By Sage Sauerbrey, Moonshine Ink

Most people think of 10,000 feet as the altitude they can pretend to turn their electronics back on at during a long flight, but for professional athletes Josh Daiek and Abe Greenspan, it’s a full day in the Tahoe backcountry and the second installment of their “Tahoe Ten” series.

In coordination with the launch of their new ski film, “Tahoe Ten – Kirkwood to Hope Valley,” we decided to interview with Daiek and Greenspan about what it takes to link some of Tahoe’s rowdiest lines into a five peak, 20-mile, 10,000 foot, single day push.

How did the idea for “Tahoe Ten” first come about? Daiek, “Abe and I were hiking Mt. Tallac last season chatting up ideas for different link ups and how we could connect multiple ski tours into a single day. It didn’t actually start as ‘let’s go hike 10,000 vertical feet,’ it was more or less let’s see how far we can go.”

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By Marcia Dunn, AP

Hope for clear skies. A full moon and comet share double billing in a special night sky show this weekend.

A lunar eclipse starts everything off Friday night. The moon will pass into Earth’s outer shadow, or penumbra. The moon won’t be blacked out like in a full eclipse. Only part of the moon will be shaded, but it should be easily visible from much of the world.

Comet 45P, meanwhile, will zoom past Earth early Saturday morning. It will be an extremely close encounter as these things go, passing within 7.4 million miles (12.4 million kilometers) of Earth. Its relative speed: 14.2 miles per second, or a breakneck 51,120 mph.

The comet, glowing green, will be visible in the constellation Hercules. Binoculars and telescopes will help in the search.

 Stargazers have been tracking Comet 45P for the past couple of months. The ice ball — an estimated mile across — comes around every five years. It’s officially known as Comet 45P/Honda-Mrkos-Pajdusakova, named after the Japanese, Czech and Slovak astronomers who discovered it in 1948. The letter P stands for periodic, meaning it’s a recurring visitor to the inner solar system.

The eclipse will last more than four hours, beginning at 2:32pm local time. The action will unfold early Saturday in Europe, Africa and western Asia.

By USSA

ST. MORITZ, Switzerland – Canada’s Erik Guay became the oldest World Champion in alpine skiing history, winning the men’s super G Wednesday at the FIS Alpine World Ski Championships. Travis Ganong (Squaw Valley) was the top American in 14th.

For Guay – the 35-year-old veteran of the Canadian Ski Team and one of only three athletes competing at these World Championships who also competed in the 2003 World Championships in St. Moritz – this victory was made even more special by sharing the podium with his teammate Manuel Osborne-Paradis, who finished third. Norway’s Kjetil Jansrud was second. Wednesday’s race was the first time that two Canadian men have finished on the podium in World Championship history.

Guay, who started bib 14, Jansrud with bib 9 and Osborne-Paradis bib 26 enjoyed a slight advantage of watching earlier racers tackle the fast, technical and challenging course.

“When you go early like that, you don’t really know how the course is going to run. You don’t get the course reports,” said Ganong, who started bib 4. “It was an open, fast set. The jumps were actually bigger than the downhill training yesterday. It was a really tricky set, really fast speeds, and it’s a World Championship event, so everybody is pushing super hard.”

Starting early, though, Ganong did provide crucial course information for his teammates, including Ryan Cochran-Siegle (Starksboro, Vt.), who finished 28th, and Tommy Biesemeyer (Keene, N.Y.), who posted top-five times at the first three intermediate splits before leaning in and booting out on a tough left-footer, and not finishing.

Wednesday’s race came at the one-year mark away from the first day of the 2018 Olympic Winter Games in PyeongChang, South Korea.

Tahoe Mountain Milers Running Club is hosting the Fresh Tracks 5K Snowshoe Walk and Race on Feb. 26 at 10am at Camp Richardson Resort.   

The beneficiaries are Girls on the Run-Sierra and Metastatic Breast Cancer in honor of club member Renee Gorevin. 

Preregister by Feb. 11 for $30. This includes a winter beanie hat, snowshoe rental, post-race refreshments, and continued day use of groomed Camp Richardson trails.

Day of race registration is $40. Register online. 

For more info, email tahoecarol@charter.net.

Lake Valley Fire Protection District is offering avalanche beacon training at its station in Meyers.

Beacon Basin is open Thursday through Sunday throughout the winter.

The Meyers Community Foundation and Sierra Avalanche Center donated the majority of funds for the equipment. The fire department will maintain it and coordinate free transceiver trainings once or twice per month.

Anyone interested in donating toward the Beacon Basin may do so online. 

Additionally, the LVFPD is offering free air canister refills for backcountry airbags. The airbags keep people on the surface in case of an avalanche and are now required for ski patrol at almost every ski resort in the country. As the service is free, it will allow people to practice pulling the air bag prior to heading out on the mountain.

For updates on trainings, call 530.577.3737.

Spooner Lake State park offers a system of meandering cross country ski trails that wind through dense forest, across an open meadow and along the banks of Spooner Lake. The trail system is free to the public and made possible by a partnership between Nevada State Parks and Nevada Nordic, a non-profit group based in the Tahoe basin.

The  trail includes several teardrop loops, offers both skate and classic skiing, and is intermediate with flat rolling terrain, which makes it great for both families and experienced skiers.

When using the trails, please be mindful of trail etiquette:

·         Do not walk on the trail in shoes or boots.

