“No one drives 400 miles through the middle of the night to make fresh tracks on Mt. Ordinary. Welcome to the Extraordinary. “ – www.squaw.com

More like, welcome to the Extra – Ordinary.

Being injured stinks. Being injured on a three-day weekend, not being able to ski, and being forced to people watch, not so bad. While doing so this past weekend in the village of the self proclaimed “Mt. Extraordinary,” I witnessed what I would call an “Epic Failure.”

Saturday morning, the first day of the 3^rd busiest skier traffic holiday for every resort in the North America, Squaw Valley’s new marketing and promotion was put to the test. And boy was it interesting. With “Unofficially” close to 10,000 skiers descending upon the Olympic Valley this past weekend, the customer service seemed to be nearly nonexistent.

What I witnessed was lines like I’ve never seen before. Talking with guests who were still 25 people deep from the ticket window, the frustration was apparent.

“I’ve been standing in this line for well over an hour, and not one person seems to know what the hell is going on?”

Apparently Squaw Valleys Operations Managers were not prepared to accommodate the influx of people anxious to take advantage Squaw Valleys latest ticket promotions. While lines extended through the village creating a maze of frustrated and angry customers, I had to sit back and ask myself a few questions.

1)   How, with a brand new “state of the art” ticketing center, does Squaw have only 4 ticket windows open?

2)   Why aren’t there informed customer service employees out here able to direct questions and people to the appropriate locations for rentals, tickets, etc? And by informed I don’t mean ski patrollers and lift maintenance employees handing out free coffee and hot cocoa vouchers.

3)   How, with all the fancy degrees, high paid executives and endless resources available from KSL, is Squaw not  prepared for this media/promotion frenzy they have created?

4)   Who the hell would stand in line for well over an hour to spend nearly $100 to buy a product that is at best, lack luster?

5)   Will those who actually did, really come back in the future after such a shitty experience?

The list goes on, but I think you get the point. As a person who lives and works in Tahoe year round, “we” depend on these customers for survival. Will they be back?

I do applaud Squaw on getting as much terrain open this past weekend as physically possible. I see that Headwall is finally spinning and I hear nearly everything that has at least 1’ of snow was open. However, Squaw needs to wake the hell up and step into the party. All the marketing and BS tag lines you put all over your new fancy website and Facebook posts don’t mean a damn thing if you cant execute the basic principles of business. Creating the experience, CAPTURING the $$, and leaving guests with the desire to return and spend their hard earned dollar. For every one good experience a customer has, they may be inclined to tell one or two people. For every one bad experience a customer has, they are inclined to tell at least ten people. That’s the first rule in Customer Service Squaw.

Figure it Out Squaw!!

Josh Anderson airs a rock pile off Art's Knob at Alpine Meadows

The Line of the Week
Alpine Meadows, California

Rocky & Bony – Let’s Air It

You can look at a pile of rocks, a scree field or a cliff in the summer only to be skiing straight over it on fresh pow later that winter. When looking at a ski line in summer it can be perplexing how winter could unleash enough snow to make it skiable. Then you take winter 2012… As the author of the Line of the Week I realized that it was time to get creative.

I have been asking around a lot lately to see who is down to get after it. It has been a touch difficult to find takers as the snow is just not that deep. People seem to being skiing a bit reserved (smart). Luckily for the “Line of the Week” some people need the rush. Skiing groomers and low angle pow are just not enough for everybody.

A call came in and I met up with Squaw ripper’s Josh Anderson and Ben Paciotti at Alpine the other day. The talk was building a kicker and shooting a bit. That plan was quickly axed as the conditions were not right. We skied a couple laps. After taking out a cute couple getting off Summit Chair ( I went right they went left) we headed toward Keyhole. The clouds had just moved in and Josh mentioned a fun line he’d been skiing off Art’s Knob.

At the top of the Knob I was quickly reminded how different the mountain looked this year. Art’s Knob was a jumble of rocks. As I peered over the edge I wondered how Josh even decided to ski it. I worked my way around to set up a shot. Ben dropped in first and skied a billy-goat line into a straight-line down the Knob. He had showed me the line Josh intended to ski which was a straight-line from the top, through the rocks and off a small lip clearing 20+ feet of horizontal rocks and choss below.

Ben Paciotti navigates through the rocks at Alpine Meadows before the air.

Before Josh dropped in I noticed a couple rocks protruding in the landing. I yelled up to him to let him know. His response was something like, “Not concerned, I’m landing way past that“. The clouds were flying past as he dropped in. I was below the top straight-line so all I could do was listen. I could hear a rumble get louder and louder and then a “wzshhhhh“.  I snapped a frame and then watched Josh rip like a bullet over my head. He stuck the landing and we went and grabbed a beer.

