The icy weather conditions that have cancelled and disrupted many school days for New York students also hit the mountains and turned things up a notch for the annual Haldane High School ski trip, which took place during the school’s winter break, from February 18-20. Run by longtime club advisor Steve Graff, students traveled up to the Adirondacks to visit two ski mountains, Gore and Whiteface, over three days. The trip was not only an opportunity to ski with friends, but also a chance to spend time at the resorts that are too far for day trips.
The influx of fresh snow this year allowed students to explore trails that are often closed, and even the conditions on many expert trails were more fitting for students. Approximately 90% of the trails were open, and 5 total terrain parks between the two mountains were open during the trip. Students were brought to the mountains at opening time and left at closing hours, giving them the opportunity for a full day of skiing. Junior Nadine Alayon remarked that the best part of the ski trip was not the skiing, but the camaraderie. Alayon commented, “My favorite part about the trips is just skiing or interacting with people that you normally wouldn’t have fun with, whether it’s in the hotel or on the mountain.” Although the mountains did not disappoint on this ski club trip, some students hoped that the trip would be scheduled for a different week than Haldane’s winter recess. Senior Roth Westphal explained: “My friends that I go skiing with on a regular basis are either on the basketball team, or were away for break, which was disappointing. So in that sense, I think that having the trip in the middle of winter break is what made it sub-par compared to usual.”
Despite some mixed feelings about the timing of the outing this year, the weather lent some drama to the usual routine. The polar vortex that hit the East Coast strongly affected conditions in the mountains. According to the National Weather Service, a polar vortex is low-pressure cold air that flows from the Earth’s poles, in this case from the North Pole, directed southward towards the U.S. This polar vortex directly affected Haldane students and faculty when a blizzard struck Gore Mountain around 11 a.m. on February 20, while they were on the mountain. The snowstorm resulted in Haldane departing two hours early from the resort, and extremely rough road conditions on the way home.
The same road conditions that affected the ski club trip have also led to disruptions in the school day for Haldane students and faculty this winter. In total, Haldane has had four snow days and three virtual learning days, more than we have seen in the past couple of years. On February 23, New York Governor Kathy Hochul issued a state of emergency regarding the blizzard, allowing all schools in the state to take an extra snow day without penalty for school year minimum day requirements.
The extra days off and incorporation of remote learning created adversities for some Haldane teachers. High School math teacher Christian Hoolan recalled how his classes and teaching strategies have been affected by snow days. “I like treating remote days as review opportunities, as I find teaching new content to be too unreliable over the computer,” he said, noting that the weather disruptions threw him off schedule. He continued, “I have fallen a bit behind where I was last year because of this. However, I would be at the same spot if these days were simply snow days instead of remote learning days.” Snowy weather combined with blizzard conditions this winter changed the itineraries of both the school day and the ski trip.
