Aspen Ski Trip

By Joyce Cooper

Thanks to all who made our traditional trip to Aspen a success! We had fresh powder nearly every day and just great February Colorado weather for skiing. And did we ski and really enjoy every day to the max!!

Once again, the Gant did not disappoint in providing excellent service (except for quality of wine served!) Our first event was our Welcome Party and following that was a succession of an every night of the week get-together which promoted great fun and camaraderie. We instituted a "Condo Progressive dinner" moving from condo to condo for appetizers, main courses and desserts. Everyone had a chance to participate in either hosting the group or in joining forces with a condo team. Condo pit stops were Sybil, Carol, John & Raelene's condo; Al, JJ, Pam & Mitch's condo; Marlene, Bill & Jeannie's condo as well as yours truly(ies) along with George, Barbara & Trevor. We had so many of the participants join - we had to carry our "silverware" with us. It would have helped if the condos were a couple of miles apart to work off the calories, but the skiing took care of it the next day.

We had two nights of eating out as a group at Mezzaluna's and La Hostaria. Both were well attended as was our Valentine's Day "Dice Night". And by the way, we have filed earnings reports with the IRA - so hope you declared your income on your tax return!

Back to the main event - skiing. A highlight (2nd year in a row) was skiing Long Shot. Thanks to Peter and Stephanie Gosselin for buying straps for our skis so those of us "on up in years" could manage the trek up the mountain!! Among those who joined Peter (made the trip twice!) were Andrew & Anna Lackowski, Barbara & Trevor Hayes, Pam Womble, Don Pope and Betty. A special thanks to Peter for also giving us the best racing tips along with calming our nerves as we "skied the gates."

And then on to the races . . . Our race day was a success and a big thanks to Peter & Stu for serving as our race directors and coordinating the event. Our winners this year for the Expert division and the traveling championship trophy were Dave Pennington and Barbara Lancaster. 2nd and 3rd for the expert men were Scott Brown and Stanley Crossman. For our Super flights, we had 1st, 2nd and 3rd placed winners and those male winners were as follows: Don Averitt, Johnny Walker and Jim Roche. Super Flight women winners were Dyann Skelton Connie Carey and Betty Schlackman. Our Ernie Blake winners this year were Peter Gosselin and Dyann Skelton. A special thanks to John and Dyann Skelton for donating the new Advanced flight traveling trophy for both male and female flights. Keith Skelton who passed away last year will be the first name on the trophy. The winners this year for Advanced are Steve Snay-1st, Andrew Laczkowski-2nd and Trevor Hayes- 3rd. We had no female advanced this year. For Intermediate men the winners were Tommy Baer-1st, Don Pope-2nd and Ed Cobb- 3rd. Intermediate women were Jeannie Bigley-1st and JoAnn Cox- 2nd. Our 1st place winner in novice was Terri Nephew! Congratulations to all winners for "skiing the gates". All of the traveling trophies will be awarded at the Changing of the Guard on April 21st at Royal Oaks Country Club so be sure and mark your calendars.

Thursday night we had the best turnout of the trip go to the T Lazy 7 Ranch. A special thank you to Linda Hayes who got this all arranged for us including special pricing! We took the infamous sleigh ride and had excellent cook-it-yourself steaks and dancing to top it off. Rumor had it that the horses had too much fiber that day, nose plugs would have helped.

We're so thankful that Enika Schulze is healing well from her neck injury that she sustained the night before we arrived in Aspen. She gave us all a huge scare but we were so thankful when we learned her surgery went well and she'd be OK. And, on race day, Raelene Collins was taking her first run of the day at Highlands and hit a boulder breaking her leg in multiple places. After successful surgery, she was released and got to come home a day later than the group (which turned out to be a blessing). We were so happy to see both of these two wonderful gals at the post-trip party and reports of healing!

My last big thank you is to George Kelly for being our Lowly Assistant Trip Leader. Well, George is never ever going to be considered "lowly" but we had a lot of fun with that new moniker. George did a spectacular job of herding us cats and getting us up to Aspen, collecting your monies and hosting our pre-trip party. What an awesome guy! Other thanks go to my husband Stu for serving as our Co-Race Director & emcee at our Friday evening awards' dinner.

I must admit I was fearful of distributing the Trip Evaluation forms on the return flight home - mostly because we were not happy campers and secondly, because you needed some rest at that point! The sour note we ended up on was an 11 hour delay at the Eagle Airport - lots of stories to tell. Be sure and ask Helga & Andrew!!!!! Some of us rented a car and took off for greener pastures and some of even drove to Denver to catch a flight. But all in all, the trip was a success - great skiing, location, location, location & got to enjoy all of that with the wonderful members of the Dallas Ski Club!