LATEST NEWS
We will update this page as news comes in or we have new information to announce.
News from your mountain - Although spring has officially arrived, it has been snowing rather enthusiastically for a number of weeks – but finally the snow is beginning to melt and the arrival of our wildflowers is just around the corner.
The last week of March through the first week of May presented us with several feet of snow and constant snowflakes spiraling down almost creating the long awaited "winter" wonderland we all wanted so badly this winter. Although we could have used it during the ski school season, we sure have had it in early spring and the farmers on the east side of the mountains are probably ecstatic as with this kind of late snow pack, their summer will not be quite so dry and irrigation water will be in much better supply. Quite a few Powderpigs came up to ski and ride this spring - taking advantage of the new snow, especially during spring break.
Powderpigs Kamden and Kaylin brought mom up to ski Parachute on the last day of Summit Central's operations in April. They just managed to get on the very last chair ride of the season. According to Kamden's report of the adventure, the new snow was a bit heavy and wet, but his big sister thought it was great and came zipping right down Parachute with no trouble at all. She has had a few more years of experience on her skis.
Although we didn't have a huge amount of snow this year, our students learned well and made great progress. This has been our experience from earlier years when we didn't have the usual amounts of snow - turns out, the lack of "messy" weather helps a lot of our kids learn more easily and get further than we had anticipated they would under more normal weather circumstances. There was always enough snow for good learning to take place and that is exactly what happened. Even some of our youngest Powderpigs made spectacular progress and all were able to gain good basic skills.
Now that lessons are over for the year, we are going back through all our notes from this year and the suggestions and insights which came in from parents during the season - in preparation for using them in our plans for next year and inclusion in next fall's instructor training program. Thanks to all of you who shared your thoughts with us this year.
A good solid group of our instructors got their level I PSIA certification this spring and we are looking forward to their teaching next year. The Level I candidates attended clinics on Saturday evenings after lessons were over and finally took the exam in a big rain storm on the Sunday after lessons were over. They were very successful and we are very proud of them.
Here are most of the level I certification candidates
just after successfully completing the written test which came right after
a couple of hours out on the slopes taking the "practical " part
of the exam in the pouring rain. What a day!
In April, the Professional Ski Instructors of America held their annual Spring Symposium at Sun Valley and a group of our instructors traveled over to Idaho for continuing education purposes. According to reports the clinics were excellent, as was the skiing. The will bring back fine new ideas for the rest of us.
More Good News for Next Year -
The work on the Hyak chairs is about to begin and they anticipate the new chairs at Hyak will be up and operating in time to have it open again for the 2011 ski season according to recent reports from the Summit at Snoqualmie. This is very good news for our Powderpigs. Many of our intermediate and advanced classes zip over to Hyak to enjoy the fun terrain over there. After the climax avalanche* in 2008, which took Hyak out of operation, we have been missing Hyak very much. The Area reports they are going to put in 2 chairs. One to replace the dinosaur chair – which way back in the beginning of Powderpigs, we called the Big Blue Chair, and the other chair will once again service Hidden Valley. This opens up a lot of very fun terrain that was “favorite skiing” for Powderpigs way back when – and even more good news is that the Hidden Valley chair will open up new terrain which has never been available (at least without a big hike) before. We are really looking forward to our old friend Hyak being open again!
*A climax avalanche is one that goes down to the soil layer under the snow and slides from there. The conditions that made Hyak slide were man made and now are man fixed, so it can’t happen ever again. A good thing!
Really good El Niño News from NOAA (the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration – dept. of commerce) and the National Weather Service – as of last week, the mid monthly El Niño report on conditions in the Pacific which were responsible for the stingy snow conditions this last season are now dissipating and are not anticipated to be around to bother us next year. The forecast is for a much more normal snow year – and “normal” means more snow storms reaching us and more snow in our mountains on which to ski and ride!
Remember how the season began? Below are some of our Powderpigs are out testing the snow conditions on what would have been the morning of the first Saturday of lessons with “hand holdable” snow conditions. We could pick up chunks of the rock hard snow surface (commonly called Boiler Plate) and carry it around with us. Which we did!
And, at that point, promptly cancelled the first lesson and traded it for this wonderful day of lessons in March -
Sunshine. Blue skies and much softer snow- was a happy
trade for those concrete hard snow conditions we had on that first
scheduled Saturday.
This is the best time of year to purchase season passes
for members of the family who will not be enrolled in lessons in 2011. The prices will never be better. Just go to
http://www.summitatsnoqualmie.com/
and check out what they have to offer non students!
We are just now putting the polishing touches on our new adventure of on line registration and are about to post the registration materials and information under "Registration 2011" button on the main menu. This year (finally) we have online registration and hope you all will find it more convenient. There will still be a part of the registration materials that must be sent in this year – the release when you register and possibly the “About Your Child Pages in October. We are working hard to make it all happen on line. If you have any questions, just send them to us at <thinksnow@powderpigs.com>. At this time of year we are often out of the office but check for messages at very regular intervals.
Have a great rest of the year!
h
WE WILL UPDATE "LATEST NEWS"
WHENEVER THERE IS FRESH NEWS!
If you have questions, just email us at <thinksnow@powderpigs.com>