Palisades Tahoe - 2022 |
- Home
- Events
- Past Events
- 2022 Palisades Tahoe
NAASF Ski Week
Palisades Tahoe, CA
March, 2022
Last year, some of our hardier members made the trek out to Palisades Tahoe for an incredibly pared-down version of a NAASF ski week. COVID restrictions in the state and nationwide meant there would be no parties, and that many of the elements we associate with our ski weeks would not be present. What WAS present, however, was the sense that EVERYONE that attended and skied there for the week wanted to come back and couldn't wait to get the word out about how amazing this mountain is!
This year, the rest of us got to see for ourselves!
Practically the entire week was fairly warm, with a single cloudy, windy and colder day interrupting some really fun spring skiing conditions. We had opportunities to explore the mountain right away, since the resort jacked up the prices of EVERY part of the week on NAASF - the only way to make the budget work without doubling the resort registration fee was to cancel any training courses for Monday and make that a free ski day. (Even then, the parties were only made possible by a last-minute infusion of cash from NAASF and DSSC sponsor, RAA!)
SWA Ski & Snowboard Club President Woody Stearns organized a Poker Run Monday morning starting and ending at the KT Base Bar, so everyone took off to find and make the best poker hand they could. Estimates are that only about 20% of the participants actually cheated. It looked like 90% tried to cheat. One of the few that didn't cheat ended up winning the Poker Run - say hello to new DSSC member Megan Hallenberg, who won almost $400 at her first NAASF ski week!
The Poker Run was followed by an event that will have many of us in therapy for years to come. We mentioned the bet we made with AA in Telluride, and the stakes involved. On Monday afternoon, that debt came due, and the Delta Ski & Snowboard Club always pays its debts! NAASF President and DSSC member Are Johnsen had somehow decided that because he skied out of the GS in Telluride the previous month, that the fault for Delta losing the lead was his, and he would bear the consequences of losing the bet alone. His teammates were having none of it. The fact is, there was just some incredibly tough competition between our clubs that week! In order to assuage Are's guilt, the AA club allowed that Are could satisfy the bet while skiing in certain swimwear that the AA club would provide. Are's teammates, while determined, were also secretly relieved... who really needs to see an 8ft tall Norwegian ski naked, right? But we decided Are needed support, too.
After some quick practice and a few minutes of disrobing, a group of DSSC members formed an "A" with the AA club banner forming the crossbar, held by DSSC President Mike Pearson and DSSC Vice President Lisa Nydahl, and Are proudly led us down the slopes in his custom AA speedo to a well-deserved happy hour at the KT Base Bar.
Our Club Dinner on Tuesday night was in the Cascades Restaurant at the Resort at Squaw Creek. Have we mentioned the way prices for everything this season were really jacked up? Right about the time the WASC in Lenzerheide was cancelled, Palisades Tahoe informed NAASF that they had somehow double-booked their race crew for the originally-scheduled week and needed to move or cancel the week. After some back and forth, and since March had suddenly opened up, NAASF offered the original dates for the WASC and the week for Palisades Tahoe was moved up. The unintended consequence of this was that the price for the original location of our club dinner went from $2500 to $8500! That just wasn't going to work for us. For the next 3 weeks, our list of possibilities shrank with every email, text, and phone call. Finally, out of ideas and hope, I talked to Vice President Lisa Nydahl about the problems I was having, and with a mere 48 hours before we were scheduled to arrive in Tahoe, Lisa secured a "YES" out of a place that had previously told me "NO". WTG LISA!!! We dropped the quoted price per person as much as we could, and the club picked up the difference along with the setup fees and private bartender. Thank you for your understanding!
During the dinner, we were treated to a double Len Rossman Award ceremony. We finally got to present the award IN PERSON to the 2021 winner, Todd Anthony, who then had the pleasure of presenting it to the winner for 2022. Congratulations to long-time Delta Ski & Snowboard Club member and former President, Earl Okuda!! We also got to meet more new members this week, with Megan Hallenberg, Scott Lambe (and his wife, Jennie!), Mike Ludwig (okay, Mike was coming in on a late flight, but his wife Teri filled in for him!), and Ken Strunk joining us. Some of you might note that Ken has been to several IASF ski weeks in the last few years, but this was his first official NAASF ski week!
Many of you know that Are Johnsen is a multi-talented individual. In addition to being an Airbus 330 pilot, NAASF President, apiarist (Google it) and awesome ski racer and Merkin Wearer (Google it), he has a side business producing beautiful custom ink pens created from a variety of materials - including colored resins that he mixes himself, various woods, and also animal antlers - all turned by hand on a lathe in his woodworking shop and paired with custom quality components. Are kindly presented each of the new DSSC members in attendance with custom Delta- and DSSC-branded pens he made as a gesture of thanks for coming out this season. Additionally, he presented Mary Lou Johnson with a pen for "Most Improved Racer" for her progress from long-time snowboarder to budding B Racer, and Madisson Lank with a pen for "Not Last for Long" as she continues to build her snowboard racing skills!
The last item of the night was a surprise to me - Lisa, Todd, Stephen, and Earl had taken donations from our club members for a gift for me - a brand new pair of Oakley goggles! I've been wearing the same 3 or 4 pairs of goggles for the last 25 years - seriously! - and they're showing their age, I'm afraid. It was completely unexpected, but I sincerely appreciate the gesture, and I thank each and every one of you! I promise to use my new Super Ski Vision only for good!!
We mentioned the warm temps for this week already, and the racing conditions reflected that! Every morning started out crisp and cold with frozen corduroy, but by the time the first course inspection had been completed, the surface was loosening up. By the time the B's were finished, we were in full-on late spring conditions! In spite of this, most of the mountain was surprisingly good. We had a lot of success on the race hill, with our new members continuing to turn in strong performances, as well as some of our long-lost-but-returned-to-the-fold members! As a whole, the effort was well rewarded - we not only took the lead back from AA, but we won the overall 2022 NAASF Cup and the 2022 Shredder's Cup!
I can't tell you how proud I am of the way this club pulled together to make it happen this season!
No pictures to show
Newcomer's Race A Women's Slalom B Women's Slalom A Women's Giant Slalom B Women's Giant Slalom | Men's Snowboard |
