Armand Gutierrez, NSC President
 

Ski Season Officially Opens

The ski season has officially begun with numerous resorts opening during the Thanksgiving weekend thanks to a series of snowstorms to hit the Tahoe area. Of course, these resorts have limited lift operations and perhaps only 5% of open terrain. But still, that’s better than no skiing. Let’s pray to the Snowgods for more snow in December.

Mystery Ski Spot

Congratulations to Andrea Stewart and Judy Hom for correctly identifying our Mystery Ski Spot as Sierra-at-Tahoe. It’s been a real long time since I’ve been to Sierra so I couldn’t say where this photo was taken.

Snowmass Ski Week 2017

The Snowmass trip is almost here and hopefully you’ll get in some skiing before the trip. Please send in your final payments no later than December 10th. The Snowmass Orientation meeting will be held on Saturday, January 7th so mark your calendars. This will be an opportunity to meet other members on the trip, socialize a bit, and pick-up the souvenir gift. An Evite will be sent out later in December.

Ride Sharing Service

Last year, Sandy Kiyomura set up a ride sharing service for NSC members to facilitate getting to the slopes with other members. The service is called rideNSC and members can make a post to the group to either offer a ride-sharing opportunity or make a request that you’re interested in joining with somebody that might be going skiing. For information contact Sandy at (skiyomura@gmail.com)

Christmas Greetings

This has been a good year for NSC with the popular Park City/Canyons Trip, numerous hikes, the Week 1 Football pizza social, and what looks like the start of a good ski season. On behalf of the NSC board, I would like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a safe and Happy New Year.

Hoyt Nelson, NSC Vice President

Eight of us met up at the Carmel Safeway and drove about 6 miles south to the Soberantes Canyon trail leading to a bluff that overlooked dramatically crashing waves. Next, after a stop for lunch at the north end of the Bixby Bridge, we sampled a bit of the old dirt road that everyone used before the 2 big bridges were built and drove south to at great view of McWay falls at the Julia Pfeifer Burns State Park. A few miles north of there we finally rediscovered the charming Tanbark trail that lead up Partington Creek (closed for about 10 years due to a forest fire in the area). By the time we reached our next hidden trail off Ribera Road just sout of the Carmel Valley Road, it was too dark to continue. So, we went back to the Safeway shopping center and ate dinner at the Rio Grill. Hopefully, people will find this and another gem in downtown Carmel in the future. Maps were handed out at the start.

Ernie Handa passed away on November 19. He was the NSC President during 1970-1971. His memorial service is Sunday, December 11 at 11am. It will be held at the Willow Glen Funeral Home, 1039 Lincoln Avenue, San Jose, CA. For more information and photos, see Ernie Handa’s obituary on Dignity Memorial.