Stratton Seasonal Program Blog – January ’24 Edition

Hello Everyone,

It was so great to see so many of our seasonal program families throughout the holiday week. It was also great to see the progress that’s made after 6 days of skiing. I hope you’re as excited as we are about the changes in your child’s skiing from the start of the week to the end!

As we move into January, we set our sights on the Martin Luther King Jr Day long weekend. This weekend tends to bring a lot of our families to the resort so be sure to give yourself extra time getting to programs on Saturday, Sunday, and Monday.

Speaking of MLK Jr. Weekend, I’ve gotten a few questions about the schedule for the holiday weekend, so here’s a reminder of our schedule and hours for our non-competitive seasonal programs:

• Cub Club
  • Saturday – Monday – 8:30 am to 3:00 pm
• Cross Cub, Synergy, STR, AAMP
  • Saturday – 8:30 am – 11:30 am & 12:30 pm – 3:00 pm
  • Sunday – 8:30 am – 11:30 am & 12:30 pm – 3:00 pm
  • Monday – 8:30 am – 11:30 am

Events Calendar

Last week we posted a blog with all of our events for the rest of the season. If you didn’t get a chance to check out all of the great events and activities was have planned for the rest of our season, use the link below to check them out:

Stratton Seasonal Program Blog – Events Calendar

If we need to make any adjustments to the events calendar, we’ll edit this blog and send an email to you all so you’re aware of the change.

Stratton Mountain Sports School Sick Policy

• Stratton Mountain Sports School has the right to refuse a child who appears ill. You will be called and asked to pick up your child if your child exhibits any symptoms of illness.  The list below is not an all-inclusive list of excludable conditions. We will try to keep your child comfortable but he/she will be excluded from all activities until you arrive. You are expected to arrive within 30 minutes from the time you are notified. Overview of excludable conditions:
  • Illness that prevents your child from participating in activities.Illness that results in a greater need for care than we can provide. Illness that poses a risk of spread of illness to others. COVID-19 or exposure to a confirmed case Fever of 100 degrees or higher  
  Children who have been ill may return when:
  • They are free of fever, signs, or symptoms of illness for 24 hours without the assistance of medication. They have been treated with an antibiotic for 24 hours and behavior is typical. They are able to participate comfortably in all usual activities. 
• The Mountain Sports School Leadership Team may exclude a child if they feel that the child is too ill to participatein the Stratton Mountain Sports School’s daily schedule. The list of excludable conditions is not all-inclusive and your child may be excluded for reasons not listed. 

Martin Luther King Jr Weekend Events and Activities

With the long holiday weekend coming up, our events and activities teams have a lot of great stuff planned for you and your family. Take a look at some of the exciting things happening at Stratton this weekend:

• MLK Weekend Events
  • You can find a complete list of what we have planned using the link above but I’ll highlight a couple of events that you don’t want to miss:
    • Live Music at Grizzly’s and Table 43.1
    • Lindsey Jacobellis Book Signing at the Burton Store from 12:00-1:00 pm & again at 3:00 pm on Saturday January 13
    • Kids Craft in the West Wing of the Base Lodge from 4:00 – 5:00 pm on Saturday January 13
      • Join us for a kids craft making that celebrates the life of Martin Luther King Jr. Crafts will be displayed in the base lodge on Sunday and Monday and then can be picked up at the end of the day on Monday.
        • Supplies are limited to the first 250 kids
    • Après Ski with Stratton Real Estate at their office in the Village from 4:00 – 6:00 pm on Saturday January 13
      • Learn more about the exciting new addition to the Founders Lodge, the Birken Wing.
        • Check out the recent blog post to learn more – INTRODUCING BIRKEN WING: STRATTON’S NEWEST LUXURY REAL ESTATE

