Saturday 7/21/2012
4:00-7:00: Need 4-6 people
7:00-10:00: Need 4-6 people

Sunday 7/22/2012
12:00- 3:00: Need 4 people
3:00- 6:00: Need 4 people (3 slots already filled)
6:00- 8:30: Need 4 people

Signup before July 1st by contacting Morgan Hua at

 This May 2012 edition of the NSC Newsletter marks the end of the printed and PDF versions.  Creating the printed and PDF versions and the WEB versions is triplication of work. Only 6 members were receiving printed copies that were mailed to them for the past year. And only 2 of these 6 may not have emails.

With the start of the new membership year on June 1, 2012,  the time to move forward to a current and efficient technologies has arrived. Commencing June 1st, the NSC “newsletter” will be accessible via the internet at http://www.niseiskiclub.org/ exclusively.

I apologize for any hardship this may create for those without internet access, however, there is easy and free access to the internet via the public library and some community centers. Time & society moves on and in the  21st century, the mode of disseminating news and information  via the internet is efficient and the de rigueur in these modern times.

If there is a member who wishes to take over the role of newsletter editor and resurrect the printed newsletter, please step up and volunteer to be the newsletter editor where you can control the medium.

PRESIDENT’S FAREWELL MESSAGE

With end of the 2010-2011 membership year, Morgan will be abdicating the throne as King Edward VIII did in December 1936.

I’m sure the membership is grateful as I am for Morgan’s hard work & dedication as our president.  Let’s all give Morgan a virtual round of applause!

Please find the President’s Farewell Message >> click HERE<<

Membership Renewal

The new membership year commences on June 1, so it is now time to renew your membership.  The membership application form can be found in this newsletter and at this website:

http://www.niseiskiclub.org/membership.pdf

 $ $ $ Early Renewal Discount $ $ $

Renew your membership before  May 31, 2012 and take $5 off your membership renewal fee!

Spring Hike

SF  Headlands—Sat, June 16  – Join Hoyt for an exploration of the San Francisco Headlands.  Explore the Sutro Bath ruins and the sylvan environs of the Lands End Headlands. Details >>click HERE<<

The NSC year ends May 31.  If you renew your membership before May 31, there’s a $5 discount and membership will only be $25 instead of $30.  This membership fee covers the club’s fixed costs such as website hosting, insurance costs, storage of equipment, and other incidental costs.  According to the NSC Treasurer, the membership fee just about covers those costs.

The club had a difficult year due to bad snow conditions.  The weekend bus trip and the Mammoth bus trip were both less than half full.  The week long trip was still a success and is one of the mainstays of our club.

Here are some changes to the club for the coming year:

1. Because we lost so much money on the bus trips last year, we decided to have “at most” one bus trip next year and if that loses money, we will discontinue bus trips in the future.  The cost of the bus trips are beginning to approach the price of a plane flight, so we may offer weekend flights to out of state ski destinations such as Utah.  Fly out, ski two days, fly home, and go back to work on Monday — all for about the price of our bus trip.

2. No more hardcopies of the newsletter will be produced.  We were only sending hardcopies to eight people and six of those people have access to the internet.  The hardcopies required writing two versions of the newsletter:  one for the website and a pdf version which was printed.  Not producing the hardcopies removes the need to generate a pdf version of the newsletter.  On the website, you can see all the published articles here:  http://www.niseiskiclub.org/archives/archives/

3. No more pdfs of the newsletter will be produced.  See above.

4. NSC might not participate at Nikkei Matsuri.  We skipped Nikkei Matsuri this year and then to our dismay, we found out that the organizers of Nikkei Matsuri awarded the “Chinese Chicken Salad” booth to the Boy Scouts.  According to the Nikkei Matsuri organizers, the Boy Scouts will have the “Chinese Chicken Salad” concession until they give it up.  The good news is that since we’re not working Nikkei Matsuri, we aren’t using the Mt View Buddhist Temple’s kitchens for prep work, so we’re not on the hook for helping with the Mt View Obon.

5. NSC members may request copies of the annual treasurer report.  Just contact a board member and we can email it to you.  We felt the club finances were private to the club and its members, so we didn’t want to publish it on the web.

