| The Northwest Airlines Ski and Snowboard club is looking for more skiers or shredders. If you like to combine skiing/snowboarding and having fun, the ski club is what you are looking for. Racers as well as recreational skiers are needed. If you like to race, check out the North American Airlines Ski and Snowboard Federation's website for more info. This site also has info on where and when each ski week takes place. Check NAASF's site for the 2004 weeks. NWA Ski Club 4466 Ferncroft Rd Mercer Island, WA 98040 Photo Gallery |
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| President: Heather Patterson Treasurer: Mark Duncan A Team Captain: Bill Wilson B Team Captain: Jeri Koleno Snowboard Team Captain: Steve Bacsikin Membership: Anne Simpson Webmaster: Are Johnsen International Coordinator: Demian Brooks & Lesli Tomasini Base Reps: AMS: Gerben Hettinga ANC: Mark Montgomery BOS: Joe Pagano DTW: Jane Barr & Marc Vangestel HNL: Tom Stanton JFK: Muriel Devine LAX: Debra Main MEM: Jerry Overholser MSP: Bill Boynton & Janine McIntyre & David Hurley NRT: Junko Hashimoto SEA: Bobbie Foger SFO: Sally Martin |
| This page is not ancillary to Northwest Airlines, and it's content is independent of any expression, policy or opinion of Northwest Airlines. |
| 2004 Ski weeks: Snowbird Jan 25-31 Winter Park Feb 22-28 Alyeska (IASF) Feb 29-Mar 5 Sun Valley Mar 21-27 2005 Ski weeks: Telluride Jan 23-29 Steamboat Feb 13-19 Levi, Finland (IASF) Mar 13-18 Sun Valley Mar 20-26 |
| News from the President Well another International event is in the books. I'd like to say a BIG THANKS to Demian and Lesli for organizing this year's very successful week. The weather wasn't too cooperative, snow, rain and fog, but the parties more than made up for it. Day one had a lot of late arrivals due to the oversold flights to Anchorage-who would think Anchorage flights would be full the end of Feb? Anyhow, Christy Ragg managed to have the hotel bar stay open for us after 1am by befriending one of the hotel party organizers-thanks Christy we all needed another drink after that non-rev nightmare. Day two was the snowboard qualification races. Unfortunately our super-star Demian took a nasty wipe-out in the first race and gave us all a big scare. An ambulance ride to Anchorage and ensuing xrays showed a serious contusion but no fractures. I'm happy to report he's feeling much better now-but this did prevent him from on-hill participation for the rest of the week. Mike Weber and Carson Wellman sadly didn't make the cut to the following day's finals but did give a valiant effort. Lesli Tomasini did the NWA girls proud by being our only female snowboard participant-way to go Les! Later that evening at the Kickoff Ceremony we all wore our NWA long sleeve t-shirts-nicely designed by Dem and Les. Day three was our men's and women's giant slalom race. For the men, we had Chris Armstrong and Ed Sparks and our women racers were Sally Martin, Anne Simpson and myself. The main goal of this race was to make it down and finish-we really couldn't see where we were going (heavy fog and snow) and by the time the slower racers at the back (like me) went, the ruts were shin deep. I know Ed knows what I'm talking about, he lost both skis at the third gate and had to be reminded that at the International events, you can put your skis back on and still finish!! This was after he so politely cleared the course of his belongings to let the next racer go by. Day three was also the day of our team dinner held at Chair 5. I counted 38 of us-which I believe was our total number of participants for the week-so everyone showed! The food was quite excellent and we had the back room all to ourselves. Burton Powers made an appearance, but we never did see him on the mountain skiing. Day four was our slalom race. Same participants and the weather was slightly better. The best results for us over the two days were Sally Martin, 8th place combined, Anne Simpson 14th in giant slalom, I finished 27th combined, and Chris Armstrong 45th combined, and Ed Sparks 48th combined. This international event is quite a bit more competitive than our NAASF weeks so overall I'd say we did pretty well. The NWA women's team placed 4th overall behind Swiss Air, Lufthansa and LTU. The evening of the fourth day was our theme party which was, dress as your favorite