Nisei Ski Club

Greg Wong, Membership Chairperson

This year’s ski season is coming to a close. El Niño has brought us a good year of skiing. The season started early and I took advantage of it in December with Nisei Ski Club. For those that do not know, Nisei Ski Club has a ride sharing program that was started this year. With the problems and cost of filling a bus, Nisei Ski Club has gone back to its roots. In the beginning, members would arrange trips by car pooling with other members. The club was founded by a group of hardcore skiers wanting to share in the experience. This year we will be trying more ski trips using this method. It allow some trips such as in December and late in the season when it is harder to get a full bus. It also allows last minute ski trips when the powder falls. There is one catch. You must be a member. So now is the time to renew those memberships and join again, or join if you are new. If you sign up before June 1, there is a $5 discount.

Link to membership form.

Our ski fashionista Karen Soo found this clever video that shows 100 years of ski fashion. The video was put together by the Colorado Ski and Snowboard Museum. Check it out.

Link to: video

The Monterey Ski and Social Club is planning a fishing trip to Loreto in Baja California.

Date: August 6-August 11
Price: $780 per person includes 5 nights at Hotel La Mision, 3 days of fishing, ground transfers and fishing licenses.
Contact: Rich Hughett 831-757-5709

For more information, see the fishing trip flyer

Armand Gutierrez, NSC President

April is upon us and that signals the upcoming end of our ski season. Thanks to El Niño the Tahoe resorts received an abundance of much-needed snow and provided us with a good ski season. Northstar and Heavenly are closing on April 17^th, and as expected Squaw Valley will remain open into May, and other resorts haven’t indicated when they will be closing. Hopefully you had a good ski season this year, whether it was at Tahoe or the Park City/Canyons ski week.

Nominations & Elections

Well, it’s that time again for holding our board nominations and elections for the 2016-2017 season. By now you’ve received an email for making your nominations for the board. As you know, volunteers run this club, and without them this club would cease to exist, and it’s been in existence for almost 60 years! You are encouraged to take this opportunity to nominate an individual for one, or more, of the board positions. All individuals that accept the nomination(s) will go through an election process in April, and final results in May. Ask any of the current board members and I’m sure they will tell you that by volunteering they get back more than they ever gave. By volunteering you will experience social benefits as well as provide a greater sense of self-worth, trust, and lots of fun. Many of you have served on the board in the past, and your efforts were greatly appreciated and perhaps you would like to join the board again. For those that have never served then perhaps now is the time to consider a board position and provide new ideas and useful experiences.

Ski Week 2017

Now that the Park City/Canyons trip is behind us it’s time to think about the NSC ski week for next year. It’s been quite awhile (2006) since we’ve been to Snowmass. I distinctly remember that trip because right after I somehow managed to get elected President. Yes, there were other memorable events, such as finding an anatomically correct snowman at the front door of our condo. And the food at the potluck was just amazing! If you’re considering Snowmass for next year then you might also want to look into getting the Mountain Collective Season Pass, which will be good for two days skiing at Aspen Snowmass, plus a third resort of your choice. Tentative date is January 28 – February 4.

Hi Fujii Tribute

As many of you know Hi Fujii, a founder of the Nisei Ski Club, passed away in August of last year. As a tribute the board decided to create a photo album of Hi’s involvement and participation in many of the NSC events. Hoyt Nelson, a longtime friend of Hi, spearheaded this effort and gathered as many photographs as he could, which took several months to collect. With the help of his wife Nancy, they created a photo album highlighting Hi’s NSC activities. On April 1^st, Hoyt and I visited Phyllis and presented her with the photo album as a tribute to her late husband. Needless to say, Phyllis was quite surprised and quite thankful for receiving such a tribute. I would like to thank Nancy and Hoyt Nelson for the many hours working and producing the photo album.