I’ve gotten quotes for our weeklong trip for 2013.  The prices for Snowmass and Banff/Lake Louise were above what we normally price our trips.  So, it looks like Steamboat Springs for 2013.  I will send out an electronic survey in a few weeks to see which airports people want to fly out of.  This will help me price and plan the trip.

You should have received an electronic ballot and survey for the NSC 2012-2013 Election.  We will announce the new board in the June newsletter.

Thanks for your patience this year and I hope next year’s snow will be better.

April brings us to a point of SOUL SEARCHING for our club.  See Morgan’s important message to our membership about the future direction & destiny of our club. You, the members are the soul of the club.  We need you to participate in events as well as managing the club and recruiting your friends (or enemies) and family to join or partake in events.

Editor’s comments  and opinions are solely those of the editor and do not necessarily representative of NSC’s board or membership.

PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE
Morgan Hua has an important message to our membership.  His article within summarizes our winter activities, or lack of, and the implications of club participation and repercussions of the lack of participation.  It is important that you read his article >> here << and provide feedback as the future of your club is at stake.

Armand’s Korner—Membership Activity.
The month of March was quiet as there was one new member for the month. Odd to join at this late season but he was going on the Mammoth Trip.  Our current membership stands at 74 members

CHAMONIX Ski Week—Dateline: 9-17 March,
Curtis Otaguro and Armand Gutierrez, intrepid ski warriors from the Nisei Ski Club, made their assault on the fabled ski slopes of Chamonix. For six days straight these warriors explored all that Chamonix had to offer, including the daunting Vallée Blanche, which has its start from the Aiguille du Midi. This is their story

Skiing Adventures
This trip started with a long, grueling flight from SFO to Zurich to Geneva, and then a bus ride to Chamonix.  Did I say grueling? Let’s see, we had to endure free wine, beer, headsets, blankets, pillows, and decent food on our first leg to Zurich. Let’s see if United, American, or any other domestic airline top that….

Check out the rest of Armand’s report of his sojourn français in this newsletter cliquez-vous >> ici (here) <<

SUN VALLEY—Mammoth Mountain “DOUBLE THE NSC TRIPS, DOUBLE THE FUN” ~ byline by Newbie, Rick Dumlao”.
As a brand new member of the Nisei Club this year, I signed up for the Sun Valley trip as well as the trip to Mammoth Mountain.  I managed to avoid writing about the Sun Valley trip, but I feel I owe at least a few words now that I’ve been on two trips with the club.  I can’t say enough about the positive and friendly people of Nisei Ski Club….

Newbie Rick, pictured here, went on both the Sun Valley & Mammoth trips and lived to write about it. His exposé can be found in this  month’s newsletter, within – click >> here <<.

Spring Hikes—The weather for the Stevens Creek hike was if-y so there was a lot of last minute phone calls regarding this issue, but it cleared up at the last minute and 5 of us enjoyed the Fremont Older portion in quite reasonable weather (none from NSC except for Hoyt).  Someone has cut down some vegetation at several of the lookouts so the hike is again as scenic as in earlier years.  Several of us drove up to Piccetti Ranch for wine tasting.  Not a single peacock was present, the wines did not seem (to us) to be as good as the last time we were there and the prices seemed a bit higher so we didn’t buy anything.

Next hike: SF  Headlands—Sat, June 16 click >> here << for details!

The NSC season is almost over.  We had a bad snow year.  Trip #1 went with only 20 passengers including the tour leaders.  Trip #2 had only 2 sign ups and so the trip was cancelled — too bad because that weekend had fresh snowfall.  The Mammoth trip also went with 20 passengers  — also snow dumped right before this trip.  The week trip to Sun Valley went with 33 people and we got great snow at Sun Valley.

NSC is a non-profit organization and we price our trips based on a full bus.  Both Bus Trip #1 and the Mammoth trip were less than half full and the club lost about $1500 on Trip #1 and $3000 on the Mammoth Trip.  The Sun Valley trip didn’t lose money.

