After hibernating in January and February, our monthly membership meetings are back, starting on Tuesday March 1st. The business meeting will begin at 7:00 pm, but come as early as 6 pm if you want to visit, swap tall tales, and/or bring your own dinner/drinks. You won’t want to miss this meeting because we will be announcing the destinations and dates for our 2023 western ski trips (sign-ups will start later, possibly at the April meeting). We will be meeting at Willis & Hilda Jones’ Flat Duck Event Barn (7742 Three Notch Rd., Ringgold, GA 30736). We also will have reports on the three just completed western trips this year.
At the April membership meeting, we will have elections of officers (President, Vice President, Treasurer, and Secretary) for the 2022-2023 year. Jim Bates has agreed to be the Nominating Committee Chair for the election. If you are interested in running for one of these offices, please contact Jim at (706)-537-6331 or jimbates18@gmail.com
Our three western ski trips for 2022 are now complete. I personally got to enjoy the trips to Breckenridge and Mt. Bachelor and I heard great things about the Snowmass trip as well. Mt. Bachelor was a new destination for our club, but I think I can speak for everyone on the trip that it is a place we will return to in the future. The mountain had terrain for every ability. The people at the resort made us feel very welcome (including have two mountain ambassadors for each group of four skiers for a long orientation tour, as well as an individual ambassador for a person who wanted to see specific terrain). We stayed at an excellent hotel in the heart of Bend (several restaurants and breweries were withing three blocks), with hot buffet breakfast every morning (and a bag breakfast the morning of our departure), a private bus taking us to and from the mountain twice a day, and a cookie every afternoon.
A couple of years ago we did a survey to see what our membership wanted concerning ski trips. One thing that got a lot of requests was flying out of Chattanooga (as opposed to Atlanta or Nashville). This year we did that exclusively on one trip (Mt. Bachelor) and as an alternate on another trip (Snowmass). While the Mt. Bachelor trip went off without any problems (except for having a very long day on the return trip (leaving the hotel at 3:15 am PST and landing in Chattanooga at 9:15 pm EST), the Snowmass trip wasn’t as fortunate. Flying out of Chattanooga comes with two problems. First, we usually can’t get very many seats on the flights leaving Chattanooga since the planes are so small (the reason we had two groups of people leaving for Snowmass from different airports was we could only get 28 seats from Chattanooga, and we usually take many more people that that on a trip). Second, flying out of Chattanooga is always a risky proposition, especially in the winter. There will be at least two and usually three different flights to get to the final destination. That increases the probability of lost luggage, and cancelled/delayed flights, especially in the winter with bad weather possible both in Chattanooga and the destination for the first leg (Chicago and Dallas can be especially tricky). So, while we will continue to explore various options for flights, in the near future I would not be expecting trips to depart from Chattanooga.
Last, some of our members will be volunteering at the Chattanooga Area Food Bank on Thursday afternoon March 10th from 1 to 4. All openings are currently filled. The work we will do is not strenuous and we will be helping people in our community. When we are done, we will be going to Stevarinos Italian Eatery and Pub at 325 Cherokee Blvd. If you can’t work at the Food Bank, we still want you to come to Stevarinos for this social activity.
Stay safe everyone,
Bob
Event Listing
March Membership Meeting @ Flat Duck Event Venue (7742 Three Notch Rd., Ringgold, GA 30736) – March 1, 2022 7pm https://chattanoogaskiclub.org/event-4718786
Volunteering at the Chattanooga Area Food Bank – March 10, 2022 1-4pm https://chattanoogaskiclub.org/event-4672133
Happy Hour Social & Fellowship @ Stevarinos Italian Eatery and Pub (325 Cherokee Blvd, https://stevarinos.com/) – March 10, 2022 4:30pm - ? https://chattanoogaskiclub.org/event-4711441
Chamonix/Lyon/Paris Skiing & Touring Trip- March 5-18, 2022 - cancelled
April Membership Meeting and Election of Officers @ TBD – April 5, 2022
Crescent Ski Council Spring Conference @ Myrtle Beach, Kingston Plantation – April 21-24, 2022 https://chattanoogaskiclub.org/event-4670718
May Membership Meeting @ TBD – May 3, 2022
Virginia Creeper Bike Ride – May 5-7, 2022 https://chattanoogaskiclub.org/event-3168543
June Membership Meeting @ TBD – June 7, 2022
Lake Party (& July Membership meeting) @ TBD – TBD (Saturday in July)
August Membership Meeting @ TBD – August 2, 2022
Hiwassee Raft Trip @ Webb Brothers Float Service – August 7,2022 noon – 6pm https://chattanoogaskiclub.org/event-3933037
SUP / Kayak Party Trail @ TBD – TBD (Sunday in August)
September Membership Meeting @ TBD – September 6, 2022
Bourbon Trail @ TBD - TBD
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
Christmas Party (& December Membership meeting) @ TBD – TBD