2018
Session 1, 2018 update
Summer 2018 is here. Four decades of MHSSC. Mike and Lynne still running the show. Pretty remarkable. So many staff have come and gone. So many stories. So many memories. So many friends.
Here's what went down session 1, 2018: Monday was Memorial Day. Last day that winter and spring season passes can be used, so there were lots of public on the hill getting in their last turns of the year. Parking lot was full. Three mt hood climbers were injured on Monday and had to be rescued. There was a large contingency of kids from Alyeska doing their own camp.
On Tuesday, these 2 attractive ladies get off the magic mile chairlift and asked me to take their photo on their iphone. I gladly obliged and started chatting with them a bit. Turns out one of them, Tanya Goudy, was a former MHSSC camper and worked 3 summers as a camp counselor. Tanya worked at camp in the early 90's. She's the girl in the 2nd photo below.
Camp picnic was in Hood River. I forgot to take my camera to the picnic, so there's no photo evidence that it ever happened. It was windy and there was lots of activity on the River with Kiting and Windsurfing.
Palmer was closed Tuesday thru Thursday, so employees could install the Palmer midstation. (see pics below).
The weather turned to sh*t on Thursday. Snowing, windy, foggy. Not ideal, but we've seen worse. It snowed an inch or so Thursday night, so the mountain looked amazing Friday morning. But it warmed up and the snow turned to glue. We pulled the course on the magic mile and set a new one on upper Palmer (late opening), where the snow was much better.
Tanya Goudy
Staff lining up in the Wy'East day lodge, to fill out electronic release forms for Timberline season passes.
It was pretty warm in May, so the snowpack on the Magic Mile isn't overly impressive, so it will be interesting to see how long we'll be able to ski all the way to the parking lot.
Lots of rescue personnel and vehicles clogging the parking lot for the multi-person rescue on Monday.
Memorial Day traffic heading West was INSANE!
Yep, a bunny.
Game 1 of the NBA finals in the Ratskeller. Cleveland blew it at the end of regulation.
From former staffer Jackie Guy in late March: "Was skiing at my home mountain of Sundayriver in Maine today where I coach. They were hosting a World Pro Ski Tour race, and I ran into Prescott McLaughlin and Taber Engelken who were racing in it. So I of course got a picture with the two at the end and said I sent it your way, so we make it in a staff update!"
From MHSSC to law school graduation! This is Jaime DuPratt and Hannah Follender. Need a lawyer? Hire them!
Congrats ladies!
Session 2, 2018 update
Not much happened session 2, so limit your expectations for this brief staff update.......
The ravens on the hill are more aggressive than ever this summer, in their quest for stealing food out of backpacks. Counselor Kris Govertson had her lunch locked in a heavy glass container that had a lid that locked down on all 4 sides. The ravens managed to pull this glass container out of her backpack, make it slide down the upper palmer glacier, snap off one of the latches and steal the food. See photo below of Kris holding the empty glass container. The glass container was found on the midway road, east of the mogul lane. A random snowboarder lost his snowboard on upper palmer. It went flying down the hill, hit the mogul jump and almost hit Darren Owen, before stopping somewhere in the high cascade camp future terrain park area. As you can in a photo below, Fuxi brought his store to the camp. He plans on doing this every monday night after dinner. Timberline was closed today (Sunday) as a snowstorm dumped 4 inches overnight.
Since the news was slim this week, here's a little 2017 flashback confession from Mike Syrovatka: He said that last year, he was riding the Palmer chairlift with a female coach from another camp. The lift broke down for 20+ minutes and Mike had to pee really really really bad. So he peed off the chairlift.
Dog on the hill!
The strategy was to place backpacks upside down, to try to prevent the ravens from opening them up and stealing the lunches.
old school snowcat
Some random climbers took a sh*t behind out salt box. Ewwwww!
The Kees Nederhand memorial cross has seen better days. I think this was the 4th version of this cross. After speaking with Mike and Lynne, we decided to leave it as is and not replace it with a new cross. There is also a memorial cross back at camp, near the trampoline that Robert might fix up.
Session 3, 2018 update
I had one "unsubscribe" last week. Wondering if it was the photo of the poop that did it?! haha. *You are not offending me at all, if you want to no longer receive the staff updates. Just click the unsubscribe button on the email you received. Also, please do not share the link to this page with outsiders. I found this page linked to yobeat.com a few years ago.
