it stolen and all that, I ask everyone in govy to keep an eye out. In Hucks I post up a Reward sign (free heated boot bag). By the end of the day I had given up and figured my car had already been chopped up to pieces and sold for meth in Welches. I hitched a ride down the mountain when a fellow FUXI worker called and said some kids had found my car! Govy Street Youths, no doubt, had ditched my car at the Grand Lodges. Everything was stolen but a brand new pair of skis I'd planned on testing that day. Windows were down so a little wet on the inside but other than that I'm happy to have a working car in one piece! No damage at all just stolen shred gear and team jacket. Phew!

 

 

 

Session 6, 2012 MHSSC update:
Session 6 brought us 4 sunny nice days and only 1 shit-show-blizzard-day (tuesday).  Timberline Lodge set up an Indian style teepee at the top of the magic mile where I think they set up some kind of food stand to sell goodies to the people  (see pics).  Mike finally got that 60" plasma TV for the camp dining room replacing the old school 27" tube TV (see pics via Chase Kerzel).  I imagine he watched the Wimbledon finals today on that baby.  Last week, I mentioned a photo of Marcus Caston and a session 5 camper that looked just like him.....but then I forgot to post the photo....well it's posted below.  Staffers Matt Chirico, Prescott McLaughlin, Pat Tingle, and Taber Engleken were in charge of shooting off the annual 4th-of-July firework show on the camp soccer field.  Like last year, there was one firework that appeared to tip over and shot horizontally somewhat toward the crowd of campers.  People were running for their lives and campers starting chanting "Carl, Carl, Carl" even though "Carl" (Chase) wasn't even there.  Also on the 4th of July around 10:30pm, there was a trash dumpster in the middle of main-drag Govy road with smoke billowing out!  I heard fire trucks shortly thereafter.  Some of the coaches hiked to the hogsback on Thursday.......and some hiked to to summit on Friday.  Jay Hey went on both hikes.  *I can't remember who all went on these impressive hikes, otherwise I'd toss them some update love.  Matt Chirico and myself celebrated birthdays on Monday (July 2).  Matt turned 18......he's a man!    Arielle Richard and crew made us 2 birthday cakes! (see pics).  And I was lucky enough to get a bonus b-day cake made by Jaime DuPratt (with sprinkles! see pic).  I'm 47 now...where does the time go?  Besides birthday cake, I ate a crapload of cookies and drank 2 mudslides at Charlie's....Oh, the humanity!  There was a camper mom at camp this week filming her son as part of a documentary she's making about her up-and-coming son's attempt to become a world class skier.....her son was in Mark Syrovatka's ski group.  I heard that she had him reenact a few things as he was trying to coach his group...sounds a bit annoying to me.  Snowboard race coach Jonathan Winslow, went skiing on his last day of the session.  He skied thru his own snowboard race course that I captured on video and he did a really nice face plant after the last gate.  Chase Kerzel went the whole week without wearing a hat.  Jackie Guy is skiing again, as her ankle is healing up. 

Oh, and I almost forgot......I lost a game of H-O-R-S-E to Jay Hey. (see pic)  It was my first loss in a game of HORSE since losing to former staffer Bill Whalley in 2007 (session 4).  The day before my loss to J-Hey, I had an intense game of HORSE with Makai Bradley (who was eliminated early) and Joe Sulpizio.  The game with Joe went on for like 20 minutes with about a half dozen onlookers.....both of us survived a boat load of elimination shots until Joe finally missed a 20 footer to get his letter "E".  I felt lucky to get thru that one.  The game with Jay Hey also included Darren Owen and Jon Winslow.  When Darren was eliminated, he handed ME, his $1 bill, as he expected I would be the eventual winner.....that seemed to jinx me!  Jay Hey prevailed in the end, putting me away with a nice 20 footer that I failed to duplicate.  Perhaps my b-ball skilz are eroding.....

