Armand Gutierrez, NSC President

Happy Chinese New Year!

Welcome to the Chinese Year of the Monkey! Yes, the Chinese New Year started February 8^th and if you were born under the sign of the Monkey then you are quick-witted, curious, innovative, and mischievous. And this is exactly how monkeys behave, and they certainly can be quite mischievous. Do you know anyone in the club that fits the characteristics of a monkey?

First Weekend Trip

Due to poor snow conditions, it’s been several years since NSC hosted a weekend ski trip. Now that Tahoe has been receiving a lot of snow, compliments of El Niño, the first Heavenly weekend ski trip went up at the end of January with a busload of skiers. I checked the Heavenly website and the weather conditions weren’t the greatest with high winds, and all lifts on the Nevada side were out due to a power outage on the first day. Sunday’s weather had less windy conditions and power was restored to the Nevada side and all lifts were operational. However, the group decided to head over to Sierra-at-Tahoe for the second day where they enjoyed lots of freshies. With temperatures in the mid-20’s that should make for light and fluffy snowflakes (see photo). I’m sure that those that didn’t know how to ski powder got a chance to improve their skills. Given the weather conditions at Heavenly and the powder at Sierra I’m sure there will be plenty of stories after this trip.

Park City/Canyons Ski Week 2016

The Park City/Canyons trip is moving along well and we currently have 47 signups (yes, we had a few late signups in January). The Park City/Canyons Orientation Meeting was held Saturday, February 6th, and was well attended by our seasoned veterans as well as few new members. Everyone enjoyed basking in the sun in the backyard talking about the Park City/Canyons trip and other ski adventures. There was a minor change in our flight itinerary and an email was sent to all Park City attendees, as well as the Park City/Canyons pamphlet.

Sandy Kiyomura

There is a very special ski school located at Alpine Meadows. The “Tahoe Adaptive Ski School” was started over 48 years ago by a few Vietnam War Vets who were learning to cope with their disabilities. They were taught to ski by Jim Winthers, a World War II Veteran of the 10th Mountain Division and Director of the Soda Springs ski school. They use specialized adaptive equipment and teaching methods to offer persons with any disability the experience of being on the snow. Their mission is “to provide affordable inclusive physical and recreational activities that build health and confidence”.

I had the privilege of working as a volunteer ski instructor for this organization for over ten years. By teaching, I learned to ski better. But working for “Achieve Tahoe” taught me more than how to ski better. It gave me lessons in patience, gratitude and humility that I may not have learned anywhere else. I learned to appreciate things I often take for granted. When I have a sore knee, I think “at least I have a leg”. When I’m having a bad day, I remember all the challenges my students have in daily life. Seeing their joy in skiing made me happy.

Their motto is:

If I can do this, I can do anything.

This is the reason behind this fundraiser. Although I no longer teach for the Tahoe Adaptive Ski School, AKA Disabled Sports USA, now Achieve Tahoe, I would like to raise some monies for them. I was the lucky winner of a California Gold Pass (fully transferable, good for 27 California ski areas) and decided to “rent” it out. On a weekend bus trip with Nisei Ski club, I raffled off use of the pass. That bus trip raised $250 and so far, I have raised over $500.

There were four prizes offered on the bus trip. Three were for use of the pass for a day for $50. The “Grand” prize was for use of the pass for a day for free. Santosh, Sarah Lowe, and Margaret Wong won the $50 a day pass. Then Margaret also won the grand prize! Lucky lady.

If you are interested in donating to “Achieve Tahoe” (or using my pass), please contact me at skiyomura@gmail.com. Thank you to all who have contributed or will contribute.

For more information about Achieve Tahoe, visit the Achieve Tahoe web site.

Len Bridges

Hello everyone. My name is Len Bridges. I am a new member of Nisei Ski Club and recently enjoyed the fun and pleasure of skiing with Sandy Kiyomura and Greg Wong of the club, and with Bill Wong who we are hoping will join the club. I am both visually and hearing loss impaired. Sandy with her connections with Achieve Tahoe located near Alpine Meadows arranged for me to take a lesson from this organization. I was pretty impressed with the program and Sandy asked me to contribute an article about my experience, and so here it is.