Anyway.......here's what went down last week. It snowed quite a bit last weekend. Timberline opened the lifts late to de-ice. Some of the snow drifts were significant in size. The last 1/2 mile of Timberline road was black ice on Monday morning and the parking lot was a skating rink. Peter Cimmino said the short white bus slide about 30 feet in the parking lot. Some of the counselors went to Cannon Beach on the Oregon Coast on Monday. A random person's kite almost hit Paul Gatti, while he was buried in the sand. Nobody signed up for rafting on Tuesday, so the entire camp (40 kids) went cliff jumping.....when they got to the cliff jumping place, it was shut down: "private property" blah blah blah......"target practice"........"you are on camera".......So now camp is in search of a new cliff jumping place. The weather went to sh*t on Wednesday. After a 2 hour delay, they opened up the magic mile for freeskiing and drills only. It was foggy, windy, misting....but we got out there, as per usual. We are still skiing all the way to the parking lot. There is some panic that the snow won't last all summer, but I don't see that happening. We are WAY WAY WAY ahead of 2005 and 2015 in terms of snowpack. Former staffer Jon Winslow made an appearance on the mountain on Monday. He was SKIING (not snowboarding). He was there with his future wife Paige. (see pic below). "They" moved the mogul lane further east this year, so our race lanes are now 6 and 7....moguls lane 8. We were 5-6-7 for years.
Jon Winslow and his fiancé visiting mt hood.
Mike Bansmer and Jake Benda. Both coaching for Steamboat last week.
These kids showed up in cottom sweatshirts on the bad weather day.
Staffers eating on the closed side of the picnic shelter. Rebels.
Hot dogs were avaialble at the picnic last week.
Kids from other camps were lining up as early as 45 minutes before they opened the magic mile.
Disc golfing in Estacada on Thursday.
Random hikders left their personal belongings at our salt boxes. Anyone want some free shoes?
Session 4, 2018 update
The mountain is officially crowded now. High Cascade/Windells are now on the hill, as well as a jillion race camps. Timberline even allowed a camp to set a slalom down the public lane on Friday as there wasn't enough hill space for everybody. Lift lines were significant. CIT Steve Shea, lost his glasses in the Deschutes river on Tuesday during rafting activity. The forecast called for big time thunderstorms on Wednesday afternoon and heavy rain/hail.......but it never quite developed. There was thunder and lightning, but little precipitation. Hot and muggy at the picnic at Wildwood. Thunderstorms the following morning, delayed the opening of the chairlifts for a short period. Several campers have become addicted to episodes of "Family Feud" on the big TV in the dining room. Game show channel. They really get into it.
I posted this time lapse video of riding the palmer chair on Thursday on facebook. Last check, it was shared 26 times and has over 3,300 views.
Athletic stance, yo!
Monday afternoon, I played 3 CIT's in games of "H-O-R-S-E"....for a buck. Like taking candy from a baby. Also took down a 10 year old camper for $1. A few days later the same kid was proud to tell me he just won a game of camp "knockout". Then on Friday, I offered to give his dollar back to him, but he said "nah, you earned it".
John Rust was on the hill this week, coaching for MAC club.
Family Feud!!
I got your back....
Former counselor Patrick Foster turned K-staff.......
*rafting photo credit Kris Govertsen
Those aren't our campers doing morning dryland, but they are out there every morning at 6am'ish.
92 years young! This is Erich Sailer. He's been doing camps at Mt Hood even before the Palmer chairlift was invented. He can still shred the glacier.
Nicole Cordingley and Mark Syrovatka were in the area and joined us for dinner at the Solera Brewery in Parkdale. They have a friendly dog. It was Nicole's birthday.
showing off his sunburned hands.
Bill Toney on his way to repair the snowmobile in the MHSSC terrain park.
Still skiing to the parking lot, although it's getting thin those last 200 yards.
big lines this past week.
Session 5, 2018 update
Breaking News.....mt hood eruption this morning at 11:11AM. I've lost all communications with camp. Total chaos. *you might need to click the speaker icon to hear the audio
Now that camp is destroyed by hot lava, here's what went down session 5:
Lifts were closed Monday due to high winds. We did that whole 2-hour standby thing before "they" called it. The coaches took the kids to Hood River for movies and then field sports on the way back to camp. A camper couldn't open up his 2 mustard packets, so he asked coach Devan LaMere to help him. She got them open and the kid proceeded to eat the mustard straight out the packet.....instead of spreading it on a sandwich. Kids these days. Another camper found his lost gloves in the lostl-and-found and asked if he could take them. A young camper pooped in the rocks in the mhssc terrain park. No toilet paper. There was loud music playing late at night over at the gas station next door to camp after they were closed. Loud enough to keep the campers awake at the lodge. An unnamed mhssc person, went over and cut the speaker wires.
