Karen Soo, Trip Director
It’s been over 5 years since the Nisei Ski Club went to Heavenly. There’s never a dull moment with these Nisei Ski Club weekend trips. We actually got a bus load of 36 people. Eight people were on our trip for the first time. Some found us on the internet. NSC members brought new friends and 2 boarders from Santa Cruz Ski Club joined us. Social media does work.
We started our adventure with the same routine. The bus picked up half the group from San Jose and made its way to the El Cerrito Community Center to pick up the other half. Grady was our gracious and skilled driver. After our skis and luggage were stowed away at the El Cerrito stop, we were finally on our way. We served a delicious dinner – chicken Thai green curry over rice with mango pudding as our dessert. The Nisei Ski Club ski trips are all about the food.
Luckily, there was no chain control on our way to the South Shore so we arrived at the Blue Lake Inn by 12:15am. Room keys were distributed and everyone scurried off to their rooms. On Saturday morning, lift tickets were distributed and everyone walked 150 yards to the gondola to find out that the gondola was not running. Everyone had to squeeze into the crowded shuttle bus and take the lift chair from California Lodge. We also found out that the entire Nevada side of Heavenly was CLOSED DOWN.
I was the one of the last people to depart from the motel and I did not get my first run in until 11:00am. What was the problem here? We heard there were high winds at the higher elevation and a tree had fallen over a transformer, which caused the power to go out. You can just imagine the swelling crowds and lines getting longer and longer. Many of us jumped over to the singles line to help add runs to our day. I barely skied a total of 7,800 vertical feet for the day.
At the end of the day, everyone made it back to Amy and David Tsuhako’s room where we broke out the beer, wine and snacks. Imagine squeezing in 36 people into a motel room!
We heard from the locals that the Nevada side was going to be closed again on Sunday. We decided not to take that chance and voted to go to Sierra-at-Tahoe. Hmmmm…..maybe it was the locals way of telling us to go somewhere else.
Thanks to Sandy Kiyomura, our BAC Benefits Director, who made a few phone calls and sent a few quick emails so that group rate lift tickets were ready for us when we arrived at Sierra-at-Tahoe. We all got on the mountain by 9:30am and we had fresh POWDER. Sierra was very accommodating and it definitely made up for Saturday’s skiing fiasco.
When we left Sierra, it was snowing and it took an hour just to get out of the parking lot. By the time we were on Highway 50, Amy served her dinner. A new recipe – sesame chicken pita wrap with pickled carrot, daikon, onions, lettuce, and cilantro with a squirt of hoisin sauce and sriracha mayo, plus a side of edamame beans and a cream cheese brownie for dessert. She definitely went all for our hungry patrons.
It was smooth sailing home but took a bit longer than expected. We got into El Cerrito at 10:30pm and the bus arrived at San Jose around 11:15pm.
We all made it home safely. No skiing accidents were reported. We met some new people and we all had a great time.
Unfortunately, NSC Trip 2 is cancelled due to lack of sign ups. For the few who signed up for Trip 2, we are planning a car caravan trip. Stay tuned for next month’s article about this adventure.
 Waiting for the shuttle at Heavenly – Santa Cruz peeps Aryeh + Nicole, Amy + David |
 |
 We’re finally on the slopes: Wes, Margaret, Curtis, Morgan, Greg |
 Snowboarders Andrea and Rick |
 Powder ski day at Sierra-at-Tahoe: Sandy + Sarah |
 Co-tour leader Amy is still smiling |
 |
 Powder ski day at Sierra-at-Tahoe: David M |
Check out this short video of Curtis skiing down the Gunbarrel run at Heavenly.
