It’s hard to believe it’s been a full year of operating under COVID conditions, but we have been able to adapt and overcome and continue to operate. Sadly, our winter season has come and gone and we're gearing up for Spring! Although we had a smaller than normal winter season we still had an amazing time enjoying the outdoors in the North Country. This winter we were able to offer Alpine Skiing and Riding, Nordic skiing and Winter hiking programming.
This year’s Nordic program had some of the best snow conditions that ASPNC has seen in years. This small program has a dedicated group of volunteers that came out every week to share their love of Nordic skiing with our participants. This year they were really able to work on technique.
Winter Hiking was a great time and really got to enjoy our new snowshoes and micro spikes, provided by a generous grant from the Tillotson Foundation. Over the last couple winter seasons it seems like micro spikes are all that we get to use but this winter delivered some beautiful snow to try out new equipment with. Everyone loved the new shoes and they have proven to be an excellent addition to our fleet of equipment.
Our Alpine Ski and Ride program ran again this year out of Cannon Mountain. Alpine programming was one of our trickier programs to run logistically with COVID, due to the use of the lodge. ASPNC is beyond grateful for our partnership with Cannon Mountain and thankful that they again expand our space in the Peabody lodge to allow participants and volunteers to safely distance while inside. Though our season was shortened by a delayed start due to weather, we were able to wrap up our season with our 50% capacity goal for lessons, providing 250 lesson sessions. Though much of our sit down equipment had a delayed season, we were excited to get most of our participants in sit down equipment, including the TetraSki and the TandemFlex, out for some gorgeous and sunny ski days in March.