Alpenglow Sports in Tahoe City will host “Dirtbag, the Legend of Fred Beckey” on March 24 at 7pm.

The evening will consist of a screening of the award-winning film “Dirtbag” and free catered food from Café Zenon. The film will be followed by a question and answer session with local climbers Dave Nettle and Todd Offenbacher, both close friends of Beckey.

Beckey is the original American “dirtbag” climber whose name has evoked mystery, adulation and vitriol since the 1940s. Beckey’s stubborn, singular quest to conquer peaks meant a solitary life on the road, where he left a long trail of scorned climbing partners and lost lovers in his wake.

He continued climbing until he passed away on Oct. 30, 2017, at the age of 94.

The evening is a benefit for the Truckee Donner Land Trust and made possible through the generous support of Patagonia. Doors open at 6:30pm and the show starts at 7pm. Q&A to follow a short intermission.

Lake Tahoe South Shore Chamber of Commerce is sponsoring a nine-day trip to northern Italy starting Oct. 15.

The trip is $3,399 if booked by March 31. 

Details will be presented at an informational session on April 3 from 5:30-7pm at the chamber office in Stateline. Attendees will hear from travel expert Oliver Bergeron with CI Destinations, while enjoying a complimentary glass of wine.

To attend the meeting, register online. The website is also where more information about the trip is located.

Participants do not have to be chamber members.

By Michael Scott Davidson, Las Vegas Review-Journal

Former state Sen. Mark Manendo sexually harassed more than a dozen women over his years in the Nevada Legislature, leading to his resignation. The transgressions were documented in a $67,000 taxpayer-funded investigation, but the public can’t see the report.

Former Henderson Police Chief Patrick Moers retired with full severance benefits after a law firm hired by the city found he repeatedly sexually harassed at least one employee. The city has declared that report, paid for by city taxpayers, confidential and unavailable for public scrutiny.

Time and time again the Las Vegas Review-Journal has sought public records, asked questions and demanded openness from local and state government workers whose salaries are paid with taxpayer dollars.

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·      Former El Dorado County Superior Court Judge Steve Bailey has responded to allegations of misconduct. Here are his answers.

·      Sara Colborn is now principal of Truckee Elementary School.    

·      The Zephyr Cove Library is hosting a movie program on March 17 at 2pm. “Matilda” (rated PG) will be shown on a big screen in the meeting room. The movie and popcorn are free.

·      University of Nevada Cooperative Extension and the Nevada section of the Society for Range Management are accepting applications for the Nevada Youth Range Camp on June 17-23. Applications must be submitted by April 27. For more info and to apply, go online.

·      Here is the El Dorado-Tahoe roadwork schedule from Caltrans for the week.

El Dorado County will have three new elected officials this year.

Recorder-Clerk Bill Schultz announced last year he would be retiring when his term expires.

Also not filing for the June election are the surveyor and treasurer/tax collector.

This means the filing deadline for those three seats has been extended to March 14 at 5pm.

Olympic champion Jamie Anderson of Meyers  took the victory – her seventh U.S. Open title – to lead three U.S. Snowboard Team riders onto the podium in the slopestyle finals at the Burton U.S. Open in Vail on Friday.

Due to high winds, competitors voted to cancel the women’s slopestyle finals and let the semi-final results stand. Julia Marino (Westport, Conn.) finished third.

In the men’s final, the winds calmed down and Chris Corning (Silverthorne, Colo.) finished second, while Nik Baden (Steamboat Springs, Colo.) was ninth.

— U.S. Ski Team

Walking among the sagebrush the Sierra seem to loom large. Photo/Kathryn Reed

By Kathryn Reed

CARSON CITY – We were held captive on our hike at Prison Hill. Captive by the beauty and number of trails we could explore.

It was a first for the three of us to experience this section of Carson City. There are so many trails in the Prison Hill Recreation Area and Silver Saddle Ranch that we will be back.

It was mid-February when we ventured off the hill. The openness – as in no trees – makes this area ideal to venture to any time of year but summer. It would be blistering hot then. When we went there wasn’t snow at the lake, so hiking outside the basin seemed like our best option for playing outside.

