December 16 2023 Newsletter

January 2024

Parents and Students

As we gear up for the 1st week of lessons on the mountain, here are great tips and information, so that the first week will begin smoothly.

#1 1ST WEEK OF LESSONS

The 1st week of lessons start next week! Please come to the lesson early if you have NOT picked up your passes yet. People in Guest services can help you, and remember to bring your ID. Otherwise, please arrive at the time and location already communicated to you by your program coordinator. All Grouse Mnt. lessons meet near the Starbucks. Image below.

Below you'll find the times for each program

MONDAY Snowboard @ Grouse Mountain : 6:00 pm - 8:30 pm

TUESDAY Skiing @ Cypress Mountain : 6:00 pm - 9:00 pm

TUESDAY Skiing @ Grouse Mountain : 6:00 pm - 8:30 pm

WEDNESDAY Deaf/Hard of Hearing @ Grouse Mountain : 4:00 pm - 6:30 pm

WEDNESDAY Sitski @ Mt Seymour : 6:00 pm - 8:30 pm

WEDNESDAY Ski @ Grouse Mountain : 6:00 pm - 8:30 pm

THURSDAY Sitski @ Grouse Mountain : 6:00 pm - 9:00 pm

SATURDAY Skiing @ Grouse Mountain 7:30 pm - 10:30 pm

SATURDAY Sitski @ Mt Seymour : either 10 am or 1 pm

SUNDAY Ski & Snowboard @ Grouse Mountain : 7:30 am - 10:30 am

SUNDAY All Mountain @ Grouse Mountain : 1:00 pm - 4:00 pm

#2 GETTING READY FOR YOUR LESSON

There is a VASS webpage that can help get you ready for your first lesson. Click here to check it out. It covers:

What to wear
Safety equipment
Social Stories that can help get you familiar with the mountain
How to use a chairlift video for a bit of front loading

#3 DAY of REMEMBER TO BRING

Goggles
Helmet
Gloves
Ski Pass
Winter Jacket and pants
Long socks
Snacks or water/juice box

Backpacks can be stored in the Yurt at the top of Grouse Mountain, in the lodge at Cypress or in the container at Seymour.

#4 DROPPING OFF YOUR STUDENT & MEETING THEIR INSTRUCTORS

Upon your arrival at the mountain, head to your discussed meeting place (outside Starbucks at Grouse), where your VASS program coordinator, wearing a bright green coat, will be waiting. They will check in students and pair them with their respective instructors. Please do your best to follow their directions for drop off and pickup.

You will see a lot of green, but ask anyone, and they will direct you to the right person.

When you are matched up with your students' instructors, please double-check you have each other's contact info.

This ensures you can contact them quickly if any unforeseen changes come up. They can also contact you at the end of lessons to provide updates!

#5 Parents and Caregivers hangin around the lessons...

We can appreciate how exciting it is to have someone you know skiing and snowboarding. As a policy, parents and caregivers do not accompany people on their lessons nor get passes to go up Grouse Mnt., unless you are a part of an existing ski/ride program with VASS.

The 5th week of programming is visitor week, where ever participant can have an adult come up with them and check out everything that is going on and you can see the progression. It is a great opportunity to take pictures and video, you get to see what VASS does and even ski or snowboard if you know how. There are no lessons available for visitors, but you can come and walk around. More details will be available soon.

Instructors

I would like to take this opportunity to give the BIGGEST THANK YOU to all of the incredible volunteers that have have joined us for this season. So many of you have been busy training, organizing, getting gear ready, helping us fundraise, and creating an incredible energy that is vibrating VASS Magic.

The time has come, where everything comes together and we finally get to help a bunch pf people learn to ski and ride on the mountain. If you focus on our core values you will absolutley have a blast and make a big impact.

SAVE FUN LEARNING YES

#1 ARRIVE AT LESSONS A LITTLE EARLY

I am sure you were all at your orientation sessions this week... but incase you missed it, please try to be at your meeting place 15 minutes early. Parking and traffic can sometimes be a challenge so always better to leave yourself extra time. If you don't know what time your program happens, please refer to earlier in this newsletter.

#2 COMMUNICATION

Communication about your programs should all now be done through your program coordinators via email or text. If you need their details, make sure you get them on at the first lesson.

Day of lesson communication TEXT... everything else use email.

#3 Where to Find: CALENDAR & SCHEDULE

ALL details about your personal schedule can be found on SNOWLINE. Login and then find ABOUT ME and MY CALENDAR. See image.

You will see a calendar of all of the lessons and training you are signed up for. If you click in the event you will open the details.

For lessons, the part you really want to see are in the lower right corner. The little 'i' and Log. Clicking on these 2 things would be a great start to your AOT with your learner.

At the end of the lesson, the LOG is where you make notes about how the day went.

You can access your SNOWLINE if you click here.

#4 SAFE SPORT UPDATE

Thank you to all that have already completed this training. If is helps us make even a little bit safer environment for our learners and volunteers, it is all worth the 90 minute effort from each of us.

Please understand that if this training is not done, you will not be able to work with our learners until it is complete and you have recorded your NCCP# and verificaction in your Snowline Profile.

I am happy to share the massive jump in compliance this week... and we are now at

73%

Success

with 2 days before our programs begin.

GO VASS !!!

#5 SKIMP (SKI & RIDING) Sessions are now live

Skimp lessons are now scheduled and available for everybody to sign up for.

Please limit yourself to 3, so that we can make sure that everybody that wants more training has the opportunity. And if you cannot make it please email info@vass.ca and they can remove you from the list so that there is a spot for someone else.

If there are any cancellations due to weather or other circumstances please check your emails before heading up to the mountain. I'd also like to shout out a giant thank you to Wei ,who has been organizing everything and a SHOUT OUT to all of the incredible trainers that keeps showing up to help VASS improve our skiing in riding.