The NSC board doesn’t know why so few people signed up for our bus trips this year, but we are hoping it is the lack of snowfall and it is not a continuing trend.  We have only 73 members this year and if we use our rule of thumb, 20% of the membership goes on the bus trips, 20% * 73 = 15 passengers.  So, it may not be the snow conditions, but a lack of membership.

NSC cannot continue to lose $4500 on bus trips and survive.

Next year’s board would have to figure out what to do.

But this year’s board has several ideas which we will discuss.  Such as:
1.  Reduce or make our membership free in order to get more members, so more people would go on bus trips.
2.  Eliminate bus trips and only have the weeklong trip.
3.  Designate specific Bay Area Ski Bus (BASB) trips as NSC trips.  Even volunteer to be the tour leader for those trips.  This way, NSC does not have the burden of losing money if the bus is not full; the burden falls on BASB.  BASB has offered a discount to NSC in previous years, we may take advantage of that if we do this.  But if we do get a discount, then the NSC membership cannot be free.
4.  Try to have 2 bus trips again next year and see if we get a better result.  One argument is that with fewer bus trips, we can try to fill the two trips and not lose money.  A counter-argument is that people only go on bus trips that fit their schedule, so having only 2 bus trips decreases the chance that someone will sign up for a trip, so in effect we would have even less people going on bus trips.  We tried this, this year, but we’re not sure if the result we got was due to the lack of snowfall.
5.  Create an online survey with a list of weekend dates.  If we get enough sign ups for a specific weekend, we can green light that weekend as a bus trip.  The main issues with this is that the bus company wants to know our schedule months in advance, so people will have to tell us which weekend they want to ski on months in advance too.  I know a number of people want to see the weather conditions first before signing up, so this might not work.
6.  If not enough people sign up for a bus, we can carpool.  Karen tried to get a carpool for the people who signed up for Trip #2.  We were able to get some people interested in going, but we had a lack of drivers and couldn’t carpool everyone up to Tahoe.

I would like to hear from the members this year.  If you have suggestions or comments, please send me an email at ">

The NSC year is over at the end of May.  Right now, the board is operating with a skeleton crew.  When the board was larger, other board members volunteered to organize hikes, kayaking events, bike events, bowling events, Nikkei Matsuri, etc.  But with such a small board, we could only focus on running the ski trips.  So, we are also looking for volunteers for the board or even volunteers to just organize a summer event — you don’t have to be on the board to do so. If you are interested, please contact me at .

As a brand new member of the Nisei Club this year, I signed up for the Sun Valley trip as well as the trip to Mammoth Mountain.  I managed to avoid writing about the Sun Valley trip, but I feel I owe at least a few words now that I’ve been on two trips with the club.  I can’t say enough about the positive and friendly people of Nisei Ski Club.

I had a great time in Sun Valley with good snow that managed to dumped in the area just before our arrival.  There were club members arriving from as far away as New Mexico and Hawaii.  The mountain tour we had as a group was beneficial especially for a big resort.  There was something on the mountain for everyone as the club has a variety of ages and skills.  I’m impressed with the skill and positive attitude of the more mature members.  Because of my personal interest in flying, I was surprised to see some guys were launching Para gliders right off the ski runs.  I’ll have to come back in the summer with my hang glider.  As a group, we had lunches on the mountain, sleigh rides, dinners and even saw a movie.  The only misadventure was the “ice box express” bus ride to the airport going home.  However, thanks to Morgan our fearless trip leader, we were surprised with an unexpected refund check from the bus company.

Mammoth Mountain was another fun trip to go on. A saw a few familiar faces and met some new people on the trip.  A smaller group came on this trip, but most came from the Bay Area, a few from Southern California, Oregon and Hawaii.  We had five straight days on the mountains of Kirkwood, Mammoth Mountain, and Sugar Bowl.  We had a variety of conditions from sunny days, snowy surfaces with icy layers underneath, howling winds in blizzard conditions, and overcast days with wonderful powder runs.  The skiing (snowboarding in my case) was very good.   Meeting and getting to know new people are always fun.  Special thanks to Karen Soo for her organizational and leadership skills.  She kept everything running smoothly.  And kudos to the condo leaders and others who contributed to planning the breakfasts and snacks during the trip.  Overall the experience was most enjoyable.  I look forward to future trips with Nisei Ski Club.

