The Upper Truckee River meanders through Lake Tahoe Golf Course. Photos/Kathryn Reed

By Kathryn Reed

MEYERS – Golf courses offer some of most wonderful cross country skiing opportunities. They are flat, scenic and go on for miles.

And while golfers might think the trees are close together, winter recreationists find these plots of land to be wide-open.

Such is the case with Lake Tahoe Golf Course. This is an 18-hole course for much of the year. In winter a snowmobile concessionaire operates there. To the right of the clubhouse is the way to get away from the motorized fun. We started to the left of hole 10.

On the first Saturday of the year people were farther off to the right playing in the snow – building snowmen and just enjoying the white stuff.

Plenty of virgin snow to ski through.

The noise from the sleds dissipates quickly. The exhaust, though, is noticeable as we return. It clearly was stinking up the fresh mountain air.

One of the nice things about this trek is that it doesn’t take long to glide into a serene landscape. Plenty of people had been there before us. Snowshoe and cross country tracks crisscross each other.

Some of the tracks are so worn it’s as if they’ve been professionally laid. The slight slickness to them makes for easy gliding.

But the snow was perfect this particular day so breaking trail was no big deal, and in many ways was more fun. The give to it made it relatively easy to push through and a bit more of a workout than going where others had already gone.

Barriers across the bridges keep snowmobilers out. It means either having to gingerly step over them or taking off the skis. Some cross the Upper Truckee River, others Angora Creek.

The Angora burn area is visible just below Mount Tallac.

Many of the South Shore’s more recognizable peaks make themselves known as we go farther – Freel, Jobs, Mount Tallac and of course Twin Peaks is right there.

The golf course sits on state land – Lake Valley State Recreation Area. It abuts Washoe Meadows State Park. There are several access points to both. The golf course provides the most parking, especially on days when parking on a street could be problematic because of snow removal.

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Getting there:

From South Lake Tahoe, go west on Highway 50. The golf course is on the right before hitting the heart of Meyers.

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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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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California State Parks and the U.S. Forest Service may continue prescribed fire operations beginning Jan. 25.

To view a map with project locations and details, go online.

Residual smoke may be seen in locations where operations have taken place over the last several weeks.

Before conducting prescribed fire operations, agencies post road signs around areas affected by prescribed fire, send email notifications and update the local fire information line at 530.543.2816.

By Associated Press

CORTINA D’AMPEZZO, Italy — Lindsey Vonn broke Annemarie Moser-Proell’s record for most World Cup downhill victories with her 37th in skiing’s marquee event on Saturday.

Vonn beat Larisa Yurkiw of Canada by 0.28 seconds on the Olympia delle Tofane course — the same site where she eclipsed Moser-Proell’s overall women’s record of 62 victories a year ago — with a nearly flawless run amid windy conditions.

“It’s pretty awesome,” Vonn said. “I was really nervous today, actually. I’ve won so much here, and there was just a lot of pressure. The more people talk about records the harder it is to break them.

“So I tried to stay focused on my skiing, and I thought I skied really well on the top. I went a little bit too straight on the bottom. But I was able to pull it off.”

Lara Gut of Switzerland finished third, 0.67 behind, and maintained a 10-point lead on Vonn in the overall standings. Vonn has seven wins this season to Gut’s four.

Moser-Proell, the Austrian great, set her record from 1971-80.

Vonn won her first downhill in 2004, and earned her first podium finish in Cortina in 2004.

“She was lucky with the wind but she deserves the record,” said Austrian veteran Elisabeth Goergl, who finished 13th.

Vonn also matched Renate Goetschl, another Austrian, with a record 10th win in Cortina.

It was Vonn’s 74th win across all disciplines, moving her closer to Ingemar Stenmark’s all-time mark of 86.

“No, no, no. Stop talking about Ingemar,” Vonn said. “I need to just focus on tomorrow, one race at a time. I can’t start calculating the numbers because it just gets in my head and it makes it a lot harder than it needs to be.

“I just need to ski solid and not have any mistakes and then the results will come, and then the records will come. But you can’t put the cart before the horse.”

