Tag: snow

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Community Student Life

Hit the slopes with Concordia’s Ski and Snowboarding Club

Courtesy photo of the Concordia Ski and Snowboarding club.

See what the club has in store for winter 2023.

With the winter break all on our minds, it is a given that everyone is looking for things to do during the chilly season. The Concordia Ski and Snowboard Club is ready to welcome another event-filled winter.

The Concordian had the chance to sit down with four executives from the club: Michelle Fraser, Sebastian Adam, Ajay Weinstein, and Antoine Denis.

Adam, the VP internal on the team, recalled his earliest memories as a kid snowboarding for the first time.

“My dad put me on a board before I could walk so he’s always been a super big ‘boarder’. As soon as I could fit on a snowboard I was riding. I never started with skiing, I went with the better of the two,” Adam said. 

While every executive on the team has a different relationship with skiing and snowboarding, they all shared the same excitement for the upcoming season.

Fraser, the VP of social media for the club, explained the upcoming events for this winter.

“We just posted our trip schedule for the upcoming ski season. We have all the dates on our Instagram page. We are going to a variety of different locations around Quebec like Mont Orford and Mont Tremblant,” Fraser explained. 

“Our two most exciting events are our ‘weekender’ events. We’re having one in Quebec city and we are having one in Vermont at Jay Peak,” Fraser added. 

The “weekender” events have been done in the past, but they had to be put on hold for the past couple of years due to COVID restrictions. During these events, participants of the ski and snowboard club go away for one weekend, stay at a hotel, ski, and party. 

For beginners who want to try out the club but feel apprehensive due to their skill level, the club’s executives assure you that the club is for everyone. 

Weinstein, the president of the club, explained that the team is there to help answer any questions that you may have while going down the slopes.

“One of the things that we try to do with the club is that we try to get new people to come out. Obviously, in terms of liability, we can’t teach beginners how to ride but we try to make it as accessible as possible,” he said. “We make sure that it’s accessible because we know how difficult it is as a beginner because every element of skiing is super expensive.”

With accessibility on the forefront, the club hopes to recruit as many participants as they can for their most anticipated events for winter 2023. 

So get out there! You can find out more about this club on their website. 

COURTESY PHOTOS OF THE CONCORDIA SKI AND SNOWBOARDING CLUB.

Categories
Opinions

The death of an important Canadian white of passage?

There’s snow way Canadian childhood will be the same without snow days.

I’m in elementary school. All day I’ve heard whispers from the adults that tomorrow there might be a huge snowstorm.

My exhilaration is palpable. In class, I dream about traipsing through deep snow and making maple syrup taffy in the backyard, leaving the stresses of the third grade behind for a day.

As I got older, I even heard rumours of a ‘SnowDayPredictor’ that some would refresh frantically and announce the odds to their peers.

Before I go to sleep, I stare out my window, willing the snow to fall in copious amounts, silencing the city with a thick white blanket.

The next morning, I’m too wired with excitement. I wake up early and glance outside. Sure enough, the snow has piled up to at least knee height, and my mom urges me to go back to sleep — school is cancelled. It’s a snow day!

As a born-and-raised Montrealer, snow days are an integral part of my fondest winter memories. There’s nothing like waking up and realizing you have the day off to spend outside, frolicking in fluffy powder and cozying up with a warm hot chocolate when you come back inside (or spending the entire day inside, staying warm!).

But with new possibilities for online school thanks to the pandemic, are my beloved snow days a thing of the past? On the Jan. 16 snow day, 10 Montreal schools opted for Zoom learning instead of giving students the day off to enjoy the winter wonderland.

It’s ridiculous. Blasphemy. Absurdity.

I firmly believe that snow days should remain in practice in spite of the option to hold school online when excessive snow makes travelling to school difficult.

In addition to the pure fun and the creation of core memories that snow days bring, taking a spontaneous day off school does wonders for one’s mental health.

In our often-too-busy lives, snow days offer us the time to relax, recharge, and enjoy our surroundings, without having to feel guilty for missing out on being productive.

“Where I come from, some days it’s like 40 degrees,” said Concordia student Zina Chouaibi. She grew up in Algeria and moved to Montreal at age 11. “We [didn’t] take days off. Even if the sun [was] burning,” she explained, noting that her first snow day here was quite a shock, but very exciting.

Still, Chouaibi sees the benefit in snow days, particularly for younger people. “My sister does a lot of Zooms now. And it’s sad because she [spends] most of the time now inside rather than outside.”

A 2020 study from the International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity found that only 4.8 per cent of children and 0.6 per cent of the youth surveyed were meeting movement behaviour guidelines during COVID-19 restrictions. More than ever, children can use time away from their screens to enjoy the outdoors, making the need for snow days even more apparent.

Taking these much-needed breaks isn’t only necessary for kids and teenagers — these so-called “mental health days” reduce burnout in adults as well.

That being said, even if snow days become obsolete, I’ve been known to create my own. When there’s a decent snowfall in the Laurentians or the Eastern Townships, I suddenly fall ill with mogulitis, a near deadly self-coined disease that can only be cured by playing hooky and driving to the mountains for a day of skiing.