“It’s been a long, painful winter in Tahoe, punctuated with the loss of some pretty amazing and influential people in the ski world. I personally took myself out for pretty much all of January, and the consolation that “You’re not missing much” wasn’t really that consoling. So when some thin but pretty damn awesome pow showed up last week, there was a little pent up energy flowing around Squaw. Just ask Govy; that **** was crazy. I personally just saw this nice floater on Art’s Knob at Alpine, and on seeing Mr. Salm getting off of Summit, went and got a little excited and made it happen. It felt good.” – Josh Anderson

To view more of Ryan Salm’s Photography, check out:
http://ryansalmphotography.photoshelter.com/gallery/

The Line of the Week is a weekly photo piece by Ryan Salm featuring some of Tahoe’s finest athletes doing whatever we deem rad. We will be using the term “Line” loosely to describe anything resembling chutes, big airs, pointers or any general madness. All images are the property and copyright of Ryan Salm Photography. All images are only to be used in conjunction with the Line of the Week. Any other usage must be cleared in writing by Ryan Salm.

Click here to view the embedded video.

With our little storm cycle blowing through this past week skiing was quite fun.  While the rat race was in full effect at Squaw, the back country harbored countless untracked, beautiful pow turns.  North to north-west facing aspects are still harboring some very light and very blower pow.  Relay Ridge, in the above video, was skiing quite well this weekend and will hopefully continue to harbor some wintery goodness (although it sounds like the temperatures this week will more probably bring us back into corn farming season)

Eric Bryant enjoying some soft shred time. Photo: Jehren Boehm

En route

Ingenuity at it's finest unlocking the old dukes

Going braahp to cut out the approach, most enjoyable!

Nearing sunset and back to the ride home

(Photo: Getty Images/AFP/Natalia Kolesnikova)

U.S. women take 1st and 3rd in Moscow’s night slalom race! Squaw Valley’s Julia Mancuso won the event for her second World Cup victory of the season. The dual slalom was held on a special ramp 170 ft. high and over 535 ft. long constructed at the Luzhniki 1980 Olympic Complex.

Dual Slalom Course, Moscow (Photo: Doug Haney / U.S. Ski Team)

Vail’s own Lindsey Vonn, who took 3rd in the dual slalom, also clinched her 5th consecutive World Cup downhill title and her 3rd consecutive super-combined title earlier this week in Sochi. With only one month remaining in the Audi FIS Alpine World Cup calendar, Vonn finished 3rd in Saturdays downhill race in Rosa Khutor on what will become the 2014 Sochi Olympic course. In that same event Mancuso finished 6th, Mammoth’s Stacey Cook (originally from Tahoe) came in 9th, and Alice McKennis of Glenwood Springs, CO placed 10th. This was the first time ever that 4 U.S. women have placed in the top ten in a World Cup downhill. The last time 4 U.S. women finished top ten in the same race was during a giant slalom in Waterville Valley, N.H. on March 17th, 1985.

Alice McKennis (left) Stacey Cook (right)

“Any one of the girls on our team could have one this race,” said Vonn. “Our speed group is incredibly strong and we have been the past few years. It says a lot about how hard we work and how much we love ski racing. It’s a great group to be around and we all support each other. To have a performance like we did is pretty special.”

Vonn held a 231-point lead over Hoefl-Riesch with just two events remaining and 100 points up for grabs at each. With her 5th  consecutive World Cup downhill title Vonn matches the mark of the legendary Austrian Annemarie Moser-Proell, who won five straight from 1971-75. Only four athletes have won five downhill titles including Moser-Proell (who has seven total), Austrian Renate Goetschl and Austrian Franz Klammer.

Sochi’s Super combined was cancelled as a result of unsafe soft snow conditions for the speed event. The race will not be rescheduled for a later date this season. With the cancellation of this race Vonn leads the World Cup season by enough points to claim the super-combined title, having already finished 1st and 2nd in the two races that were completed this season. Vonn will be awarded the super-combined title at the World Cup Finals later this year making this her 14th career World Cup Title.

This Saturday February 25th is the K2 Bumps Callenge for Breast Cancer Awareness at Taos, NM. This event is like a walk-a-thon, except instead of walking around a flat boring high school track participants will be raging as many runs down the infamous Al’s Run under Taos’s Chair 5 as possible in 4 hours.  Al’s is 1800 vert of mean and I am sure that we are all going to be really tired by the end of 4 hours of sprinting down steep moguls as fast as possible. I am a big fan of the main benefactor of this event and I would guess that most guys and gals out are also. 

