By USSA

KVITFJELL, Norway – One “crazy fast” turn got Travis Ganong (Squaw Valley) off on the wrong foot in Saturday’s Audi FIS Ski World Cup downhill won by Norway’s home-crowd favorite Kjetil Jansrud.

Running the full-length 1994 Olympic downhill course, Jansrud edged out Italy’s Peter Fill by just 0.08 second. Switzerland’s Beat Fuez was third. Ganong was 17th, as Bryce Bennett (Squaw Valley) was the only other American in the points, finishing 19th.

“It was really fast, compared to the training runs starting at the top,” said Ganong, who finished eighth in Friday’s downhill run on the same track, but from a lower start position. “I knew the speeds would be faster going into the first turn, but they were way fast, like crazy fast, so I missed the timing completely on that first left-footed turn. I lost over eight-tenths to Jansrud in the first split, and I was only a second back at the finish, so just that one turn was my day.”

The rest of the Americans also struggled on the cold, hard track. Andrew Weibrecht (Lake Placid, N.Y.) finished 41st and Jared Goldberg (Holladay, Utah) did not finish following a scary crash after flying off a jump and into the safety netting. Goldberg was standing following the incident, but was taken off the mountain on a sled as a precautionary measure.

By Benjamin Spillman, Reno Gazette-Journal

Reno is experiencing its wettest winter on record and Lake Tahoe-area ski resorts anticipate Fourth of July skiing and snowboarding.

Lake Tahoe is likely to hit its storage limit for the first time since 2006. And that means water from the largest alpine lake in North America will spill into the Truckee River for years to come.

“After Tahoe fills it is good for three years,” said Chad Blanchard, the federal water master in Reno. “We could have unprecedented dry (weather) and it still ends up being two years.”

With seven months of the water year remaining, Reno has recorded 12.74 inches of precipitation. The old mark for a 12-month water season was 12.72 from Oct. 1, 1982, to Sept. 30, 1983. Since Oct. 1, Tahoe City has seen 56.38 inches of precipitation in the form of rain or snow water equivalent. That beats the previous record for October through February, set in 1969, by more than 10 inches. Even if it doesn’t rain or snow before the end of March, it would beat the October to March record, set in 1982, by two inches.

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·      Placer County Board of Supervisors approved a $368,000 contract with Auerbach Engineering Corporation of Tahoe City to design a 1.6-mile reach of the Martis Valley Trail.

·      With three months of extreme freeze-thaw cycles and recent flooding in Douglas County, Tillman Road has been closed from Kimmerling Circle to Patricia due to unsafe road conditions. The road is expected to remain closed for two to four months while design options are considered and the road can be rebuilt once weather improves.

·       North Lake Tahoe Resort Association donated $5,000 to the Yorkey family through funds raised at the annual Autumn Food and Wine Festival at Northstar. Scott Yorkey has been a permanent fixture in the North Lake Tahoe culinary scene for more a decade, serving as executive chef at Jake’s on the Lake in Tahoe City. In December 2015, his 2½-year-old daughter, Kyla, was diagnosed with acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia and has since spent much of her time in the UC Davis Children’s Hospital receiving blood transfusions and chemotherapy treatments.

·      Rapper Afromanplus Luck Factor Zero and Two Peace will be at Whiskey Dicks Saloon in South Lake Tahoe on March 24. Must be 21. Doors open at 9pm. Tickets are $20.   

·       This is from Caltrans regarding the road collapse on Highway 50 near Bridal Veil falls:

By Kathryn Reed

By day three of eating the same thing I’m usually ready to move onto something else. Not with this recipe. I could have eaten it multiple times a day and for a week or more if I had had enough.

For those who think mushrooms are just the white ones found in salads and relish trays, this dish will show you how rich fungi can be. (Of course you might be poor by the time you figure this out! – they aren’t cheap.)

In the vegetarian world, mushrooms are often the hearty, protein-rich answer to meat. Like animal proteins, mushrooms come in a variety of choices. This recipe blends several of them together. The Raley’s at the Y in South Lake Tahoe sells a preassembled mix of wild mushrooms that was perfect.

For the wine lovers out there, start letting a full bodied red open up. This dish will hold up just fine to that bottle.

