The weather was typical Vermont October with highs of mid 70’s and cool overnights of 30’s with a light frost in the morning, sunny skies and colorful mountains. None of the bad stormy weather being experienced back in Fairfield County.

The painting crew got started right away Saturday morning with Gordon painting the third floor ladies bathroom, Jim Collard and Lisa Nau painted the main stairwell/hallway leading from second floor great room. Lisa also painted the game room and front entry way. Scott Brown touched up the bedroom doors.

Carpentry work was done by Scott Brown replacing some broken spindles on the outside deck that Bill Sherriff had cutout and painted at home prior to trip. Wisely Scott had brought up a bunch of power tools including several air-powered nail guns. The nail gun came in handy installing trim work on the dropped ceiling in the dining area. John Acurri and Robert Gottlieb had earlier in the day finished installing about 12 ceiling tiles that had not been finished in an earlier work weekend last year. John Acurri went thru all the bedrooms and other areas looking for and tightening many of the wooden fixtures mounted on the walls, including that notorious bedroom1. Robert Gottlieb did a terrific job resolving several plumbing issues. A leaky Fawcett in the new men’s bathroom as well as fixing/adjusting the sink drain stoppers in the same bathroom so that they now all work. Mort Witkin cleaned up the back basement, removing lots of all junk that had collected all season.

Big Thanks to Susan Byelick and Linda Gottlieb for running all the mattress pads thru the wash and dry process at the local laundry mat. Susan then helped with putting out lunch (sandwiches) on Saturday along with Marion, Faye, Marcia and Lisa. Susan and Bill also did the dinner planning with cooks Pat, Marion and Faye, Susan and Marcia. Dinner was Costco rotisserie chickens, summer squash and baked potatoes along with a great salad. Dessert was a fabulous chocolate cake. Everyone enjoyed dinner and an over the top chocolate cake for dessert.

Thorough cleaning of the common rooms was performed by Faye and Kim. Rafters, chandeliers, picture frames etc were all dusted. Upholstered chairs were gone over with vacuum deep down under the cushions. Everything not moving was super-cleaned. David worked tirelessly cleaning all the windows including all the bedrooms and hallways. Mike Coplan cleaned out the chimney ash bin, washed light fixture globes and hauled garbage. Julian cleaned and organized the basement areas including the food/supplies storage cribs.

Marion and Pat primarily with help from Susan, Marcia and Faye cleaned the kitchen areas especially the cabinets, refrigerators and counter tops. Lots of old food in the refrigerator was discarded.

Zach and Gabe went around the lodge, making note of future repairs and potential areas of trouble. Zack will be preparing a maintenance report to be used by the board and others for planning purposes. Zach is an electrician by trade and well versed in home maintenance. He also has some good ideas for heating system upgrades, electronic front door locks, storage expansion and in general, a good go-to guy.

Early Saturday morning the fallen leaves were too tempting for Jim, Mort and Scott who couldn’t resist the urge to use the power blowers to clean off the lawns. In no time, all the leaves were blown onto the woods, our lawn looking spotless. Pruning and chain saw work followed later in the day. Speaking of outside work, much to everyone’s surprise Susan and Linda singlehandedly moved all the firewood from the drop off point to the wood shed. Ok, at some point Faye joined in the fun. Mort’s curiosity got the best of him and several times he had to go out and remind the girls how to properly stack firewood. However always avoiding actually helping with the transport. Surprisingly, he survived those discussions without as much as a single piece of wood falling on his toes – good self-constraint ladies.

Several people had time to run out and visit the local Vermont attractions including Mendon orchards. Mike made some wonderful apple crisp/baked apples which everyone enjoyed at breakfast Sunday. Driving by Pico there were some early signs of snow at the top as well as snow covered trees indicating the snow guns had been running.

Lot’s of other stuff was completed in our effort to get the lodge ready for the coming ski season. I’m sure I’ve omitted someone’s significant contribution, excuse me now. Everyone had a great time, many commented on how great the lodge looked and all agreed that the work weekend coordinator was just fantastic.

Hurry up soon before the shine is tarnished to see your lodge at its best. Thanks to everyone for all their time and efforts for a job well done.

RHSC Men’s Bath Photos & Captions (DOC)

We’ve gotten lots of congratulations on a GREAT party – Everyone commented what a great time they had, how delicious the food was (especially the grill !) and how smoothly everything ran. The final tally was 61 adults and 5 kids (I didn’t keep count on the number of cars, but it had to be more than 30!)