Shout out to Franz "Fuxi" Fuchsberger. He was featured in Powder Magazine a few days ago. *Photo credit Cam McLeod
Late 80's staffer, Steve Heuer, sent me this photo (he's 2nd from the left). 3rd from the left is Michelle Annett, Mike and Lynne's youngest daughter. Steve was camp videographer before I was. Michelle coached at camp back in the day.
photo credit: Kris Govertsen
Horrible fatal accident on Highway 26, early Friday morning around 4am, just west of Silent Rocks. A passenger car collided head-on with a Semi Truck. More details here. The highway was closed in both directions for several hours. Several Timberline mountain employees couldn't come to work due to the road closure, so the mountain opened with limited staff on Friday. A few brave souls tried their luck driving up "Still Creek Road".
Crazy busy on the mountain this past week. Lift lines were really long Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.
This was Monday.....lifts closed due to the wind. We looked into hiking the lower mile canyon to get some training in, but Timberline denied our request.
Spencer Raymond returned to camp this week to put in a week of coaching. Scotty Veenis was here too, coaching the Ligety camp.
You can no longer ski all the way to the parking lot.
A girl camper broke her wrist falling from the monkey bars at the camp picnic. She was an unhappy camper.
I don't recall a camp knockout game with this many people. I lost early and left wildwood park before the game concluded (sore loser is me)
camp dishes Jenga style....
crazy long lift lines......ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!
pole jumpers!
*stop googling "mt hood eruption"......#nolava
Session 6, 2018 update
We had a lot of wind this week. Wind sucks the energy out of people.....or at least it does me. Lifts were on wind-hold standby on Monday for about an hour. Then there was a mad rush to the chairlift when they finally opened. And then most camps left the hill early that day because the wind just made people want to leave. At least, that's the conclusion I came up with. The brutal lift lines from session 5, were not nearly as bad for session 6. My 53rd birthday also happened on Monday. I went for an afternoon jog at Trillium Lake, but half way thru, the trail was "closed for repair". If you haven't been down there lately, the boardwalk portion of the trail has been deteriorating for the last few years. Like you'd wonder if your leg would fall thru the boardwalk while running on it. Kinda sketchy, to say the least. Ended up at Charlie's for a couple drinks. It was mellow. 4th of July the lifts were CLOSED! What?! It's usually a treat to ski on the 4th. Traditionally people get all dressed up in red, white and blue, bring American flags on the hill. But the wind was pretty intense that day, as you can see in the video below. Because 4th of July landed on a Wednesday this year, we moved the camp picnic to Thursday and we did our usual firework show Wednesday night on the camp soccer field. Bill Toney was once again, in charge of buying the fireworks in Washington State.....$500 worth. We are now carrying our skis up the magic mile as the snow at the top of the lift has officially melted. There are rocks popping up near the top of lanes 9 and beyond. We hired a new alpine coach, Will Gregorak....former US ski team athlete.
I stole this awesome photo from Amanda Mailey, wife of former mhssc coach Sean Mailey. Mt Hood is on the right. Mt Jefferson in the middle. Anyone want to take a stab at what mountain is on the left. Sean and his family are moving to Albania for 3 years.
4th of July wind.......starring Paul Gatti (video by Kris Govertsen)
Trillium Lake Monday......cloudy and windy.
Mike invested in a stop sign at the camp lodge, entering highway 26. It's more sketchy these days as the highway people put up one of those electronic reader board just across the highway, which they put on the right shoulder (if driving east). No more people passing on the right shoulder when we are trying to turn left into camp.
This was just a cool shot of a camper doing that gs event.
Ravens have taken over Government Camp. Photo courtesy of Darren Owen.
Sunday counselor/CIT meeting.
Monday morning rainbow.
During Monday's "stand-by", there was some staff bonding moments, like this one.
There was also a large gathering of kids/coaches in the Wy'East day lodge......watching world cup soccer.
Mike was watching too.
Bobicsek....
freshly swept parking lot.
