By Will Sleigh, Onboard Snowboarding

The final day couldn’t have been any better. The sun was shining, the tunes were blasting, the course was looking primed, the crowds had gathered Jan. 23 to watch the finest slopestyle riders on the planet throw down.

In the women’s competition Jamie Anderson of Meyers was on fire from the get go, putting together a super technical and stylish first run which was enough to secure the gold.

The Laax Open is considered the the most important snowboarding contest in Europe.

Christy Prior showed us everything she had in her second run and Miyabi Onitsuka from Japan smashed it on her final run to take the bronze.

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Larry King’s “In View” segment about Lake Tahoe Unified School District has been released.

The school board last year agreed to spend $27,900 on the venture.

Besides being aired on national television, the district will be left with professional footage that it may use in other venues as a marketing component.

Bijou house in the 1870s. Photo/Courtesy Patty Olson

Patty Olson has been a South Shore resident since 1950. This above photo hangs on the wall in the area of her living room which at one time housed the Bijou Market, South Shore’s first market.

It also was C.H. Parrish’s Bijou House, offering meals for 50 cents, lodging for 30 cents, and a bar.

Olson believes the building dates back to 1865. It was part of the historic Young Brothers’ Bijou Resort which featured a long pier used by the logging industry of that time.

The one-time commercial building is now a private residence. Photo/Bill Kingman

The Bijou House today has a remodeled second story and extensions. The portion behind the large green tree housed the historic market.

An original cabin from the Bijou Resort. Photo/Bill Kingman

One of the original cabins of the resort still stands near Olson’s house, next to John’s Cleaners in the Bijou Center.

My sincere thanks to Olson for sharing her memories. After 65 years here and so much community involvement, Olson is moving on from South Lake Tahoe in February.

-Bill Kingman

Half Dome is one of Yosemite’s iconic features. The California treasure became a national park in 1890. Photo/LTN file

Whether it’s the grandeur of Mother Nature, or history encapsulated in monuments and battlefields, or wildlife roaming free the National Park Service is there to remind us of our past and future.

It is easy to understand how the Park Service is about our past, especially when looking east toward the National Mall or south to battlefields or west to the USS Arizona.

Our future is reflected in the Park Service because how we treat these treasures says a lot about us as a citizenry. Do we sit by and let national treasures like the Ahwahnee Hotel and Curry Village in Yosemite National Park change names because of a poorly written contract or do we write our members of Congress to tell them we are disgusted by what is happening? Will our actions change the future even if they don’t alter the circumstances a couple hundred miles from here?

Do we say it’s OK for funding for the Park Service to continually be eroded or do we demand these treasures be preserved?

Do we support the Park Service by visiting some of the 409 areas it represents? Do we share memories to encourage others to visit these special places? Or perhaps we buy an annual pass even if we never visit a park.

This agency that turns 100 years old in August continues to evolve, grow and be part of all of our lives. The service is in every state, District of Columbia, American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands.

It’s not just about the 59 national parks. The agency encompasses monuments, battlefields, military parks, historical parks, historic sites, lakeshores, seashores, recreation areas, scenic rivers and trails, and the White House.

Fourteen national parks existed before the Park Service came into being. Yellowstone in 1872 became the first national park – not just in the United States, but also in the world. Twenty-one monuments also existed prior to 1916. President Woodrow Wilson signed the act creating the National Park Service, which to this day is overseen by the Interior Department.

Lake Tahoe News, starting Jan. 25, is going to take readers on a trek to a few of these wonders. Writers are embracing locales that have touched them in memorable ways. The first story is from Carolyn Wright who has visited 33 of the national parks. Hers is as much a photo essay as it is a travelogue about some of those parks.

We hope through our series of monthly stories we connect you to places that perhaps you’ve never been to or we trigger fond memories.

Enjoy the journey.

             — Kathryn Reed, LTN publisher

El Dorado County sheriff’s search and rescue team members help save the lives of two suspects on Jan. 23. Photo/Provided

Two Northern California men were apprehended Saturday morning after leading officers on a chase that nearly resulted in them freezing to death in a remote area of El Dorado County.

Tristen Crossland, 30, a parolee from Eureka, and Derek Dion, 32, a probationer from Hayfork who had four warrants for his arrest, were taken to a hospital for treatment before being turned over to state officials.

The pursuit started Jan. 22 when the two fled on foot after being stopped by a California Department of Fish and Wildlife officer near Wrights Lake Road and Highway 50. El Dorado County sheriff’s deputies and U.S. Forest Service officers joined the search for the men.

A firearm was allegedly dropped by one of the men and recovered by officers. Officers said they found illegal drugs in the suspects’ vehicle.

The two men ran into the snowy canyon and crossed the river. A few hours later officers saw them cross the river again. An officer yelled, saying they were in danger of freezing and to give up, but the two ignored that advice.

Deputies said at 8:40 Friday night Crossland called 911 and reported he and Dion were somewhere across the river and were freezing to death and in fear of dying.

