By Sandy Kiyomura

Did you know that as a member of the Nisei Ski Club, you could participate in BAC (Bay Area Council of Ski and Snowboard clubs) League races?  The Nisei Ski Club can form its own team. There are races throughout the season at various resorts. Even if you don’t race, you can watch and get discounted (about 50%) lift tickets on race days.

Many people think you have to be a strong skier to race. That is not true (even I can race). You will race against people at a similar level, and there are 10 levels of skiers. Levels 1-4 are Advanced, 5-7 are Intermediates, and 8-10 are Novice. Within each level, racers are further divided by gender and age. There are juniors (under 18), adults are 19-49, Vets are 50-64 and if you’re 65 or over, you are a “Super Vet”.

There are three types of races: GS (giant slalom), Slalom and Super G.  You may find that you do better at one type of race than another.  I seem to be better at Slalom than GS. One will get points for placing in his/her category. These points are totaled for each club. In addition, there’s another category of “points per racer”. So if a team only has 2 racers and they always place first in their class, they can be at the top of that category.

On your first race, you will race as a Novice/Rookie. They will then determine your level by your time. Once you are placed in a level, you can move up to the next level by getting two strikes.  A strike is determined as a certain percentage over the pace-setter’s time.

If you would like to try a race, look up the schedule at: https://sites.google.com/site/openleagueracing/. It is fun and you will meet people from other clubs. Ask you friends to join you and Nisei can form its own club. I would love to race for Nisei.

Happy Chinese New Years to All!!
4712 – Year of the Wood Sheep

May the new year bring good health and prosperity to all, and MORE SNOW!!

Most of our club’s membership just spent a great week in Jackson Hole where we found abundant snow.  Despite the fact that we missed a big snow dump by a few days, there was plenty of the white stuff and certainly much more snow than Tahoe has.

DON”T GIVE UP HOPE for TAHOE!! As I write these stream of consciousness babblings, the snow gods are gracing our Tahoe slopes with new snow with Northstar reporting 3 inches of new in the past 24 hours and 13 inches in the past 48 hours (as of Feb 8).  More snow is expected to fall tomorrow in the Sierras – so there’s hope yet.

Jackson Hole 2015

Did someone mention Jackson Hole?

Thanks to Armand, I had a BLAST!!! As I’m sure you did too!  What more could you want?  Plenty of snow, great variety of terrain from mild to heart stopping, huge verticals, cloud layers, inversion layers, a dusting of fresh snow, moose (mooses? meece?), good food, elk, dog sled racing, ice skating, cowboy bars and incredible company!!!  I only regret that with such a large group, I didn’t get to  meet all of you.

Presidential Words to the Masses

Click here for Armand’s Jackson Hole and Membership Report and don’t forget Armand “the Bard” February President’s Message.

Jackson Hole Pictures & Videos

N.B. – these pictures were taken in public places at

Thanks to all those who have contributed pictures and videos.  Here are the links to them:

• Elaine Yu’s Google + pictures
• Gilbert Lee’s Dropbox pictures
• Bill Lee’s Google + pictures
• Bill Lee’s Google + videos

Individual pictures – click on each to enlarge

• Sandy’s pictures:

• Kevin Chan’s pictures:

Racing Anyone??

Do you have Walter Mitty dreams of being a ski racer?

Will you be the next Lindsey Vonn?

Well, your dreams and aspirations can come true!!!  Our very own Sandy “Lindsey” Kiyomura is a veteran racer, at times reaching speeds faster than a speeding bullet!

Lindsey, I mean, Sandy, describes how you can be all you can be in her article here: “Open League Racing“.

And LAST but NOT LEAST, we had Jackson Hole ENGAGEMENT!!!  Wes Lum from Hawaii proposed to Mariana Guerrero of Mexico!  Talk about a Loooong Distance romance!

For those of us where weren’t lucky enough to witness the event, here you go:

Da Prez Armand Gutierrez

Welcome to the Chinese Year of Sheep (Wooden or Green)! Yes, the Chinese New Year starts February 19th and if you were born under the sign of the Sheep then you have a mild personality and are considered friendly.

