Skiing Stoke from Lake Tahoe

Month: August 2008

McConkey Base Jumps for Charity

On Saturday Sept. 6th, Shane McConkey will be at the Perrine Bridge Festival in Twin Falls, Idaho participating in a charitable base jumping event to raise money for children with special needs. He and several other base jumpers will jump from 10 am to 6 pm doing between ten and seventeen base jumps.  Shane is asking you  to raise money for these children by pledging a per jump $ amount. It is for a good cause and is, of course, tax deductible. Visit the festival website.

Example:
You pledge $50 per jump. Shane does 12 jumps in the 8-hour time frame. Your donation would be $600. Easy math right! You can pledge any amount you like. It doesn’t have to be a large amount as long as we raise some money for the kids. Email if you want to participate.

Fall is in the Air

All in one week, the weather turned from the the calm, hot, dry air of summer to the cooler, crisper, more blustery air of fall. Leaves even started falling off the trees. And the new issues of Powder and Skiing arrived in my mailbox. Both issues look great, with large format photos and comprehensive ski reviews to get you amped for the season. Around the Tahoe rumor mill is word that a Tram Face freeskiing content will take place at Squaw in February. More details on that should be coming soon. Directly under the cable car, Tram Face is a series of steep, northeast-facing chutes at Squaw. Often poached in the dark when conditions are ripe, leaving dramatic tracks for skiers to oogle at from the tram, the area is currently closed. Word has it that Squaw would like to open the area to the public. I’ll post dates and details I have them. In the meantime, I’ll be out sucking in the cool air and thinking about snow. Oh, one more thing to keep you occupied until it’s time to ski: Eastern Mountain Sports just launched a fancy new outdoor website which has map and GPS data on trails across the country. Here are some backcountry trails with GPS info: mntnlife.com/index.jsp?cat=ski-bc&con=traillist&val=custom.

Off Roading in the Off Season

While sweating through the August heat, choking on forest fire smoke and anticipating the first snowfall, I’ve been reporting on off-season activities like summer skiing, base jumping, golf and jeeping. Here’s a post by Rob McCormick about a modest off-road vehicle that bit off more than it could chew and discovered a local backcountry gem in the process.

Cold Stream Canyon Truckee California

Last weekend I decided to try a new off-road trail in my 1971 Land Cruiser.  I noticed an intriguing route on the map that starts just west of Cisco Grove at an OHV (off highway vehicle) staging area called Indian Springs.  The route is called the Fordyce Creek Jeep trail and travels northeast into the central part of Jackson Meadows.   The route looked especially enticing because it goes into the spectacular terrain that most people notice to the north of I-80 just after Emigrant Gap when traveling eastbound toward Truckee. Read more >>