Staff and students unveiling the new plans to add a game changing landing bag

a letter from the head of school

“The landing bag is like the internet in the ‘90s, you’ll adapt or fall behind.” -Nick Goepper

It is hard to believe that it is now the year 2023 & we still do not have flying cars. December of 2022 was action packed at Wy'East Academy with near record breaking snow on the mountain & our most successful annual fundraiser ever. Good in the Woods brought in a total of nearly three times the amount of money as we did last year to go towards capital projects like the Find Your Grind Scheidel Learning Lab & the landing bag on campus in addition to record breaking tuition assistance to help bring down the cost to come to Wy'East Mountain Academy. You can help our students any time of year through the AmazonSmile program AmazonSmile: You shop. Amazon gives or donate directly towards any project at Wy'East Mountain Academy - Ways to Give (wyeastacademy.com). Acceptance letters continued to flow in for our seniors allowing them to focus on finishing their high school experience strong. We are looking forward to another first with our winter semester of 2023 utilising every bed on campus pushing us all to look at how to make the most out of every opportunity we have in front of us. All of the programs have hit the road with more travel planned for the upcoming semester. We thank you for your continued insights & support to make this the best Academy in the world.

-Mike Hanley

academics

December was an exciting end to the semester! For the Advisory Course, several students practiced their presentation skills by presenting a slideshow of their favorite trick to an audience comprised of their peers and staff members. Students delivered information on the history of the trick, how to learn the trick, and gave examples of the trick being done. This was an awesome learning experience for all! We will surely include this assignment in future Advisory Courses. The average GPA was an impressive 3.51--awesome work, everyone! Lastly, twenty students earned a spot on the Dean's List by having a semester GPA of at least 3.65. Great work!

This semester students can expect to take another practice PSAT in class. We also recommend all students grades 9-11 take the SAT this spring. We are hosting the SAT on March 1st. Unfortunately that conflicts with the skiers schedule, so transportation will be arranged for all students that would like to take the SAT on March 11th at a nearby high school. Students taking the SAT that Saturday will need to create a Collegeboard account and register as soon as possible. We recommend the nearest high school: Parkrose High School. Please reach out if you have any questions. Also please let me or your student's teachers know whether or not your student will be taking the SAT on campus or if you would like help registering for the SAT on March 11th.

Lastly, congratulations to the December Students of the Month: Brooke Anderson and Hugh MacMenamin!
-Kayla Hokanson

"Brooke was my pick for Student of the Month for December. She has consistently been one of the hardest working students on campus, and that carried through the entire semester. Even while on trips, Brooke would make sure to stay on top of her work and her grades. She was always able to push herself to do better on her assignments and was constantly improving. That level of drive is hard to find, and that is why she was chosen for Student of the Month! Excellent work, Brooke!"
-Peter Ellis

"Hugh MacMenamin is my class's December's student of the month. Hugh not only earned an outstanding 4.03 GPA last semester while taking high school's most notoriously challenging class (AP US History) but also gave a spectacular presentation for his classmates about x trick. Hugh always shows up to class with a positive, focused, motivated attitude that is contagious to his classmates and sets the bar high! Keep it going, Hugh!"
- Hannah Green

student life

The students who podiumed at K1 Speed—a favorite weekend activity.

Greetings,

Looking back, Fall term was exceptionally amazing. On the residential side of things we ended fall term with taking the students to K1 speed to race go karts. The students have a blast and it will definitely be a repeat activity going into winter term. In addition, student government worked closely with myself and staff to plan activities and find ways to become involved in the community. Looking into winter term we will be volunteering again with the Special Olympics as well as participating in a clothing drive for a local charity. We can’t believe it's already winter term and are incredibly excited for what winter term holds for our students.

-Netanya Beard

culinary

The month of December was a mellow month for the Culinary Department. As we only had to serve the student body for two weeks. During this time, Ski and Snowboard went to Mammoth to do a little training, leaving only Mountain Bike and Skate to feed for. During this time the students and staff that were here got a little extra attention on the food that we served. For example, one evening Kellen made Cedar Plank Salmon for the students. Everyone enjoyed it all. Then, it was time to say Happy Holidays and we will see you next year.

Looking at the Winter Term, Teams will be traveling a lot throughout the season. So, the campus will be full of teams and then there will be times that we might be serving only a small group of students. But, the Culinary Department will make sure that there is plenty of food for all and have snacks available throughout the day for students to come grab.

The Culinary Department looks forward to this Winter Term with 60 students on campus.

-Travis Gibson

freeski

Greetings Freeski Families,

We would like to warmly welcome all of our new families and welcome back all of our returning families to Second Semester! It’s going to be one for the books. We’ve got some great team trips planned, and are also looking forward to what Mt. Hood and the PNW has to offer us this winter!

