If you went on one of our club’s ski trip this past winter, did the slopes seem to be more crowded than usual? The stats are in for the 2021-2022 season and the National Ski Areas Association reports that the season’s 61 million skier days was a record, passing the previous record of 59.3 million skier days from the 2019-2020 season. This was despite 2021-2022 not being a great year for snow (which historically has correlated with the number of skier days). One of the drivers of this is the increasing number of season passes that are being sold. This past season, 52% of all skiers were on season passes. See the full article from the Colorado Sun: Record number of skier days at US resorts this year despite so-so snowfall (coloradosun.com).
At the end of April, I attended the Crescent Ski Council’s Spring Convention in Myrtle Beach. As I wrote about last month, the 2022 Steamboat Colorado Race and Ski Camp will be held December 3-10, 2022. This trip, run by the Crescent Ski Council, is open to all members of the 19 ski clubs that make up the Crescent Ski Council. The trip will go on sale June 15 (previously the date was the 1st), and the base price is $1690, but the first 70 people to sign-up will only pay $1585. These prices include seven nights lodging, a six-day lift ticket, five full days of lessons, three lunches, and one dinner; if you don’t want to take lessons you can deduct $428 from the price. Additional information is now on the Crescent web site at Crescent Ski Council Trips.
Some other tidbits that were discussed at the meeting included:
- Crescent’s Race program is planning on six races this coming winter, with all six in North Carolina.
- When boarding an airline flight, be sure your boarding pass is scanned. If the boarding pass is NOT scanned, the other leg(s) of your ticket are automatically cancelled. This happened to a Crescent member when the gate agent couldn’t get their boarding pass to scan and the traveler was told to go ahead and board. A week later when the traveler got to the airport to return home, they found that their ticket had been cancelled.
- It was said that the airlines are getting picker about ski bags. The official policy for most airlines is a boot bag and a ski bag with one pair of skis & poles counts as one “checked” bag. We were told that airlines are sometimes not allowing additional items (like clothes) to be put in ski bags.
- It was said that TSA is getting picker about requiring EXACT matches between the names on tickets and your photo ID (and if you are enrolled in a “Trusted Traveler Program” (i.e. TSA Pre Check which has a Known Traveler Number, Global Entry which has a Pass ID, etc.). This includes items as minor as an initial (like “J”) on one document and a name (like “James”) on the other.
- Other clubs are having problems like we’ve had recently getting condos at ski resorts. It was said that more owners are “working-from-home” (i.e. staying at their condo all season) and more owners are renting out through companies like Airbnb. These two factors result in fewer numbers of condos being available for groups.
A couple of weeks ago we had our first summer activity, the annual Virginia Creeper Bike Ride and Barter Theater play. We had 17 people enjoy the weekend. This year we moved the bike ride to Friday (from Saturday) to avoid the crowds. Even though we left the Bike Shop an hour later than normal (so we could enjoy a leisurely breakfast) we pretty much had the trail to ourselves, which was a big improvement. Thanks to Barb Wise for organizing our special events like this one. We are planning on having some outings to get together to enjoy a few Nightfall Concerts this summer (Nightfall Chattanooga 2022). Be watching for announcements on which concerts we’ll be attending as a group.
Signups are going very well for our four 2022-2023 ski trips. If you haven’t put money down on a trip already, I highly recommend that you do it soon.
- Whistler BC January 21-28, 2023 Trip Leader Roy Brunner
- Telluride CO February 4-11, 2023 Trip Leader Beverly Cleek
- Park City UT February 25-March 4, 2023 Trip Leader Scott Kramer
- Kitzbühel/Scotland March 16-30, 2023 Trip Leader Jim Mullenix
We have a few new/returning members to welcome to the club: Jane Burke, Cole Carper, Kathleen Cusick, Rebecca Fine, Herbert Katzman, Tracy Summer, and Michael Summer.
Stay safe everyone,
Bob
Event Listing
June Membership Meeting @ Flat Duck Event Venue (7742 Three Notch Rd., Ringgold, GA 30736 – June 7, 2022 https://chattanoogaskiclub.org/event-4837703
July Membership Meeting @ TBD – July 5, 2022
Lake Party (& August Membership meeting) @ Blue Springs Club, 3858 Burning Bush Rd, Ringgold, GA – July 30, 2022
Hiwassee Raft Trip @ Webb Brothers Float Service – August 7,2022 noon – 6pm https://chattanoogaskiclub.org/event-3933037
SUP / Kayak Party @ Club house @Harbor Heights Subdivision, 3789 Kings Road – August 20, 2022
September Membership Meeting @ TBD – September 6, 2022
Bourbon Trail @ Bardstown, KY – September 9-11, 2022
https://chattanoogaskiclub.org/event-3753468
October Membership Meeting @ TBD – October 4, 2022
Len Foote Hike – October 21-22, 2022 https://chattanoogaskiclub.org/event-3235020
Crescent Ski Council Fall Convention @ Gatlinburg, Glenstone Lodge – October 28-30, 2022
November Membership Meeting @ TBD – November 1, 2022
Crescent Ski Council Race & Learn to Ski/Ride Camp @ Steamboat – December 3-10, 2022
Christmas Party (& December Membership meeting) @ TBD – TBD
Whistler/Blackcomb Ski Trip – January 21-28, 2023 https://chattanoogaskiclub.org/event-4813143
Telluride Ski Trip – February 4-11, 2023 https://chattanoogaskiclub.org/event-4813162
Park City Ski Trip – February 25 – March 4, 2023 https://chattanoogaskiclub.org/event-4813189
Kitzbühel / Scotland Ski / Touring Trip – March 16-30, 2023 https://chattanoogaskiclub.org/event-4818156
Crescent Ski Council Spring Convention @ Myrtle Beach – April 21-23, 2023
Virginia Creeper Bike Ride – TBD 2023