Alaskan. My favorite group costume was Anne Simpson dressed as a drunk ship's captain of the Exxon Valdes' oil spill fame. Accompanying her were 3 "dirty birds" Dem, Les and Mike Weber dressed as sad looking oil slicked birds with colored feathers falling off them everywhere. It wouldn't be an international event without some of our male coworkers showing some skin... Bobby Bell, Carson Wellman, and Pete Robinson were polar bears wearing not much more than a furry white flapover their fronts and rears. Jeri and Mitch were the Northern Lights with little colored light bulbs and stars on their black outfits. We saw lots of snow bunnies, icebergs, a beaver hunter, blow-up pool flotation orcas attached to the backs of one of the European teams and Northwest guests Tom and Rob wore nets with dolphins caught in them. Theme parties are always a good time! Day five was the day of our fun race. Thanks to Bobby and Pete for setting up our booth with Alaskan salmon. I think our booth had the most visitors. Thanks Pete for standing behind it all day, even if you did put a salmon skin on my head and let me walk around like that for 15 minutes until my dear roommate pointed it out. I thought you were starting to be nicer to me these days-apparently not...Although you did wipe the guts off my helmet. Carson whipped out his blender at the end of the day and served some tasty mud slides to those of us who were left. Northwest fielded two teams for the fun race. The first was Bobby, Chris A, Annette (who was a good sport and joined the team last minute) and me. The second was Xxxx Xxxxx, Sally Martin, Janie Barr and Ed Sparks. The race went something like this; the four of us tied together with a long rope, at the start, a shot of vodka followed by Red Bull, ski through 6 slalom gates, go through this low, long tunnel (skis on the whole time), over, under and over this bamboo thingy over a seesaw, into an outhouse where you had to sit on the closed toilet seat and chug a full beer each. Then through a tire tube and throw your skis into a dog sled and the first three teammates on their hands and knees hook themselves into the dog harness and pull the dog sled through the finish line with the last team member riding on the sled. I have to say I laughed the entire 10 and a half minutes it took us to complete the course. We had lots of team spirit out there with our club members cheering us on from the side lines. Northwest team 2 finished in 5th place. Ed and Xxxx wore very skimpy outfits and Jane was their anchor teammate who mushed her doggies across the finish line with her little brunette bob wig and furry skirt. They finished with a time of 8 minutes 26 seconds. I think everyone had a great time and it was just a real fun group of people who attended. Welcome new members Carson and Dave (I want my $25)Chandler. Our final week is fast approaching. I can't believe how fast this season has gone by. Sun Valley is always a great party and we should have pretty good numbers come out for it. I also got some info for an informal ski week which is being organized by a United pilot. I told him I would spread the word to my team. The dates are April 5-11 at Copper Mountain. He has it set up so that we can get room and lift ticket discounts. To reserve a room call 866-837-2996 tell them you are with the Copper Easter Get-Together code 2AM0EZ. Ask about group rates on lift tickets, equipment rentals, etc. These special rates will not be available after April 4. Room reservations balances due 14 days prior to arrival. Ask reservations about specific No Show, Early departure, Deposit and Check-In and Out policies. Room rates are; Gold one bedroom-$139 plus tax, Gold two bedroom $219, Silver hotel room $109, Silver one bedroom $129, Silver two bedrrom $209 rates are per night. This is the inaugural Copper Easter Get-Together 2004. Check out www.coppercolorado.com for Sunsation I and II calendar of events. Everybody is invited to our parties, fun races and activities. This is the second to last week Copper will be open for the season. Note; This is NOT a NAASF event, though many NAASF'ers should be there! Any questions call Rich Frampton 303-355-3977. I'm planning on going out for at least a few days of it-I'm not ready to put my skis away for the season yet! Hope lots of you will be at Sun Valley see you soon! Heather |