Women on Snow – 2-Day Women’s Ski & Snowboard Camp

Looking ahead to the beginning of February we have two really special events that you do not want to miss! The Women On Snow Camp is the getaway you’ve been waiting for. Cruise Stratton in style during this camaraderie driven ski or snowboard camp designed for women. During this Thursday and Friday two-day camp, you’ll be split up into small groups designated by pace, desired terrain, and goals for the camp. You’ll begin each morning at 8am with a group meet-up, coffee and a continental breakfast. At the morning meeting the group will discuss the day’s plan and mountain conditions, stretch and boot up, then hit the snow. Stratton Mountain Sports School’s incredible female instructors will lead groups on the snow from 9am- 3pm on what could be the best two days of skiing and riding of the season. When the day is over, look forward to discounts at First Run, the Stratton Training and Fitness Center, fitness classes, and much more.

Thursday 2/8 and Friday 2/9 Camp Registration
Saturday 2/10 and Friday 2/11 Camp Registration

Below you’ll find additional information specific to each program. Feel free to skip down to the program that you or your child are enrolled in. Please reach out to me or the program supervisors with any additional questions. We can’t wait to ski and ride with you and your family over the long weekend!

Best,

Tony Bailey
Stratton Seasonal Program Manager
tbailey@stratton.com
802-297-4074

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Cub Club

Hello Cub Clubbers,

The big three day weekend is almost here, and the mountain will be ready to go! This is usually one of our busiest weekends, and I am asking for your help so that we can get the most of each day for your cubs. If your Cub is a Raccoon, Deer, Wolf, or Catamount, please check them in before 8:30 am so that we can get them out the door by 8:45 am.

If your Cub is a Mouse, Squirrel, or Rabbit, please check them in at 8:45 am. With the anticipated busy weekend, I’m asking that you please exit the room as quickly as possible. This will help us limit the crowding and get our Cubs outside as quickly as possible.

We will also be holding 2 lunch waves this weekend, so check the board at check-in for your Cub’s lunch time. The bottom row on the whiteboard is Lunch 1, top row is Lunch 2. For pickup, everyone is welcome to arrive a few minutes before the kids do at 3 p.m.(but please don’t hang out by the door or outside by the stairs), they like it when you are there to greet them on their return from sliding all day. It’s also a good time to get some feedback from their coach!

Some of you have been reaching out with similar questions about our program. Hopefully this will help provide more clarity about our amazing program:

• Why doesn’t my child have the same coach all season?
  • I vary the coaches as I think everyone can contribute to your child’s progress. I do try to keep the same coach through the weekend. Unfortunately that is not always possible, as our staff members do have commitments that may prevent them from working every day.
• When/how does my child advance to the next level?
  • The staff is trained to look for certain movements within a “skill group”, as they progress from Mouse to Bear.  We ski with the cubs looking for these movements in all snow conditions, often it’s the coaches that ask us to validate what they see. Saturdays are skills days, with Sundays as the evaluation days.
  • Please note that all Cubs progress at different rates. While our coaches will do everything they can do to help them improve, the most important thing for us is to instill a love of skiing/snowboarding.

Lastly, a couple of additional house keeping items:

• Now that we’re about halfway through the season, Cubs are sliding further and further from home base, wearing away the early coating of wax. Please get your Cub’s skis or snowboards sharpened and waxed for the rest of the season.
  • You can drop off your Cub’s equipment at First Run which is next door to the Junior School building.
• Please make sure you have an extra change of clothes in a Zip-Lock bag in your child’s cubby. Accidents happen and it’s much easier if we help Cubs change without having to call parents for a change of clothes.
• We have been getting requests from parents to release their Cub out on the mountain. Please note that coaches cannot release any of their students outside of the Cub Club room. All Cubs must return to the Cub Club room for the safety of all. Thank you for understanding.

Well, that’s all for now. We can’t wait to slide with your Cubs over the long weekend! See you all soon!

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Cross Cub

Hello Stratton Cross Cubbers! 

Happy January! It was so great to see you all over the holiday week. We had varying snow conditions throughout the week, all of which will help make our Cross Cubbers strong and versatile skiers. It’s true what they say, if you can ski on the east, you can ski anywhere!