 

Session 7, 2012 MHSSC update:
HALF WAY MARK: Session 7 brought us 5 sunny days in a row!!!   Mike Annett was interviewed by a Bend, Oregon TV station a week or two ago about summer skiing @ Mt Hood.  Check it out here.  Rebecca Zell and Chase Kerzel told me that during the rafting trip this week, that some campers yelled over to the shore at the some people: "I think I smell marijuana", and then some fat lady mooned them back.  A camper girl injured her leg thinking it was a broken femur.  The ski patrol ended up loading the girl, still strapped into the toboggan, into Lynne's explorer for her trip to the hospital. Turns out, not a broken femur, but a dislocated knee cap (I think?).  The camp dishwashing machine broke for 3 days, so camper-staff had to wash dishes by hand.  Gino Picozzi flooded the kitchen (getting my info 3rd hand so I don't know the details or the extent)  1980's coach, Paul Richardson, brought his 14 year old son (Jimmy) and nephew (Jack) to camp this past week.  Like old times, Paul tossed several bags of salt on the race lanes to help out the alpine coaches on Monday, after the salt monkey died.  Paul is still an awesome skier!   A kid from another camp had an awesome spider man suit on (see pic).  I beat Simon Leach in a game of H-O-R-S-E for $1.....but then I gave him the opportunity to win the dollar back if he made a shot from over by the tether-ball court....swish!   Jackie Guy ran out of gas in the bus, right at the camp lodge.....gas station only 30 yards away, so it was an easy solve situation.  A racer in Mike Syrovatka's group crashed in the GS on Friday and his ski flew about 30 feet into the air.  His ski was bent.   I made some homemade peanut butter in the vitamix blender (see pics).  Only ingredient is peanuts.  It was pretty thick texture and tasted yummy and only took about 45 seconds in the blender.   Bill Toney left camp again to go fight another forest fire.   Kieran McVeigh, made his mhssc freeski coaching debut this past week.  60% of the alpine race coaches this past week were named "Mike": (Mike Syrovatka, Mike Foley, Mike Bansmer).  Nolan Willard ripped straight down the moguls on Friday (see pic).  Speaking of moguls, we have a camper-staff here who RIPS thru the moguls and could be a future world cupper (Evan Smith) see his back-flip pic below.
 

A week ago Saturday, some random sketchy guy abandoned his broken down jeep in the camp bus parking area.  Mike Annett said to Pat Tingle "find 10 friends, and push that car across the highway".  I captured the whole scene on video.....best part was an impromptu "worm", performed by Connor O'Brien down the middle of highway 26.

 

Arielle Richard let me read her copy of "Skinny Bitch" and she wanted me to give a little input on what I read:   Some memorable quotes:  "Soda is liquid Satan" (p. 13).  "Coffee is for pussies.  If you can't wake up without it, it's because you are either addicted to caffeine, sleep deprived, or a generally unhealthy slob" (p. 15).  "You need to exercise, you lazy shit" (p. 20).  "Fruit. Eat it." (p. 25)  Some chapter titles:  "Sugar is the devil".....and "The Dairy Disaster"......Chapter 9: "Have No Faith:  Government Agencies Don't Give a Shit about your health"......If you read the reviews on Amazon.com, you'll see strong views on this book, both positive and negative. 

My review:  The authors don't mess around.  As you can tell, they aren't afraid to use lots of swear words and other smack talk and humor to get their points across.  Bottom line their message is to recommend to people to become vegetarians.   There's lots of negative info on the meat and dairy industries, some of which is pretty sketchy.    It's an easy fast read (200 or so pages).  Will I change some of my eating habits?  Great question.  Milk is a big one for me.  I figured I was kicking ass all these years by drinking the fat free stuff.  Had no idea of how much crap is in cow milk, fat-free or otherwise.  Eggs too. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Did someone leave a pair of fuxi sunglasses in my car glove-box?

 

Session 8, 2012 MHSSC update:
It was cold and very windy on Monday on Palmer.  I had all my layers on, but still had to do jumping jacks and other random stuff to try to stay warm.  It was an east wind....which is bad for the snow, because it kicks up all the dirt in white river canyon and blows it onto the nice clean snow, making it all dirty.  The east wind continued into Tuesday....we saw glimpses of rain on Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday.  Friday, there was a combination of thunderstorms, fog, mist/rain, etc......timberline never opened the lifts after a lengthy "stand-by".  All the other camps went home......WE HIKED.  Pat Tingle drove the stealth van and Mike Annett drove his truck up and down the access road transporting people to the staging area, where everybody unloaded and hiked up from there.   The racers set up a stubby GS course near the bottom of the mile canyon while the freedoggers hiked up to the last rail in the public terrain park (a significant hike).  After about 90 minutes of hike/skiing, the kids went to the movies/bowling to wrap up the week.  You can no longer ski all the way to the bottom of magic mile to get on the lift, but we are still skiing all the way to the parking lot in the mile canyon.  Lift lines have been minimal. 

