LETTER FROM THE HEAD OF SCHOOL

The O'Brien Family at Timberline Lodge for Parents' Weekend.

Fall has officially fallen upon Oregon. It has been a funny year where we didn't really have any shoulder seasons, it was snowing in May & summer in June. Now it has transitioned from sunny in October to snowing in November. All of our students hit the road with the snow athletes heading over to Austria to make the most of the Alps while the mountain bikers got up to our northern neighbor to ride Coast Gravity. Our skaters hopped on a plane to head on down to the Frisco Bay & check out some scary hills & stair sets. There is a lot more to an education than just the amount of time in the classroom, so we are very proud of all of our programs getting the opportunity to learn by seeing the world. I am sure that students are very happy to be done with the PSAT & SAT. We are still waiting for results, but the practice tests had some of our highest scores ever for the Academy. Acceptance letters have started to roll in for our seniors with Angus Linsey & Jack Morris accepting their offers to Montana State in addition to John Michael Ajemian being accepted to Brevard University. The early acceptance deadline for most schools is November 1st so our seniors have all been working hard to plan for their futures.
Our second annual Parents Weekend was a lot of fun & we wanted to thank all of you who took the time to make it out. It was a great opportunity to get everyone on the same page to experience how dynamic of an environment we all exist in. The demos were hard to compare to the food or the paintball & pumpkin catapulting sessions, but smores at the campfire was the perfect way to wrap up each action packed day. We look forward to seeing everyone back here in Oregon for the Good in the Woods Annual Fundraiser on December 17th & would like to specifically thank the PTO for all of the amazing work they have been doing behind the scenes to make this the best year ever. Thank you & see you in December!

-Mike Hanley

ACADEMICS

October Students of the Month: Wheeler Snyder and Michelangelo Palumbo

Hello Wy'East Families,

It was so great seeing so many of you during Parents' Weekend! If you didn't get a chance to have a parent teacher conference and would like one, please reach out—we're happy to accommodate with a virtual meeting. October is the month we host our fall standardized testing. We administered the PSAT on October 25th and the SAT October 27th. Students worked hard to prepare for the exams, and we are awaiting their scores. Students will have another opportunity to take the SAT on campus this spring.

October has been a busy month for seniors, as they have been finishing up their college applications. Our goal is to have all students submit college applications in November. Already students have received acceptance letters to Montana State University and Brevard University. We are so grateful to the coaches for incorporating university tours in their travel itineraries. During the month of October, students have had the opportunity to visit UC Berkeley and San Francisco State University and, internationally, Capilano University and University of Innsbruck. We appreciate all of the support on the academic front and look forward to November!

Lastly, congratulations to our Students of the Month for the month of October: Wheeler Snyder and Michelangelo Palumbo!

-Kayla Hokanson

Wheeler has been on a rampage to get ahead in his courses. He worked tirelessly earlier this month in order to get his assignments done before going on the trip to Canada, and just hasn't stopped working since then. Wheeler did all this without any complaints or hesitation. He set a goal for himself, and followed through. It's that level of dedication that I love to see, and is the reason he is receiving Student of the Month. Keep crushing it, Wheeler!

-Peter Ellis

Michelangelo has been selected as October student of the month in my class. Miky finished his Edgenuity classes in just 6 weeks--less than half the scheduled time! This stunning achievement is thanks to Miky's unwavering work ethic in and out of class--Miky always comes to class on time with a positive attitude and determination to succeed. Miky is serving as an inspiration to all the students--he's become an academic legend across all sports and he has motivated many students to get ahead of pace and finish classes before winter arrives. Go Miky!

-Hannah Green

STUDENT LIFE

Ozzie Kroop launching a pumpkin during Parents' Weekend.

Greetings Wy’East Families,

The month of October was quite a busy month for our students. We started off the month with taking the students to Liepold Farms for their Fall Festival where students had the opportunity take on a corn maze, attempt to escape a dark maze, check out the pumpkin patch and participate in fall activities such as apple launching, and eating the classic Liepold Farm Carmel apple. The following week our ski and snowboard teams departed for their trip to Austria. With ski and snowboard gone campus was pretty quiet. That following weekend we took the mountain bikers and skaters bowling while the girls had a girls day where they explored Portland and went shopping. With the amazing weather we had on campus for the first few weeks of October the students on campus spent a lot of time skating outside, slack lining, and riding out on the trails in the backyard and we even planned a day trip to the beach where students were able to surf and hang out on the beach. With mountain bike on the road, ski and snowboard still in Austria and Skate down in California, we took the remaining students out to see the Matchstick Productions ski movie premiere and the highlight for the students was being able to ride the scooters around downtown Portland afterwards. The following day we planned a special dinner off campus at a local BBQ spot. The following weekend we had all of our students back on campus suffering from extreme cases of jetlag so we planned a relaxing weekend where we took the students out to the local movie theatre for the typical seasonal horror movie. My favorite weekend of October was parents weekend where we planned a whole weekend filled with fun activities ranging from checking out the historic Timberline Lodge, water balloon fight on campus, pumpkin smashing and launching, dry sloping, tramping, and finally ending with paintball where it was staff and parents versus the students. Paintball was an absolute blast and its safe to say that I’m sure many of us are still feeling it days later and it was totally worth it. We will definitely be bringing back paintball again for parents weekend next year and it will become a parents weekend tradition. Lastly, in honor of Halloween instead of trick or treating students requested going to a haunted in Portland. Looking into this next month we can’t wait for more exciting weekend activities and enjoying everything that campus has to offer.