I really appreciated everyone’s initiative, diligence and hard work ….. You are the BEST !
Many thanks ….. Anne Z

* Team Members:
Betty & John Manocchi
Bill Hughes & Susan Anderson
Bill Sherriff
Donna Peters
Nancy & Lou Trovato
Pat DeWitt
Susan Byelick
Susan Levine
Stephanie Evers
… and my own sweetie, Chuck Robinson

During the Club Meeting portion of the event it was announced by the President:

• Membership Survey responses still outstanding and effort being made to collect responses from everyone.  It was stressed that Survey results are important to board in their decision-making and planning.
• Work weekend will be sometime in late October, earlier date of 10/3 will not work, conflict with lodge usage.  Stay tuned for new date announcement but looking like later in month.
• Start efforts to identify potential new members.  Our next meeting at NBC on 9/15 will include an ice cream social at 7:30, good opportunity to bring a guests to meet others. 
• Men’s bathroom complete, pictures to follow on web.
• Start planning lift ticket purchases, choice include season passes, Killington Club cards with good discounts at about $50 per day or CSC discount bulk tickets to other mountains.
• Also check out new links on our web site under ‘WEB LINKS’ to Green Mountain Club and Killington Insider for local vermont news and Killington happenings. 

The RHSC pre-race party was in full swing on Saturday evening (March 21st) with decorations by & bartending skills of Tom Nolan & Beth Cross as well as the hors d’oeurvres hostesses, Pat Murtaugh & Barbara Constantine setting the mood. The pinata entertainment could not have been better organized than by Rod Cross (with thanks to Stephanie Evers for obtaining and filling with delicious candy!)

RHSC annual club race was on Sunday @ Killington on Bunny Buster. After the race, we enjoyed a BBQ on the Killington Ski Club deck orchestrated by Stephanie Evers, Jim Collard, Walter & Judi Kostrzewski and Chris Zimmerman. We ended the afternoon with the medals ceremony as per below.

Thanks to everyone who volunteered to help. We could not have done it without you! Thanks to the weekend coordinator, Judi Kostrzewski, who did a great job of maximizing the number of participants. A big thank you to my co-chair, Chris Zimmerman, who provided invaluable assistance. I apologize if we have inadvertently missed anyone.

And, of course, we would like to thank all of the RHSC race participants as well as the numerous guests. Special mention goes to the Nolan family which took First (Chris), Second (Leslie) and Third (Tom) overall!

Attached are the individual results. Scores were based on your best run.
Medals were awarded as follows:!

Junior Girls
First Place – Natalie Olshan
Second Place – Ellie Cross

Girls
First Place – Leslie Nolan
Second Place – Sydney Olshan
Third Place – Alexa Constantine

Junior Boys
First Place – Matt Cross
Second Place – Alex Kostrzewski
Third Place – TJ Constantine
Fourth Place – Michael Swingler

Boys
First Place – Chris Nolan
Second Place – Luke Kostrzewski
Third Place – Nicholas Arisco

Women
First Place – Stephanie Evers
Second Place – Anne Olshan
Third Place – Beth Cross

Men
First Place -Tom Nolan
Second Place – Rod Cross
Third Place – Walter Kostrzewski

We look forward to seeing you again next year!

Consider spending Easter weekend at the RHSC lodge at some point – we (Bill Sherriff and Susan Byelick) did this year and had a terrific time. We decided to drive up early Friday morning, leaving Norwalk at 5am, arriving at the lodge before 9am, dropped off some perishables and had a coffee, joining the Meyer family as they prepared breakfast (they had come up Thursday night). We were at the top of Snowdon lift before 10am ready for our first run. The trails had been groomed the night before and were perfect, just soft enough for easy carving at every turn. Of course the place was almost empty as it was all weekend, no waiting at lifts, few to watch for on the mountain, yet snow conditions both Friday and Saturday were better than weeks earlier perhaps fewer skiers to push the snow into large piles which could snare the unwary. Saturday was almost as good, the sun wasn’t quite as strong still way above freezing, I believe the thermometer back at the lodge off the deck read about 49. Killington Mountain was sponsoring the Sunshine Daydream Festival, a tribute to the Greatful Dead with live music from the ‘Playing Dead’ tribute band at the base band shell with associated followers and complete with vendor booths selling jewelry, combustibles, tie-dyed t-shirts and other clap-trap. Collectively, it was drawing a large crowd of festive spirits.