That is right, “we “will be tired.  I will be heading down to Taos to give my good friend Joe Augusten a run for his money in this event. Joe is guaranteeing victory and is backing it up with his own money. To give him a little more motivation and competition I figured the least I could do was dust off the old mogul skills and drive down. We are thinking that 16+ runs is totally possible, with a stretch goal of 20 being talked about. All donations will go towards two breast cancer charity organizations.

Please contact me asap if you are interested in pledging for the awesome charity event. You can donate a dollar amount per run, or just a flat fee. Please hit me up at Daryn@unoffiicialnetworks.com asap!  Thanks!

The Al's Run....

The cold snow showery pattern from the weekend is coming to an end after dropping some light dustings.  The frustrating dismal Winter pattern continues as we watch our neighbors to the North in the Cascades continue to get dumped on.

It is going to get mild this week with temperatures possibly breaking 50 at lake level Wednesday-Friday and 40′s on the mountains.  The snow is going to be nice and soft all week with maybe a little corn snow cycle.

We will be seeing a pattern shift in the Pacific by the weekend with the ridge moving North towards the Gulf of Alaska. A cold trough will be dropping down the West Coast next weekend which will drop our temperatures back into the 20′s and 30′s by Sunday. We could see some light snow with the cold front pushing through.

What looks certain for next week is that we will be in a different and colder pattern.  What is also starting to look likely is that the ridge will want to be out in the Pacific North of Hawaii instead of off the coast which would open the storm door.   What is not certain yet is what type of storms we will try to make their way in, but if they do they should be cold storms.  It’s too early to rely on the operational forecast models but they are showing the trough sticking around next week and increasing chances for storms as we move through the week.

It’s not surprising that the forecast models are starting to hint at a pattern change as the teleconnection forecasts point towards one. We have not seen the MJO progress into phases 1,2,3 in the Indian Ocean yet this Winter. The current forecast continues to show this.

The composites show increased chances of above normal precip for CA in these phases in February and March.

These images can all be found free on our favorite taxes financed weather site nws.noaa.gov.  The PNA forecast is also negative which could setup a pattern of troughing in the West and ridging in the East  with storms coming further South into CA.

Every time the PNA has gone negative this Winter the storm track has dropped into CA.  We had several storms in November and then the big storms the third week of January.  The forecast is for the PNA to go negative next week which would also help our chances of getting some storms into CA.  The strange thing so far with this Winter is that the PNA is usually spends a lot more time in the negative phase during a La Nina season.

So now we just wait and see what happens.  This has been a frustrating Winter so far and we have been grasping at straws everytime something slightly positive shows up in the pattern.  The signs we see this week for the next few weeks are the best we have seen since the week or two before the big snows in January.  This actually looks a little better to me even though we aren’t sure if we will get big storms if this pattern settles in, because it should last more than just a few days if it does.

We have a La Nina that is starting to fade just like we did last year in March and April and we know how that turned out.  Some of you have given up on Winter and the rest of you are probably like me and won’t believe the big snows will come until we are getting mouth fulls of powder.  But there are still 3 more months of Winter in a Tahoe season and we have seen stranger things than Winter showing up in March.  I like to live life thinking positive so I’ll be searching out any signs of snow until it’s time to break out the inner tube and beer float.  BA

Eldborg geothermal plant, Reykjanes Peninsula, Iceland. Copyright Ian Parker, Evanescent Light Photography, from parkerlab.bio.uci.edu

For the next few weeks, “Ask Dr. Kaye” is going to focus on renewable energy. I’ll be investigating a select few of the leading sources of non-fossil fuel based power, and taking a look at some of the leading ski areas and resort development companies working to embrace and exploit renewable energy.

The first renewable resource I’m going to examine is geothermal power. Geothermal is one of the most widespread sources of renewable energy, yet most people think that it is relegated to volcanic locations like Iceland or Hawai`i. In fact, geothermal energy is almost everywhere you look.

How does it work?

Geothermal energy comes from heat found within the earth, and is an incredibly simple power-generation system. Groundwater, either naturally occurring or injected via wells, absorbs the earth’s heat and is extracted into above-ground facilities that exchange the heat for usable energy. The water is then re-injected back into the ground, where the earth slowly heats it up again for later use.

Cartoon describing geothermal energy source from magma, from Mammoth Pacific Power.

On average, temperatures increase about 22.1 degrees Celsius (~68 deg. F) with every 1000 m (about 1 deg. F every 70 feet) down into the earth, and is referred to as the geothermal gradient. The above values are average globally, and they of course vary immensely with local geologic conditions.