Search and rescue then got involved. The duo was found at 9:17am Jan. 23 suffering from severe hypothermia and probable frostbite.

— Lake Tahoe News staff report

By Daniel Neman, St. Louis Dispatch

Imagine the exciting world of 1900.

Dresses were more daring, and by 1910 hemlines would rise almost all the way to the ankle. William McKinley was re-elected president, though he would not be destined to serve long. The Wright Brothers conquered the air in 1903. The world of art was undergoing a massive revolution.

And with its World’s Fair in 1904, St. Louis briefly became the center of the universe.

It was an exciting time for food, too. In the first decade of the new century, brownies were invented, Necco wafers came into being and the first patent was issued for instant coffee. Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and hot fudge sundaes were created then, too.

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By Lyndsay Winkley, San Diego Union Tribune

Mountain biker Damian Hiley was hours into a Saturday ride on a West Sycamore Canyon trail in Scripps Ranch — one he’s been excited to try out for some time — when he and his cycling group came upon a man standing in the middle of the trail, a gun at his hip.

“At first I thought they were looking for someone or that it was a police raid,” he said. “I was blown away when they told us we had stepped into the eastern boundary of the (Marine Corps Air Station Miramar) base.”

Hiley and his group were escorted around a bend where six to eight Marines in vests and flight suits stood next to a pile of bikes. The Marines explained the riders were being ticketed for trespassing on federal land and that their bicycles were being confiscated.

Marines issued tickets to 50 people for trespassing and impounded 45 bikes and three motorcycles over the weekend, said 1st Lt. Matthew Gregory, the base’s public affairs officer.

All the riders got a ticket and may have to pay a fine, depending on what a judge decides on their assigned court date, which could be four to six weeks away. The group was told they would get their bikes back after the ticket was handled.

Hiley’s group had no choice but to hike more than two miles back to their cars — in cycling shoes. They took a different route back, and ended up passing signs that read, “Keep Out.” If similar signs had been placed where they crossed into base, they would have been hard to miss, he said.

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Bottled water will no longer be available at Squaw Valley or Alpine Meadows ski resorts.

Guests may buy reusable water bottles at the resorts an then use one of the new 20 water refill stations.

“This initiative aims to inspire guests to rethink their daily habits by choosing reusable products over single-use items, while reducing the total amount of plastic waste generated by the resort each year. No other domestic ski resort has undertaken an initiative of this kind, but the hope is that other ski resorts will follow suit to propagate the message to winter enthusiasts to take care the environment and mountains they enjoy for recreation,” the resorts said in a statement.

The resorts estimate the initiative will keep 28,000 bottles from going into the trash each year.

The tap water at Squaw Valley Alpine Meadows is supplied by three sources. Squaw Valley Public Service District supplies the water at the base of Squaw Valley, and was recognized as the Best Tasting Water in California at the 2015 California Rural Water Association Expo. Alpine Springs County Water District supplies the water at Alpine Meadows and Elevation 8200’ Water Company, operated by Squaw Valley, serves the Squaw Valley upper mountain facilities, and was recognized as the Best Tasting Water in California at the 2011 California Rural Water Association Expo.

By Patrick McGreevy, Los Angeles Times

Faced with plummeting gasoline tax revenue, state transportation officials have announced plans to cut funding for road and transit projects by $754 million over the next five years, the greatest reduction in two decades.

The 38 percent decrease was approved by the California Transportation Commission on Thursday, the same day Gov. Jerry Brown used his State of the State address to call on the Legislature to end the gridlock in negotiations over new taxes and fees for transportation projects.

“What this means is that almost every county in California that relies on this source of funding for projects that improve traffic and air quality will have to cut or delay projects indefinitely,” said Lucy Dunn, chairwoman of the commission.

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Back row from left: Kristen Harnett, Annie Buchser, Tatum Whatford, Kylee Lyons, Katherine Krolicki, Kelsey Kjer, Daria Sharon. Sitting from left: Zoe D’Angelo, Justiss Roque and Jordyn Becker Photo/Provided

·      Soroptimist International of South Lake Tahoe honored 10 Young Women of Distinction on Jan. 20, six from South Tahoe High School and four from Whittell High School. They were recognized for their academic achievements as well as their volunteer activities at school and in the community.

·       Truckee River Watershed Council received a $607,889 grant from the California Department of Fish and Wildlife to restore the nearly 900-acre Perazzo Meadows north of Truckee.

·       Douglas County Commission meetings are now streaming online live and are recorded to look at after the fact.

·       The annual Kings Beach Snowfest Parade is March 12 from 11:30am-12:30pm on Highway 28 in downtown Kings Beach. The parade will start at the intersection of Highway 28 and Secline Street and end at the Coon Street roundabout. The parade announcing area will be at the northeast portion of Bear Street roundabout in front of Kings Cafe.

·      Douglas County Public Library’s First Saturday of the Month Family Movies on Feb. 6 is “Inside Out”. The free showing is at 2pm in the library meeting room, 1625 Library Lane, Minden.