For the second year in a row the Mouat outdoor education program attempted to run an early season ski/snowboard trip to Sasquatch Mountain and for the second year in a row the best laid plans were derailed at the last second. However, Sasquatch’s loss was Manning Park’s gain as the trip was audibled with less than a week to spare and a record 50 students were able to get on the mountain before the Christmas break! While the snowfall amount was less than ideal the program basically had the mountain to ourselves, and the bluebird day combined with mild temperatures left everyone with nothing but positives at the conclusion of the trip. A big shout out to the Manning Park staff for making things work at the last minute-I know people are already looking forward to the next trip! Highlights included seeing the program welcome back a graduate as a trip chaperone and having Rick Hansen’s new outdoor education program join in with Mouat once again! We look forward to sharing more adventures in the upcoming year with you and wish your program the best of luck as you start to lay the foundations to create awesome memories of your own! Outdoor Education students (and anyone else who wants to) please leave a 100 word blog response below.
Mouat Extreme Outdoor Education 
This was my first time skiing and first time coming down a mountain basically, I learned the basics like turning and stopping during the lesson, and the rest you just have to figure out as you go. For example, I thought I’d want to go super fast and would love it, but when I got on the mountain I Got so much speed, even felt butterflies in my stomach, at that point I’d have no control, that got me to the conclusion of going in zig-zags so I have better control and didn’t tumble down every 15 seconds. I also learned that the poles don’t do much, if not for me they don’t. I had so much better control when I didn’t have to worry about the poles in my hands. Something I regret doing is wasting time, at the start after the baby sloop I should’ve just sucked it up and gone up the mountain instead of overthinking it. Preparation wise I feel like I did a pretty good job, it was pretty cold but when you’re on the mountain you’re too focused on not dying rather than the temperature. Besides by the time I got down if anything I felt warm since skiing was not a peace of cake. Overall it was way harder than I had expected, and I’m super glad I went on this trip since I loved it so much and I’ve always wanted to because I didn’t like the fact that Peppa pig had been skiing and I hadn’t. NOW I HAVE SO YAYYYYY!
I don’t think staying safe on the mountain is ever a bad choice. It sounds like your slow and steady approach paid off in the end!
The Skitrip was great. Even though we had to get up really early it was totally worth it.
The staff on the mountain was so nice and helped us with so many things. It started with changing our rentals and then they also helped us if we had questions.
When we got our rentals at first, I thought it would take over an hour to get everything together, but in the end everything was so fast! That was great! I didn‘t like the lesson so much at first , but afterwards I noticed that it helped me a lot. The teacher told us how to move our body in a turn and even though it was hard to do it at first, in the end it worked. That was so cool!
In Addition it was so much fun to just ski with your friends and to enjoy it together!
Manning Park staff were awesome on this trip! I’m glad you found something useful in the lesson and look forward to having you out on more trips!
Skiing/snowboarding, (Dec 14)
This trip was great! I have never been skiing before and this was an amazing start. The lesson at the beginning of the day was very helpful, however, I would say I learned even more going down the hills and falling at every opportunity. I made some new friends who knew what they were doing and gave me tips on how to improve. By the end of my first day ever skiing, I could already comfortably ride the green run. I have signed up already for the next ski trip and can’t wait to do it all again. Thanks for the adventure!
Being able to push your limits in a safe environment is a great way to learn. Sounds like a solid experience!
The Manning park trip despite only one lift being open was definitely worth the early get-up. The rising sun during the bus trip, the weather perfect, unfortunately, the snow was ideal but overall I got a better feel of the mountain and tried to do some better carves. We all had to do a lesson which wasn’t bad, then we were free to do what we wanted, I got to explore the runs which was great considering the fact that it was my first time at Manning Park and we had the mountain basically to ourselves! A great trip to start the season.
I agree that while the snow wasn’t ideal the weather was awesome. Though for an early season trip it was as good as can be expected!
This trip to Manning Park was probably one of my favourite outdoor ed trips yet!
I was really looking forward to this trip even though we had to meet at the school at 6:10 in the morning and I was very tired.
For me the snow at Manning park was a little too icy but that was just because I learned skiing a year ago and I’m used to the soft powder snow. After driving for an hour it definitely got better.
Over the day I learned many new things and I improved my technique. I’m glad that I tried a few runs that I never did before because I thought they would be too difficult for me.
I’m also happy that I met a few new people.
I’m jealous that you got to learn on powder! I’m glad you enjoyed this experience.
The skiing and snowboarding trip was a lot of fun, I enjoyed it despite my not-so-good relationship with snow, it took me a while to get used to all the basics (mainly because I have never done any sort of skateboarding, etc). The weather and the views were fantastic, and it’s even more fun with friends. The snow was the only thing that could have made it better because I thought it was quite hard to balance. Despite everything, it was a great trip and I have no regrets.
I’m glad that you joined us and enjoyed the experience!
When i signed up for this trip, I knew I was signing up knowing nobody. When we got up to the mountain, there were many people from other schools who were very kind and willing to let me join their group. The ski instructors were super kind and truly taught me things that i had never known throughout my 10 years of skiing. These tips that they’ve given me have really helped me improve my overall performance after that trip. the meals at the lodge were so good, I would love to gobble up another one of those bacon burgers.
I’m glad that you chose to come even though you didn’t know anyone-hopefully you made some new friends who you can do more of these trips together with in the future!
I think this will unfortunately be my only skiing trip this year. My parents are too busy to take me to any others. But this was definitely the right day for my only trip! It was blue skies and sunny all day long! The only bad thing was that only one hill was open, which was sad. That meant I was doing the same thing over and over the whole time. Sometimes that can make it not fun, but I had a great time! I was with a group of girls that were non stop, so we really made the best of the trip. I was over prepared with extras of everything and I didn’t even need it! I’m glad I went on this trip and I appreciate the people who made this possible, as with all the other trips as well.
You definitely cannot beat the weather we had on this day. There are still a lot of runs to experience on the main part of the mountain with varying degrees of difficulty to challenge you.