President Armand Gutierrez
Membership Activity
We had two members join up in January for the Jackson Hole trip. Yes, they were late signups but there was room for them on the trip. Currently we have 94 members in the club.
Jackson Hole Ski Week (24-31 January 2015)
Wow! What a week at Jackson Hole. There were 75 members on this trip and judging by the comments it appears to have been a very enjoyable and successful trip. Our flight out of SFO was on time and went without a hitch. In Salt Lake City we met up with several groups from the Sacramento and Albuquerque areas, and there were several members that opted to drive and were already in Jackson Hole.
The first three days of skiing was reminiscent of skiing Tahoe in Spring conditions. An inversion layer kept the base area in the high teens while tempts at the top of Thunder chair actually got as high as 60° F, which is most unusual for Jackson Hole during January. This lasted for several days and then we were blessed with a light snowfall on Tuesday evening. Yes, that meant a nice coat of 3″-4″ (more in some places) of fresh powder!
A number of people took Wednesday off to build up the local Jackson economy and to take in the National Elk Refuge on a horse-drawn sleigh. Of course, most members did make a visit to the Million Dollar Cowboy Bar, and our very own Dan Lew (newsletter editor) managed to get in some ice-skating in the town square.
The remainder of the week we had sunny to partly sunny skies and skiing was very pleasant. There were a couple of special events during the week- on Tuesday the Hawaiian Snowriders (members of our trip) held a memorial service for one of their fellow skiers that loved Jackson Hole and had passed away last year, AND there was a marriage proposal at the top of Bridger Gondola!! Yes, Wes Lum (from Hawaii) popped the big one to Mariana Guerrero (from Mexico). Needless to say there were tears flowing profusely.
Unfortunately, there were two accidents (one minor, one major). Kay Kamiyama had a fainting experience and fell forward onto the slope and incurred a slightly bloody nose and a scrape on her cheek. She was up and skiing the very next day. Curtis Otaguro suffered a dislocated shoulder while navigating the Tower 3 Chute (a black diamond). Although this happened on the last day of skiing it’s a sure bet that made the end of his ski season. Yes, for those that are counting I’m three for three now.
Our Farewell Dinner was held at the locally popular Mangy Moose and our group took over the top floor. During the Social Hour everyone was talking to everyone else, mingling and co-mingling, and then we got down to business of eating dinner. After dinner I gave my usual speech about the trip and last-minute announcements for departing the next morning.
During the week Greg Wong was busy gaining vertical feet and his concerted effort was rewarded with the 100K Vertical Foot pin. Meanwhile, Joe Feng and I finally reached the 500K vertical foot milestone and were rewarded with the 500K Silver Belt Buckle.
On our departure there was a little snafu at the Delta counter at the Jackson airport. Seems like their reservation system got overloaded with our whole group checking in at the same time and that sent the ticketing reps into a mild frenzy calling tech support. They finally were able to get all of us ticketed and we boarded on time and made our way back to SLC and SFO.