Sunday morning got off to an early start with us up again at 5am, boarding the gondola by 5:45am, ready to ski but first a stop at the Killington Peak Restaurant for Sunrise services. We were joined by about 500 other early birds, both skiers and locals who had traveled up to an hour away for an open worship of Easter Mass complete with a choir director and her African drum and guitar player. It turns out Sunrise service starts at 630am not exactly at sunrise as we expected, nor was it outside at the top of the mountain (fortunately for us as it was very cold and windy with temps about mid20’s) instead it’s a pretty well organized service inside the restaurant with much singing and preaching and reading of scripture – very well presented by a collection of guest ministers and run by a women minister whose been doing it for 30 years at this site.

The service is over by about 715am at which point they announce you cannot ski down until the trails officially open at 8am. And to ensure your satisfaction they then pull back the security curtains surrounding the cafeteria food area and reveal a nice continental breakfast compliments of the mountain. This was of course well received by all and led to a nice social hour with pretty much complete strangers. We happened to meet some local people originally from New Canaan and Fairfield-small world. Finally, small talk exhausted, the coffee and Danish gone, out into the cold we went at about 8:30 for our first run-the earliest I’ve been on the mountain in years. Sunday conditions were hard pack and ice with a good breeze blowing and overcast, a typical February-like day. You could count the skiers at Killington base on one hand. Skiing should be good all week with more pleasant weather predicted. PS, also at the lodge were the Meyers, Olschans, Jim Collard, Bob Boothroyd and Jan Hansen.

69 children

96 Memberships

 
50 Family Members

46 Single Members

13 members out of core

 
Average snow days

1999-2003—200

2004-2008—170

*Lodge Use*

(overnight stays)

are UP over 20%

2004-08 vs. 1999-03

The RHSC is a Stamford based, family and friendship orientated Ski Club which owns and maintains a lodge in Killington, VT and aims to provide affordable accommodation to its members when participating in activities in the greater Killington,VT Ski area.

The Club has as its core four pillars;

The physical lodge and its sustainability.

Family values and friendship.

The love for the sport of skiing and the outdoors.

Affordability.

Low cost as compared to commercial alternatives.

Weekend rate (incl. main meals) for a family of 4 is $166 vs. $300 at nearby hotels.

Cost of membership and dues is recovered after 4-6 days of lodge stay.

Proximity to some of the best ski areas in the North East.

Ability to participate in discounted ski lift tickets and ski trips arranged by the club or its members.  Savings can be substantial.

Be a member of a club that owns its own lodge. This becomes your “home away from home” and can be used in the off season as well.

Enjoy the sport with similar minded members. The camaraderie and support from members is fantastic. There is always someone to ski with.

Kids have a blast. When not on the slopes they are on the sledding hill or in the game room.

No whining. You don’t even see them until bed time.

Limited memberships – no crowding.

With some advance planning required, the ability to use the club many times during the season.

Family style meals with no waiting lines or reservations required.

Association with the CT Ski Council.

Meet and make friends from Stamford and surrounding towns.

Quality after ski time – relax around the fire with friends and a nice drink.

Lodge building is comfortable, well appointed and functional.

The lodge building is well maintained and up kept.

Regular club meetings and activities facilitate staying in touch with the club members and club activities.

The club is well run managed by a board of hard working volunteers.

SEE our WEBSITE to stay up to date with activities and club information.

For the last two years, I have had the privilege of helping at the local “Wilson’s Food Pantry.”

a non-profit organization in Stamford. SLLW assists the homeless, HIV afflicted and those recovering from mental illness.  They service between 100 to 300 people a week. I have watched the supplies dwindle as we exited summer and headed into winter. It was put out to me that maybe we might want to do something as a club. Can goods are good but too labor intensive to collect and deliver. ‘Cash is king,’ to quote our treasurer and could be used to purchase chickens for pennies on the dollar. Protein is something they offer but only occasionally, due to lack of funds. Joyce Gumbus, a one woman show, runs the place and always welcomes volunteers. I would be glad to make personal introductions or feel free to contact her directly. Tell her, Lisa from St. Luke’s sent you!

Any comments/ideas or checks, please bring them to the next meeting.

Checks Payable to: “164 Wilson’s Food Pantry”

Contact: Joyce Gumbus.

Mailing Address: 164 Wilson’s Food Pantry, 22 Coolidge Ave. Stamford, CT. 06901

Thank you on behalf of all the families she serves.

I open the car door and the heat hits me like I’m too close to my oven when I check the lasagna. The sun is high in the sky. In one direction it’s flat and brown for as far as I can see. In the other, the view is a chaotic intertwining of high rise buildings and construction cranes in a frenetic race to build. This is as far from the Rockies as you can imagine. It’s the desert. And what desert has skiing you ask? This could only be Dubai.