Nolan Willard and Maks Gorham told me that Kieran McVeigh can do a "bazillion" different ill/best in the world/insane/nutty/crazy tricks on the rails in the terrain park.  Tori Chrupalo spilled coffee/tea on herself 3 different times in one day.  Sasha Karapetrova saw 2 snakes on her picnic run.  Early 90's MHSSC staffer Janet Lorton-Moran was at mt hood last week, coaching little squaw valley kids. (see pic).  Instead of softball, the staff vs campers picnic challenge was in kickball.  (see pic of Matt Chirico kicking the ball).  Jackie Reis, Nate Reuter, and Mark Syrovatka drove to Frenchie's to set up the ropes for rockclimbing activity on Tuesday.  About a mile or two from getting there, they saw significant lighting, so they turned around and drove to Bulo (sp?).  Pat Tingle had an ingrown toenail on his big toe and had it operated on by that doctor in Welches.  Mike Syrovatka went berry picking (strawberries, blueberries, raspberries) on Monday after field sports/cliff jumping activity.  I was told that Chase Kerzel doesn't like snakes (who does?).  Jackie Reis cooked myself, Darren Owen and Mark Syrovatka family dinner on Thursday instead of going to leftovers night at thelodge.  It was delicious.  (see pics).  Prescott McLaughlin played "knockout" on the camp hoop a bunch of times with campers until he finally won (it took 7 games).  He refused to let the string of games end until he won a round.  The highway crew is paving the highway near the camp lodge....as cars were stopped for paving by road flaggers, Matt Chirico unicycled out on the highway and handed out MHSSC stickers to the stopped drivers.   A bunch of staffers helped bring the skateboard mini-ramp back to life.  (see pics).  Staffers also resurrected the volleyball court.  Random people were playing tennis on the mhssc clay tennis court on Friday.  Jackie Guy was instructed to kick them off our private court!  Fuxi used Pat Tingle (as well as himself) as a parking lot model to show off the new fuxi shirts.....see pics/video below.  Chase Kerzel went undefeated in arm wrestling on friday.  Jackie Reis did a "dance off" with me......she won.

An "Emily Question":  Would you be willing to spend a month of solitude in a beautiful natural setting?  Food and shelter would be provided, but you would not see another person.....also no internet or TV.  

Chase Kerzel and Rebecca Zell checked out the fish viewing window at Wildwood Park on picnic day. 

 

Got an email this past week from one of Mark Stegall's friends from high school.  He wrote this:
I went to high school with Mark. For years I have been meaning to look him up, and my surprise and great sadness, I see he has passed. I am so sorry for his family and all the many people he has touched in his life. Mark and I worked for a few years at BAP Auto Parts. He convinced me to buy my first motocycle, and we rode quite often and of course quite fast. I still ride today, but the best ride of my life was with Mark through the Texas Red River valley. He seemed to have enriched so many peoples lives, and all the great things these people say about him especially saying he was the best coach, not only for the sport, but life. That's awesome, he had such a positive effect on so many people. I remember many of wáter skiing adventures almost every weekend with him, and he had a natural talent. I was so proud when he got sponsored by Kawasaki, so early. My only regret is that I did not look him up earlier, so I could have told him how he had touched me.  He truly had a big heart and I hope to see him again in the afterlife. Rest In Peace my friend.  ~Mark Bunch

And speaking of Mark Stegall, Mark's sisters Lisa and Susan are doing a fund raising biking event in Lake Tahoe in September.  Details here.  And if you are interested in ordering a Mark Stegall biking jersey, contact Lisa ASAP for details:  steglaw@yahoo.com 

 

      Chase Kerzel vs Matt Chirico in pranking each other.....

     This would be Chase's GS suit and jacket hanging from the leap-of-faith

   This would be Matt Chirico's sleeping bag underneath the trampoline....

Link to more session 8 photos here.

 

Session 9, 2012 MHSSC update:
Jackie Guy broke her leg in a wicked bad GS wreck at gate #6 in the annual staff race, held on Friday.  I captured her wreck on video but I haven't watched it......yet.....maybe never.......too squeamish.  Jackie wants to watch it though.  

