By Tom Bundgard

For those of you that haven’t noticed… it’s winter again. Get them out and wax them up. Although most of the storms have been split (completely missing Mammoth and Tahoe), Mammoth has been blow- ing snow and Race Camp and our first race went well, other than Chris Horton separating his shoulder and my torn MCL. Here’s to a speedy recovery, Chris, see you on the hill soon.

By the time you read it we’ll be having our second race in Mam- moth on January 7th, hopefully we’ll see some more racers out there, don’t forget it’ll be a GS and there is also a clinic on the 6th. I’ll leave the rest for Jerry’s race report, except for one note, our new member and FTR, Bryce Fuller, did very well and should beat me every race, until he strikes out of my class.

I have a couple other things to cover this month. First, I would like to thank Damien of REI for his presentation on fabrics and layering at the November meeting. See Damien and November Meeting at REI Second, I would like to thank our volunteers that helped with SnowJam. I volunteered on Saturday and checked it out afterwards. It was OK, but none of the really great deals like recent years. On a positive note, I spent several hours talking with many of the vendors and managed to get some things lined up for our upcoming meetings while I was there. If you went, I hope you picked up the new FWSA Skier’s Guide. If you did, turn to page 35 and check out our two celebrities. If not, the online version can be found at www.fwsa.org , just click on the Skier’s Guide Picture. Finally, we still need a Newsletter Editor, please contact Lynn Kramer or me, for more information.

Our next meeting will be at San Diego REI on Tuesday, January 17th at 6:30pm. I have invited guest speakers, Rick and Brien Metcalf, President and Owner of Mt Waterman, respectively, to introduce their mountain to those of us that are not familiar with it, discuss its close proximity and excellent terrain, and to present a special SDSC “Ski Day” deal. Right now, I’m thinking the last weekend in January or the first or last weekend in February might be good. Rick also told me he will have promotional materials and some free lift tickets to give away. Hope to see you all there.

Tom

Volunteer to host a meeting or take an active role by filling a position in our club. It won't take too much of your time and its the only way to keep the Chalet an inexpensive resource.  We need a newsletter editor and people to host meetings.    

Want to rideshare or keep current on club activities?

YAHOO GROUPS By Lynn Kramer
Yahoo Groups are a great way to communicate with other members. San Diego Ski Club has its own group, called SDSKICLUB.

Here is a step by step signup method:
1) Open the Internet
2) Type groups.yahoo.com in the
address bar (no www)
3) In the exact center of the screen,
there is a box that says "Find a
Yahoo Group" type sdskiclub.
4) Hit Search.
5) Our group should pop up. Click
Join This Group under the
logo.
6) If you have a Yahoo, Ymail,
sbcglobal, pacbell, att or
rocketmail email address, you
can sign in.
7) If you don't have one of the
above, click Sign Up. Follow the
instructions until you are back at
the sign in page.

That's it. You're in. You can now get a ride, post photos, sell your skis, or check the online calendar.
 Take a look at it!

Link to San Diego Ski Club Yahoo Group

     
Robert Bland at San Gorgonio

Robert Bland and I first met on a ski trip over Piute Pass in the late 80's. We had a beautiful view of Mt. Humpries and he skied the Goethe Glacier, shrunt and all. He had an easy way about him and we teamed up after that for many trips to San Gorgonio. He taught me tele skiing and I helped him with some of the easy ways to snow camp.

Morning over Piute Pass

Robert is now in the fight for his life with stage 4 throat cancer. He and I have connected after all these years, once again sharing some moments in the present. He still has that easy grace about him and is more aware in his present state than I am in complete health. Craig Dostie, founder of Couloir Magazine and the Earn Your Turns website, has graciously agreed to let me use some of his pictures of Robert. I will be posting them to the backcountry section of the website.

Please remember my friend Robert in your thoughts and prayers. Link to Robert's Wish

Thanks,

John


 

                                       by Lynn Kramer

I’m up at the Chalet this weekend for New Years, and the place looks great. The new cabinets are large enough for a full size cooler, and I haven’t heard any complaints about cold water in the men’s shower. Hope- fully with the low snow levels, people will still come up to Mammoth for hiking, hot tubing, or even the Dou- ble Eagle Spa in June.