Curtis Otaguro and Armand Gutierrez, intrepid ski warriors from the Nisei Ski Club, made their assault on the fabled ski slopes of Chamonix. For six days straight these warriors explored all that Chamonix had to offer, including the daunting Vallée Blanche, which has its start from the Aiguille du Midi. This is their story.

Skiing Adventures

This trip started with a long, grueling flight from SFO to Zurich to Geneva, and then a bus ride to Chamonix.  Did I say grueling? Let’s see, we had to endure free wine, beer, headsets, blankets, pillows, and decent food on our first leg to Zurich. Let’s see if United, American, or any other domestic airline top that.

First stop was Brevant-Flegere. This is actually two resorts next to each other and accessible by a small cable car. Why Brevant-Flegere? That was where the first bus we caught was going. Chamonix has a free public bus system that takes you to all the ski resorts, and our bus stop was right across the street from our hotel (Hotel Alpina). Brevant is accessed via a gondola, which provides access to a variety of runs serviced by ski lifts. We soon discovered that Brevant was not a very big area and we found our way to a small cable car that led us to Flegere. Flegere was bigger, with more lifts, and a variety of terrain. At the end of the day we took the cable car down and refreshed ourselves at the local outdoor restaurant for the traditional end-of-day quaffing of ales.

Grand Montets was our next stop on the next day. Again, another cable car to the mid-station where we were presented with spectacular views of the mountains and a slew of lifts and gondolas for us to access the variety of terrain. After lunch we boarded another cable car that goes to the top where there is a long run next to the Argentiere glacier. Again, spectacular views of Mont Blanc, the Aiguille du Midi, and the Chamonix valley down below.

Le Tour is a smaller resort that offered beginner and intermediate runs serviced mainly by pomas and a couple of chair lifts. On the advice of fellow Far West skiers we headed toward the backside, which faces a small valley with the town of Vallorcine at the bottom. Little did we know that we just ran into a hidden gem. Here we discovered a quaint hotel with a restaurant and outdoor deck. Under sunny skies, we dined for lunch and, of course, the traditional beer. Our young waitress knew less English than we knew French, but we managed to communicate our desires for beer and soup. This was definitely a place that Americans did not frequent, which is my kind of place when visiting Europe. We also discovered a train that would take us back to Chamonix instead of taking the local bus from Le Tour. At the train station another gem presented itself in the form of a small café where we sampled a real French crepe.

Mid-week found us taking the bus to Verbier, Switzerland. Believe me, this place is the mother-of-all ski resorts. It easily has to be larger than Vail. Think of the four resorts at Aspen combined into one resort! Every time we took a gondola or lift to the top of the mountain there were three or four more gondolas/lifts on the other side going up to other mountains. Again, under sunny skies we dined outside with all the other skiers that were settled into giant bean bags and lounge chairs. It was here in Verbier where we also saw a gaggle of paragliders enjoying the view high above us, and we also came across a very large and friendly St. Bernard with his little cask hanging from his neck.

The past four days of skiing was followed by skiing the Valleée Blanche, which is accessible by a cable car up to the Aiguille du Midi.

There are three aspects to skiing the Vallée Blanche:

a) the hike down the ridge to where you start skiing,

b) actually skiing the Vallée Blanche, and

c) the exhausting hike up 400 steps to catch a train back to Chamonix. The hike down the ridge is not for people that are afraid of heights.

We had a guide that led our group of six, and we all wore harnesses that allowed us to be tethered by rope to our guide as we descended down the ridge. After the hike, which took about twenty minutes, the guide removed our tether and we put on our skies and skied down the glacier. Most of the run is pretty much intermediate, with a few moguls and steep areas that could be considered black runs. Under blue skies and a hot sun we were working up a sweat in no time. Lunch was at a small hut that provided hot dishes and cold beverages. After lunch we skied down the remainder of the glacier, which was pretty much flat, but gave us interesting views of the glacier and the surrounding peaks. The final leg of this excursion was climbing the 400 steps up to a small gondola that would take us to the Mer de Glace train station. At the end of this adventure we settled down in the café at the train station and celebrated with a round of beer, much to the delight of our guide. He was an excellent guide – stopping at times for us to take pictures, telling us some history of the glacier, and pointing out the crevasses to avoid. Although we met at the Aiguille du Midi cable car station at 8:45am we actually only skied for about two hours, as we had reached the Mer de Glace train station by 1:00pm.