Timberline Ski Patroller Kaile Cota, (daughter of late 80's mhssc coach, Chris Cota) was there within a minute or two.  There were some very intense moments, but we were able to get her ski boot off and load her in the ski patrol toboggan and then they took her down to the parking lot.  This was an ambulance type situation, so she rode that down to Mt Hood Legacy Hospital in Gresham.  As you can see in the x-ray, her Tibia was surgically put back together with a rod and screws and the fibula is supposed to eventually go back in place on it's own (I think?).  Anyway, Jackie has been at the hospital the last couple of days (she's had lots of visitors) and she will be driving home on Tuesday with family.  There was a nice view of Mt Hood from her hospital room.  FYI, this was her left leg....her previous ankle injury was on her right foot......so she's spreading her injuries out to different extremities!  

Before this whole Jackie Guy broken leg thing, the headline for session 9 was going to be:  Counselor Chase Kerzel ate 10 burgers, a new camp food record!   Yep, it's true.  135 pound Chase, managed to consume a 10 patty burger at the camp picnic.  See photos below......it was quite the spectacle with significant audience members there as witnesses.  These are 1/4 pound burgers (pre-cooked weight), so you can do the math. 

Other session 9 stuff:  Last day to ski to the parking lot was Wednesday (July 25).  It was a pretty warm week and the snow in the canyon at the bottom melted out pretty quickly.  Mike Annett found $100 cash on the floor at Charlie's bar on Wednesday.  He said "God intended me to renew my Charlie's pin" or words to that effect.  Then Darren Owen checked his money clip and realized that the money belonged to him.  Speaking of Darren, check out the "D.O. shuffle":

And speaking of Charlie's.......Bartender Geoff Ecker was carrying a 107 pound girl on his back in the bar on Wednesday night and said "this is how much weight I have lost in the last 4 months".  Yep Geoff is looking and feeling great! and 107 pounds lighter!  Former mhssc mogul coach, Jon O'Brien has been on the hill of late, coaching Wasatch athletes (see pic).  The Oregon highway department paved highway 26 by the camp lodge this past week.......they did most of the paving at night, so it wasn't all that bad as far as waiting in construction lines.  Mike Bansmer crashed while using the salt monkey for the first time.  At the camp orientation meeting last sunday, Mike Annett printed out the Aydan Crumrine (counselor) bloody head injury photo from last week's staff update, to show to the campers, when he talked about the need to wear your helmets!   The staff race did finally get going again after Jackie's accident.  I was handed a piece of paper with incomplete race times hand-written on them, so I can't say with much certainty who exactly won......but I THINK the women's winner was CIT Lauren Stoberski with Rebecca Zell coming in 2nd.  But maybe Noelle Gillis was 2nd place?  Nobody wrote down the time for Noelle's 2nd run (low budget race crew?).  And for the men:  Prescott McLaughlin took 1st place, followed by Taber Engelken (1/2 second out) and taking the bronze was Pat Tingle.  Mike Syrovatka provided the timing equipment complete with a mid-way interval time thingy.  As with any typical ski race, there were timing issues....and then of course, the big injury.......Jackie's fault!

Hey check out Malone and Nolan Willard on ESPN.com!!! Some unknown staffers left the ice cream out overnight on Wednesday night in the kitchen.....big vanilla ice cream puddle it the kitchen Thursday morning.   Yoga is the newest mhssc afternoon activity....lead by Kieran McVeigh and Arielle Richard (see pics). The camper-staff made a "shit camper-staff say" youtube video.   Jackie Reis rode her bike up to the top of Timberline road on Wednesday.  William Zell joined me for part of my weekly picnic run.  He was right on my heels, then suddenly I couldn't hear his footsteps, so I look back and he's pumping out some pushups on the trail!  Several more times during the run, I'd look back and he'd be running the opposite direction, then he'd turn around and catch up with me again.  He probably squeezed in an extra mile with all the bonus running......(I'm slow old guy).......Rebecca Zell fell out of the boat at Oak Springs and was sucked under the water for a good 10 seconds.......she then eventually floated down river to Matt Chirico's boat, which was stuck on a rock.  And speaking of Matt, his ski is suspended in air on the zipline.......as the pranking continues between him and Chase Kerzel. (see pic)

 

Session 10 is NICE CAMP!!!! So be super nice this coming week!  Yay, Nice week is finally here! 
*Invented by Terry McLeod a bunch of years ago. 

more pics from session 9:

Link to more session 9 photos here.