This is Karen Brazier.....she worked at camp in the late 80's! Had not seen her in almost 3 decades. Posted this photo on my facebook and there was chatter about a possible MHSSC 80's camp staff reunion. Who's in? Those were the glorious Snow Bunny Lodge years. If you don't know what snow bunny lodge is, you can read about it on the camp history page here. Anyway, Karen came up the camp to take her daughter summer skiing. She intended to ski 4th of July, but as stated above, wind closed the mountain, so she skied the next day.
Darren Owen has biked to the picnic more than anybody in camp history.
spin class......
hammocks are trending at the picnic.....
game face
hurry up and wait.
Mono-ski is still a thing! These 4 guys told me they come to mt hood every summer. They shredded the mogul lane pretty good. And 2 of them had car license plates "monoski"
Shred guy, Mark Syrovatka
the butterflies are back!
Session 7, 2018 update
A man planned to commit suicide at the top of the mountain on Friday, but thankfully, he changed his mind. He was rescued via blackhawk helicopter near the summit. Details here.
On a lighter note, here's what happened last week: Have you heard of someone doing a shower-beer? (drinking a beer while showering) Andrea Dahl did a shower-chocolate, eating a chocolate bar, while in the shower. On Wednesday, a camper couldn't find his coach, so he took a nap on the hill.....for THREE HOURS! By the time he woke up, the ski day was over with. Former staffer, Willy Johnson, stopped by at camp on Friday afternoon for a short visit. Newbie coach Will Gregorak beat me in a game of P-I-G on Monday. He took and made 3 long shots. I missed all 3 and that was that. *note, this game took place moments after I was lifting weights in the basement, so my arms were all 'jacked'. And my "HORSE" winning streak is still intact.
Snowman in July. He only lived 15-20 minutes, before strong winds decapitated him.
Kris Govertsen broke her thumb skiing.
I was almost taken out by an adult camper on Monday. Wait for it.........*video credit, Mike Syrovatka
Fuxi flash
For only the 2nd time in camp history, a camper skied into my video chair tent. I had it parked in the "safety zone" next to the mogul jump. Had to run for my life. The skier and chair are both doing fine. Dangerous week to be video man. And since these things happen in 3's, I was almost taken out AGAIN on Friday, by a sitting in the back-seat out-of-control GS camper. He made eye contact with me as I was filming him come at me, he then made a crazy recovery move, and ended up spinning 180 degrees over the roller and crashed.
Moments after the chair tent incident, a camper took a wicked bad crash in lane 6. He hurt his shoulder and he later puked at the picnic (concussion symptom?)
For the 2nd time in camp history, we held the camp picnic at "Oak Grove Park" near Hood River. Wildwood park was already booked, so we moved it here. It was a small park and we had to share it with another group that was there for a retirement party. As guests were arriving for the other group, many of them mistakedly dropped their food items off at our table!
bloody nose girl.
brushing your teeth is highly recommended.
"they" installed a phone booth at Palmer mid-station. Someone told me that one of the kids had never heard of or had seen a phone booth in their life.
Nolan!
Invent-a-chair
Lane 9 (timberline camps) had a T-Rex shredding courses and hitting jumps.
sleeveless....like his bro before him.
Counselors day off......a trip to crater lake.
it was HOT on the mountain at the end of the week.
Patrick Foster fixing his flat tire.
Butterfly's were plentiful again this week.
Former staffer Bill Whalley is skiing on Tuesday this coming week.
Session 8, 2018 update
Former staffer, Bill Whalley made a guest appearance at camp and went skiing on Tuesday. He scored a free lift ticket, by helping Timberline ski camp carry gates and salt. There is the potential of a gondola being built between Govy and Timberline. Details here. Sasha Karepetrova is back working at camp after a multi-year absence, due to a bad broken leg. A camper crashed on his first run on Monday and tore his ACL and also broke his ski.
As I was driving down Timberline Road a few days ago, I see the truck in front of me with the drivers left foot hanging out the window. I thought to myself, "I only know one person who does that.....Mike Annett!" And sure enough, it was Mike.
Boot skiing
Some people are skill skiing down the mile canyon at the end of the day, but probably 90% are downloading.