-Netanya Beard

CULINARY

Parents, students, and staff enjoying a delicious dinner during Parents' Weekend.

Greetings from the Culinary Department,

What a month to be in the Culinary Department! We started out with a full house of students, then we went quiet as all the teams were traveling around the world. Then, we finished off the month of October with welcoming parents into the cafe. I just want to say it was so nice to meet all the Parents that joined us for a fun weekend. I hope everyone enjoyed the food that we provided. Moving forward, the Culinary Department is looking forward to doing Thanksgiving on Campus for any of the students that want to stay and enjoy another great meal for the Culinary Department.

-Travis Gibson

FREESKI

Joey Killeen demoing the dryslope during Parents' Weekend.

Hello Freeski families,

For those of you who made it out to parents weekend, it was great to catch up and for you to get to see this place in action!

It's truly hard to put in words how incredible the trip to Austria was. Leaving campus on a dark and early October morning with a caravan of 32 people, 27 of which are teenagers, to head to a foreign country where German is the main language sounds wild even on paper, BUT wow did everything go dangerously smooth. Connecting flights, customs, sorting out 5 rental vehicles, all the bags showing up and 22 hours later we were settling into our 3 different houses in Mayrhofen, Austria.

Our house was a four story vintage farmhouse nestled literally on the side of a 45 degree slope with panoramic views of the valley similar to what you would recall from the movie The Sound of Music. Every morning we were awoken to bells from our onsite sheep. We began our first full day by heading up to Hintertux for a day on snow giving everyone a chance to get their feet back under them. The vistas were jaw dropping with near vertical grassy cow filled slopes leading up to jagged peaks following alongside an aqua blue river throughout the windy mountain pass road. Three gondolas later and alas we were officially back on snow reunited with winter. The park was filled with something for everyone accessed by two parallel t-bars allowing for non stop skiing.

Throughout the next four days we spent our days at Banger Park, the airbag site just outside of Innsbruck. The team got right to it, working on tricks they had been training the prior month at campus. The facility there offered small, medium and XL jumps into separate landing bags which were ideal for progression. Each day everyone went home having executed a new trick, axis, spin or grab variation, and the overall morale was at an all-time high. It was great to see the focus and contagious motivation throughout the team.

After those four days we were right back to Hintertux for the remainder of the trip. As everyone warmed back up to being on snow again it was clear to see the time on the low consequence airbag really paid off. We were blessed with great weather including a day with a few inches of snow to help soften up landings throughout the park. Each athlete was able tick off boxes on their goal sheets and get a leg up on the competition prior to the winter season starting up.

Our nights were filled with countless card games, foosball and conversation in our WiFi-less house. The lack of Wi-Fi was absolutely healthy for everyone to come out of their shell and experience true socialization. Screen time was down 90 percent throughout the trip in the best way possible. We made sure to experience as much local cuisine as we could, with a highlight being the Schnitzel Station. The Schnitzel Station was a very authentic Austrian stop down a rural farm road where we all enjoyed schnitzels the size of our torsos. During our one rest day of the trip, we ventured into the city of Innsbruck. While there we got the chance to tour around the University of Innsbruck campus and check out what it would be like to go to school abroad.

To go with the theme of the trip we had a very successful trek back to the states with the squad. We were pleasantly welcomed back to Oregon with nearly two feet of fresh snow. We have had a couple fun days building jumps or sliding some early season rails in the woods but mainly been back to the grind at campus. Yoga, core and gym workouts mixed with trampoline, dryslope and airbaging have filled our time nicely. It really has been great to see the comradery and overall positive vibe of the team. With more snow in the forecast it won’t be long now till the lifts start to spin.

Brian and I greatly appreciate all your timely communication with passes, memberships and trip planning. As always feel free to reach out with any questions.

Let it snow,

-Topher & Brian

SNOWBOARD

Hello Snowboard Team Families!

I’d like to start by saying how great it was to spend time with a lot of you this past weekend on campus. Thank you all for making the trip and showing support as we continue to help shape the future of your kids!