But mogulitis isn’t really about skiing, it’s more about reconnecting with nature, taking time for myself, and appreciating the beauty of Canadian winter (before it turns to brown slush). So even if snow days become a thing of the past, I urge you to fall back on mogulitis — but hopefully it won’t come to that.

 

Archive Picture from Talia Kliot

Categories
Sports

Everything you need to know about skiing during the pandemic

An abnormal ski season around the corner

For winter sports enthusiasts, the first snowfall entails the beginning of a highly anticipated season. While there will be some sense of familiarity for experienced skiers, this season will be exceptionally unique with COVID-19.

Fortunately, winter athletes hoping to practice skiing as an escape from a disappointing year will still be able to access the wide plethora of local ski hills. However, with the pandemic upending familiar societal standards on its head, skiing will be no exception.

The concept of skiing lends itself well to the COVID-19 era: skiers are already accustomed to spreading out across the mountain, tend to distance themselves from others while riding the slopes to avoid collisions, and are used to covering their faces to combat the cold climate.

However, some issues arise when considering the services surrounding the popular winter activity. The concept of waiting in crowded lift lines and sharing chairs is worrisome for ski resorts, alongside the notion of renting gear and the interactions that procedure entails. The crowding and socializing that typically occurs in warm interior settings such as mid-mountain restaurants and chalets will also need to be heavily controlled and monitored.

The recent drop in temperature has enabled the snowmaking operation to begin for many ski resorts, officially signaling the commencement of the ski season despite the circumstances.

The Quebec Ski Areas Association (ASSQ) has released a set of guidelines that the non-profit organization deems paramount for the smooth sailing of ski operations in the province. Among the many safety measures people are advised to follow, the mandatory highlighted items include: keeping a physical distance of two metres, wearing a face covering inside and outside of base lodging, and washing hands frequently.

Much like the many societal services that have made the online transition, skiers can purchase ski tickets online in advance and learn about the specific regional health regulations that will vary by resort, which ski resorts strongly recommend before presenting oneself in-person.

Some mountains aim to control traffic by limiting the number of daily tickets made available. Regional statuses will not be absolute and will subsequently be susceptible to change as the COVID-19 situation evolves, meaning guests must frequent a business’ website regularly to remain informed and avoid calamity.

“The resorts have redoubled their efforts to put processes in place to ensure the safety of their guests and employees,” said President and CEO of the ASSQ Yves Juneau in a press release published on Nov. 26. “The success of the season also depends on the sense of responsibility of skiers who must now plan their outings in advance.”

In addition to the added physical safety measures, many ski resorts have adopted new policies that cater to customers by acknowledging the uncertainty surrounding the virus.

The Guaranteed Season option, for example, is offered by most local hills free-of-charge with the purchase of any season pass, enabling customers the option to defer the pass to the 2021-22 season or request a full refund. The deadline to defer varies by resort, and skiers cannot use the benefit if they have already started using their subscription.

Furthermore, if services are temporarily interrupted or suspended due to a government decree, a compensation process will occur at the end of the season. Reimbursements will be calculated according to the theoretical number of days offered by a certain pass compared to the number of operating days that the resort was forced to prematurely close.

The pandemic has thrown curveballs and haymakers at every stage, making its notorious presence felt and forcing people from all walks of life to adjust accordingly. While the different operation process will certainly have its ups and downs for ski enthusiasts, local ski resorts hope that the continuous diligence will result in a unique, safe, and rewarding winter season.

 

Graphic by Laura Douglas

Categories
News

Simply Scientific: Albedo Effect

Is it snowing? Raining? Like, is it winter? What’s happening?

Although snow can be beautiful at times, and a pain for the vast majority of us at others, fluctuating temperatures have changed in the past few decades, affecting snow, posing a risk to our ice caps, and playing a part in global warming. While climate-change skeptics will keep ranting in 2020 about “fake news,” saying “everything is fine” while storming Twitter with the new #WW3, let’s just hope enough people decide to care more about the environment as their new year’s resolution.

But why care so much about snow?

It’s not really about that dirty slush splattering everywhere in cities, but more about Arctic territories that consist mostly of huge patches of ice – think about Greenland, for example. In these areas, recent temperatures are shown to be increasing twice as fast as the rest of the world. Scientists refer to this as “Arctic amplification,” and it is the consequence of shrinking ice caps.

The albedo effect is what has been countering Arctic amplification for millions of years. Ice caps, being white, reflect large amounts of the Sun’s energy back into space. In other iceless parts of the world, the energy is absorbed into the ground, resulting in increased heat. Ultimately, the coolness created by the albedo effect balances out the global increase heat of our planet. Unfortunately for us, those ice caps, either on land or floating on the ocean – like those around the North and South Poles – have decreased by a third to a half since the pre-industrial era.

This creates a rapidly-increasing cycle where the more ice is melting, the more the temperature increases, and so on and so forth. I’ll leave it there for you to figure out what will ultimately happen.

So, snow and ice, while being a nightmare for some, is actually a good weapon to fight climate change.