Although December was a short month, we really maximized the days we had. With late snow this fall we decided to make the pilgrimage down to Mammoth, who’s great early season snow storms had them almost completely open, with jumps of all sizes, hips, and over 50 jibs across 5 parks. There was something for everyone, and we took advantage of it! At the half point of our trip, a storm blew into town and dropped 4’ of fresh snow over 2 days, closing some of the upper elevation terrain, but provided some all time storm riding on the lower elevation terrain. On the last day of our trip the storm blew out and the sky went blue. As Mammoth opened up the upper elevation terrain we were some of the first people in line and we had some all time powder runs!!

Again, we are psyched at the energy coming into the ski team for second semester, and look forward to sharing that with you all along the way!

-Toph, Breeze & Cam

snowboard

Lyric Hanseder competing in a USASA competition

Hello Snowboard Team Families!

Second semester is officially underway and what a season we have in store for the team. We’ve already started the local USASA competition season with our first two Rail Jams the day after everyone got back to campus. Collectively the team was able to take home 13 medals between 8 competitors; 6 Gold, 5 Silver, & 2 Bronze! We have five slopestyle events planned for those competing throughout the next two months, four of which are here at home and one on the road while we’re on our Midwest trip which happens at the end of the month. I’m excited to expose the team to that integral part of snowboarding where riders are able to get 200+ laps in a day. We’ll be riding 5 different resorts while in Minneapolis including Trollhaugen, Wild Mountain, Hyland Hills, Buckhill, and Elm Creek.

Our second team trip will be in February when we all head east to Salt Lake City with a stop in Idaho at Bogus Basin on our way through. We’ll be spending time training at both Brighton and Woodward Park City where they offer every type of riding from big, steep, technical terrain at Brighton to flowy, creative park laps at Woodward. There will be a mix of small, medium, and large jumps, a full half pipe, and fingers crossed for some pow riding at Brighton. There we will be showing the team the University of Utah and Westminster College for those interested in making Salt Lake their next home while furthering their education.

Our third team trip will be in March when we drive down to North Lake Tahoe and Mammoth to train at Boreal, Kingvale, and Mammoth. The options at Boreal and Kingvale are an incredible combination of creative and large features for those pushing their limits coupled with fast laps for maximum reps. While in Tahoe, the team will be seeing what life could look like in that area if they choose a school like University of Reno, Lake Tahoe Community College, or Sierra College (Tahoe-Truckee campus). While we are in Mammoth, the team will be able to shadow the best park crew in the country to learn what it takes to maintain the 10 terrain parks, 2 half pipes, 100+ rail features, and up to 40 jumps. We started this relationship last year and the park staff was so excited to have our team, that they have invited us back to do it again!

To wrap up our travel season, those that have qualified for USASA Nationals at Copper will be flying out to compete against the best riders in their age groups on the National level to showcase what they have been training towards all year. It’s an action packed week of events and we invite all the families to come be a part of it to support the team. Stewy and I are so grateful for the trust that you’ve put in us to help shape the lives of your kids as we create these training opportunities while showing them what life beyond high school can look like. As always, please reach out with any questions along the way!

-Brandon and Stewy

mountain bike

December was the first time when our time on campus outnumbered our time on the road. This time provided a good opportunity for the students to finish their classes before the semester ended. The snow was falling so we took advantage of that by going up to the mountain with our students that have passes. For those that don’t have passes we took advantage of the facilities we have on campus with gym workouts and riding in the backyard when the snow was not present.

Going into the Spring Semester we have a bunch of trips on the schedule, starting with our trip to San Clemente and Bootleg. After that, we’ll have some time on campus where we are going to be focusing on building endurance and strength. Our next trip will be to Virgin, Utah, to the Freeride Mecca. Our last big trip of the semester will be to Windrock, TN for the Tennessee National. This trip was a big hit with the team last year and we are excited to be going back. The final trip of the semester will be for the first stop of the NW Cup in Port Angeles, WA.

We are excited to have everyone back on campus and looking forward to another great semester!

-Kevin & Asa

skateboard

Hi Families,

December was a fun but fast month on campus. Skate spent the start of the month down in north county San Diego. We scored amazing weather and had great company for the whole trip. We spent time/skated with a variety of pros, ams, social media skaters, and recent college grads to hear their stories and approaches on how they got where they are. A few of the people were Pro/Olympian Heimana Renyonlds, Pro Taylor Nye, Am Archer Braun, Social Media guy Jimmy Rehman, Social Media guy Eric Hutchinson, Pro Jake Reuter, and Pro/Nitro Circus skater Beaver Flemming. The last week of the semester we were back on campus to reflect on the trip and review/reflect on semester goals. Fall semester was epic!!

Jumping straight into the winter/spring semester which is in full swing now. We will be hosting a monthly contest on campus Jan. 15th Flatground game of SKATE, Feb. 12th Curb game of SKATE, Mar. 12th Jam Session in B.O.B., Apr. 15th Timed Race, and May 20th Jam session in the Jungle. https://seekskatecamp.com/contest for more information and registration. Looking at the skate trips for the semester will be Southern California in February, Phoenix AZ in March for the PHXAM Contest, and NYC in April. I am very excited for everything happening this semester with the skate program.

-Brian Johnson