Warm weather leaves skiing class students out in the cold

Assistant Editor

Due to several days of unseasonably warm weather, Wolf Laurel Ski Resort closed earlier than usual this year which caused students enrolled in HPXS 158 (the snow skiing class) to cram in their practice days.

Wolf Laurel’s Group Sales Director Tim Crane said that the resort usually closes in mid-March but that it “depends on the weather.”

According to Crane, at least 60 percent of the class used their practice days during the last week the slopes were open, March 1-7.

The syllabus for HPXS 158 states that students are required to ski a total of eight days: four lesson days and four practice days.

“The way it was set up originally was for students to have a lesson day, then a practice day where they would practice what they learned in the lesson,” Crane said.

Some students planned their practice days differently.

Sophomore Karissa Schrage said that she planned on using her practice days the week after spring break when midterm exams would be finished.

“I didn’t realize (Wolf Laurel) was going to close so early,” Schrage said.
Similarly, sophomore Breanna Shelton said she “fit all four practice days in the last week Wolf Laurel was open.”

Shelton said she was upset because she had to use her practice days during midterm exams.

“I had to ski knowing I had a humanities test, a research and methods test, papers and a photojournalism project due,” Shelton said.

The students were notified about the resort’s early closure because of a chance phone call.

Schrage said she called Wolf Laurel on March 2 to check when the resort was planning on closing, and an employee told her the resort would close that weekend.

Schrage notified Kim Hyatt, assistant professor of HPXS, who then contacted Wolf Laurel and the students.

In an e-mail to students, Hyatt wrote that “the ski lodge did not call me and inform me of this early closure.”

In the same e-mail, Hyatt said she would allow her students to have one practice session absence. However, many students still needed to make up practice days.

Schrage went to the resort that same day to find that the slopes were closed because of rising temperatures.

“I knew I needed four practice days and had to get them in before (spring) break,” Schrage said, “so I begged Tim (Crane) to let me ski.”

Crane opened the slope for Schrage and two other Milligan students.

“Tim (Crane) was kind enough to give us our equipment and let us walk up the slopes in our skis,” Schrage said.

For students who did not complete their practice days, Hyatt has arranged a way to make up credit.
In a second e-mail to students, Hyatt outlined the requirements for completing the course by writing reports on skiing.

“I’m trying to help students to fulfill course requirements,” Hyatt said. “I want students to get a good grade, of course, but also to accept responsibility.”

To prevent this situation from happening again, Hyatt plans to encourage future skiing classes to use their practice days earlier in the year.

“The strategy for next year is for students to have a lesson and then practice (the same) week,” Hyatt said. “I will encourage everybody to go weekly or even two times a week in the first two months of the year and not wait until the last minute.”

Sophomore Katrina Hayes attributes the problem to the weather, saying “No one knows how the weather is going to be in East Tennessee.”

“It’s frustrating,” said Hayes, “because we were told that we had until April to use these days, and we had no time to get them in.”