Lake Tahoe

**UPDATE** @ 3:30 pm May 22nd, 2012: According to the El Dorado Country Sheriff’s Office:  dive team search and rescue personnel located the male skydiver’s body in 15 feet of … Read More

There is currently a missing skydiver in Lake Tahoe, CA. Three skydivers jumped from a helicopter over Lake Tahoe at 8am this morning.  They jumped somewhere above South Lake Tahoe’s … Read More

Apparently Squaw has Officially answered the dilemma regarding wether or not they are going to have a Bike Park this year. Answer: Posting a story on their website regarding the … Read More

Back in January and February when we weren’t sure that Squaw would stay open until March, Josh Anderson and I decided to have some fun. The snow was non-existant and hardly pow, so we came up with creative ways to pass the days on the hill. Everybody loves SaucerBoy so why not go play the part for a day or two and see what happened? The response was amazing. People were yelling from the chairlifts, taking pictures, and super stoked on the whole thing.   Josh has dressed up as SaucerBoy for various events, and plays the character really well so it was funny.

Saucer Boy

If you haven’t dressed up as SaucerBoy I would suggest that you try it out. Feel out your inner Shane and the SaucerBoy in all of us. The looks, responses, and gawking was certainly worth it and I think Shane would have been proud. Thanks Shane for making these kinds of things funny and fun to do. 

Today at Alpine was not too bad. Got out at about 8:30am, and it was worth it. Thought it was a bit early and the snow wouldn’t soften up until later, but it was good timing. It got down to 31 last night, but the temperature inversion that goes on around these parts kept the mountain from freezing.  All the Southern aspects were great in the morning. The Sisters, Beaver Bowl, Palisades, and the “adventure run” to the lookers right of Summit Chair were sick. Cruise down the Sisters towards the gully to skiers left of Summit and you’ll find a hip and 2 QP booters that you can get some air off if you keep your speed up. Below the Palisades there is still remnants of the Standard Films shoot that went down last weekend. A rail off Crash and Burn cliffs. Pretty sick.

Rail off of Crash and Burn, thanks Standard Films

The parking lot was empty and the lift lines were the same. Perfect, more for us. The park, meh. It was super hard in the morning and the speed was questionable. The bottom jump is pretty kicky, and a lot bigger then last week. I’m not sure anybody hit it.  It seems it took most of the day to get the lip shaped up, and the inruns early were sketch. Reminded me of an early morning at Mt. Hood where you question how many beers they had before grooming.

Snow is definitely fading

The snow is fading quickly though. It should be a fun weekend but it seems Summer is almost here. Nothing like shreddin in the AM and then headin to the beach for the afternoon. Life sucks around here I guess!

Beach after shredding is money

The video above is from some Tahoe kids that moved East to Jackson this winter. Pretty impressive skiing and a sick edit, so check it out!

It’s that time of year already, it’s time to get creative. Maybe a bike ride through the gate up to Ebbett’s Pass, a dirt bike access mission on the Eastside, … Read More

With ski season Unofficially Over, its time to re-arrange the hobby shed, put away those ski boots you don’t want your feet to ever be in again, break out the tank tops and dust off the summer toys.

Last week we had a bit of a cool down in temps, but with the calm winds and temps in the mid to upper 60′s, its IDEAL mountain biking weather. Today was the first official ride of the season for this slightly out of shape “mountain biker.” and wow was I quickly reminded of the old saying. “You come for the winters, but you stay for the summers…”

Rumor had it the Western States was melted out up to the wall, and from a friend, “as good as it gets.” What better ride to pay off ratio for breaking in the legs and lungs and figuring out what exactly you need to fix on your bike after a winter of it sitting in the shed?

Some additional info on local conditions, heard through rumor mill and bar talk:

Martis = Good to go. Animal = Good to go. TRT from TC to Glass Mountain = Good to the first vista, spots of snow onward. XC center outta TC = not fully melted out. Emigrant Trail = Good to go, snow in spots but no blockage. Western States = Good to go. Sloppy and blocked with snow half way up the wall, didn’t venture further… figure missing link is close but not a full go.

With steady temps, we should be prime on a lot more in the next week. We’re way ahead of where we were last year this time which is good and bad. Good for earlier riding, but get it while you can and pray for a bit of rain, otherwise go buy a new set of dust goggles…

Here is a little video teaser from todays ride. Forgive the camera angle, still working out the bugs…

I’m not sure who had the most G.N.A.R. points at Squaw this winter, but Aaron Fox had to be close. If you want to know what it feels like to ski a lot of the Squallywood lines at Squaw, the POV of it is right here. It is 6 minutes long, but there are a lot of the lines in Squallywood in this edit. Skip to the :53 second mark to get to the actual skiing. Hatchett Line at 1:10, Smooth air at 1:16 looks perfect, Straightlining Box chute the way its supposed to be skied at 1:19, The Gate at 1:25 My air at 1:33, Colemans alternate slides at 1:44, Ring Finger at 2:11, Jt’s Air at 2:36,  Center Line in the Chimney at 2:41, Rock Maze at 4:55, Smooth air POV at 5:03, Voltage Rock at 5:17, The triple at 5:10,  Center Line in the Chimney again at 5:21, Diving board at 5:28, and POV of the Gate at 5:41.

This edit was also dedicated to Benny Brackett. RIP BUDDY.

The Olympics returning to Lake Tahoe have been a big controversy for many years.  With new found big money in our area in the form of KSL (owners of Squaw … Read More

It’s Cinco de Mayo, so grab your favorite Mexican beverage or a Mint Julep because the Kentucky Derby is also today. Nothing like a Tequila and Bourbon buzz. Kind of funny these two “holidays” lay on the same day. If you were in Kentucky right now you most likely wouldn’t find any Cinco de Mayo parades. It’s also the biggest full moon in 500 years so it sounds like a party. Anyway, the skiing at Alpine today wasn’t bad at all. Once 1030 hit the snow softened up quite a bit, and fun corn turns were to be had all over the mountain.

Jason Dobbs sprayin some corn in full gaper getup

Hot Wheels gully skied pretty well and was pretty fun until the snow softened too much at about noon 30. Dog Leg on idiots also went today, and the snow was just what you expect in spring corn.

Idiots Dogleg went

The park was also fun today. The jumps aren’t quite amazing or even medium sized really, but they’re still fun. It would be nice to have some larger jumps right now, but the snow is melting fast. There were a lot of kids in the park today though so the takeoff’s got a bit rutted out by afternoon.

Kaya Lampe gettin that Octo grab

Only Roundhouse and Summit were operating so there were a few lines at Summit. They disappeared at about noon though. Lots of gapers, lots of pirates, and a few sombreros out today. Go celebrate the “holidays”in the sunshine ’till you can’t remember, just make sure you make it up tomorrow because it should be another party.

Kaya Lampe getting rad in the park