Vonn increased her advantage at every checkpoint and averaged 61 mph down the twisty course, one of the most challenging on the women’s circuit and recognized for the Tofane schuss — an imposing and dark chute through two walls of rock.

Vonn holds a 122-point lead over Yurkiw in the downhill standings, having won four of the five downhills.

Yurkiw, who raised her own funding for a one-person team, recorded her third consecutive podium in downhill.

Vonn can go for win No. 75 in Sunday’s super-G.

“Tomorrow,” Vonn said, “is hopefully another chance to win.”

By USSA

KITZBUEHEL, Austria – Thirty racers started a fast, dark and bumpy Hahnenkamm Saturday at the Audi FIS Ski World Cup downhill, but only 24 made it to the finish line. Andrew Weibrecht (Lake Placid, N.Y.) led a trio of surviving Americans.

The race, which started from a lower start position due to weather conditions, was officially canceled after bib 30 crossed the line. Italy’s Peter Fill was declared the official winner, with Switzerland’s Beat Fuez and Carlo Janka in second and third, respectively.

Weibrecht finished 13, Travis Ganong (Squaw Valley) was 18 and Marco Sullivan (Squaw Valley) 22.

Just making it across the finish line was a victory for 24 racers today, as the story of the day was the challenging conditions that saw overall World Cup leader Aksel Lund Svindal or Norway, and three members of the Austrian team crash in spectacular fashion. Svindal, however, did walk away after his crash and appeared OK.

“It’s been a wild ride watching this today,” said Steven Nyman (Sundance, Utah), who also went down, but was fine. “Hannes (Reichelt) going down, (Georg) Streitberger going down – Austria has lost five guys on this course this week. So I’m glad to just be in one piece.”

Nyman, who was fifth on the Hahnenkamm last year, was well on his way to what may have been a podium finish.

“I was five-tenths ahead when I went out – by far ahead in first place … it’s a bummer,” Nyman said. “But you have to risk it, and sometimes it doesn’t pay off.”

As for the rest of the American’s, they battled the weather conditions and slowly deteriorating track conditions to make it across the line.

“I’m happy to be at the finish,” Sullivan said. “Even though we’re the best racers in the world, it’s still stressful to run this thing. It’s scary every time you kick out of the start, especially when you see guys like Aksel and Reichelt crash – those guys never crash.”

“Tough conditions today – super dark, super bumpy and lots of wind, just really dangerous with the conditions,” Ganong added. “I’m not satisfied at all, I have higher expectations, and I know that I am capable of a lot more. But I’m just happy that I’m alive, I’m here and moving on.”

By David Ferry, Outside

Ian McIntosh was maybe five turns into a first descent of a jagged Alaskan peak when things went wrong. The 34-year-old Canadian pro skier was filming a segment for Teton Gravity Research and carving down a face the film crew dubbed “Daybreak Spines.” The light was playing tricks on him, and early-morning shadows made a long spine look easy to cross over. It wasn’t. McIntosh hit it hard and dropped five feet into a trough he didn’t know existed. Then he started rolling.

McIntosh says he was immediately certain of one thing: “I knew I was going to the bottom,” he says. “I knew I was going for a ride.” Then all he could think was, Am I going to get traumatically injured by tomahawking down this mountain? andPlease be over.

You probably know this already—the whole Internet seemed to see McIntosh’s epic 1,600-foot tumble, which was caught on film during a shoot for the upcoming ski flick Paradise Waits. The clip went viral this week because of the spectacular nature of the fall—McIntosh plummets ass-over-heels down the height of the Empire State Building for more than 25 cringe-worthy seconds—but also because after coming to a stop he emerges on top of the snow, unbelievably fine. “I’m OK! I’m OK!” McIntosh says in the video.

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By Drew Champlin, AL.com

UAB’s students showed out in full force in the Blazers’ 82-70 win over Rice Thursday, but Bartow Arena was far from a sellout.

The win gave the University of Alabama at Birmingham 20 straight at home, a school record, and improved UAB’s record this season to 16-3, 6-0. The team is in first place team in Conference USA.

Head coach Jerod Haase, a graduate of South Tahoe High School, has started to fulfill most of the goals he set out when he took the job in the spring of 2012. UAB’s roster is arguably the best and deepest in Conference USA. It won an NCAA Tournament game ahead of schedule with a lineup of mostly freshmen and sophomores last season. UAB’s academics are atop Conference USA and the Blazers are among the top teams in the country in community service hours.

