2020 - 2021 Far West Skier's Guide - 47

XX/X2020 Club Section.qxp_2019 Club Section 11/8/20 10:32 AM Page 7

LA Council members dine together
on the Council Night Dinner
during the FWSA Big Sky Ski
Week held in early 2020.
photo courtesy of Sandra Blackwell

Los Angeles
Council of Ski Clubs

The Los Angeles Council of
Ski Clubs, Inc. has 24 snowsports
(skiing, boarding, and social) clubs
that cover almost all of the Los
Angeles County. LAC is one of
the largest of the ten councils of
the Far West Ski Association, and
is included in the National Ski
Council Federation. There are
many, many very active, very enthusiastic members in these clubs.
Summer finds many of the clubs
out for hiking, biking, kayaking,
sailing, and up to Mammoth for
their summer programs. Winter,
of course, sets the mood for wonderful snow covered mountains,
with trails that twist and turn, or
- Yikes - just go straight down the
hill! California and our western
states ski resorts have some of the
best winter snow that can be
imagined, and there are lots of opportunities for our clubs to go skiing. Due to the large population
and number of ski clubs in the
L.A. area, the clubs' make up is so
diverse with small clubs, large
clubs, winter and summer sports
programs, and a number of the
clubs get together for better pricing on their trips, different events
to do, and more people just makes
for more fun.
The main ski resort for ski
trips, be they bus or drive up, is
Mammoth Mountain Ski Resort,
a five hour drive from central Los
Angeles. Mammoth offers a myriad of year round outdoor activities (skiing in winter; mountain
biking, hiking and camping in
summer). This is also where most
of the council races happen, and
are part of Far West Racing Association. Los Angeles supports
two race leagues: ROKKA and

ULLR chaired by Laura Preiss
and Ken Kawahara, respectively.
Included on the schedule are:
ROKKA Race Camp; the Ski,
Ride & Race Week; three race
weekends, the SoCal Championships, and the Far West Racing
Association Championships.
Los Angeles Council participates in the FWSA's Annual Ski
Week each season, and this past
year was up in Big Sky, Montana.
Its name is also " the Big Sky State " ,
and it shows with the wide open
spaces, the beautiful blue skies
that just stretch upward, and
some of the nicest people I've
ever met. As in the past years,
Todd Hood, our VP of Travel, did
his always fabulous wonderful
job of hosting, connecting, checking, and leading or keeping up
with all the groups in our council
that attended. And, LAC WON
the costume contest this year.
The theme at Thursday night's
awards banquet was " Wildlife Safari " and LAC had the most wildlife at the banquet (either by
costume or happenings). We had
lions, tigers, giraffes, a giant lizard,
a gorilla, a few butterflies - you
guessed - we had the most of everything.
In 2021, we will be heading
up to Sun Valley, Idaho for some
of the best skiing that money can
buy. Sun Valley has done some
renovations to their ski hills, and
lifts and lots of upgrading to the
Inn and the Lodge. So, this will
be a wonderful trip all around.
LAC also takes advantage of
FWSAs international trips; and
the " mini week " ski trips, typically held in mid March that
have become popular for their in-

teresting ski resort choices and
great pricing. We also have a
combined group of clubs going to
Alta/Snowbird, and another trip
to Taos, New Mexico; while
another group of clubs is headed
to Jackson Hole and Aspen.
Paula Hazard, VP of Programs, will be working with our
current LAC Man and Woman of
the Year: Peter Smith (Wailers)
and Soo Lee (Unrecables), for
their participation in the 2021
Convention to be held in San
Diego in early June. At the 88th
FWSA Convention, it will be fun
to attend all the events typically:
a golf tournament on a championship course; the Friday night Silent Auction (where many a ski
trip or other great travel bargain
can be had); the Saturday night
banquet where the awards are
given out; and then the Sunday
morning breakfast, with the last
few awards and your last chance
to say hi to those you have not
had a chance to catch up with
over the weekend.
Los Angeles Council continues to be represented within
Far West Ski Association as
members of the Board of Directors, Board of Trustees, and its
various committees. There are
three members currently who are
FWSA officers that continue on
after the June Convention, or as
appointed Committee Chairs:
n Sigrid Noack
(Unrecables), Charities and Our
Community Chair
n Todd Hood
(Snowbusters), Succession
Planning Chair, and

n David Krupp (Century
City), Athletic Scholarship Program Chair; and
LAC also supports the Far
West Ski Foundation, which provides sponsorships for young
skiers trying to earn their place on
our US Ski Teams. Over the last
three years, we have proudly
sponsored a young man, Bruno
Amon-Franceshi and he did very
well, as he is a bright young man
with a promising future. He
leaves us now to attend college.
He will be missed.
I would like to thank my
LAC Board members for their
continuing hard work, diligent efforts, and in making the council a
great team to work with:
n Treasurer, Dan Haste
(Wailers);
n Secretary, Sandra Knapp
(Grindelwald)
n VP Membership,
Iris Williams
(Executive Board);
n VP Programs, Paula
Hazard (Edelweiss)
n VP Travel, Todd Hood
(SnowBusters)
n Past President, David
Krupp (Century City); and
our newest Board member,
n Gordon Cardona
(Unrecables), our VP of
Communications.
Other than Gordon, all these
board members have stayed even
though their terms were up. So,
my great thanks to every one of
them that has continued on.
For details regarding all of
the Los Angeles clubs and activities, please visit us at: www.lacouncil.org.

Far West Skier's Guide 2O2O - 2O21 47

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LOS ANGELES COUNCIL OF SKI CLUBS

by Sandra Blackwell,
President

http://www.lacouncil.org http://www.lacouncil.org

2020 - 2021 Far West Skier's Guide

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