Karen Soo, Trip Director
El Nino predictions came true with plenty of snow for the Lake Tahoe area. Nisei Ski Club had 36 sign-ups for trip 1 for the Heavenly weekend trip. For trip 2, we ended up short. We had only 9 sign-ups and we were forced to cancel the bus trip.
What happened here? Good snow conditions were not enough and we needed more bodies. Maybe the weekend trip was too close to the returning trip from Park City. In any case, I was determined to get a trip going.
Six NSC members were willing to go up for the weekend. We had two cars to take everyone. I was able to secure NSC rates at the Sands Hotel in Reno. Discounted lift tickets were purchased from Sports Basement and Craigslist. Can you imagine me meeting all these strangers at my local Peet’s coffee shop in Alameda? So far they were all pretty cool — I haven’t met a psycho yet.
Following the tradition of a NSC trip, we served breakfast: egg, ham and cheese omelet with veggies wrapped in lavash bread. When you see me next time, ask me how I heated up the breakfasts.
The original Saturday plan was to go to Mt. Rose. Upon hearing the news of high winds and the possibility of upper mountains being closed, we decided to go to Diamond Peak. This is nice family resort plus it was my first time there. It’s an easy mountain but we think it’s pretty steep for beginners. Skiing down on one of the runs called the” Flume “run was challenging. We were hit with 50 mile per hour winds and corn snow was blasting our faces. There was no way we could fall because the force of the winds was just holding us up.
We skied a full day at Diamond Peak and afterwards we stopped off at Jim Sanchez and Janice Malena’s house (members of NSC). Jim is a ski instructor at Mt. Rose and we had our après snacks there. The high winds continued to howl around the area of his house.
On Sunday, high winds and a new snow storm were in the forecast. We opted to skip Squaw Valley and decided to drive home early. We stopped off for pies at Ikeda’s in Auburn. The snow was coming down and the roads were really icy. We got home safely and even though we only skied one day, we had a good time being together.
On the next day, I heard that the upper mountains of Squaw Valley closed due to high winds. They did not open up the lifts until 9:40am plus there were tons of people waiting in line. So, good move on our part.
Thanks to Curtis O. and David U. for having SUVs and being the designated drivers. It was good to have Tom L., Haruko N. and Edna K. (from Oregon) on the trip. We all had great time.
We will continue to make these last minute weekend car/ ski trips. If you are interested in driving or going up skiing on the NON NSC weekend trip. I encourage you to sign up for the rideNSC Yahoo Group. Please email me for information.
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