Check out the Tahoe Vertical Challenge. A way to help raise money fot the  Sierra Avalanche Center. -M

 The 2011 Backcountry Vertical Challenge represents Lake Tahoe’s first ever FREE, community-wide fundraising initiative to benefit the Sierra Avalanche Center. In a quest to attain operational dollars for Lake Tahoe’s local avalanche forecasting agency, Alpenglow Sports has challenged the entire Tahoe backcountry community to a cumulative goal of 15 million vertical feet of human-powered uphill travel.

Tahoe Vertical.

We use to ski at Sierra Summit near Huntington Lake out of Fresno, CA. It was once and is again called China Peak, after the highest point on the resort. At the time they had a bunch of these cheesy info signs on the (fixed grip)  lift towers like:

It can be sunny in the mountains when it’s cloudy in the valley!

and

Man made snow is real snow, it’s just mand made!

We always thought that was pretty funny to the point that we, my sisters and I, to this day spout that out at the least provocation. It’s just so obvious!

I mention this of course because man made snow is now the dominant force in Tahoe Skiing. Heavenly, Northstar and some others have been open for a few weeks hauling skiers and riders up for rip up the man made corduroy. Friday Mt. Rose is opening up a ribbon of anthropogenic crystal from top to bottom. Just the Northwest trail to Kit Carson. Unless a fad bastard dump comes through, The Chutes will not be open.

NowI don’t get that excited about man made snow, not cause it’s not fun skiing, it is, but because it traps all the skiers in the run and doesn’t give you and fun of trail stuff. Still, skiing is skiing. So I’ll shred Friday @ Rose.

Maybe we could do a biathlon on Saturday and shred Rose, then do the Dry Pond Loop on the way home!

-M

Here’s a photo of The Grisly Bike Geek riding a cyclocross bike in a mountain bike race.

As usual, Stubbie (Gregg Stone of Mighty Mobile Bicycle Repair in Truckee, CA) stuffed it. STUBBBIIIEEEEE!!!!!!

I did ok, here’s a pic of me about to pass a dude. The flats were the only place I made time.

2010 Tahoe Flume Race Results from the Reno Wheelmen.

Flume Race photos from Gene Murrieta.

TAHOE TAHOE TAHOE

If you haven’t heard about the Travelocity Roaming Gnome contest, it’s like a social media grudge match between Tahoe and The Wasatch. Tahoe kicks ass, so click over to the Roaming Gnome Facebook Page and vote Tahoe!

Skiing Pics

Proof that Tahoe is better: Some photos from a short Ski Tour to the North Side of the Fire Plug from saturday.

Landscape Photography

A few months back we auctioned off a painting by Brian Raszka to help support the web hosting of The Bacon Strip. Next week, while LowCO2, Huck Tater and I are in AZ riding @ 24 Hours in the Old Pueblo, We’ll be auctioning off a framed print by The Restless Ape. Last year TRL got a Canon 5d MK2 and joined the technological and chemical free photography revolution. He got a lot of great photos over they year, and he’s selected THE BEST to donate to the cause.

Banner Peak @ Dawn by Barrett Donovan

Bacon365

If you haven’t seen my Bacon365 photo project, you can check it out here.

The Restless Ape, Kangdiggity and I hit Mt. Rose this morning. less than a foot of actual powder, but it was really nice. Good base. We found a lot of great lines through the trees below the Blazing Zephyr.

Mt Rose, Tahoe

Gonna go back Friday. So Far Taldor and Kangdiggity are in. Who else?

-M

So I usually ski with my sisters and my dog, all of whoom are ladies. (some more than others) So this episode features them and our friend Eva. Carrie, Callie, Eva and Juni the snow dog!

Tahoe Avalanche conditions were pretty chill Saturday with the previous week’s snowfall setting up well and the windloading tapering off Friday. The snow on the southeast aspects was ok, but Eva and Huck Tater had some issues with sticking to the snow. North facing aspects of Incline Peak in the shade were as awesome as always…

The next episode is Dawn Patrol edition, shot this AM with Me, Taldor, Pyrofloptic and Japhy Rider with Oso, Chloe and Juni running sweep.

-M

Went up with my dad, sisters and SteadyB. Found Pow and lots of it. It was sort of surreal in the cloud, but an awesome morning.

Created with Admarket’s flickrSLiDR.

-M

You can always find freshie that keeps you off the rocks if you know where to look. Here’s a little something i threw together from a trip with my sisters and SteadyB on Saturday.

 
Feral Snow #1 Incline Lake Peakon Vimeo.

While we were starving for snow on Saturday and hiking through minefields to get to the hidden gems. The anti has been upped. Watch your top-not.

-M

Yo StripTards!

Since so many of us ski @ Alpine Meadows a lot and have passes, I thought you’d like this video I shot on snowmaking @ the Tahoe Resort. Super cool! The guy in the video, Peter “Foul Weather Minxy” Minks was on a video shoot of a climbing movie on the Eiger last year, and was on everest expeditions. Super cood dude. I’ll have to corner him and get more stories next time I see him.

And that may be tomorrow cause that’s when the resort is opening for the 2008/2009 season! Woooo HOOOOO!!! We’re going up to shoot more video. Pyrofloptic is gonna be there. If you can make it show up, we need people to style it up on camera.

The ten day tahoe forecast looks good!

-M

Could be a real headline here if we rally together and launch a successful campaign to get Alpine Meadows Ski Resort to rename a trail in our esteemed honor. What other local blog / band of dirty hippy mountain bikers and backcountry skiers has a bigger presence @ Alpine Meadows than us? VNasty is there EVERY DAY! Nooninator usually has a pass and kneedrops like a mofo. The McDeez have been sighted with frequency, and of course, I practically work there.

The question is which trail should be The Bacon Strip? Red, Green or Blue…

Take a look at the trail map for a finer analysis.

“The trails are special and their names deserve a bit more character,” said Jim Kercher, Alpine Meadows General Manager. I remember working at Alpine in 1975; and even then, people consistently commented that the names needed some more creativity. For the trail re-naming contest, the best suggestions for the new names are going to come from people who ski and ride them on a regular – even daily – basis. The new trail names aim to reflect the strong connection between Alpine and its roots and community,” he added.

So post up a comment with reasons why Alpine Meadows should have run called The Bacon Strip and how unspeakably awesome that would be, and I’ll do our official entry. (be sure to check out the prizes… Which I’d of course share with the team)

-M