2015 is here and January has turned out to be the driest January in recorded history. Although the Tahoe resorts remain open not all lifts and trails are open. I was up at Heavenly just before the ski week trip and there was only one black run open on the Nevada side, and all green/blue runs on the California side. Northstar did open up the Prosser black run on Lookout Mtn, but other than that it’s primarily the green/blue runs that were open. Skiing is probably good if you’re a beginner to intermediate but for you black diamond aficionados there’s not much to offer. Still, I’m hopeful we’ll get some snow in before or first weekend ski trip at the end of February.

Jackson Hole Ski Week

The Jackson Hole ski week trip turned out to be a really great trip and thoroughly enjoyed by everyone. Catch all the details in the Membership and Jackson Hole reports.

BAC Man and Woman of the Year

Once again it’s time to nominate an outstanding member, or members, for the annual BAC Man and Woman of the Year contest. This year I have nominated Karen Soo for Woman of the Year. Karen was selected because, as Trip Director, she ensures that the NSC weekend trips are well-organized, transportation and lodging are taken care of, and, if you’ve ever been on any of her trips, then you know there is quite a bit of work for ensuring everyone is well-fed on the trip up and back. In addition to her outstanding work as Trip Director, Karen also plays a pivotal role in organizing our picnics, the ski-week souvenirs, and is involved with the hikes and other events. Congratulations Karen for a job well done.

President Armand Gutierrez

Membership Activity

We had two members join up in January for the Jackson Hole trip. Yes, they were late signups but there was room for them on the trip. Currently we have 94 members in the club.

Jackson Hole Ski Week (24-31 January 2015)

Wow! What a week at Jackson Hole. There were 75 members on this trip and judging by the comments it appears to have been a very enjoyable and successful trip. Our flight out of SFO was on time and went without a hitch. In Salt Lake City we met up with several groups from the Sacramento and Albuquerque areas, and there were several members that opted to drive and were already in Jackson Hole.

The first three days of skiing was reminiscent of skiing Tahoe in Spring conditions. An inversion layer kept the base area in the high teens while tempts at the top of Thunder chair actually got as high as 60° F, which is most unusual for Jackson Hole during January. This lasted for several days and then we were blessed with a light snowfall on Tuesday evening. Yes, that meant a nice coat of 3″-4″ (more in some places) of fresh powder!

A number of people took Wednesday off to build up the local Jackson economy and to take in the National Elk Refuge on a horse-drawn sleigh. Of course, most members did make a visit to the Million Dollar Cowboy Bar, and our very own Dan Lew (newsletter editor) managed to get in some ice-skating in the town square.

The remainder of the week we had sunny to partly sunny skies and skiing was very pleasant. There were a couple of special events during the week- on Tuesday the Hawaiian Snowriders (members of our trip) held a memorial service for one of their fellow skiers that loved Jackson Hole and had passed away last year, AND there was a marriage proposal at the top of Bridger Gondola!! Yes, Wes Lum (from Hawaii) popped the big one to Mariana Guerrero (from Mexico). Needless to say there were tears flowing profusely.

Unfortunately, there were two accidents (one minor, one major). Kay Kamiyama had a fainting experience and fell forward onto the slope and incurred a slightly bloody nose and a scrape on her cheek. She was up and skiing the very next day. Curtis Otaguro suffered a dislocated shoulder while navigating the Tower 3 Chute (a black diamond). Although this happened on the last day of skiing it’s a sure bet that made the end of his ski season. Yes, for those that are counting I’m three for three now.

Our Farewell Dinner was held at the locally popular Mangy Moose and our group took over the top floor. During the Social Hour everyone was talking to everyone else, mingling and co-mingling, and then we got down to business of eating dinner. After dinner I gave my usual speech about the trip and last-minute announcements for departing the next morning.

During the week Greg Wong was busy gaining vertical feet and his concerted effort was rewarded with the 100K Vertical Foot pin. Meanwhile, Joe Feng and I finally reached the 500K vertical foot milestone and were rewarded with the 500K Silver Belt Buckle.

On our departure there was a little snafu at the Delta counter at the Jackson airport. Seems like their reservation system got overloaded with our whole group checking in at the same time and that sent the ticketing reps into a mild frenzy calling tech support. They finally were able to get all of us ticketed and we boarded on time and made our way back to SLC and SFO.