Squaw Valley

“Welcome to extraordinary” – Squaw Valley Well, guys, it’s not feelin’ too extraordinary now that you’ve laid off your janitorial staff, the Olympic House and Dave’s Deli are perpetually filthy, … Read More

This past weekend I was lucky enough to get invited to compete in the Pain McShlonkey Classic. It was really an honor to wear the badge and be an ambassador to the Shane McConkey Foundation.

Stoked to be able to represent Shane!

The weekend was pretty ridiculous. The event was supposed to start with some  of the Red Bull Air Force team skydiving into Rocker at Squaw. High winds caused this to be cancelled, but the party still went down. Red Bull brought a humongous truck with DJ and loud music included. The party continued through the day to the Gala in the evening.

Red Bull brought this monster in with a DJ an a lot of speakers

Lets talk about the event though. The event was amazing. Athletes flew in from all over the country to compete and represent Shane in the proper way, and I think Shane would have been proud. The event started at just a tad after 9am with a “Chinese Downhill”.  This event was brutal. Unlike last year which was a glorified powder run, this was an icy, moguly, hardpacked mess of competitors coming down KT. There was carnage everywhere and it seemed most competitors crashed the whole way down the first face. Daron Rahlves (who referred to himself as DMoney during pre-event trash talking emails) won. Guess he backed it up.  He took home the golden saucer for the boys, with Shelly Robertson taking home the Golden Saucer for the girls.

The Small Mountain Invitational was just as exciting. The course was a mix of hardpack moguls with several features to jump off. The name of the game (according to the judges) was no big airs. In fact, Ice Goddess and several other airs were out of bounds, and hitting them meant disqualification. This obviously stopped nobody.  We saw repelling down Ice Goddess, Kristian Giessler sending Tombstone pretty big and lots of tomahawking. I’m pretty confident that everybody there had an amazing time, so THANK YOU SHANE!

Thank you Shane!

Yesterday was good. Very good. I heard “top 3 day” used afterward. Everything was open. It was bluebird cali sun, the kind that gives you goggle tans. It was crazy winds that I thought were going to blow me off the mountain, and everything in between at times. Everything was good, there were almost no lines anywhere except Headwall.

We got to explore Silvy in a new way, with powder for the first time. I saw some crazy tracks yesterday and a lot of of tracks of people who had no idea where they were. Look in the foreground at this untouched face of POW in Silvy, with no lift lines.

Untouched Silvy Pow

The Chimney went for the first time all year. Andy Hays took Center Line Hugeeee over the crown and stomped it. Chimney Sweep and Easy Street also went.

All in all 2 great days in a row with more for this weekend. It’s going to be interesting to see what happens on Saturday with winds predicted up to 70mph. Atleast Sunday will be good. Thanks to Josh Anderson for helping with out with some POV also!

Weather forecast below, check those winds on Sunday!

This Afternoon: Partly sunny, with a high near 53. Breezy, with a southwest wind around 20 mph, with gusts as high as 30 mph.

Tonight: A 30 percent chance of rain after 11pm. Partly cloudy, with a low around 39. Very windy, with a southwest wind 25 to 30 mph increasing to between 40 and 45 mph. Winds could gust as high as 65 mph.

Saturday: Rain before 11am, then snow. High near 40. Very windy, with a southwest wind between 40 and 50 mph, with gusts as high as 70 mph. Chance of precipitation is 100%. New snow accumulation of 4 to 8 inches possible.

Saturday Night: Snow showers. Low around 17. Windy, with a west wind 30 to 35 mph decreasing to between 15 and 20 mph. Winds could gust as high as 45 mph. Chance of precipitation is 100%. New snow accumulation of 2 to 4 inches possible.

Sunday: A 20 percent chance of snow showers, mainly before 11am. Partly sunny, with a high near 37. North wind between 5 and 10 mph.

Sunday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 18.

Monday: Partly sunny, with a high near 48.

Monday Night: Mostly cloudy, with a low around 25.

Tuesday: Partly sunny and breezy, with a high near 53.

Tuesday Night: A slight chance of rain showers. Snow level 6600 feet. Mostly cloudy and breezy, with a low around 28.

Wednesday: A chance of snow showers. Mostly cloudy and breezy, with a high near 47.

Wednesday Night: A chance of snow showers. Mostly cloudy and breezy, with a low around 24.

That’s Andy Hays stomping Center Line this morning. Easily the most impressive line of the day! The landing zone below the Chimney slid creating a sketchy crown close to where … Read More

Temps at the higher elevations stayed cold last night and patrol has been blasting all morning! All of the lifts that count are scheduled to open this morning at 9:00 … Read More

This morning started out as a fun but wet and blinding lower mountain storm day. If you were out between 9:00 and 11:30 you got some smooth turns on the … Read More

With Northstar/Heavenly/Kirkwood 2012-2013 season passes on sale for a few weeks now, we knew it couldn’t be long before Squaw/Alpine would release their next year season passes to the public. … Read More

The Line of the Week
 Squaw Valley USA Hanging Snowfield Who says Squaw Valley gets skied off fast on powder days? You just gotta relax and choose your lines carefully. … Read More

I heard avy bomb after avy bomb all morning and wondered, is the snow actually going to be good today? Sibo, Headwall, and Granite were all closed. Most of the … Read More

Here’s a press release straight from the horse’s mouth: Squaw Valley and Alpine Meadows Scheduled to Stay Open Daily Through April 29 Resorts announce that Squaw and Alpine are scheduled … Read More