Our last day of skiing was a return to Grand Montets. Curtis and I chose Grand Montets because it is the largest of the resorts (Brevant, Flegere, and Le Tour) and offered a variety of terrain (groomed runs, off-piste, moguls, and skiing next to the Argentiere glacier).

Dining and Shopping

What would a ski trip be without dining and shopping? Boring. Although the hotel provided dinner each night, we chose to go out and dine at various restaurants in the neighborhood. Fortunately, the Hotel Alpina is centrally located and the shops and restaurants are well within walking distance.

Far West Ski Association Events

The FWSA sponsored a nightly get-together at the hotel bar/lounge each evening right after skiing. Here is where most of the clan gathered to relate their ski experiences for the day and get to know each other. This was also a good time to organize dinner plans with other people.

One thing that Curtis and I noticed was that the trip leader for this trip did not measure up to the standards of our trip leaders. At times there was a lack of communication, and there was room for improvement.

 We meet at 10:00 AM in the parking lot just uphill from the Cliff House (at the N end of Merrie Way).  We will explore the old Sutro mansion site and bath ruins before following the trail E along the headlands toward Golden Gate Bridge.  Trails are mainly flat with some stairs and 5.5 to 7 miles round trip – depending on where we elect to turn around.  Time is 3.5 – 4.5 hours depending on our preferences.  Bring layered clothing, camera, strong hiking shoes, water and snacks.  Bathroom facilities are at Merrie Way, but very limited elsewhere.  There are several restaurants I can suggest after the hike for lunch.  If you are game, I will also lead an optional short walk up Strawberry Hill in the middle of Stow Lake (in GG Park) for some surprises many have never seen.  To sign up or request carpool help, contact Hoyt Nelson at .  (Limit 15 people)

 March ~ 三月 ~ Mars ~ Marzo ~ Март ~ มีนาคม

March marks the beginning of Daylight Savings time in the US (except for Arizona & Hawaii).  Move your clocks ahead at 2:00 am on March 11

First & Only Weekend Trip—If you weren’t on the Heavenly trip, you missed a GREAT trip.  If the fear of the lack of snow kept many of you from signing up this year, your fears were unfounded.  Click  here >>>Yvonne Battaglia’s (pictured here) trip report<<<.

Trip 2 to Squaw & Alpine has been cancelled due to lack of signups – too bad, as conditions are now FANTASTIC, but don’t DESPAIR!!!  You can may still be able to go on the Mammoth long weekend trip.  Click here >> for Karen’s article << about signing up at this late date.

Armand’s Korner—Membership Activity.  The month of February was quiet as there were no new members for the month. This is fairly typical as we get into the later months of the ski season.  Our current membership still stands at 73 members.

Chamonix Ski Week—What can I say? I’m getting excited about this trip. Curtis Otaguro and I leave on the 9^th and we are looking forward to some grande adventures in Chamonix. I’m particularly excited about skiing Valle Blanc, which is led by a tour guide from the top of the Aiguillle du Midi.  How’s my Français? Not as good as my German once was. My experience with French goes back to my junior college days where I lasted one semester.  Other than skiing, there are day trips to various locations (Geneva, Aosta, Annecy), which are mostly for the non-skiers. However, there is a day trip for skiers: Verbier (Switzerland). I’ve skied many resorts in Switzerland but Verbier will be a first for me. If interested, contact Armand :  ">

Is Mother Nature Having a Mindlife Crisis? – byline: Karen Soo—Trip Director

We all know that this year is not exacting a whopping year of 10+ feet of snow in the Tahoe area.  We can probably hang up our skis/ snowboards and call it done for the season. I spoke to some people at the resorts and the last time we had a dry spell was in the early 70’s and snow actually started dumping in March and April. I was skiing on Memorial Day last year and NSC member David Muira was skiing on the 4^th of July  weekend. Are we ever going to get a repeat performance? Is Mother Nature simply angry? Read the rest of Karen’s Director Report here >>> Director’s Report <<<

Spring Hikes—Join Hoyt on March 11 for the first hike of the season around Stevens Creek Reservoir— click  here >>>Hoyt’s flyer <<< for information.