With less use, the same amount of dust collects. When leaving the Chalet after your stay, keep in mind, there is no maid. Our community support keeps the cost down. Thoroughly clean the place before you go, and split up the cleaning among everybody there. Merely wiping the mirror or the counter is not sufficient to keep the place in tip-top shape. Cleanliness is healthier, better Fung Shui, and will extend the life of the appliances, faucets, showers, etc working for a long long time.

With the lean use, please be sure to lock the door when you leave if there is nobody in the common area, and always turn down the heater to 50 degrees when you leave for any amount of time. With the low usage, we need to watch out for our utility bills and leaving the place secure while empty. It could be several days between your visit and the next person’s.

I’m already thinking about improvements for the next Labor Day work party. If you have ideas, now is a good time to bring them up. Some ideas include siding the south exterior with a weatherproof lightweight concrete paneling, replacing several of the mattresses, running water to a utility sink in the front room, and repairing the ceilings of both bathrooms.

Obviously, all these repairs cost money, so let’s use the Chalet!

Lynn             

General Meeting Tues Jan 17, 6:30 PM REI
Directions to REI

Special Presentation: Local skiing at Mt. Waterman. Rick and Brien Metcalf, owner and president,
will talk about owning a local ski area, and will have some good deals for SDSC members in attendance.

Pot Luck: You are invited to bring a snack to share, or (non- alcoholic) drinks and something to serve them in. We can’t expect REI to provide plates, cups, napkins, etc.

All Members are invited. This meeting starts early, as we need to be out at 8:30 for store closing. Come and hear first- hand what’s happening.

                             Racing News
                             By Jerry Stokely

The race results are in from our first race. Those of us who went to ROKKA race camp really got an edge over the others. We had a week of training. I think we had excellent coaches and for myself, I had to do some serious correcting of bad habits I didn’t know about. Most other skiers felt the same. The training was excellent for learning in that the snow we were skiing on was mostly hard pack and groomed hard pack. We got really comfortable with our edges.

 The first race was changed to a Slalom due to the hard fast snow conditions. I skied it fairly conservatively and it was a comfortable course. I felt I could have pushed a lot harder. Our club did very well. We had 6 racers from our club. Bryce Fuller, a new member got his chance at a racing for the first time as well. We welcome Bryce to our racing team.

Here’s the awards list in order of class.

   Jerry Stokely          S2   1st place
   Tom Bundgard       S7   1st place
   Maren George        S8   1st place
   Miyuki Bundgard    S9    2nd place
   Bryce Fuller            S7    established handicap
   Ana Deorlow          Snowboard  1st place

Congrats to all our racers, a good job on some hard and fast conditions. We have substantially more points than any other club in San Diego. Way to go guys!!!

 I’m looking forward to the next race on the 7th of January. It’s coming up quick. They say they will be doing a Friday clinic again this season. If you can make it up, it really helps. Registration for the clinic is Friday the 6th in Roma’s room at 12:30 sharp.

Wax and most importantly sharpen those GS skis. We always welcome newcomers to the racing program. Give me a call or email me if you are interested or need more information. Here’s the race dates for the rest of the season. There should be a clinic the Friday before each of them.

January 7th - GS
January 28th Far West trip
February 11th GS
March 24th and 25th- SOCALCS (GS and SL)
April 5th - 8th FWRA Championships at Mammoth

If any of you want a free clinic with me on Fridays just let me know and we can get some training runs in together. We always have a group training most of the day Friday. It’s not gates but it’s working on the same elements. 

Jerry
 

Vice President  Erin Barber

Secretary         Kelly Bryan

Treasurer         Karen Metzger

Membership      Barbara Trenchi

Race Director    Jerry Stokely
 

Chalet Manager  Lynn Kramer

Chalet Reservations Jim Patzold
                                                               

Newsletter         

Webmaster          John McCormick

Directors:           Carol Conway

                            John McCormick

                           John Hopkins

                           Ken Dean

Past President    Erin Barber

Ski Mountaineering   John McCormick

Trustees               Erin Barber

                             Jerry Stokely
                             
                             Norm Tang