Did you know January is National Safety Month? I bet you did if you were able to make it up for program on the 6th! If you couldn’t make it up, you missed some pretty awesome crazy helmet designs. Congrats to our top three helmet designs from Cross Cub this year!

At this point in the season, our groups have usually solidified, but it looks like this year it will take us a bit longer since Mother Nature hasn’t been cooperating and we still have some new Cross Cubbers joining us. I appreciate your patience every morning at drop off since we’re still figuring groups out. Please try to make it to the flag as close to 8:30 am as possible so we can get our groups out skiing earlier.

I’ve received some feedback from parents that they feel like their Cross Cubber isn’t being pushed enough to progress. I wanted to take a moment to share our philosophy in Cross Cub. Our goal in Cross Cub (and it’s shared by the rest of our non-competitive seasonal programs) is to create life long skiers that love the sport and the lifestyle. Our priority is to keep your children safe, then make sure they’re having fun and want to join us every weekend. If we’re successful at these two things, the learning and progression will happen naturally. Please give our team the time necessary to facilitate this and I assure you that you’ll be very happy to with the progress from the start of the season to the end.

I believe that one of the most important things we do in Cross Cub is to help develop lasting relationships between our participants. Because of this we try to advance the groups as a whole as their abilities develop. However some children show faster ownership of skills and we will move them as required.

This is my favorite time of the season- time for some miles! We have now pretty much moved on from turning the feet and teaching parallel and it’s time to put those skills to use all over the mountain. Most all children now ski backward, can hockey stop, side slip, and do a whirlybird or 360. The emphasis we are now working on as a whole is carving and making the skis do the work they were designed to do.

Temps this year have been all over the place, but fingers crossed they keep dropping and stay cold so our amazing snowmaking team can help out Mother Nature and get a few more trails open for us. As the temps drop, please remember to dress your Cross Cubber appropriately. I have seen quite a few children underdressed in the colder weather. When the kids are cold, it is much harder for them to learn. Please ensure you are sending them dressed in layers, with hand warmers, and with a neck gaiter.  A t-shirt and shell is not sufficient and we will send the children home if we do not feel they are dressed for the weather.

Don’t forget we are offering Snowboarding Sundays on January 21^st and February 11th. You bring the gear, and we’ll teach the lesson. Please email me the week prior if your child is planning on snowboarding. If you do not email me before the weekend, we cannot guarantee that a coach will be available. If you need rentals, you can use this link to purchase: Snowboard Rentals

A few more reminders:

• Snack Breaks
  • It is up to our coaches on where, when, and whether or not to take a snack break each session. Snack breaks are not a requirement.
  • Please ensure your child is eating a sufficient breakfast before they come to slide for the day.  With our morning session being only 3 hours, we do not want to be spending 1/3 of our morning inside.
• Bring your stuffie to ski day– 2/3

Hope to see you all soon and thanks for letting us ski with your children.

See you next weekend!

Frances Hoeffner
Cross Cub Supervisor
fhoeffner@stratton.com

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Synergy

Hi Synergy Families,

Happy New Year and cheers to good health, many laughs, and more skiing! Although we have had an interesting start to the season, many of our students and families have demonstrated the life long New England skiing lesson of adapting to whatever Mother Nature throws at us. To help out the mountain with ushering in more snow, here are a few rituals that you can do at home: wear PJs inside out and backwards to bed, place a frozen spoon under your pillow, place a white crayon on a windowsill, throw an ice cube into the toilet, and stick your head in the freezer and shout, “SNOWWWWW!!”. If we all do this as a collective team, I’m sure we will many nor’easters on the way for 2024! 

Most importantly, January is National Safety Month. Each Saturday and Sunday morning before our first loop, our resident ski patrollers and safety patrollers will be chatting with each group to review a safety focus for the day. Make sure you ask your students what safety tips they reviewed over the weekend! 

Important Dates 

• SUN. January 14th – Annual Cookie Swap
  • Bake your favorite cookies to share and/or swap with your group or other Synergy groups! Compare recipes, aim for top cookie, bake to your heart’s content!