 

Graphic by @sundaeghost

Categories
News

Montrealers face their worst nightmare: construction under the snow.

Twenty centimetres of snow made traffic worse than usual last week in Montreal.

Concordia students depend heavily on the 105 bus to get to and from the Loyola campus. When it begins to snow, their usual method of transit gets way more complicated. On Nov. 11 and 12, Montreal received 20 centimetres of snow.

“I almost died yesterday,” said Huda Hafez, a student at Concordia University. “There was a big pile of snow covering the sidewalk, and I didn’t know where the sidewalk ended and the road started. So, I was actually standing in the bus’s way and the driver looked so angry, and he was going really fast.”

With snow, buses struggle to respect regular schedules in NDG, in Saint-Laurent, and almost everywhere in Montreal, according to public transit users.

Three construction projects on Côte-Vertu Boulevard in Saint-Laurent have been making traffic unbearable for most people in the area since April. Now that it has snowed, it’s making it even worse.

Although the three projects’ are meant to speed up public transit, the work will continue adversely affecting residents and workers until Dec. 15.

“The first project, at the Côte-Vertu metro station, consists of changing the permeability membrane to prevent water from getting in,” said Aref Salem, city councillor and vice-chair of the Commission sur le transport et les travaux publics. This project was complete by the beginning of last week.

The second project is the service rapide par bus (SRB), which is a 24/7 reserved bus lane.

“The whole point of the SRB between Côte-Vertu and Sauvé [stations] is to speed up buses, especially the 121. It has around 40,000 users every day, and we want to help them save time,” said Salem.

The third project is under the Montpellier REM train station viaduct and consists of changing the pillars.

“We want to strengthen the bridge to support new trains and a closed station so people can’t get access to the train without a valid ticket,” said Salem. Passengers will have to scan their tickets before entering the station.

Daily commuters of Côte-Vertu Boulevard are complaining the projects are causing traffic and the snow is making transport unbearable.

“I just want them to finish with all the construction,” said Maryam Bairouk, a resident near Côte-Vertu Boulevard. “I had a car accident a few weeks ago at the Jules-Poitras and Côte-Vertu light. A car was reversing because they were stuck in the intersection, and they smashed into my car.”

These projects are also affecting public transit users.

HEC student Annie Marcel said that before it snowed, the only annoyance was the detour the bus had to take near the metro. She said she’s glad this project ended before the snowstorm, but that the snow alone is a struggle.

“I had to wait over 10 minutes for the 121 to show up when it was only three minutes away. It was stuck at the same light for five minutes,” Marcel said.

Demix Construction, a division of CRH Canada Group Inc., is the contracting company of these projects.

Though The Concordian tried to reach the company, engineer and project manager Marco Pelle said the STM asked to redirect journalists’ questions to them, who also refused to comment.

These projects are expected to end by Dec. 15, and the SRB should be operational starting January 2020.

 

Feature photo by Britanny Clarke

Categories
Student Life

Mim meets Montreal

Episode 7: In which Mim sees her first snow

“Leave!” she screamed, taking me by the shoulders and shaking me violently. “Get out of here before it’s too late!” My housemate Maïté had lived through it many times before, but it still frightened her, sent shivers down her spine. Before moving to Montreal in August, people back home in Melbourne had warned me about it, too. The dreaded beast is called winter. If a native Montrealer was fretting for her life, how was I supposed to feel?

I have never experienced weather colder than minus five degrees. In some parts of Australia, it often reaches 40 degrees in summer. I’ve never been skiing and I had never seen the snow. Then, on Friday, I saw it for the first time.

I was sitting in my regular café, gazing out onto the sunny street when it happened. I first thought, that rain looks weird. Why is it white and why are the droplets drifting in all kinds of directions? Surely there was a reasonable explanation. Like, a delivery truck carrying a thousand pillows had crashed and exploded, sending a billion tiny linen specks floating down Mount Royal Ave. Blinded by my snow-virgin status, I was a bit slow on the uptake. Finally realizing what I was seeing, I speedily frolicked out of the café like a kid chasing after an ice-cream van. I stared up into the clear blue sky and watched the sparkling white specks fall to the ground. It felt like a “The Gods Must be Crazy” moment. If you haven’t seen the film, it’s essentially about an isolated South African tribe who witness a Coke bottle fall from the sky and land unbroken on the earth. Having never seen a bottle in their lives, they are completely bewildered. I imagine that the look upon my face wasn’t dissimilar from theirs.

I stuck out my hand to catch a snowflake on my finger, but the one I got must have been a dud. I thought it would look like the ones I’d seen in the movies. Instead, it looked like a fleck of linen. When people began bumping into me on the narrow footpath and giving me looks of, “it’s just snow,” it was time to go inside. I told the barista whom I often chatted with that I’d just witnessed my first snow. She congratulated me.

Then, on Sunday, it really snowed. I woke up to a view of a white-blanketed Le Plateau with a foggy Mount Royal in the distance. That day, for the first time ever, I made a snowball and walked on snow (like an awkward tip-toeing toddler). I look forward to ticking off many more “firsts” on my “winter novelties” list.

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