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By USSA

KITZBUEHEL, Austria – It’s the biggest weekend in ski racing, and a couple new faces are not only soaking in the experience, but stepping up their game to come away with valuable World Cup points at the Audi FIS Ski World Cup combined Friday. Bryce Bennett (Squaw Valley), who has enjoyed a breakout season this year, finished ninth, while Drew Duffy (Warren, Vt.) scored his first World Cup points in 27 at the alpine combined event.

“It’s just awesome to be here … this is the biggest one, definitely a cool weekend,” said Duffy, who is planning to return to the NorAm and Europa Cup circuits and then off to Russia for the World Junior Championships for the remainder of the season. “I don’t know if I was more scared for the super G or the slalom. There were definitely some nerves, but I’m definitely excited on how I’m skiing.”

France swept the combined podium, which consisted of a morning super G and afternoon slalom, with Frenchmen Alexis Pinturault, Victor Muffat-Jeandet and Thomas Mermillod-Blondin going one-two-three. Pinurault also won the combined event at Kitzbuehel last season.

Bennett scored World Cup points for the fourth time this season with two solid runs, on a technical, icy track.

“It feels real good to get some second runs, get into the top 30, score some points, have some good results and feel OK about yourself,” Bennet said, knowing that the biggest race of his young World Cup career is Saturday in the Hahnenkamm downhill. “I’m doing (the Hahnenkamm) for the first time. I can see the line that you need to take, but I’m on the fence about committing to it, especially for the first time, so we’ll just see what happens in the morning.”

Austria’s Marcel Hirscher was looking to make up ground on overall World Cup leader Aksel Lund Svindal, who won the morning super G, but was disqualified for missing a gate in the slalom. Svindal is the odds on favorite to win Saturday’s downhill and extend his overall World Cup lead, which is currently 107 points ahead of Hirscher, who sits in second. Svindal also went out second run after straddling and losing his ski.

Seven Americans are scheduled to start Saturday’s downhill, including Bennett, Travis Ganong (Squaw Valley), Jared Goldberg (Holladay, Utah), Steven Nyman (Sundance, Utah), Wiley Maple (Aspen, Colo.), Marco Sullivan (Squaw Valley) and Andrew Weibrecht (Lake Placid, N.Y.), who finished second in Friday’s super G.

By USSA

KITZBUEHEL, Austria – Andrew Weibrecht (Lake Placid, N.Y.) grabbed his second, and most prestigious, super G podium result of his career finishing second in Friday’s Audi FIS Ski World Cup on the classic Hahnenkamm track.

“I couldn’t be happier. It’s awesome,” said Weibrecht. “Growing up everybody thinks about getting on the podium at Kitzbuehel. Today is a dream come true.”

Norway’s Aksel Lund Svindal won the race, and scored his 15 career World Cup super G victory. Austria’s Hannes Reichelt was third. Friday’s super G also served as the first leg of the alpine combined and is followed with an afternoon slalom race.

“I thought I was close today, but Aksel skied a great run,” Weibrecht said. ”I’m a little disappointed that he beat me, but it’s an amazing feeling. This is a dream come true to take home one of the Kitzbuehel trophies.”

Wiley Maple (Aspen, Colo.) was 25, and Steven Nyman (Sundance, Utah) was 26. Thomas Biesemeyer (Keene, N.Y.) was 31, Bryce Bennett (Squaw Valley) 34, Drew Duffy (Warren, Vt.) 50 and Tim Jitloff (Reno) 53.

Weibrecht dedicated his performance to 1994 Olympic Downhill Champion Bill Johnson, who passed awayThursday afternoon.

“He really jump started American downhill racing,” Weibrecht said of Johnson. “Nothing really happened up until 1984 when Bill came and put down that fantastic run in Sarajevo. He really revitalized the sport and paved the way for guys like Tommy Moe, AJ Kitt and Kyle Rasmussen … and those guys paved the way for our generation. It’s really important to recognize where we have come from as a country in this sport, and Bill was a big part of that.”