Heat within the earth comes from a variety of sources. A large component (more than 70% by some estimates) is derived from radioactive decay of trace elements such as Uranium or Potassium isotopes within rocks deep within the earth. A smaller percentage, around 15-20%, is leftover, or latent heat remaining from the formation of the planet and collisions with meteorites and comets early in our planet’s history.

Areas with higher geothermal gradients are found in locales with active tectonics, since rocks there tend to get pulverized by numerous earthquakes, allowing freer circulation of groundwater (these areas also have higher concentrations of hot springs, so watch out for naked hippies). It should come as no surprise that the geothermal gradient is also much, much higher in places with active volcanoes, like Japan and New Zealand, than it is in areas on older, cooler rocks, like central North America.

Where is it successfully in use?

A wide range of scales of geothermal power are employed, and they are typically tailored to the location where they are being installed. Individual households and office buildings use the technology on smaller scales via ground-source heat pumps to exchange heat for heating and cooling. The geothermal gradient still applies in these areas, and wells on the order of tens to hundreds of feet can help buildings reduce the use of fossil fuels for central heating and air conditioning via underwater heat exchanges.

In areas with much hotter ground water, utility-scale power generating facilities create steam and generate electricity for power grids with massive turbines. More than 8,900 megawatts (MW) of large-scale reliable energy is already being produced in more than 24 countries, equating to the power needs of 12 million typical US households.

Earlier I alluded to the stereotypical assumption that many people make about geothermal energy being available only in the vicinity of areas with active volcanoes. Right here in Tahoe, the Town of Truckee uses geothermal energy via ground-pump heat exchangers to offset the cost of using non-renewable fossil fuels to heat and cool their brand-new, state of the art $12 million-dollar Public Service Center building, which was completed in the fall of 2011.

Mammoth Pacific power geothermal generation facilities near Mammoth Mountain. From US Dept. of Energy.

To the east of Tahoe in Reno, an industrial geothermal plant operated by Ormat produces almost 100 MW of electricity, which, according to the plant’s director, is enough to handle the entire residential capacity of Reno on the NV Energy grid. The RGJ investigated the (to borrow one of my favorite phrases from Steven Colbert) “truthiness” of the claim that “Reno is powered by geothermal energy” and found not surprisingly that while this is possible, it’s not really that simple. In the complex reality of modern electrical grids, power sources wax and wane, and one source rarely accounts for 100% of the electricity. Read more here.

Do Ski Areas Use It?

Ski areas are, by their very nature, terribly environemntally unsound. Large swaths of trees are removed so you can carve groomers through the forest, and lifts typically run on electricity which in many mountainous areas comes from diesel and coal-fueled power plants.

Just last year, Squaw Valley topped the list of the environmental watchdog group Ski Area Citizen’s Coalition “Top-Ten Report Card” list examining practices of habitat and watershed protection, climate change action, and overall environmental policies. Squaw got a 92.1% from the SACC. In the subcategory of renewable energy, Squaw received a score of 6/6 for having geothermal ground-pump heat exchangers in use in the Children’s World and Funitel Buildings. The Gold Coast complex makes use of a solid-waste incinerator to burn all of your $15 hamburger wrappers to produce 1.5 million BTUs per hour for heating the buildings.

Ground source heat pumps at Children's World, Squaw.

Coming in second with a score of 88.1% in the renewable energy category is Aspen Highlands ski area in Colorado. They also employ renewable energy technology to offset fossil-fuel use, but instead of geothermal, they employ solar panels to generate 2.3 kWh at ski patrol HQ, 10.65 kWh at their Thunder River Lodge in Carbondale, and 150 kWh via hydroelectric generation in Snowmass. Last year I would have made the joke that presumably Squaw can’t use solar as much as Aspen because of how much more snow we get, but this year…not so funny.

Back in California, the Mammoth Lakes area is rich in geothermal energy, due to the presence of still-molten magma from the eruption of the Long Valley Caldera 730,000 years ago. Ormat runs the Mammoth Pacific plant just outside of Mammoth lakes, and generates 29 MW of electricity that is used by 20,000 homes in the Mammoth  / Bishop region.

A fledgling ski-area restoration endeavor in Alaska, the Manitoba Mountain project, seeks to give fresh life to a long-dead small ski area by resurrecting it with largely sustainable energy sources such as hydro, wind and solar. Organizer Mountain Riders’ Alliance hopes to develop Manitoba with as low a carbon footprint as possible, making it a model for other skis areas around the world.

Geothermal energy generation potential in the US, from the NREL.

