1. Get your profile up to date! This is particularly important if you are interested in being notified for volunteer opportunities or want to get an email when a new ski or snowshoe event posts. If you haven't looked at your profile yet, log in to the CONC website and check it out. For more information on how to do this, check out this article.

2. Are you not getting emails when new events post? See #2 above and get your profile up to date.

3. Use the Search Bar! At the very top of the webpage, there's a search bar. Search for whatever you are interested in. For instance, if you want to see all the help articles, just type "FAQ" in the search bar.

4. There is an app for that! You can find the app "Wild Apricot for members" in the App Store or Google Play. It's an easy way to keep track of Events and to keep your profile up to date. Registering for an event, looking at the list of events and the list of which events you are registered for, and cancelling your registration if you can't make it are all much easier in the app. However, one limitation is that you can't add yourself to the waitlist through the app; you have to go to the CONC website for that.

Here is more information about the app:
App for Android
App for iOS

Note: CONC does not have a member directory, so those features are not available.

If you are a CONC admin or trip leader, you'll also find the "Wild Apricot for admins" app to be useful.

If you belong to more than one club that uses Wild Apricot, you can still use the app. If you have different passwords for each club, you'll have to log out of one club then log in to the next. However, if you use the same password for your different clubs, you can switch between them in the app without logging out. It's a bit lower security but much easier.

Recent Events

January and February have been busy months for CONC, with many different activities taking place. You can click on the links to read the full blog post of any recent event.

2024 Ski School Lessons

This year Jerry Sebestyen organized three beginner ski schools: two "Beginner-Beginner" sessions and one "Beginner-Backcountry" lesson. All were a smashing success, and snow conditions turned out to be great for all three sessions. More than 50 CONC members benefitted from the beginner lessons. With more than a dozen CONC volunteers serving as lead instructors and co-instructors, students enjoyed low student-to-teacher ratios. Thanks to Dennis, Woody, and Laura for helping with the organization and sign-up management.

Much of the Beginner-Beginner courses were conducted on the groomed tracks that extend into Swampy Sno-Park and at the Meissner area. Basic classic technique was presented and practiced. In the Beginner-Backcountry class, more time was spent in the Swampy area. Techniques covered were getting up from a fall in deep snow, going uphill off track, and how to slow down, stop, and turn going downhill.

I've heard great things about all the classes. Thank you to everybody who participated, everybody who instructed, and especially to Jerry for spearheading these events.

Snowshoeing Tracks!

The snowshoeing contingent of CONC has already been out and about several times since the snow started to fall in mid-January. We've gone out to several of the Sno-Park shelters as well as just tramping around in a lot of snow. Here is a whirlwind tour of what we've been up to.

The first snowshoe of the season was out to the Swampy Shelter and back along the Porcupine loop, It was a lovely day and we took the Summit Cut-off trail to avoid heading up over Telemark Butte. No one had been along the cut-off trail for a few days since there had been a snowfall, and we had to break trail for the length of the tie, so we got a pretty good workout on that section. The following Saturday, we put on a snowshoe for non-CONC members. Conditions were not ideal for snowshoeing (it was raining), but we had five intrepid folks show up to snowshoe the Long Loop at Swampy. The next trip was out to the Edison Sno-Park, where we headed up the new snowshoe trail to the AC/DC Shelter. We had about an inch of snowfall from the previous night, so the footing in the snowshoe trench was nice and soft. The new trail takes off from the Tesla Loop and heads uphill for about a mile to the shelter. We enjoyed our lunch in the shelter and didn't see any other people until we got back to the trailhead. The Feb 10th snowshoe trip up to the Jefferson View Shelter at Three Creek Sno-Park was glorious. We had our largest group yet, with 8 participants. Although the snow was soft and a bit sparse in places along the trail, the sun was out and there wasn't a cloud in the sky. We could see all the way up to Mt Hood as we headed up towards the shelter. We enjoyed lunch at the shelter with several other groups of snowshoers and walkers, and then headed back down paralleling the Three Creek Lake ski trail to the trailhead. The most recent snowshoe was supposed to go out to the Nordeen Shelter from Swampy, but a huge dump of snow the night before shortened the trip as we had to break trail almost the entire time. There were three of us, and we opted to do the Short Loop trail and traded out being at the front to tramp down fresh snow. There was over a foot of new snow and the going was hard, but we had a great time. We went slowly and took lots of breaks.

I'm not sure where we'll head next. I keep an eye on the snowfall and the forecast and try to pick the best days to get out. If you're signed up for the snowshoe notifications in Wild Apricot, you will be notified when the new trips are posted. So far the trips have been in the easy to moderate range, so they are suitable for all levels of snowshoers. If we get fresh snow and trail-breaking is required, then all participants are expected to take a turn up at the front of the group to spread the work out. If there is a significant amount of snowfall, then I will adjust the length of the trip appropriately. Sign up is usually not required, unless I decide to go on a more difficult trip where a higher level of fitness is required. You can always contact me with any questions about the trip and expected conditions. I hope to see you along on the next snowshoe trip!

-Kelly Cleman

Click the links to read the blog posts on the following recent events on the CONC website.

Jan. 16: Snowshoe Trail Maintenance

Jan. 21: Ski Tour

Jan. 29: Mazama Trip 2024

Feb. 9: Meissner Beginner Loop

Feb. 9: 2024 February Social

Feb. 12-16: McCall Idaho Trip

Feb. 13: Wanoga Knockabout

Feb. 20: Beginners at Meissner

Feb. 22: Bare Lake

Sunshine is delicious, rain is refreshing, wind braces us up, snow is exhilarating; there is really no such thing as bad weather, only different kinds of good weather.

-John Ruskin