It’s a modern day adult Disneyland in the making. One article I read stated that about 40% of the world’s high rise cranes are currently located in Dubai and given the skyline I am surveying I have to believe it. You can find anything you want here. Dubai, contrary to what many think, is not flush with oil. It has become mega-wealthy through trade. Though it is part of the United Arab Emirates which is rich with oil. Abu Dhabi, Dubai’s next door neighbor, is expected to net $91 Billion this year alone from petroleum sales.

So where does a turn starved skier go to get his fix when he’s in the desert? Ski Dubai, of course, part of the Mall of the Emirates, one of the 5 largest shopping malls in the world. I walk into the facility dressed in a suit and tie unencumbered by the clothes and ski gear I usually tote to the slopes. Instead, at the counter I’m handed everything I need to ski – ski suit, boots, helmet, skis, poles – everything that is except gloves. For hygiene reasons they don’t supply them. So I walk back outside to an adjacent store to pickup a pair of gloves for $5.

Inside the oblong facility, the temperature surprises me. After all I have just emerged from an outside which is hovering around 110’F. I look up at the “slopes” and see people zooming down on skis and boards. The entire space has a slight blue tint to it from the ceiling tiles and a bit of annoying glare from the rows of light fixtures. Near the bottom is a small snow park where a couple of dozen Indian and Pakistani kids play, probably experiencing snow for the first time of their lives.

I click into my rental Rossi’s and scoot over to the lift. On the way up I pass by a small mid station where they are serving hot chocolate and sweets. The “chalet” is surrounded by several 15 foot high plastic conifers. The snow is fake and so are the trees! The lift makes a 45’ turn and continues to the top. I am soon surveying the choices, five different lines and five different levels of challenge, at least according to the brochure. I decide to go for broke and head to the bumps!

Bang, bang, bang… what seems like about 10 turns later I am back at the bottom. Wow that was quick. Let’s clock it this time. I set my watch and jump back on the lift. At the top I immediately turn and head to bottom, taking the blue line carving some (at least a few) nice big GS turns. Hmmm, round trip in 5 minutes! Well, after about an hour of quick trips I had my fill of Ski Dubai. Even to a die hard, there are only so many times you can ski down a slope that is 400 meters long. Still it satiated my desires for a winter experience in the midst of the desert heat.

Here’s a few interesting facts on Ski Dubai:

• Five runs of varying difficulty length; the longest is 400 meters
• Total snow area – 3,000 square meters
• Inside temperature – -2’C
• 21 snow guns
• At least 5 tons of new snow is added each night
• 2,000 people patronize it each weekend
• Cost to build – US$400 million

This article is not about my new SkiHitch web site.  However, in the course of developing SkiHitch.com, we identified and analyzed three cost components that all skiers consider when planning overnight trips of any duration. These components are:

• Transportation
• Food/lodging
• Lift Tickets

Incidental expenses and shopping are a factor, but people can control these.  Most people feel they can’t control the three components I list above.  Well, we at River Hills know you can control food and lodging expense by joining a great club like ours.  My new web site is an attempt to help us control the transportation component by facilitating car pooling for those trips where driving is involved.  And lift tickets?  There are three ways to control these, but most people really miss the third one:

• Bulk tickets through CT Ski Council (CSC) member clubs like River Hills
• Trips which package the above three cost components and effectively include low cost lift tickets
• CSC Awareness Days

We all know about all three of these but what we typically do is we look at the trips and maybe pick one or two, we buy a few bulk tickets and then we virtually ignore the best ski deal on the planet – the CSC Awareness Days!  This year, our council has done a terrific job of putting together 98 separate days at 17 different New England ski areas.  Prices range from $14 – 40 per day and over half of these are under $30 per day.

Do The Math:

How do we take maximum advantage of this final piece of the cost component puzzle?  By simply taking 15 minutes and putting ALL CSC Awareness Days into our calendars (or Outlook or your Palm device) so we will be aware of all the possible CSC days we might ski as those dates approach and we are planning our New England ski trips.  Fifteen minutes too long a time for you?  If you save just $25 per ticket and you ski on just five of these days this season, you will have saved $125.  So your 15 minutes invested in putting all of these days into your calendar (so you can actually take advantage of some of them) is worth $500/hour in savings.  Family of four?  Make that $2000/hour!  You can find a listing of the CSC Awareness Days on the River Hills web site and on the CSC site www.skiclub.com.   These days are also a wonderful opportunity to ski some different areas as well as save a lot of your hard earned dollars.