• SUN. January 21st – Snowboard Sunday 
  • Once a month, kids can try out snowboarding during the Sunday morning session. You bring the equipment and we’ll provide the snowboard instructors.
    • If you need rentals, use the link below to purchase. (Be sure to give yourself a little extra time if you’re getting rentals to make it to line up on time.)
      • Snowboard Rentals

Best,

Sarah Kneip
Synergy Supervisor 
skneip@stratton.com

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STR

Hello STR!

What a fun start to the season for our STR crew! While we patiently wait for mother nature to open up the trees, we’ve been spending a lot of time in the terrain park. It’s been great to see the progression this group has been making!

I wanted to let you all know about a change in coaching for the remainder of the season. Alan has decided that to return to the Junior School to work with our youngest skiers so he will no longer be supervising the STR program. Moving forward we’ll have a few different coaches working with the program. Those of you who were in the program last season will remember Jim aka Sprinkles, he’ll be back as a regular coach for the rest of the season. If you were here last weekend, you got a chance to ski with Steven who is also one of our TIPs instructors. Both of these guys bring a wealth of knowledge and FUN to the STR program. I know you’ll have a great time skiing with them throughout the season.

One more thing I wanted to mention is that we have a few Snowboard Sundays scheduled throughout the season. These are open to Cross Cub, Synergy, and STR participants. You can find more info about these by checking out the events blog we posted recently – Stratton Seasonal Programs Blog – Events Calendar. If your teen plans on attending Snowboard Sunday on January 21, please email Tony Bailey so we can make sure that we have enough snowboard coaches.

Lastly, we don’t often hear much from our STR group. If you or your teen have feedback about how we can make STR even better, please reach out.

Tony Bailey
Seasonal Program Manager
tbailey@stratton.com

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AAMP

Hello AAMPers!

It’s been so great to see our AAMP coahes and participants really gel this season! I hope you’re feeling good about your progression and the friendships you’re making in the program. This really is such a unique and wonderful program and I’m so glad that you’ve chosen to be a part of it.

Coach Greg and Randy asked that I share a couple of videos that really help to drive home some of the things the group has been working on this season. Please take a few minutes to watch these videos and follow up with our AAMP coaches if you have any questions.

Steering From Your Feet to Your Hips

Turn Shape – Short Radius Turns for Speed Control

Ski Tips – Steering

Notes from Randy

How are we doing skiing in these variable snow conditions? Last Sunday some of you certainly felt the challenge of skiing on slopes that changed constantly. Powder clumps, to ice, to mini moguls certainly kept you active. 

This weekend I am asking the instructors to focus on dynamic balance in skiing, staying in balance while moving is important in any sport, most certainly while sliding at speed down a slippery slope. Let’s explore ways to maintain our balance on the hill while having fun. Any questions please ask me.  

Randy

Events and Activities

We have a couple of great events planned for Martin Luther King Jr Weekend that we’ll hope you’ll join us for:

• AAMP Tuning Party – 1/13
  • Greg has offered to host a tuning clinic at his house in South Londonderry on the Saturday of MLK Jr Weekend at 5:00 pm. This is a great opportunity to learn more about keeping your equipment in good working order.
    • This will be a bring your own event, drinks, snacks, and wax. 
  • We’re going to limit this to the first 10 AAMPers that sign up with the form below. If we have a lot of interest, we’ll look to hold additional parties throughout the season.
    • AAMP Tuning Party Sign Up
• AAMP Social – 1/14
  • Sari has graciously offered to host a gathering in the Landmark Lounge starting between 3:30 and 4:00 pm on Sunday of MLK Jr Weekend. This is a great opportunity to get to know everyone and chat with the AAMPers that you don’t often get to ski with.
    • This event will be BYOB and we encourage you to bring a dish to share if possible. 
  • Please reach out if you have any questions.

Thanks again for being a part of the AAMP program!

Tony Bailey
Seasonal Program Manager
tbailey@stratton.com