For the most part signage is good. Photo/Kathryn Reed

Even though we were in the capital city, at times it felt like we were in a remote location of the Silver State. The terrain is rugged and beautiful. Sage is the predominate plant protruding from the otherwise barren landscape.

At times the Sierra are in view, providing a snowcapped magic and complete contrast to where our hiking boots were leaving tracks.

Looking east it was more desolate. Trails – not sure if they were hiking, 4-wheeling, equestrian or biking – could be seen in the distance. Just another place to put on the to-do list.

Where we were a lone horsewoman passed us. People were scarce. That was one of the nice things about the hike – so few people on a weekend. Dogs being permitted was an added bonus.

Carson City seems to go on and on from Prison Hill. Photo/Kathryn Reed

Yes, ample views showed the sprawl of Carson City, but there is so much beauty around that the development was not a distraction. On the north side the prison for which the hill is named finally came into view.

This is where the annual Escape from Prison Hill Trail Race is staged. This year’s event is April 21. There is a 5K, 10K and half marathon.

Tombstone looking rocks have “Escape Route” etched on them. Not knowing where we’d be escaping too, we kept on our preplanned route.

We started on the north side of the West Loop, then hooked up with the North Loop. In all it was just less than 5 miles. The start is nearly straight up – no switchbacks. It gets easier from there. Poles would have been welcome coming down.

Bring water — this trail doesn’t have any. Photo/Kathryn Reed

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Getting there from South Lake Tahoe:

Take Highway 50 east to Carson City.

Turn left at the bottom of the hill onto Carson Street. Turn right on Clearview Drive. Go to the end. Signage is good.

The Amgen bike race that rolls through South Lake Tahoe has podium girls. Photo/LTN file

By Latria Graham, Outside

If you’ve ever seen a pro men’s cycling race, you know the image: a lycra-clad athlete clambers onto the stage flanked by two beautiful women—so-called “podium girls”—in slinky dresses and heels. As he accepts his flowers and a signature colored jersey, he receives a kiss on both cheeks from his female escorts.

On March 1, organizers of the Tour de France announced to The Times their intention to end this antiquated practice in the 2018 race. This decision makes the Tour the second Grand Tour event to stop hiring podium girls—Vuelta a España was the first, in 2017.

That leaves just the Giro d’Italia, where presumably we’ll still see scantily clad, well-heeled women kiss the male athlete du jour this summer.

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By Sami Emory, Outside

It’s a bright winter morning and Bob Coomber, better known as 4WheelBob, is taking it slow up a trail in Redwood Regional Park, near Oakland. His gloved hands keep tireless pace with each other on the wheels of his wheelchair. His long, sinewy arms tense and twist in response to every crest, every divot of the trail. As we hike, Coomber admits he hasn’t been out in this chair—a specially modified all-terrain wheelchair—for more than three years. “It’s been on the back porch,” he says, “just sort of tempting me.”

In just a few months’ time, however, Coomber will be in prime condition. He has to be: This fall, Coomber will make his third attempt to take his chair up and over the 11,845-foot Kearsarge Pass in California’s southern Sierra Nevada, west of the town of Independence. The trek will take him from the trailhead to Kings Canyon, on the other side of the pass, for a round-trip of approximately 24 miles. Depending on the incline and the weather, Coomber will travel anywhere from half a mile to a few miles per day. The journey, he estimates, will take him 10 to 14 12-hour days of near-constant exertion.

If he succeeds, Coomber will be the first person in a wheelchair to cross the Sierra.

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By Jane Braxton Little, Sacramento Bee

State wildlife biologists researching the rare Sierra Nevada red fox have been trying to capture one for over a decade. On Tuesday, they caught the second one in three weeks.

A nearly nine-pound female walked into a box trap near Manzanita Lake in Lassen Volcanic National Park. She joins a 10-pound male, captured February 13 on national forest land near Mineral just outside the park boundary. Both animals were released after biologists took blood samples, conducted routine field examinations and equipped them with collars for remote tracking.

Scientists have been trying to better understand the Sierra Nevada red fox since 1980, when it was listed as threatened in California.

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