The last NAASF event of the season took place in Palisades Tahoe, CA the first full week in April. The incredible amounts of snow we had received in the Rockies was very slightly eclipsed by the truly miraculous snowfall totals there in Tahoe. It's really mind-boggling for those of us that lived, shoveled, and snowblowed (snowblew?) our homes and driveways through the winter this year to think that somewhere else had even MORE! The evidence was everywhere you looked, though - including two lifts that were closed because the chairs were dragging in the snow mid-lift!!

Accommodations were all in the Village this year, making for a very convenient short walk to the slopes, to apres-ski, and to the finish area of the race venue!

The now-annual Poker Run sponsored by Southwest was a bit better organized this year, and everyone took advantage of the super sunny day and warm temps to spend some time soaking up the rays on the deck in a pre-apres-ski up on the mountain on Monday. The weather the rest of the week would be similarly sunny for the most part, but much cooler - just right for racing! 

We held our Tuesday night end-of-season club dinner at 22 Bistro right in the Olympic Village this year. Coordinator Megan Hallenberg was able to arrange for us to have one entire half of the restaurant for our party, which made for a great semi-private setting for our large and occasionally rowdy group!

It was my pleasure to get to recognize our new members in attendance, as well as many of our members that made special contributions this season of support (Stephen Rocha for new website and treasurer support worthy of a participation trophy! And Lisa Nydahl for fastest phone/text/email response time in the West(ern Rockies)! And Gary Krasnov/RAA for their continued sponsorship of NAASF and DSSC!), personality (Dave and Andrea LaFrance - Life is Good!), humor, leadership (B Team Captain Jason Rozneck leading his team as only he can!), competitive spirit (The Megans! (Cross and Hallenberg)(Thing 1 and Thing 2)(MC & MH)(WHO WERE THOSE FAST WOMEN??)), team spirit (HoT Steve Bontempo!) and general good cheer. I hope everyone has recovered from their recognition... and THANKS for everything this season!

New members:

• Doug and Megan Brooks with their Little Rippers Grace and Hudson
• Dave Forbes and his big ripper kids David, Samuel, and Benjamin
• Doug Hopper
• Jesse Kirvan and girlfriend Ressa LaRossa
• Spencer and Emily Trehal

Len Rossman Award

Outstanding Delta Ski Club member

This award is presented annually to the Delta Ski & Snowboard Club member selected by the President who best exhibits the traits that Len Rossman believed in: Fairplay, the ability to laugh at oneself, helping fellow skiers and a love of skiing and the outdoors life.

This year's Len Rossman Award winner is Pat Hadley!

Pat is the longest active member of the Delta Ski & Snowboard Club, is the President of the NAASF Foundation, a retired Delta mechanic, and the guy at the raffle table you always give your Benjamins to when you're buying raffle tickets at the ski weeks. To tell you the truth, I was a little blown away Pat's name wasn't on this award years ago. Pat, thanks for all your years of service to Delta, to NAASF, and of course to the Delta Ski & Snowboard Club! (Pat is on the right in the picture above)

We really enjoyed having all of our racers together for all of the events, and the announcers provided by the race crew quickly learned all of the archaic codes for the different airlines and even treated us to some serious YouTube/Google skills with vintage radio and television ads for all of the airlines piping over the sound system in between races!

Newcomer's Race

1st - Seth Scarborough

6th - Doug Hopper

8th - Jesse Kirvan

Women's Snowboard

4th - Mary Lou Johnson

7th - Lesli Tomasini

12th - Lisa Nydahl

Men's Snowboard

5th - Stephen Rocha

12th - Justin McBurney

19th - Earl Okuda

A Women's Giant Slalom

2nd - Rebecca Borbolla

4th - Megan Cross

5th - Beth Steiger

7th - Debra Main

9th - Lisa Nydahl

13th - Megan Hallenberg

A Men's Giant Slalom

4th - Jason Jones

5th - Tim Shankland

8th - Phil Casha

10th - Are Johnsen

14th - Gary Krasnov

15th - Kurt Syer

17th - Earl Okuda

18th - Mike Pearson

B Women's Giant Slalom

5th - Laura Englebrecht

9th - Ilona McGregor

12th - Jane Barr

13th - Donna Halpin

16th - Natasha Pruss

24th - Mary Lou Johnson

27th - Lesli Tomasini

B Men's Giant Slalom

1st - David LaFrance

4th - Pat Hadley

14th - Brian Bourguignon

19th - Zach Floto

27th - Kyle Peterson

30th - Jason Rozneck

32nd - Doug Hopper

36th - Steve Bontempo

38th - Jess Kirvan

40th - Larry Herter

A Women's Slalom

1st - Rebecca Borbolla (1st - Combined!)

4th - Megan Cross (4th - Combined!)

5th - Megan Hallenberg (10th - Combined!)

7th - Debra Main (6th - Combined!)

10th - Lisa Nydahl (9th - Combined!)

A Men's Slalom

5th - Tim Shankland (4th - Combined!)

9th - Phil Casha (8th - Combined!)

11th - Are Johnsen (11th - Combined!)

13th - Jason Jones (9th - Combined!)

14th - Kurt Syer (13th - Combined!)

17th - Mike Pearson (16th - Combined!)

18th - Gary Krasnov (15th - Combined!)

19th - Earl Okuda (17th - Combined!)