The 2 guys in this car were out of gas and had been parked at Chevron since around 3am, waiting for them to open on Friday morning. The laws have changed recently, so you can pump your own gas in rural areas in Oregon now, but you need a credit or debit card. They didn't have one. They only had $7 cash ($6 bills and 4 quarters). One of the guys came over to camp at 5am and asked the early morning kitchen staff for help. Anyway, Bill Toney eventually went over there and he let them use his credit card and they gave him the $7 cash. The person pumped $7.26 in gas, so Bill got ripped off 26 cents. The end.
igloo and mini snowman, bottom of palmer ramp.
Rafts fell off the trailer when the hook thingy on the trailer failed. I heard the rafts flew 30 feet into the air.
Session 9, coming up, is our annual "nice camp". Be nice to each other this week! *Nice camp was Invented by Terry McLeod a bunch of years ago.
Session 9, 2018 update
Sesson 9 was relatively small. 34 campers in total. We only had 3 alpine coaches this week, setting up 2 lanes of courses. Session 9 was the annual "nice week" although I'm not sure how many staffers bought into it. This past week was also the annual Smith Rocks rockclimbing camp, run by John Rust. Jackie Guy made it out to Oregon to participate in the last ever Smith Rocks camp....yep, game over for Smith Rocks climbing camp. It had a long successful run since the early 90's. Here's the original smith rocks promo video. Camp picnic was back at Oak Grove Park, near Odell. This was the hottest week of the summer. But the snowpack on Palmer is still in solid shape. There was still a camp training on the lower west of Palmer. Former staffer, Jason Hey, was on the mountain this week. High Cascade/Windells wrap up their summer camps on this coming Monday, so lift lines should be even smaller than they have been. They used to run camps until around August 12, but they have elimited their August session. The K-staff made some zuchini/blueberry bread. Yummy.
In case you didn't know, there's a MHSSC staff facebook group here.
The session 9 coaching staff...
3 generations of campers. Dick Shawkey, on the left, is age 81......he's been coming to camp for about 28 years.
Smoke filled the horizon on Monday, due to area forest fires.
wicked cool green bus.
somebody lost a bet and had to get a bowl cut.
the "other" road to Timberline.
Matt Froberg skateboard skilz
Small fire down in the white river canyon.
Sasha.....best mittens ever.
We stick these red and blue things in the snow and people ski around them.......they pay a lot of money to do this. Weird, eh?
The president of the United States was here! FDR, yo!
Former staffer, Sean Mailey, on the right, is moving his family to Albania for 3 years, to take on a new job as a middle school/high school head principal! This was a photo from his family's going away party on Friday night.
high speed download on the magic mile
Session 10, 2018 update
We made it to August. We are seeing the late season melt-out areas on the hill in the usual places. But plenty of snow to get thru the next 4 weeks. The heat wave finally ended. It even rained a bit on Friday morning at Timberline, but mostly at the lower elevation, while it was sunny up on Palmer. Former staffers Noelle Gillis and Jackie Reis made guest appearances this week. Noelle was just passing thru, while Jackie was on the hill coaching Western Region camp.
That's Jackie Reis......as you can see, the snow on the palmer loading ramp has melted away. It's an August thing.
on-hill boot fitting by Ben Roberts
kid model.......with some attitude. Fuxi brings his trailer to camp every Monday night after dinner.
Noelle Gillis!
Counselor Kris Govertsen needing an on-mountain nap.
Mike Annett was on the hill this week......first time this summer! He's sporting his old school mhssc hat.
This hat was from the late 80's.
Big camp controversy at dinner on Tuesday night. One of the camper-staff kids had a mouth full of whip cream...someone made him laugh and whip cream spewed out his mouth, all over a giant tray of jello....which was that night’s camp dessert....should we serve the jello anyway? There was a rather loud animated discussion about what to do at the staff table when this all went down.
classic.....
the sassy look......
thinking man.
Will Gregorak paying me $1 for our game of H-O-R-S-E in a revenge game that actually took place during session 9. It was one of the longest games of HORSE that I have even been involved with. Will had swept me in a game of P-I-G a couple weeks prior.....This time around I took an early H-O-R to H lead. Will came back to lead me H-O-R-S to H-O-R.....then it was tied H-O-R-S for the longest time. Mostly I was on offense, controlling the shot selection, but Will continued to match my shot on his 2nd attempt on about 10 different occasions (you get 2 chances on the final letter "E" or the choice to "prove it") Then I got him on a trick shot at the end, with a "prove it" make by me to end the game. It was glorious.