Wild Mushroom Pasta

2 pounds mixed fresh wild mushrooms, chopped

½ C olive oil

12 large garlic cloves, peeled and halved

8 thyme sprigs

1 tsp pepper

1 tsp kosher salt, divided

12 ounces bow tie pasta

1½ C reduced-sodium vegetable broth

1/3 C loosely packed flat-leaf parsley leaves, divided

1/3 C loosely packed tarragon leaves, divided

¾ C parmesan cheese

Preheat oven to 475 degrees with a rack in top third of oven and another in lower third.

Combine mushrooms, oil, garlic, thyme, pepper, and ½ tsp salt in a large bowl. Place mixture on rimmed baking sheet. Bake mushrooms 15 minutes.

Cook pasta according to package instructions. Drain, reserving at least ½ cup pasta water.

Warm broth on stove.

Combine mushroom mixture, pasta, half of parsley, half of tarragon, and remaining 1/2 tsp salt in a large bowl. Divide pasta into four shallow bowls, then drizzle with broth and pasta water if needed. Top with remaining parsley, tarragon, and the parmesan.

Crews use a break in storms to work on Highway 50 by Bridal Veil falls. Photo/Caltrasn

Caltrans is making progress on highways in El Dorado County that have been impacted by Mother Nature.

Highway 89 around Emerald Bay was close to reopening,  but then a large slide fell at Vikingsholm with snow and debris as high as 20 feet. Even so, crews hope to have the highway open today.

A section of Highway 193 on the West Slope has been opened to one-way traffic. The highway had been closed since Feb. 21 from the junction of Highway 49 in Placerville to Rock Creek Road after mudslides and slope erosion from massive saturation did damage to the northbound lane.

The slipout will require a long-term closure of several months while a retaining wall is designed and constructed. In the meantime, this area of the highway will be restricted to signalized one-way traffic controls.

Highway 50 remains open in each direction at Bridal Veil Falls while emergency work continues on a major slipout that destroyed the No. 2 westbound lane and also impacted the No. 1 lane. Work there is also expected to take several months for the design and construction of a new retaining wall to stabilize the slope.

By Susan Wood

The best of the best in the world of skiing will descend on the home of the 1960 Winter Games in Lake Tahoe next month, with Squaw Valley set to host the sport’s premier event.

The top women’s alpine ski racers in the world are preparing for the Audi FIS Women’s World Cup giant slalom and slalom races along with other seasoned competitors for the Toyota ProAm Ski Challenge to round out the weekend’s festivities slated for March 10-12.

It’s difficult to gauge who will win the most from the endeavor.

Beyond California’s ski industry association, Squaw’s celebrity ambassador, and Truckee’s city officials, no one could be giddier with excitement than the ski resort’s head honcho Andy Wirth.

Squaw’s chief executive officer began the quest to host the event about three years ago with Olympic ski racer Julia Mancuso, whose home resort is Squaw.

Even an emboldened Wirth admitted to being skeptical because the FIS calendar is “tightly held.” Thankfully, he knew the right people and made it happen with Mancuso’s help.

It was like the spirit of Alex Cushing was smiling down.

“It’s with pride we bring World Cup skiing back to Tahoe. World Cup is very unique – it is to skiing what the Masters is to golf. And this is the last World Cup for women before the finals,” Wirth told Lake Tahoe News. The finals are set in Aspen March 13-19.

Wirth noted the event has a major purpose for him that goes beyond bringing an obvious enhanced image of Squaw Valley to the world.

“We want to inspire the next generation or two of ski racers from this mountain that come out to ski Lake Tahoe. We’re thrilled to host this,” the skiing enthusiast said, adding the move “has nothing to do with television exposure.”

“When we watch Mikaela (Shiffrin) and Julia come through that finish line – that makes it real,” Wirth said. Shiffrin is a favorite, along the racing circuit with Vail Resort’s Olympic medalist Lindsey Vonn and Mancuso.

The race route for GS and slalom will be set up off the Red Dog run, “the exact same track of the 1960 Olympics with a different gate and different turns,” Wirth said.

Wirth beefed up workers to manage the event with 2,500 paid staff and volunteers.

He expects his season passholders won’t be impacted as most of the mountain will be open for business – much the same way Wirth’s former resort Whistler was when it hosted the Winter Olympics in 2010.