Geothermal is just one of a suite of renewable energy technologies that is used to reduce our footprint of fossil fuel consumption. Hopefully you will check back in the coming weeks as I examine other renewable sources of energy, and how they are used in ski areas and beyond.

If you can put aside personal politics, you might eventually join me in coming to the conclusion that it would be a great thing for our country and humanity as a whole to move away from petroleum-based energy. If we can figure out how to replacing petroleum industry jobs with renewable energy-generation work, and even create new jobs in geothermal, solar, wind, and hydro, we will be able to reduce our dependence on unstable foreign nations for our energy and make great progress in preserving the natural environment for future generations along the way.

Miracle March 2011 in Squaw Valley

Squaw Valley has only gotten 60-98 inches of snow this year making it the one of the worst seasons in recorded history.

December = suck.

January = lame, except for a sweet 60 inch storm.

February 1st-20th = lackluster.

The Forecast for the rest of February = hurtful.

Miracle March living accommodations

There is nothing in the 10 day forecast.  That puts us at 10-16 inches of snow in February.  Did you hear me?  10 measly Fing inches in the whole month of February.

Ok, I’m calming down now.  Via that facetious calmness a modicum of positivity is taking shape.  Taking shape in powerful bro-brah terminology:

MIRACLE MARCH in TAHOE:

March has saved a destitute Tahoe snow season more than once and even embellished a good season or two.

In 2009, March dropped 108 inches on Squaw:

In 2010, March unleashed 97 inches on Squaw:

In March 2011, it snowed big every single day adding up to 241 inches…damn…

In 2012, there are starting to be some signs of a good March if not a miraculous one.

Teleconnections forecast for March 4-10 with high pressure in red and low pressure in green. image TahoeWeatherDiscussion.com

“The forecast models are showing that now with increased chances of some bigger storms making it into CA for the end of the month and into the first week of March. The snow needs to hurry up because we are getting close to going below the driest season of 76-77 for snowpack.” - TahoeWeatherDiscussion.com

teleconnection forecast March 11-17. image TahoeWeatherDiscussion.com

The precipitation forecasts are looking good for March as well:

precipitation forecast March 4-10. image TahoeWeatherDiscussion.com

We are hanging onto a very very thin thread in Tahoe.  Our greatest hope for snow is, once again, about 14 days out…

precipitation forecast. image: TahoeWeatherDiscussion.com

Will we have a “Miracle March” this year in Tahoe?  I think so.  It wouldn’t take too much for March to the biggest snow month of the year in Tahoe, so why the hell not?

Click here to view the embedded video.

The Shane McConkey Foundation recently released this video expressing the mission of the foundation:

The Shane McConkey Foundation was founded in recognition of the worldwide community of skiers, adventurers and everyday people who share a passion for life. The Foundation honors those who inspire positive change in the world and the life of others.

Shane McConkey altered the paths of countless friends, acquaintances and strangers through his accomplishments, generous spirit, laughter and his positive outlook on life. He was an innovator, a goofball, a friend, a husband and a father but his zest for life carried into his deep appreciation for the environment and living creatures.

The goal of the Foundation is twofold: to carry on this legacy through random acts of kindness and charitable giving and to inspire others to make a difference in the world at large.

To learn more about The Shane McConkey Foundation visit shanemcconkey.org

Oh… and start honing those snowblade skills! The PainMcShlonkey Classic is coming up. March 22nd-25th

Looking for an affordable, healthy pre or apres meal in Squaw? Hot & Healthy Crepes will fill this niche perfectly. This crepe stand just opened up under new ownership right next to Mountain Mike’s Sports, just past the Post Office on Squaw Valley Rd.

Hot & Healthy Crepes is offering tasty and healthy crepe snacks ranging anywhere from $3 – $7, weekend mornings and afternoons. If you’re looking for a quick meal to grab on your way to or from the mountain, this is the place to stop.

It's the window in the back there

They’ve got an assortment of sweet and savory dishes to choose from. You can select one of the crepes from the menu or piece together your crepe a la carte, adding your preference of meats, cheeses, veggies, and spreads. The fixings are good and the price is right even for the ski bum’s budget.

Menu

A La Carte

Mitch, the crepe stand’s owner, executive chef, and server, is aiming to create an all organic, affordable, and flexible menu for Hot & Healthy Crepe patrons. He is still working out the details of the menu and finding the right food distributors. He told me that they are about 95% organic right now but he hopes to improve that number in the near future.

They’re open to suggestions and they aim to please. Stop by the new crepe stand and let them know what you want to eat before or after a long day of skiing or riding.

That's Mitch