The A team in every color: Charlie, Kent, Bill, Dave, Nancy, Jane, Shelly and Marty.
Thirty members of our gang enjoyed a great week of skiing, hiking, and camaraderie on our annual Sunday River trip. As Kent S noted......five days and five different sets of conditions: hard packed, powder, powder turned to moguls, powder on groomed, and then groomed packed powder with perfect temps and crystal blue skies on Friday. There's nothing like a bluebird day on the slopes and Sunday River gave us a few of those.
For skiers, Sunday River offers a bit of everything ranging from steeps, moguls and natural snow to groomed cruising trails. Our gang members tried all of the above and found skiing companions compatible with whatever their personal level of desire for thrill and challenge was. Those who made it over to the Jordan Bowl were treated to a state-of-the-art bubble chair lift (with heated seats!) that literally flies up the mountain. The best part of the experience for our skiers was that no one left the mountain on a stretcher.
We welcomed several new skiers into our ranks (Marty and Shelly G, Jane H, Judy H, and Joan G) and celebrated the return of some of our veterans (former trip leader Ray G and Abby A who makes an annual pilgrimage from North Carolina to visit family and get in some skiing). The suites we stayed in with kitchen facilities provided several nights of impromptu banquets and sharing of favorite recipes.
We also had a wonderful banquet at the Grand Summit and a road trip to the Jordan Hotel for a welcome night pizza party.
The pool and hot tub offered many of us relief from the sore muscles a day of skiing gave as well as a chance to visit with our Canadian friends who were also staying at our hotel. The fireplace in the south lobby offered a great setting for our happy hour apres ski rendezvous as well as a setting for a couple of game nights. Bruce W showed his history acumen winning again at the game of Chronology (a new club favorite thanks to Karen S) while Marge C demonstrated her creative vocabulary skills winning a boisterous game of Balderdash (an old TOHG standby).
We did have a few folks who needed to drop out at the last minute due to various health complications. We hope to welcome them back next year.
Tom J and Marge C