Squaw’s chief anticipates more than 15,000 spectators in two days.

Red Dog will be reserved for World Cup athletes March 10-11. Photo/LTN file

An economic boost for region?

That’s like music to the ears of Truckee Town Manager Tony Lashbrook, who expects a residual economic boost in the city on that weekend.

“We look forward to it. We’re expecting downtown to be very busy. The hotels should be full. We’re treating it like a holiday weekend. We may have traffic issues on (Highway) 89 and (Interstate) 80, but we have a heads up on that,” Lashbrook told LTN. “But we have great snow, that’s so nice to showcase.”

Agreed says California Ski Industry Association officials.

“We are having an amazing season here in California, so it’s a great time for this event to make its way west,” association Executive Director Michael Reitzell told Lake Tahoe News.

He sees the same long-term benefit that Wirth does in getting the ski racers of tomorrow jazzed about someday joining the ski team – perhaps to compete in the World Cup.

Reitzell used Squaw Valley’s own Travis Ganong as an example of a resort-bred men’s downhiller who competes and wins in races.

“He, along with the fantastic women who will race at Squaw Valley in March, show every one of those young racers that reaching the top from California is possible,” he said.

To be what you want to be

Just ask Squaw’s own ambassador – Olympic gold medal freestyle skier and World Cup champion in mogul skiing Jonny Moseley.

The homegrown skier, who is considered one of the most influential skiers of all time, knows the dream and lived it. He single-handedly changed the sport of freestyle skiing – albeit quite different than the downhill discipline. Nonetheless, like Mancuso, Moseley honed his skills at Squaw Valley and believes Wirth is the right man to put on an event of this magnitude.

“As long as there’s alpine skiing, people have wanted to go. It’s World Cup or nothing,” Moseley told Lake Tahoe News. “It’s going to be a great event and provide income to the economy. The whole Tahoe area has Olympic high-end racers.”

The last time World Cup was staged here was 1971.

Moseley offered a word of advice to the World Cup competitors.

“Keep in mind, I’m a freestyle skier. But from my general bank of knowledge in what I’ve seen on Red Dog is it has off camber features with many twists,” he said as a quasi-skier scholar.

Moseley added the run makes for an interesting race considering it starts from the top of the chairlift.

The surface will command slick conditions, meaning cold enough temperatures to “impregnate water into the surface and freeze overnight,” he said. The ski resort waters down the run before a race to give it that slick feel.

“If we get an atmospheric river right before or throughout – that might be a problem,” he said of the latest meteorology term describing constant wet storms.

But it can’t be all serious work and no play. There are the parties. And then there are the sideshows.

Moseley and his Olympic gold medalist counterpart on the downhill side, Daron Rahlves – who retired a few years ago from sanctioned competition, plan to race after the World Cup races.

It’s like the battle of the ski legends, Olympic style.

Squaw Valley’s legend will grow with a new generation witnessing its iconic steeps. Photo/LTN file

Looking beyond

The whole World Cup series of events may also serve another long-standing purpose.

“Squaw getting the World Cup is huge news for our region in a variety of ways. It’s a tremendous venue in that the Tahoe region continues to harbor the dream of bringing the Olympics to Lake Tahoe (again),” former Nevada Lt. Gov. Brian Krolicki told LTN from Washington, D.C., by phone. 

Krolicki, who also hails from Tahoe, serves as the chairman on the commission to deliver the Winter Games to the Reno-Tahoe region.

But timing is everything.

Since connected to the Olympic system, Krolicki added his group respects taking a backseat for the U.S. Olympic Committee with the Summer Games slated for 2024. Host countries don’t often get the Games back to back, but that doesn’t mean the idea has no chance of materializing.

Baby steps.

“For now, we’ll just tuck it away and hope there’s a way to host another Olympics. The World Cup showcases our region and infrastructure. This could be a piece of the puzzle as we go forward,” Krolicki said. “To have the world’s elite in Tahoe is an important part of the story going forward.”  

To the community,

California’s educators believe all students deserve to feel safe and supported in their neighborhood public school.

This is why the Trump administration’s first education action, to reverse protections for transgender students by rescinding the Title IX guidance, is disheartening. To take back basic rights of transgender students at public schools nationwide sends a clear message: This administration does not care about all students.