Session 10, 2012 MHSSC update:
What to say about session 10.....hmmmmm.  Not all that much exciting happened.  Session 10 was "nice camp", but it didn't seem to live up to a high level of niceness.  I'd give nice camp a C-.   Smith Rocks climbing camp had it's biggest turnout probably ever!  I think there were 22 campers, plus 10 or so staff/helpers that were part of it.  When they got back to camp on Friday afternoon they all gave the impression that it was a great week of rockclimbing and bonding.  I saw some smith rocks pics posted here. (photos by Tim Wilson, one of the climbing instructors) I was told that the smith rocks peeps went out to a restaurant for dinner on Thursday night, and they had witnessed 2 jewelry store thieves trying to run from police, just outside the restaurant window.  Apparently guns were involved too!   Thomas Lowney and Joe Reis both came out of mhssc retirement to join in on the smith rocks week.  Mike and Lynne's son-in-law, John Bard and 2 grandkids (Sierra and Simon) also went to smith rock camp. 

Other session 10 stuff:  It was 6 staff members vs about 15 campers in picnic softball.  Mike Annett played for the camper team.  Staff won the contest 30-24 and Mike scored a run for the losing team.  Some idiot-jerk-loser-thief stole my 23 year old 1989 vintage swans ski poles.  My poles were wrapped inside my camping chair bag, stuffed behind one of the TV stands at the top of palmer, so the thief had to work extra hard to steal them.   Matt Chirico gave Jackie Reis a hug last sunday before she left for smith rocks, but really Matt was secretly putting a mhssc sticker on her back.....that she didn't discover until 2 days later.  Bill Toney and Co. are in the process of resurrecting the old mountain bike trail that goes from camp to pioneer woman's grave over on highway 35.   Taber Engelken made some "bomb" pesto chicken for thursday leftover dinner night.  *see, I told you session 10 was not all that exciting.......One of the camper-staff girls got sunburned on the back of her neck, and people were calling her "redneck".  She didn't like that. (*uh, it's nice camp!)  The snow on upper palmer has sections of cocktail ice consistency.  Not ideal for carving the perfect turn on!  Former staffer, Hannah Follender, wrote a really cool article about MHSSC, which you can read here.  *photos by Jasper Newton.  Some camper girls brought 7 pairs of snow pants to camp.  A chipmunk was cornered in one of the dorm rooms and the chipmunk leaped to escape and landed on a campers' head before jumping again and running away.   Our favorite broken leg counselor, Jackie Guy, had checked out of the hospital last Monday and checked into a nearby Holiday Inn hotel.  Overnight, someone broke into her car in the hotel parking lot and stole her bag of clothes, nice camera, ipod, etc.   Jackie is almost home now after driving across country with her parents this past week.  (*Jackie sent me some photos, which you can see below).  Former staffer, Tim Feeney is coming to Oregon this coming week.  He says he'll ski one day, but will spend most of his time in Hood River doing the kite boarding thing.  On friday afternoon, after skiing, a camper walks into the lodge with a super out-of-place finger and says "I think I broke my finger".  Matt Chirico and Erica Carras gave a synchronized "ewwww" and looked away.  (see pic below).  He injured it on the trampoline.  His mom was there to take him to get x-rays. (Portland kid).   Broken finger kid was wearing a Jackass t-shirt.....quite appropriate for the circumstance.  If seeing a photo of a broken finger grosses you out, be sure to scroll past the 4th photo below....you've been warned.......I was doing a little cleaning up in "double-secret" room in the lodge and found a 1998 issue of Ski Racing Magazine....of which I was on cover, along with former mhssc coach Izi Jerman (Andrej's bro).   *see pics below. 

That's about it.  10 weeks down, 4 to go.  There are just a few rocks poking out near the top of lane 8, so signs of August are starting to appear. 

More session 10 photos here!

Session 11, 2012 MHSSC update:
BREAKING NEWS: 
Mark Syrovatka proposed marriage to Jackie Reis.....ok, it's fake, but it did fool a few people (including Jackie's mom) after posting this photo on the internet a few days ago. 