B Women's Slalom

2nd - Laura Englebrecht (3rd - Combined!)

6th - Ilona McGregor (5th - Combined!)

10th - Jane Barr (12th - Combined!)

15th - Natasha Pruss (14th - Combined!)

19th - Mary Lou Johnson (20th - Combined!)

21st - Donna Halpin (17th - Combined!)

B Men's Slalom

1st - David LaFrance (1st - Combined!)

2nd - Pat Hadley (3rd - Combined!)

7th - Brian Bourguignon (8th - Combined!)

13th - Doug Hopper 

19th - Jason Rozneck

25th - Larry Herter

28th - Doug Brooks

29th - Steve Bontempo

2023 NAASF Year-End Awards

The Year-End Awards Dinner this year was a very well-catered affair at the Olympic Village Event Center. Delta and American duked it out all season again, trading the lead for the NAASF Cup a couple times - but in the end, American squeezed out the overall win, with a total of 1832 points to Delta's 1827 points.

FIVE POINTS decided the season!!

For perspective, 3rd place United had 989 points, and 4th place Southwest had 695. So, when we talk about every single racer having an opportunity to contribute to a winning season, this is what we mean!! This was an exceedingly tight competition this year, and I am so proud of everyone that raced and put themselves out there for the Delta Ski & Snowboard Club!

Here are the season results:

2023 NAASF Cup

1st - American Airlines Ski & Snowboard Club

2nd - Delta Ski & Snowboard Club

3rd - United Airlines Ski & Snowboard Club

4th - Southwest Airlines Ski & Snowboard Club

5th - FedEx Ski Club

2023 Shredder's Cup

1st - American Airlines Ski & Snowboard Club

2nd - Delta Ski & Snowboard Club

3rd - Southwest Airlines Ski Snowboard Club

4th - United Airlines Ski & Snowboard Club

5th - JetBlue Ski & Snowboard Club

2023 Bob Powers Cup

1st - Delta Ski & Snowboard Club

2nd - American Ski & Snowboard Club

3rd - United Airlines Ski & Snowboard Club

4th - SkyWest Ski & Snowboard Club

5th - NetJets Ski & Snowboard Club

2023 Division II Cup

1st - FedEx Ski Club

2nd - Jet Blue Ski & Snowboard Club

3rd - Allegiant Ski & Snowboard Club

4th - SkyWest Ski & Snowboard Club

5th - NetJets Ski & Snowboard Club 

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Top Women's Snowboarders

1 - Kameron Troy - SWA

2 - Megan Starkey - UAL

3 - Hollie Lazzareschi - AAL

4 - Mary Lou Johnson - DAL

5 - Jennifer Naylor - AAL

6 - Lesli Tomasini - DAL

7 - Paula Brown - AAL

8 - Lisa Nydahl - DAL

9 - Traci Farley - SWA

10 - Kelly Flinn - UPS

 

Top Men's Snowboarders

1 - Shawn Mullin - FFT

2 - Cal Heard - AAL

3 - Stephen Rocha - DAL

4 - Jim Tullos - AAL

5 - Dennis Mellon - AAL

6 - Daniel Henderson - AAL

7 - Demian Brooks - DAL

8 - Brian Stokes - FLE

9 - Forrest (Woody) Stearns - SWA

9 - Ulises Zanello - JBU

Top Women's B Racers

1 - Patricia Jordan - AAL

2 - Ellen Garvey - AAL

3 - Nicole Carmichael - UAL

4 - Carol Kerr - AAL

4 - Jane Barr - DAL

6 - Maggie Mohr - AAL

7 - Jana Sinn - AAL 

7 - Nejia Jones - AAL

9 - Sheryl Guth - AAL

9 - Jennifer Von Clemm - UAL

Top Men's B Racers

1 - John Keagle - FDX

2 - David LaFrance - DAL

3 - Pat Hadley - DAL

4 - Glen De Graaf - DAL

5 - Nicholas Quackenbush - AAL

6 - Fritz Moyer - SWA

7 - Brian Bourguignon - DAL

8 - Brian Palmer - REP

9 - Sean Wilson - FDX

10 - Jason Prickett - SWA

Top Women's A Racers

1 - Rebecca Borbolla - DAL (First year racing for Delta!!)

2 - Suzy Danielson - EJA

3 - Emily Hillman - SKW

4 - Megan Hallenberg - DAL

5 - Megan Cross - DAL

6 - Na Stewart - AAL

7 - Lisa Nydahl - DAL

8 - Kameron Troy - SWA

9 - Ellen Wardrup - AAL

10 - Kathleen Lambert-Wood - AAL

Top Men's A Racers

1 - David Luskin -  UAL

2 - Kent Johnson - AAL

3 - Jason Jones - DAL

4 - Rocky Borgh - UAL

5 - Bernard Tauffer - AAY

6 - Tim Shankland - DAL

7 - Are Johnsen - DAL

8 - Phil Casha - DAL

9 - David Terry - UAL

10 - Greg Gilger - AAL

So, in the end we ended up trading trophies with American - They took the overall NAASF Cup and the snowboard Shredder's Cup, and we claimed the alpine Bob Powers Cup for A racers. There is no doubt that we are capable of taking all three trophies, now - and that's going to be our goal going forward!

Congratulations to American on winning the 2023 NAASF Cup! We hope we made you EARN IT!!