Ask skiers who grew up in suburban Chicago during the 1960s and ‘70s and they’ll likely remember a childhood filled with cold, snowy winters and weekend bus trips to local Wisconsin ski resorts like Wilmot, Little Switzerland and Cascade. Many will tell you they earned their skiing chops on the glorified hills and mini-mountains of the Midwest.
Back then, an abundance of ski clubs operated out of the North Shore, shuttling hundreds of kids each Saturday morning to the Wisconsin slopes for ski lessons and a day of fun, and returning them home at night – tired but happy.
Fast-forward 50 years and this North Shore tradition is still going strong with two thriving weekend ski programs: the Avalanche/Trolls Club, whose home base is the Scandinavian Ski Shop in Glenview, and the Snowflake Club, which operates out of Williams Ski & Patio in Highland Park.
Nearly 1,300 children signed up for membership in this year’s Snowflake Club, the North Shore’s oldest and biggest youth ski program. On the Martin Luther King Jr. school holiday, Snowflake transported more than 500 skiers aged 8-18 on six buses to Alpine Valley Resort in Elkhorn, Wisconsin. An average Saturday ski trip will draw around 250-300 participants.
“Snowflake Club has successfully run the same program for 50 years with very few changes,” said the club’s director, Kathy Borkowski, who skied with the group as a child growing up in Lake Forest. “Probably our biggest changes have been adding snowboarding lessons 25 years ago, and creating an online booking system.”
Last year, fellow Snowflake Club alums Jordan Holtzman and his sister, Shayna Holtzman-Schneider, bought the long-standing Trolls Club in Glenview with an eye toward growing and modernizing the business. Originally from Highland Park, the pair grew up skiing regularly at local resorts.
Olivia Shachtman, 13, of Highland Park, and Reese Koulentes, 14, of Highland Park, get ready to board the bus at the Snowflake pick up at the Lake Forest High School West campus.
PHOTOGRAPHY BY JOEL LERNER/JWC MEDIA
A bus full of kids awaits departure of the Avalanche Ski Club bus at Lyons School in Glenview. PHOTOGRAPHY BY JOEL LERNER/JWC MEDIA
Lily Chang, 14, of Glenview, and Caroline Zablocki, 15, also of Glenview, haul their snowboarding gear to the bus during the Avalanche/Trolls Ski Club pick up at Lyons School in Glenview. PHOTOGRAPHY BY JOEL LERNER/JWC MEDIA
“The Trolls Club had been around for a long time, but its numbers were dwindling because of lack of marketing and innovation,” said Jordan.
These days, the newly branded Avalanche/Trolls Club uses the same pricing and online booking system as the Snowflake Club, in addition to the same staffing ratio, regulation uniforms, club patches, and safety precautions. However, with a significantly smaller roster of 200 members, the club’s owners say they have an advantage of knowing every single skier they host on day trips.
“Our youngest skier this year is 7 years old,” said Jordan. “He wants to go to the Olympics. Everything about him reminds me of myself.”
The brother and sister said they’re concentrating their efforts on building their own membership base in parts of the North Shore that fall outside Snowflake’s catchment area, including bus stops in Glenview, Northbrook, Buffalo Grove and Libertyville. They also hope to partner with local schools and PTOs to host ski resort field trips and fundraisers.
In addition to offering kids the chance to learn a healthy, lifetime skill, the pair enjoys seeing young skiers make new friends, foster independence and gain confidence each weekend on the slopes.
“Learning to ski on these smaller, Midwestern hills is perfect,” said Shayna. “Then, when you finally go out west to ski, it’s even better.”
From mid-December to early March, the Snowflake Club runs regular weekend trips to nearby Wilmot, Alpine Valley and Little Switzerland, as well as long distance trips to Devil’s Head and Cascade. The club’s early morning buses pick up at locations up and down the North Shore, from Lake Forest to Wilmette.
All participants pay a $75 membership fee at the beginning of the season; individual trips can be booked online up to midnight the Wednesday before each Saturday departure at a cost of $85-$95, which includes round trip transportation and a full day of skiing lessons. Most participants rent their skis on a seasonal basis from Williams Ski & Patio.
Borkowski estimated that between 40,000 to 50,000 kids have learned to ski with Snowflake over the course of the club’s long history. Many hail from third generation “legacy” families whereby grandparents, kids, and grandkids have all been “Snowflakers.”
Kids getting ready to board the bus at the Snowflake pick up on February 10 at LFHS.
Xavier Garriquex, 11, of Lake Forest, walks onto the bus at Snowflake Club’s Lake Forest pick-up point on February 10.
“We’re everywhere,” said Borkowski. “I was skiing in Aspen recently, wearing my blue Snowflake Club hat, and a guy spotted me on the lift and said ‘Hey, I was a Snowflaker back in the day.’”
The key to Snowflake’s success, said Borkowski, is the quantity and quality of its own in-house volunteer ski instructors. The club maintains a 10 to 1 ratio of skiers to chaperones, who range in age from high-school aged certified junior instructors, all the way to seasoned adults. All Snowflake staff wears bright blue uniforms; kids place easily identifiable Snowflake patches on the sleeves of their ski coats.
“We are acutely aware of the kids’ location at all times,” said Borkowski, who goes on every trip. “We set up a white flag table at the resort and staff it with 2-3 adults to field questions, trouble shoot.
Most importantly, said Borkowski, Snowflake staff makes sure every skier makes it back on the bus at quitting time.
“We’re like the Marines,” joked Borkowski. “We never leave a man behind.”
Current Snowflake instructor Ross Murray, who grew up in Wilmette and skied in the club with his two younger brothers, remembers a time before cell phones — and even before walkie-talkies.
“When I was a kid, we used an air horn to call kids off the mountain,” said Murray. “As a junior instructor, if you’d done well that day, you’d get to blow the air horn.”
For more information, visit www.snowflakeclub.org and www.avalancheskiclub.com.
Ben Tures, 11, of Wilmette, loads his skis during the Avalanche Ski Club pick up at Lyons School in Glenview. PHOTOGRAPHY BY JOEL LERNER/JWC MEDIA
From left: Chris Bell, Kristin Haug, Shanya Holtzman- Schneider, Jordan and Jenny Holtzman and Sam Burke — the staff of the Avalanche Ski Club — at Lyons School in Glenview
PHOTOGRAPHY BY JOEL LERNER/JWC MEDIA
Lily Chang, 14, of Glenview puts her snowboard into the bus during the Avalanche Ski Club pick up at Lyons School in Glenview on February 3.
PHOTOGRAPHY BY JOEL LERNER/JWC MEDIA
Wilmette residents Grace Tires, 11, and Addie Gerster, 10, load skies during the Avalanche Ski Club pick up at Lyons School in Glenview. PHOTOGRAPHY BY JOEL LERNER/JWC MEDIA