Other session 11 stuff:  Rick Millett was getting salt out of the salt box in the terrain park, when a gust of wind blew the lid down onto his hand, and breaking his middle finger on his right hand.   Sorry, I don't have a photo of his super-cool finger/splint thingy.  A camper said to the Kstaff on Tuesday night:  "This was the best Mac & Cheese I ever had".  Chase Kerzel played a camper in a game of H-O-R-S-E for $1.  Chase was down H-O-R-S to nothing before coming back for the win.  Prescott McLaughlin helped Nate Reuter change out his brake pads on his subaru. (see pic).  Chase Kerzel's 10-burger picnic record that was established 2 shorts weeks ago, was eclipsed by a camper named "Finchem", when he ate 11 burgers on Wednesday.  I think Chase was a little disappointed and he is considering going for a new record perhaps as early as this coming session 12 picnic.  After being over-staffed for the last few sessions, we were somewhat understaffed for session 11.  Only 3 counselors and nearly 60 campers.  Scott Houser was sucked under the water after he fell out of the raft at oak springs rapids on Thursday.  I was there ready to film it all live from the shore, but at that very moment, my camera said "SD card memory full"......ugh!  Nate Reuter, Prescott McLaughlin and Gino Picozzi made a whole bunch of yummy banana bread loafs with all the leftover bananas that were past their prime.  Chase Kerzel caught an edge while carrying 2 salt bags.  He fell forward down the hill, but managed to hold onto both salt bags!   Staff basement workouts continue on sans Tingle.  A mhssc camper wrote (with his finger thru the dust): "Fuck Windells" on a Windells camp bus.  The bus driver busted him.  Adrien Young and Kelsey Baran, stopped by camp to say "hi". (see pic).  Tim Feeney also made a guest appearance on the hill on Thursday. (see pic).  Feeney was here mostly to go kite-boarding in the Columbia Gorge.  Darren Owen and Mike "mogul" Foley split the mogul coaching duties this week (there were about a dozen mogul campers).  I went to my 29-year high school reunion last night (see pic).  There was some random guy there (not from our graduating class), who wanted to mess with the football team dudes.  I talked him out of it..... 

Scotty Veenis rips the GS course while using the Mark Stegall invention camera ski pole handle:

 

 

1990 mhssc staffer, Dave Lawson, brought his wife and 2 kids to camp this week.  Back in the day, his nickname was "Super-Dave-Osbourne" (google it).  This first photo is Dave with his son Matthew:

More session 11 photos here!

 

Session 12, 2012 MHSSC update:
ok, session 12 stuff:  Mark Syrovatka injured his knee last weekend while kite-boarding in the Columbia River.  I think the diagnosis was a class 2 MCL/meniscus tear.  He's done skiing for the summer.  Filling in this week is newbie coach Tereza Charova.  (she's fast!) Tereza has been at camp the last couple of weeks, working as a alpine race demonstrator.  And speaking of injury/illness, counselor Rebecca Zell was diagnosed with a kidney infection on Wednesday.  She spent one night in the Mt Hood Legacy hospital in Gresham.  Chase Kerzel drove her to the hospital leaving the camp without a counselor sporting a CDL (license to drive the bus) and it was picnic day.  So they employed coach Jackie Reis to do bus driving duties for the picnic.  Because Jackie had to drive the bus, she ended up missing her job interview with Snowbird ski team that night....so perhaps her entire future was altered because of a sick kidney.  Crazy, eh?  There was a power outage at the lodge on Wednesday afternoon.  Mike Syrovatka went white water rafting.....first time rafting since his Gould Academy days (long time ago).  We had a couple of mini-Vitamix-smoothie parties this week at Parham.  I made Prescott McLaughlin eat a piece of raw Kale before he tried Kale in his smoothie.  He spit the Kale out into the garbage (yucky!)......but he liked his smoothie!   So the moral of the story is that you can disguise yucky bitter green leafy vegetables with some yummy fruit and make it healthy AND delicious.  And Rebecca Zell said this of her smoothie experience:  "My back stopped hurting after I had your smoothie. It could be that the antibiotics started working, but I'll say it was your drink. Thanks!  Rebecca.........P.S. (Still not giving up dairy)".  After a trip to Charlies (beer), Jackie Reis did a core workout after we got back to Parham. (see pic below).  We had a camper-staff this week that was almost tall enough to see if there's enough ice in the coke machine without standing on a chair.  Jackie Reis wacked herself in the face with a bungee cord.  There appeared to be a forest fire just east of Mt Jefferson (see pic below).  Speaking of forest fires, Bill Toney had been battling forest fires for the majority of the last couple of sessions.   Session 12 only had 26 campers.....we jump up to the mid-40's this final "kids" session.  Then we finish up with the adults only session.   Snowpack is excellent.  No rocks have popped up in any of the first 7 lanes on upper palmer.  High Cascade and Windells camps finished up a week ago, and so they made that lower area of palmer into the public terrain park for these last few weeks of summer season.  Jackie Reis joined me for 6-mile picnic run in rather hot weather (90's temps and muggy).  She intended to be done after lap #1 (3 miles), but the staff back at the picnic shelter gave her crap ("you can't even finish?" and "you suck at life") and so she immediately sprinted and caught up with me on the trail for lap #2 and did the entire run!   Rebecca Zell's parents visited last week, but they left one day before Rebecca's kidney infection.  Tonight, I'm going to the KISS and Mötley Crüe concert.....it's going to be EPIC!!   I'll post some concert pics next week. 