At CTA, we do. We have led the way in providing safe learning environments for transgender and all students, and we are not about to stop now.

The 2013 legislation signed into law by Gov. Jerry Brown provided transgender students access to the restrooms and locker rooms that are consistent with their chosen gender identity. This is still the law in California, and we will make sure our students know that.

To send a message against the divisive new federal actions by Trump, CTA is inviting Californians to sign our online pledge to protect all students and make schools a safe haven from bullying and discrimination. The pledge and other social justice resources are online. This pledge declares, among other urgent goals, that public education must ensure that all students can succeed, regardless of their gender or gender identity, their immigration status, their ZIP code, the color of their skin, their religion, or who they love.

When our students are free to reach their full potential, our communities are as well.

Eric Heins, California Teachers Association president

By Associated Press

Americans shrugged off rising mortgage rates and bought existing homes in January at the fastest pace since 2007.

Home sales rose 3.3 percent in January from December to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.69 million, the National Association of Realtors said Wednesday.

Steady job gains, modest pay raises and rising consumer confidence are spurring healthy home buying even as borrowing costs have risen since last fall. Some potential buyers may be accelerating their home purchases to get ahead of any further increases in mortgage rates.

Buyers are snapping up homes, with the typical house for sale remaining on the market for just 50 days, compared with 64 days a year ago. Strong demand is pushing up median home prices, which jumped 7.1 percent from a year earlier to $228,900.

Mortgage rates have climbed since the presidential election. Investors are anticipating tax cuts, deregulation and infrastructure spending will accelerate growth and push up inflation. That has caused investors to cut back on their bond holdings, pushing up yields.

The average rate for a 30-year fixed mortgage was 4.15 percent last week, according to mortgage buyer Freddie Mac. While that has dipped since earlier this month, it is much higher than last year’s average rate of 3.65 percent.

By some measures, the housing market has fully recovered from the bust that began in 2006. Yet its newfound health is creating its own set of challenges.

The number of homes for sale remains unusually low, forcing buyers to bid up prices, especially in sought-after cities such as San Francisco, Seattle and Nashville.

Just 1.69 million homes were on the market nationwide in January, near the lowest level since records began in 1999.

Last year, low mortgage rates helped offset rising home prices. Yet now both are rising, which could hamstring sales in the coming months.

The strength in sales should lift growth going forward, as new homeowners purchase furniture, buy appliances and spend more on landscaping and outdoor equipment.

Home sales also tend to spur renovations, which helps to update aging properties and generates additional construction work for the broader economy.

New research released Wednesday by the contractor site BuildZoom found that homes in metro Atlanta were roughly three times more likely to undergo renovations a year after being purchased than a typical property would. In Los Angeles, renovations are 4.6 times more likely a year after the sale, a pattern that gets repeated in other metro areas.

The findings suggest that the upfront costs of housing can be significantly greater because of needed renovations after a period of weak sales, BuildZoom chief economist Issi Romem said in the analysis.

So much snow has Heavenly extending its ski season to the end of April. Photo Copyright 2017 Carolyn E. Wright

By Paul Rogers, San Jose Mercury News
 
Why is it raining so much this year in California. In a typical year, California has between 10 to 15 “atmospheric river” storms — the fire hoses that rampage in from Hawaii and account for up to 50 percent of the state’s annual rainfall — and nearly all of its floods. But since the rainy season began on Oct. 1, there already have been 30. And there are two months of winter to go.

“We are well beyond double what is normal,” said Marty Ralph, director of the Center for Western Weather and Water Extremes at UC San Diego.

Ralph, one of the nation’s experts on atmospheric rivers — which are often called Pineapple Express storms when they come from the tropics — calculated the big boost in atmospheric river storms last week for the state Department of Water Resources. He found that from Oct. 1 to Feb. 16, there was an average of one atmospheric river storm every 4.6 days that made landfall in California. Nine of them were of strong or extreme strength.

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A 43-year-old Connecticut man died Feb. 23 while snowboarding at Northstar.

The name of the victim has not been released.

He was skiing on advanced terrain, according to resort officials.

Other skiers found the man in a tree well and summoned help. Attempts to revive him were unsuccessful.

— Lake Tahoe News staff report