Skiing Stoke from Lake Tahoe
A few of us got out for our first ski of the season with a wonderful dawn patrol. The snow was better than I had anticipated and my bases are still intact. We went up to East Bowl at the Rose Ski area, meeting one guy in the parking lot and two borders up top on our last run (they were boarding the other side). – David Fiore
So I’ve taken a little time off from writing here to have a baby. The little snow monkey was born on October 13th and experienced his first snow storm last night. Truckee is blanketed in white and Squaw is reporting 14 inches of snow.
Here’s a photo of Eagle’s Nest so filled it that it almost looks easy…
See more photos of Squaw Valley USA >
Also, here’s a link to another Tahoe ski blog with some great weather links >
Bar One Saturday, October 11
Doors open at 7 pm for a 21 & up only showing.
Tickets are $10 and are available at the door.
Made by local Squaw filmmaker Duane Kubischta, the film follows Miles Clark, Jackie Paaso, and Jeff Seifred on their 3,000-mile road trip from Squaw Valley to the glacial peaks of southern Alaska, with stops at Mt. Baker, Whistler, and Smithers, BC. Interviews and personal journeys guide the story. The skiers skip the helicopters for the “earn your turn” experience.
“AK the Hard Way” is the fourth release from Adventure Film Works, whose previous films have screened at mountain film festivals including: Banff, Taos, Kendal, Vancouver, Wild & Scenic, New Zealand, and Edinburgh. TheDVD and movie trailer are available at adventurefilmworks.com.
If you’ve been thinking about taking a trip to Jackson Hole, January 17-20th might be the right time. The Alpinist Film festival will be showcasing adventure films from around the world. Here’s the full schedule and the trailer:
I woke up this morning to see the first snow of the season on top of Mt Rose. Photo taken from my front door. Bring it on!
Squallywood author, Robb Gaffney just announced the dates for his 2008-09 Squallywood clinics. He’ll offer two tw0-day “beefed-up” clinics and one two-day “light” version. Check out the Squallywood site for details. View the 2008 Squallywood Clinic video.
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.
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.
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.
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 >>
Just finishing up our annual base jumping trip to Norway. Once again it was mind blowing. Traveling with base jumper friends JT Holmes and Cliff Ryder (yes that is his real name) and our Norwegian buddy Tom Erik Heimen. Norway is stunningly beautiful. I highly recommend a visit there sometime. We made 18 base jumps in 16 days and hiked up a total of around 16,000 meters. We only didn’t hike 2 days and that was due to needing to drive to the next town. Tons of fun charging up mountains with Norwegian base jumpers. They are all in very good shape. It is common to see old men and women 1,000 meters up in the mountains in places you would NEVER see Americans hiking let alone old ones. The Norwegians were always joking about the typical fat, lazy American. They decided that because their country is so rich they are going to take over The U.S. by buying McDonalds and then giving away free hamburgers all day every day and then watch us eat ourselves to death.
We did some very cool flights in Voss and in Stryn. One really great canyon flight and then ended the trip in the Romsdalen area where base jumping has some deep roots and a lot of history. Here we entered the World Base Race which is basically a wing suit speed flying competition to see who is the fastest flying human in the world. Very very cool and exciting competition. It is head to head, duel format heats. First guy across the vertical finish line wins and moves on to the next round. Amazingly I placed 2nd and won 1,000 Euros! So for 1 year I can claim to be the 2nd fastest flying human in the world!
JT and Cliff also entered and flew very well but everyone who weren’t flying Vampire suits didn’t stand a chance against them. The Vampire wing suit is incredibly fast. They were jumping the S-Fly Expert suit which is a very easy, fun and great suit for proximity flying. We stayed with some Norwegian friends in Romsdalen who’s kids became our cheering section and fan club. Very cute little girls! When we were in the town of Stryn we were able to rent a very cheap car from a friend of a friend of a friend. Everyone said that it suited our loud American style.
It was another great trip and an incredible learning experience. Norway will be on the schedule for years to come now!
-Shane McConkey
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