Armand Gutierrez, NSC President

Now is the time to pick up your season passes for the 2016-2017 season. There are three passes that you should consider: the Tahoe Local/Value Pass, the Squaw Tahoe Super Pass, and the Mountain Collective Pass.

The Tahoe Local Pass (Adult – $529) is a good deal if you plan on skiing at least five days at Northstar, Heavenly Valley, or Kirkwood. The Tahoe Value Pass (Adult – $449, Senior – $369) is an even better deal if you ski at least four days at Northstar, Heavenly, or Kirkwood. However, Saturday’s are excluded for Northstar and Kirkwood. The Tahoe Value Pass also offers a Senior pass (65+) that is the best overall deal for those that qualify. Purchase by April 10 and you also get six Buddy Passes. For details go to this website: Tahoe Local Pass.

The Tahoe Super Pass offers three levels of passes for skiing at Squaw Valley, Alpine Meadows, Sierra-At-Tahoe, and Sugarbowl:

• Gold Level – (Adult – $829, Senior – $679, Super-Senior – $359)
• Silver Level – (Adult – $589, Senior – $439, Super-Senior – $269)
• Bronze Level – (Adult – $469, Senior – $379)

The various levels have restrictions and prices listed are good thru April 19. Details can be found at this website: Squaw Alpine Tahoe Super Pass.

The Mountain Collective Pass is a single pass that is good for 24 days of skiing at 12 different ski resorts (2 days at each resort), and the price is $379. However, they do limit the number of passes sold. The pass is good for Aspen Snowmass, Squaw Valley/Alpine Meadows, and Mammoth (just to name a few). If you’re planning on going to Snowmass in 2017 then you should consider this option. For details go to this website: The Mountain Collective.

Karen Soo

With lift tickets costing $130 a pop at Heavenly and Squaw Valley, we’re always looking out for bargains related to the outdoor industry. Here’s one. All you have to be is 50 + and sign up at Seniors Skiing.

On the right hand side of their website, you can sign up for the Promotive deals. ProMotive.com is the online community for industry experts and influencers. It matches qualified ski members such as yourself with top brands offering exclusive discounts on all your favorite gear.

Go to the Seniors Skiing website and get a code to join the “snow influencers” group for Promotive. You then have to register for the Promotive website using the code. The discounts are pretty decent. Not all companies are listed in the group, but they do include Asics, Clif Bars, Fischer, Swix, Mountain Hardware, Camelbak, and Scott (skis only!). About 240+ companies (ski, biking, outdoors, etc.) are included in the group.

The membership is good for a year. I don’t know if they allow you to renew your membership after a year. We’ll find out later.

Happy Shopping!

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.

Hoyt Nelson

With the start of warm weather, my thoughts turn to bocce ball.  I don’t think we have enough people in the club to make a long term commitment for places like Campo di Bocce, but if anybody wants to get on a list for a game at other free locations, I will gladly organize it and supply the equipment.  Since I last talked to you about getting games started, I’ve been playing at the very nice courts at Lake Almaden in San Jose.  There are 4 first-come-first-served courts with bathrooms and water fountains within 100 feet.  Just send me desired times and your e-mail address if you are interested.  Any time you want a game, e-mail me and I will notify the rest on the list to see if anybody else wants to be included.

NSC bocce ball players

Hoyt will supply equipment

Sandy Kiyomura

In the February newsletter, I wrote about DSUSA, the ski school at Alpine Meadows which provides ski lessons to persons with disabilities. Disabled Sports is now called “Achieve Tahoe”,  and provides the same services as it has for the past 48 years.

As you may recall, I won a California Gold Pass which lets one ski at any California resort. It is fully transferable, so anyone can use it. Since I already had my Squaw and Epic passes, I lent out the pass in exchange for a donation to Achieve Tahoe. I am happy to announce that Nisei ski club has donated almost $1,000 to Achieve Tahoe. Thank you to all the members (and non-members) who contributed.

This is an example of how Nisei ski club has “given back” to the community. It was a “win-win” situation for all.