First, a young lady at reception helped me to fill out the paper work. I didn’t have close distance reading glasses with me so I was unable to effectively read what seemed to be very tiny print. Once I had completed the paper work with her help, an individual by name of Haakon discussed quite extensively my medical health, hearing loss and visual situation.Then, I was turned over to the care of two lovely lady interns, Kristin and Taylor — their photo is on the Achieve Tahoe interns page. The lesson was to be 2 1/2 hours. This team of two young ladies would provide evaluation, instruction, and umbrella coverage for my safety on the snow.

It was indeed a blessing to me to have them provide evaluation and instruction to me while at the same time being sensitive to, and providing effective accommodation for my visual and hearing loss. In addition to providing me training as a student, they both also were open to, and positive about learning from me about my hearing loss and visual impairment, and how they might incorporate that knowledge and experience into their service as interns and as they move on to their professional careers of a medical and rehabilitative nature.

The instruction they provided was open ended with no strict pattern. Kristin and Taylor adapted the lesson content to bring my focus on the use of pole planting to improve my skill in making turns. As I learned to ski as an “older than dirt” guy, I did not develop muscle and brain memory of skiing, and thus, I ski out of my head, constantly thinking of what I need to do and how to do it. Along with this goes the extremely high “fear factor” that shoots out of orbit in the event I find myself on something too steep, going too fast, and facing the disaster of losing control. They helped address this by taking me down what seemed a totally vertical slope using a side step, which I call the slippy slide, and we descended down together, both Kristin and Taylor looking quite graceful, and me, well not so much. However, it was a great learning experience and confidence builder exercise. In addition to the value of the lesson, I had a lot of fun and the time flew by so quickly, well maybe not fast enough on that vertical part.

This program is exceptionally outstanding. They have special equipment, special talent, and special people to provide those of us with compromised mental, physical, and sentient functionality an opportunity to participate and learn in a caring, friendly, and supportive environment. They are truly angelic beings on the mountain.

Skiing

El Nino is bringing a lot of snow to the Sierras. The snowpack is over normal averages. Don’t miss out. I want to remind you of the different ways to go up and how to get discount lift tickets:

How to go up

1. Ride share – join in on the chatter to see who is giving a ride and who wants a ride. This is open to all NSC members. If you haven’t joined, click on the link on the right hand side of the page. For more information about how rideNSC works, read the article from the December newsletter.
2. NSC weekend trip – the next trip is March 11-13. For more information, see the Trip Schedules page.

Discount lift tickets

1. Sierra at Tahoe discount – you can get discounts of 22-28% from Sierra at Tahoe. Read the information on how to get your discounted tickets
2. Rent Sandy’s California Gold Pass – Read her article on how to rent it
3. BAC discount – BAC has a race league but you don’t need to race in order to get discount tickets. Show up at 8:30am where the racers are. Visit the BAC open league racing web site for more information about the racing schedule.

Chinese New Year

Chinese New Year is February 8th. It’s the year of the monkey, which is the 9th animal in the Chinese zodiac. People born in the year of the monkey are intelligent, curious, and clever. If you’re looking to be a matchmaker for the monkey, the zodiac signs most compatible with the monkey are the rabbit and the ox.

Celebrating Chinese New Year

Chinese New Year is one of my favorite holidays. For Chinese-Americans, it ranks right up there with Christmas. Here’s some of the New Year traditions that my family observes:

1. Lai see: When children wish their elders Happy New Year “Kung Hei Fat Choy,” they receive a red envelope with lucky money. This is called lai see. Only unmarried children are eligible for lai see. When I was a little girl, I would spend my new year money very carefully because it had to last until the next year.

2. The orange and tangerine display: Mom always puts out a plate of oranges with tangerines on top. The tangerines have to have their leaves attached. Tangerines without leaves are not acceptable. To Chinese, oranges represent gold and the Chinese word for tangerine sounds like good luck.  Oftentimes, lai see is nestled inbetween the fruit.

3. Chinese New Year feast: This is my favorite part of the new year. Chinese select certain dishes for the new year because the food sounds like a lucky word or is selected for its significance. For example, chicken is a must have dish because gai (chicken) sounds like ho sai gai (prosperous business) and the sea moss is called fat choy which means prosperity. Not only are the foods lucky and symbolic, they are delicious too.

4. Lucky papers: Red paper with Chinese poetry is taped next to the doorway. The poems often wish for fortune, prosperity, and wealth.

Kung Hei Fat Choy!

Wishing everyone a healthy and prosperous new year!