·         Dogs should be on a leash of not more than 6 feet in length and off to the side of the groomed trails.

·         Snowshoers are welcome, but should stay to the far edge of the trail and be careful not to mar the center of the trail for skate skiing, or the tracks set for classic skiing. 

There is an entrance fee into the park of $7 per vehicle. Nevada residents receive a $2 discount.

By Todd Dewey, Las Vegas Review-Journal

A game that featured the greatest comeback in Super Bowl history also produced a record wagering handle in Nevada.

The state’s 196 sports books had $138.5 million wagered on Sunday’s game, according to figures released Monday by the Nevada Gaming Control Board. The books won $10.9 million for a hold percentage of 7.9.

The handle eclipsed the $132.5 million that was wagered last year for Super Bowl 50, a 24-10 win by the Broncos over the Panthers. This is the fourth consecutive year that the state’s handle has surpassed $100 million.

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By Kathryn Reed

Finding ways to improve the South Shore cycling scene is not a difficult endeavor.

The advisory committee to the South Lake Tahoe Recreation Facilities Joint Powers Authority recently outlined its goals for this summer through 2019.

Snow removal of bike trails expects to be an ongoing project. Cyclists and pedestrians are regularly using these thoroughfares in the winter. It was only in the past couple years that they have been plowed for winter use.

David Reichel, the committee member who gave the report to the board last month, stressed the need for the JPA and city to pursue the connection at Sierra Boulevard and Highway 50 to the bike trail behind Scusa and Fitness Evolution. This might be doable when the health club seeks a permit to improve its parking lot.

“It’s a valuable connection,” Reichel said.

An easement would be needed to make this happen.

The money the JPA has to spend comes from Measure S/R that was passed by South Shore voters on the California side. South Lake Tahoe, El Dorado County and Tahoe Paradise Resort Improvement District representatives make up the JPA board.

While the JPA board won’t allocate funds until its July meeting, the following is where the volunteer committee recommends the dollars be spent this year:

·      $25,000 – Improve surface of boardwalk in front of Lake Tahoe Golf Course

·      $10,000 – 2017-18 winter snow removal in the city

·      $20,000 – 2017-18 winter snow removal in El Dorado County

·      $10,000 – Class 1 bike trail maintenance.

For 2018, the committee wants snow removal to continue. The bulk of the funds — $50,000 – would go toward the match for the Al Tahoe, Johnson boulevards, Highway 50 project that should be constructed that year.

The following year, snow removal is projected to continue. Money for ongoing maintenance of Class 1 trails is also recommended.

Not all recommendations from the committee cost substantive dollars. Those include:

·      Installing a yellow center line on the Linear Park bike path. That should happen this summer. The city, though, says the path cannot be widened.

·      Adding green paint to the Class 3 street crossing at Eloise, Dunlap and Fifth streets.

·      Continue putting in signs to help cyclists. More are expected to be installed this summer.

By Emma Marris, High Country News
 
Night is falling in the Wood River Valley, a broad, flat expanse of southern Oregon, just south of Crater Lake National Park. John Stephenson, a gray-haired, lantern-jawed U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologist, is building a campfire on this chilly late October evening. He is here to be a human — to move around and make noise and generally discourage a nearby wolf pack from coming out of the dark timbered hills.

These wolves have killed four yearling cattle in this particular pasture already. And this isn’t any old wolf pack; it was the first to settle in southern Oregon, and the family of a legendary lupine wanderer known as OR7.

This is Stephenson’s fourth night in this field. In a few days, the cows will be rounded up and shipped to California for the winter. Once they’re gone, he’ll be able to more or less relax until the cattle return in the spring.

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By USSA

MAMMOTH MOUNTAIN – The American snowboarders turned in a stellar performance at the Toyota U.S. Grand Prix slopestyle event on Sunday, sweeping both men’s and women’s podiums.

Up-and-comer Red Gerard (Silverthorne, Colo.) topped the field to take the win for the men, while Jamie Anderson (Meyers) continued her global domination with a win for the women.

Her second run scored 80.25: frontside 180 switch 50-50 to 180 off, boardslide 270 out, handplant, transfer over rail, backside air, frontside 540, Cab underflip, backside rodeo 540.

Kyle Mack (West Bloomfield, Mich.) and Hailey Langland (San Clemente) each took second, while Dylan Thomas (Kingsley, Pa.) and Julia Marino (Westport, Conn.) were third.

It was Gerard’s first major victory, but he has been warming up to the top spot all season with a third-place finish at the Kreischberg World Cup and fourth-place finish at the LAAX Open in January. The 16-year-old Coloradan battled the competition as well as the weather to take the top spot.

“It turned out to be fine,” he said after his first run. “Just trust your landing and trust your skills and you’re good to go.”  

Anderson is more than familiar with the top of the podium, including winning the inaugural Olympic snowboard slopestyle gold medal at Sochi in 2014. It was her third major win for the season after taking the big air win at the Copper Mountain Toyota U.S. Grand Prix and the Dew Tour championship in December.  

Sunday’s slopestyle was the first Olympic qualifying event for the PyeongChang Olympics in 2018.

Other Americans who made the final: Judd Henkes (La Jolla) was fourth; Brock Crouch (Mammoth) was sixth; Eric Willett (Breckenridge, Colo.) was 10th.