Manju Recipe—by popular demand, Jackie Maruhashi has FINALLY divulged her family’s long kept über secret layered manju recipe.  Click  this >>> recipe link <<< and wish Jackie luck as she has gone into a protection program for fear of retribution by the MMRPC, the Maruhashi Manju Recipe Protection Coalition.

MORGAN—President & CHAMPION!!! Morgan has qualified & has been invited to the NASTAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS in Winter Park.  Morgan is seeking out sponsorship from Marmot!!! – Hint Hint – Karen!!

WOW ! What a trip!  I definitely did not feel like a newcomer on NSC Trip 1. Karen Soo and her co tour leader Tom Lee made me feel right at home. Karen is so efficient and she is also gracious.  I just fill in the blanks on the sign up form on the internet site and I was on my way to Heavenly Valley.  So what if all my friends at the Monterey Ski and Social Club were going to the golf tournament. I had seen a Warren Miller film and I was ready.

I recently learned that Nisei means second generation.  Now that it’s the year 2012, the members subsequent are generation of skiers. These people were good friends and they have a common bond:  the love for skiing.  Additionally, they welcome newcomers.  I had hit paydirt.  I was going to learn how to ski in a welcoming environment.

Comfort food is part of the deal.  It turns out Karen likes to cook for a large group.  The price for the weekend transportation, lodging,  dinner and drinks on a luxury bus.  This was not fast food, it was hearty and satisfying. It included my version of a happy hour.  Beer with dinner.

On our way to South Lake Tahoe, the bus’s engine indicator light went into red warning mode. Grady, our bus driver pulled the bus over in a parking lot to check things out.  How funny it was when the guy from In & Out burger came out to the bus to ask us for our order!  45 minutes later we changed buses and we were off, DVD in, heading for snow, once again. Obviously, this group rolls with the punches, and we arrived at the Blue Lake Inn at 3am.  It’s just not like this group to complain.

We were up at 8 am.  Yes, there was some snow.  The gondola was only a block away.  Karen and Tom, purchased lift tickets for the group and a voucher for skiing lessons and equipment rental for me, the sole rookie.  The process seemed easy for her, even though thousands of dollars changed hands.

I did not see them again until that evening.  I was off to learn everything from snow plowing to stopping.  Heavenly had some very good instructors and a new lodge.  I was skiing in no time.  I did manage to fall on my tail bone. No cast for me though.   The tail bone injury wouldn’t really hurt until later.  It was interesting how I remembered things about skiing, I had learned from my teenage years.

The lodge was a great feature of my skiing adventure.  They had great refreshments, and you’re in the good company of skiers of all levels.  And the ever present ski movies in the background.  How ironic I would be watching the golf tournament in Monterey as I had lunch.

Some of the NSC members and I had dinner together in a nice local restaurant, called Freshies. http://www.freshiestahoe.com/  We talked about our day skiing among other things. This is a diverse crowd with many different interests.  We rewarded Grady our trusted navigator and driver with a well deserved dinner.  Some people allowed themselves a fried fish taco. After all, they did burn a few calories during a full day of skiing.

We recalled how there were flurries that day, but gorgeous scenery, and some good skiing.  Some of us took part in the night life.  Some went back to the motel to sleep, like my room mate Jenni Kanenda. Jenni was gracious and good.  She provided me with this very smelly, mentholated, ointment to provide relief for aches and pains.  Ironically, she would later injure her tail bone too.  A fine pair we would turn out to be. Later we would divide up the soaps and creams provided by the motel for our kids.

The take home message is this is a fun, gracious, incredible group of people with a passion for skiing. I pray the lack of snow this year, and the economy doesn’t affect the success of this club.  Anyone considering a ski club should give this group a try.  I credit them with my ability to say “I am a skier!”