Andrea Dahl had been carrying around this Dairy Queen gift card since Christmas day 2017. A 5 pack of us went to the Dairy Queen in Rhododendron on the way back from the picnic on Wednesday to have mini-blizzards. yummy.
Andrea's first attempt at guitar.
tired boy.
Friday morning rainbow!
Once we got up the magic mile rain fest, it was nothing but sunshine.
Timothy Lake......lake sports activity.
creative diving.....
Some kid from the east of the moguls, crossing over to the public lane without a clue that a GS skier is racing down the hill at high speed in lane 7. This could have ended badly, but luckily the racer was able to put on the brakes in time.
Session 11, 2018 update
It was freakin' 83 degrees on the hill on Wednesday.
nuff said.....end of update.
Couching was trending this week. Random fact: That used to be my mom's leather couch.
body sculpting
Ara Papazian, mhssc counselor from the 80's, spent a few days training with us.
Ara, shredding the slalom course.
It's a mogul thing.
spin class
"Hi"
Daffy demo?
Some not-so-inverted-aerials....
Former staffer, Jon O'Brien on the hill this week.
Flashback to the 2015 low-snow-year. We only made it to August 12 that summer. It was pretty sketchy, but still productive.
time lapse sunrise mini-eclipse, riding up the magic mile
Only 3 weeks left. Where does the time go?
Session 12, 2018 update
It was an eventful week. Some foot passenger lady, rode up the magic mile chair on Friday afternoon, walked down the ramp, tripped on the ground and broke her arm. Brutal!
As you can see from the staff meeting bus photo, we have a small crew keeping camp alive these last few weeks.
Darren Owen's final ski down of the mile canyon for summer '18. He prefers skiing/walking to the tline parking lot at the end of the day vs downloading the magic mile, but it got to be just too long of a hike out, even for him.
As seen from Trillium Lake. *photo credit Mark Swartzfager
top of magic mile. A lot of skiers leave their equipment there overnight.
The white bus broke down near Maupin on the way home from rafting on Tuesday. The kids didn't get back for dinner until around 8:30pm. *Photo credit Kris Govertsen.
"Dahl-ly Mama"......This is Andrea Dahl's mom.
Palmer lower west is a little thin.
Chipmunks have invaded Palmer. They go right into backpacks and grab your lunch.
Deer at Wildwood park on picnic day.
There was a salad dressing incident on picnic day.
The annual classic cars day at Timberline Lodge.
Thursday it rained and Timberline closed the lifts at 9:30am as a potential thunderstorm was headed our direction. As both our alpine coaches were near the bottom of the snowfield when they closed the lifts, we had no man power to take down our GS course, so it stayed set up overnight. We had just enough people to carry all the backpacks down from the top of our lane to the kids stuck at mid-station. The thunderstorm never quite materialized, but the mountain remained closed for the rest of the day.
Bill Toney, Darren Owen and myself day-tripped to Kah-Nee-Ta Resort on the rain day. Kahneeta is scheduled to close forever on September 5, so we wanted to go check it out before it's closed forever. It was a bit eerie. Very few employees and very few guests and only about a dozen cars in the main parking lot. After having a beer at the bar, we found the game room and tried to play a game of pool. It was missing the #4 ball....and when you hit the white cue ball in the pocket, it never came back! Then I tried to put a quarter in the pinball machine, but it didn't work. After hanging at the pool for a bit, we had an early dinner in the one of the 4 restaurants that were actually open. Nice meal. Our server, Matt, was a 9 year Kahneeta employee and was sad that the place was closing. He commuted from Madras everyday. He said the downfall of Kahneeta was when they moved the on-site casino to Warm Springs on highway 26. All in all, a fun little afternoon trip to Kahneeta. *Oh, and there was a bat flying around scaring people at the swimming pool.....see video below
Here's the bat that was messin' with the pool guests
A mile down the road is the Kahneeta water park. It was closed when we showed up after we ate dinner. Admission was $10-$15 depending on your age.
Breakfast experiment. Pancake made of waffle mix batter. boom! 2 thumbs up!
We shoveled some snow at the top of the lane so kids didn't have to hike up and around the rock island.......but one day later, it all melted, as you can see in the photos below.
one day later...
Space Invaders! Robert Johnson got one of those Atari 2600 Flashback game units and it's getting used.
extreme angulation
snow-cave making 101
ok, a couple people read the staff update last week and saw the photo of the zero snow on the ground at Palmer mid-station and didn't realize it was part of the 2015 low-snow year flashback. Below is the current view of mid-station. Still skiing onto the lift at mid-station! Also notice that the lift line is pretty short.