August 14 was the anniversary date for Kees Nederhand (10 years ago) and Spencer Nelson (2 years ago).  Jackie Reis put some flowers on Kees' memorial and fixed it up nice.  We posted a pic of Kees' memorial on facebook and got some responses from one of Kees' sisters and a few others that were there 10 years ago:

Terry McLeod: Tough day, I didn't like that week.

Kimberly Keith: Hi, I'm Kees' sister, Kim. Thanks for remembering him today, and for everything you've done for our family.

Kellie Tingle: Wow, can't believe it's been 10 years. RIP Kees.

Mike Woodson: Wow I cant believe its been 10 years. I remember Jeff calling home when this happened. Thanks Robo for this reminder that life is short so ski hard and in control. Stay safe out there campers.

Alexander Markellow: 10 years ago today one of the greatest people I've ever met slipped away from us and into god's hands. It's incredible how much time has past and Kim, all our hearts go out to you and you're family. I hope you're all doing well and if you. Need a funny story about Kees while we were campers together they're plentiful and I remember it all like it was yesterday. Don't hesitate to reach out!!

Christian Fritz: that was a hard day, i remember telling him to go to sleep the night before and quit screwing around, he was keeping me awake. glad to see his memorial is still maintained.
 

 

More session 12 photos here!

 

 

Session 13, 2012 MHSSC update:
For the 3rd time in 5 weeks, the camp record for most burgers eaten at the camp picnic was broken.  Chase Kerzel ate 12 burgers to break the old record of 11 burgers.  Pics below.  Scott Houser pushed for Chase to try and demolish the record and try for 15 burgers.  Taber Engelken celebrated his 20th birthday on Thursday.  Prescott McLaughlin's little brother Chad and his dad were at camp this past week.  Makai Bradley was a counselor this week instead of his usual kstaff position due to our lack of counselors still around this time of year.  The annual Hood-to-coast relay race started up at Timberline on Friday.  Former mhssc staffer from the late 80's, Amy McNees (Van Valkenburg) ran this year.  I was video-taping kids playing football at the camp picnic, and on 3 or 4 plays, they watched video replay on my camcorder to help decide the result of a few of the controversial close-call plays....too funny!  Instant replay slowed the game down, just like watching a real game on TV!  Mike Annett played an 11 year old camper in tennis on Friday on the camp clay court.   Michelle Schmitt came out of mhssc retirement to be a cook for a week.  Chase Kerzel watched "The Lion King" for the first time and he thought it was "ok".  Rebecca Zell said it was one of her favorite movies of all time.  I have yet to see it, but will try to watch it this coming week.  Late 80's mhssc staffer, Ara Papazian, was training gates this week on palmer (see pic below of guy with Fuxi hat).  He was known as the guy that hit a deer in the coaches van.  Former staffer Jay Panther's latest webisode about overcoming his concussion can be seen here. (worth a look!)   Scott Houser and Tereza Charova both have mustaches. (see pics).  13 sessions down, 1 to go.  Adults Only week!  For some reason, I'm not burned out...rare for me this time of year.  Staff coast trip Sept 3-5'ish.  Who's in? 

As mentioned in the last update, Mark Syrovatka injured his knee while kiteboarding.  From Mark's blog:  Summer so far has been crazy busy, with work and fun, though it all came to a screeching halt two weeks ago. On a Friday afternoon, I headed down to White Salmon to go kiting at the new sandbar. After a nice 2 hour session, I drove down towards my place in Murdock. On my way over, I went by my favorite spot in Lyle, the wind was still blowing, so I convinced myself to go out for a quick sunset session, which ended up being a big mistake. I quickly rigged up, and started throwing down some tricks, and probably about 15 minutes in, I hucked a double roll, completely rotated but ended up off balance before my landing... The last thing I remembered was my toe side digging in, and a nice CRUNCH feeling in my right knee. I was obviously panicked, and after wading back to shore, I hobbled up to my truck and immediately drove down the road to find my dad at his windsurfing spot. Thanks to my dad, I calmed down, and we waited to see the doctor till Sunday, who diagnosed it as a stage 2 mcl/meniscus tear. After a few weeks of slow rehab, and patience I should be back in full form. This whole mess has definitely been an annoyance, but it has taught me a lot about my knees, something I have taken for granted my whole life. So for now... RICE RICE RICE.

