Tahoe never disappoints!  Another memorable week in the books--phenomenal weather, plenty of snow, challenging race courses, an intimate team dinner, and a great NAASF theme party.  The only thing lacking was our race results--close to first place Delta, but still second overall.  

Bluebird days and temps were in the 30's every day.  We were able to train and race on Julia's Gold--Palisade's World Cup event trail.  The TEAAM dinner was at the River Ranch restaurant, and the food was the best that I can remember.  We had a full house and had to switch from table service to a buffet to squeeze a few more into the packed room.  For a change of pace, we had an after-dinner speaker--one of our own AA FAs, Melissa Dimino.  She went to the '92 Albertville Olympics as a speed skier and holds the record for the first female to exceed 200 KPH on skis!  Now if we can just recruit her to race with us...

The team captains will cover their races, but overall, we are still short on total numbers, not talent.  We need to keep recruiting and having all of our existing racers turn out if we want to take the Cup back from Delta.  As it stands after the first race, the scores are: Delta 647, American 537, and United 454, followed by the rest.  

A few entrants from different airlines were caught out by a NAASF rule change. It is IMPERATIVE that when you register with NAASF, and you are racing, you check which discipline you are entering.  We don't have access to NAASF's registrations to compare with our own, and if a particular event (A, B, SB) is not checked, you will NOT be on the Start List and won't be allowed to race!  It's a glitch with their website, but we can only suggest that they fix it.  So to recap, register FIRST with AA, then register on the NAASF site, and CHECK which discipline you are planning to enter.  (Party only peeps can disregard this.)

Lastly, as of this minute, Telluride is still scheduled to happen, but all registrations are on hold until a final decision is made.  Stay tuned, but hope to see all in Winter Park!

Scott McKee

President

A-Team Captain's Update – John Eidmann

The opening week of the NAASF race season at Palisades Tahoe was nothing short of spectacular! Despite a lean snowfall winter across much of the West, our hosts delivered exceptional conditions—stunning vistas, superb snow quality, and vast, challenging terrain across both Olympic Valley and Alpine Meadows. We were incredibly fortunate.

After dedicated snowmaking and grooming, Julia’s Gold proved an outstanding venue for the races. The slalom kicked things off with a smaller field (7 women and 19 men overall), but our A-team athletes rose to the occasion.

In the Women’s A Slalom, Patty Jordan and Ellen Wardrop both completed solid runs and posted respectable times—great job, ladies, representing the team with poise and determination!

The Men’s A Slalom brought fireworks: Austin Norton dominated with a commanding performance, beating the field by over 10 seconds—huge congratulations, Austin! 

Eric Jensen (our team VP) secured 6th, Mike Williams 9th, and Jim Tullos 11th. The course featured some devious sections that claimed several top racers (including a few of ours), costing us valuable team points—but A races require a combined time, and that’s racing, and it keeps us hungry.

In the Women’s A GS, Patty completed a strong first run before an unfortunate DNF, leaving Ellen as our lone finisher. Thank you both for battling through and earning those crucial team points!

The Men’s A GS was a highlight: Austin Norton took 1st again, Kent Johnson claimed 3rd, and your captain slotted in 4th. Scott McKee (team President), Eric Jensen, and Mike Williams battled tightly for 10th–12th, with Jim Hershey in 14th and Jim Tullos in 17th. Strong depth on display!

Austin’s back-to-back wins in Slalom and GS also clinched the Men’s Combined title—outstanding work, Austin. You set the bar high for the season!

Next up: Winter Park, starting the week of February 8th. The early-season momentum is building—stay safe on the slopes, do your best snow dance for a dumping in Colorado, keep sharpening those edges, and let’s get more of the club (A, B, snowboarders, and newcomers alike) out there racing and having fun. 

See you in Colorado!

Go team!
John Eidmann
A-Team Captain

B-Team Captain's Update – Ellen Garvey

Hey Super Beeeees! What a great week of fun on the snow!

Day after bluebird day with nice groomers everywhere.  Happy to know that we'll be back at Palisades Tahoe again next year.

The recruiting efforts are showing, thank you!  The B team is happy to add some more to our ranks. We are currently in third place behind Delta and United, so keep your eyes and ears open for potential recruits! As a team, we're currently about 100 points behind the lead.  Let's fill that gap!

Two more NAASF events coming up: Winter Park, February 8-13, and Telluride for their closing week in April. To clarify, the sequence of events for signing up for these events is:

Sign up on the AA Ski and Snowboard website. This is where you'd pay for your team dinner.

Sign up on NAASF and pay as a racer AND designate whether you'll be racing as an A, a B, or a snowboarder.  When you pay, racers pay the higher amount.  You might have someone with you who only plans to free ski and party; they will pay a lesser amount.  Race results post pretty quickly on livetiming.com.  NAASF rankings and points can be found on their website under "Racing."

See you on Super Bowl Sunday in Winter Park!

Ellen & Cher 

  

Snowboard Team Captain's Update – Holli Lazzereschi

Spring Time in Winter!

With some last-minute snowfall, we ended up with great coverage in the Sierra Nevadas. Overall, the snow was solid even though our practice course was a little rough. Come race day, it definitely kept things interesting!

Huge turnout for the men’s team! Our veterans Dennis, Jim, and Scott were back at it, along with two newer additions, Ryan and Brandon. Stoked to see the younger guys gaining confidence and momentum, filling all three-point spots as a full snowboard team.

The AA women’s team absolutely crushed it! Patrice L. came out firing and grabbed her first-ever first-place win, so awesome to see! Way to go, Patrice!!

I managed to hang onto second place, just reminding the ladies I’m still in the mix

And shoutout to the always lovely Paula B., who pushed through a tough course to help make sure the women’s team locked in all the points we needed. Way to go, ladies, showing everyone how it’s done!

Next stop: Winter Park!

We’ll have our regular race plus an extra contingency run for Telluride, so it’s going to be a true stamina test.

We got this — GO AA Snowboard Team!! ❄️