Flashback to 1989, give or take a year or two. This is Tom Wirth and myself, sitting in a booth at snowbunny lodge cafeteria. *Photo credit Chris Cota. Chris Cota's photo comment: "I was there with my Buddy Tom Wirth (Wirthless) and Robin (Julio) Cressy. Tom Wirth basically owned the Boring Tavern....Cressy owned the action on the B-ball court. He is old now and no longer plays for money. Spends his days at the dogtrack."
Session 13, 2018 update
The smoke was so thick on Monday, that Timberline management peeps put the lifts on standby, while they decided if the air quality was safe enough to ski in. It was a short "stand-by".....they opened the lifts after a short hold in the morning.
So smokey at Trillium Lake, that you cannot see the mountain.
Flashback for you 80's staffers.....Snow Bunny Lodge.
To see the video click here
This was posted in the Oregonian newspaper in the early 90's:
Tuesday, the lifts were CLOSED due to high winds. Kids spent the day white water rafting on the Deschutes river.
With dwindling snow at the top of Palmer, we have officially moved headquarters to Gilligan's Island, about 40 yards down from the top road.
The Tline groomers sacraficed snow in the public lane, to keep the midway palmer road going strong.
Staffers John Lloyd and Merumo fell down, (catching edges) within seconds of each other, while carrying salt/slipping the course.....and making their elbows bleed.
photobomb!
Another VCR bites the dust.....kids still watch VHS movies in the basement and in Coho lodge.
Hood to Coast! It was super windy and chilly for the start of their event.
I scored some free samples at the Clif Bar booth....new "smoothie" flavors...
camp pet fish?
On Friday, Roger Bay did some time trials for his campers in his group.....this is himself announcing the times to the camera, to calculate results later. He purchased some Fuxi sunglasses to give away as race prizes.
Urban Legend......a long held claim by Roger Bay, that there's a rock near the top of the palmer chairlift, that resembles a catchers mitt, that is only visible for about an hour each morning, when the sunrise is at a certain angle......you be the judge.
Adults-Only session begins today to wrap up summer '18. 30+ campers are on the list.
Session 14, 2018 update
Another summer in the books.
On monday morning, the lifts were on standby, due to some rain and limited visibility. They did open up a half hour late, but halfway into our training day, Timberline decided to pull the plug and close the lifts, due to poor visibility. It was a crap decision!
This was Mike in the office early Monday morning, looking up weather reports and mountain cams to try to calculate our chances of skiing that day.
Tamanawas Falls hike Monday afternoon.
90's mhssc staffer, David Marchi! I was walking back from the post office in Govy and David spotted me as he was walking out of Huckleberry's. He lives and works in Bend, Oregon these days.
Rafters were back to dinner by 6:30pm! One of the fastest rafting trips ever?
Roger Bay donated his skis on the last day.
Timberline groomers stopped pushing snow on the palmer mid-way ramp for the entire week. Another questionable decision.
Here's another photo of the rock that looks like a baseball mitt.
It got a little thin below palmer mid-station.
See the deer?
Forgot to include this in last weeks' update: Former mhssc coach, Olivier Lacaille, got married on August 18, in beautiful setting of Sutton, Quebec.
Wine tour on Thursday. We stopped at 3 winery's, although the 3rd one was closing for the day upon our arrival. Then we ate dinner in Hood River. About 2/3 of the adult campers, filled up 3 vans for this annual event. It was led by Mike Foley, who made the trek up from his home in Vancouver, WA.
At the restaurant, there was a plan to have a fake birthday for "someone", so the restaurant staff would bring dessert and sing "happy birthday" to the person. Turns out, I was the chosen one as the fake birthday person! *I forgot to take a photo of the brownie/ice cream treat before I ate it.
Final day on the hill.......beautiful sunrise
a few mhssc cookies for the lift ops.
All week, we had all the MHSSC staff and adult campers carry big snowballs over to the mid-way loading ramp to keep it alive.....so we wouldn't have to take our skis off and walk up the ramp each run.
Charlie's on Friday night to celebrate the summer.
Andrea, a full car.......and a 12 hour drive ahead of her on Saturday.
Everybody gone Saturday mid-morning. ghost town.
the end.