 

A few pics from the KISS concert last sunday night......it was awesome!  more KISS concert pics here.

 

And finally........a year ago today, I got one of those gut-wrenching phone calls from good friend Sean Mailey.  Sean told me that one of the kids we coached at Southridge high school ski team (Tim Campbell) was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer.
(stage 4 is not good).  Tim did months of chemotherapy.  I'm happy to report that Tim's most recent check-up came out clean!  Cancer free!  Tim was a camper-staff at camp a few years back and also his brother Sam Campbell, worked as a CIT at camp.  Tim got married about 6 months ago too!  You might enjoy this video.

 

You can see more session 13 pics here.

And in case you were unaware of the mhssc "staff" facebook group, here's the link.

 

Session 14 (adult session), 2012 MHSSC update:
It's over!  We had 17 adult campers this past week of which only 3 had never been to mhssc before....so it was a veteran crew.  On Tuesday, one of the female campers in Mike Foley's group broke her tibia/fibula (spiral fracture) when she got caught up in some slush near the palmer mid-station.  And another lady in Foley's group, almost drowned at white water rafting.  Foley grabbed her and held her head above water as she gasped for air after the boat flipped.  She told me later "I thought that was it" (death). The other 2 campers in the boat floated down river and made it to shore safely.  So yeah, Mike Foley had a rough day (and plus he's a HERO!)   It was very foggy on the hill on Tuesday, and some in and out fog on Wednesday.  The other days were nice and sunny.  We made it thru the entire summer without any rocks poking out in lanes 5 and 6.  Just a few rocks started to pop up at the very top of the mogul lane (7).  Jackie Reis drove to the Thriftway to turn in bottles ($0.05 per bottle/can).  She made a whopping $1.25!  Rick Millett did the same thing a few days before and came away with $30.  Darren Owen did his usual mountain bike ride down to the picnic, but first his back brakes broke early on......he was able to keep going, just using his front brakes.  But then he got a flat tire a little further down the hill.  He was unable to fix it and was left stranded.  Riding partner Tereza Charova rode the rest of the way to Wildwood Park where she had Jackie Reis go on a bike adventure rescue in Mike Syrovatka's truck and bring Darren to the picnic.  Several staffers joined me for a Vitamix smoothie party on Thursday night.  Delicious and healthy at the same time!  Nate Reuter went snowboarding for just the 2nd time all summer. (see pic).  Grant Wilson made it back to mhssc after a 4 year hiatus.  Mike Foley and Erica Carras lead the wine tour activity in Hood River for some of the adult campers who signed up.  Darren Owen was hired to private coach 2 or 3 extra days by one of his adult mogul skiers, so he put in some bonus days on the glacier this Labor Day weekend.   A pretty large deer showed up at the camp picnic.  Once the paparazzi started getting closer and taking photos galore, the deer finally scampered off to the forest.

 

Lost some weight this summer!  (35 lbs) Don't know if I can keep it all off (winters are bad for me), but it feels pretty good right now.  Want to publicly thank Pat Tingle for waking up at 5:10AM three mornings per week for 11 weeks to be my personal trainer in the lodge basement, plus setting me up with workouts to finish out the last 3 and a half sessions on my own.   Also want to thank Arielle Richard for letting me read her book "Skinny Bitch"......(after which I read the version for boys "Skinny Bastard")   Also Darren Owen for suggesting to stop eating bread for lunch.  And finally, all the people that went running with me at the picnic: (Bill Toney, Jackie Reis, Sasha Karapetrova, Joe Sulpizio, William Zell, Tingle, forgetting anyone?).

Jackie Guy's new invention! The cup holding crutch!

A bunch of pictures of adult campers shredding this past week in the race course and mogul lane, can be seen --> here.

So there you have it.  Summer 2012 is in the books.  Some of the staff have already bolted for the oregon coast for rest and relaxation.  I'm headed there tomorrow.  Thanks for reading my silly little mhssc staff blog. Stay safe out there...