This past month at Wy’East Mountain Academy has been one for the books. The team had about a week to prepare for our big trip to Austria for which they put in the work in the gym, on our dry slope facilities, and grinded their academics. Both Stew and I were very impressed with how serious they took their prep for the trip and it paid off. What an incredible experience for everyone to travel to Europe and have the opportunity to train on snow & on the best landing bags in the world! At the mountain they were instantly making new friends, connecting with other snowboarders who also traveled across the world to be doing the same thing. Once they got the rust knocked off, the whole team got right into pushing their progression on all size jumps, filming rails tricks, and riding as a team.

We logged 3 days at Banger Park, and 8 days on snow at Hintertux, with 1 day spent exploring the city Innsbruck and the University there. At Banger Park, the whole crew got to train on two different size landing bags, but spent the majority of their time on the medium/large bag. Most kids were working on their stock tricks, and then progressing into some bigger spins and doubles. Besides getting absolutely soaked from their helmet to their socks, those landing bags are such a useful tool in the world of learning bigger tricks. About half the crew stepped up and spent 2 sessions on the XL bag working through different double cork variations and pushing their potential. I think they all surprised themselves with what they are actually capable of doing!

On the mountain, the team was looking strong. Almost everyone was working to film clips each day we were up there either on the jump line or the rails, and so much good content came out of this trip. We’re super proud to see them trusting the process of posting content and getting out of their comfort zone. Our goal is to have them stay the course and create a marketable social page to then pass along to teams in the industry for future sponsorship opportunities. We are happy to say that since this trip was so successful, we will be putting it on the calendar for next year!

After getting back on campus, the whole team filled out a reflection sheet that we created so they could write down their personal wins, as well as areas for improvement so that they can continually improve as the season goes on. Hopefully as you all have heard, we have a big season planned for these kids to train hard, travel, compete, and keep improving their lives through the passions they all share.

Until next time,

-Brandon & Stew

MOUNTAIN BIKE

Mountain Bike demo during Parents' Weekend.

We moved into October with the momentum created in September and we had an awesome month! This was the first month that we have had the majority of time on campus which has given the students an opportunity to get caught up, even ahead in school. The weather held out for us on campus and we were able to take advantage of that with our training sessions. There were days at Wildcat, plenty of airbag and mulch time, gym time in BOB, and our new Yoga Sessions with Barb. Barb has been joining us during our training time to do yoga with the kids and this has been going great!

Our trip to Coast Gravity Park was incredible. We had the park to ourselves and the kids took full advantage of that, getting lap after lap. They worked together to get clips for each other which resulted in a bunch of Instagram edits that you wanted to watch on repeat. The level of riding keeps on progressing because of the team dynamic we have. We had two houses in Canada but had all our meals together. In the morning, after breakfast, Barb led Yoga with the kids to get their mind and body ready for the day ahead. In the evening, after dinner, we stretched and watched movies together as a team/family. We also visited a satellite campus of Capilano University in Sechelt, British Columbia and talked to the kids about what opportunities come from going to college. Our first international trip for the mountain bike team was a great success and we look forward to having more in the future.

Going into November, we hope to continue on the trajectory we are going and believe that it is possible due to the foundation that we laid in the beginning of the semester. We have such a good thing going this year and we are excited to see what the future holds.

-Kevin & Asa

SKATEBOARD

Hello Families,

October has been an incredible month for the skate program. First off I would like to say I’m so hyped on how well everyone in skate is doing with their academics!! I love that they are holding each other accountable and setting a high standard for one another. Big Congratulations to Hudson for finishing high school!!

Our San Francisco trip was one for the record books. We scored amazing weather and were able to get the full city experience. We toured SF State University and UC Berkeley with current students who gave us insight to what attending each school is like as a skateboarder. Both tour guides also spent time skating with us, showing us the spots they skate around the universities. SF is home to some of the most famous skate spots on the planet. Even our tour of Alcatraz resulted in us finding a spot on the island of an infamous skate photo. Reading the reflection papers after the trip the highlight was spending the day at DLX Distribution. DLX is home to Real, Anti Hero, Krooked, Unity, There, Spitfire, Thunder, and Venture brands. The students got to talk to and spend the day with the people that make skateboarding what it is. We met with Sales, Production, R&D, Art, Finance, Marketing, and Special Projects departments. The goal for this tour was to build contacts for the students but to also get the students thinking about what else is out there other than being pro or what you can do after being pro. I think it will take some time for everything from the trip to set in. I’ll end this with the departing advice we got from the head of DLX (same advice I got from him when I was younger). “Show up early, Stay late, Try to hit it hard every single day, and Try to be cool to people.”

-Brian Johnson