By Megan Harrod, U.S. Ski Team
 
Olympian Ryan Cochran-Siegle (Starksboro, Vt.) opened his Toyota U.S. Alpine Championships week off with an alpine combined national title, laying down an impressive super-G run and a fast slalom run on the tough Baldy slope in Sun Valley, Idaho. On the women’s side, the young, talented A.J. Hurt (Carnelian Bay) – who started in her first FIS Ski World Cup this season at Killington at just 16 years old – won her first national title.

Cochran-Siegle – who started finding his groove and confidence prior to the 2018 Olympics, then skied with consistency in downhill (23rd), super-G (14th) and giant slalom (11th) in PyeongChang – noted that he has been able to build confidence little by little to get him where he is now.

“Starting with a few good results in combined right around the New Year, I was able to stop focusing on the pressures of Olympic qualifications, and really began to get a feel for my skiing across all disciplines,” reflected Cochran-Siegle. “Skiing well personally at the Olympics also provided me with that extra confidence needed to move up. Since then, I’ve felt that I have nothing to lose, and can put a lot on the line mentally come race day. This gave me a great result in the Kranjska Gora GS World Cup, and a little bit of trouble later in the Kvitfjell World Cups…but I know my competitive skiing is there. I feel that I’m skiing the best I have ever skied, in all events, and am just trying to ride this wave as long as it lasts.”

This is Cochran-Siegle’s second national title in as many years. Last year at Sugarloaf, Maine, he emerged victorious in the super-G, and will be looking to defend his title in Friday’s super-G here at Sun Valley. After a commanding lead in the super-G portion of the alpine combined on Wednesday, the future is looking bright.

Hurt, who skis for the National Training Group, hails from Squaw Valley. She’s cruisy-cool, inspects faster than Bode Miller, and skis with no fear. She put together both a solid super-G and slalom run to take her first national title home. At a mere 17 years old, this is Hurt’s second U.S. Alpine Championships, after competing in her first last year at Sugarloaf and finishing ninth in slalom and seventh in super-G.

After winning a NorAm race in Copper Mountain in November 2017, she made her World Cup debut in Killington and followed that up by another NorAm win at Panorama in December. She had two more World Cup starts this season, at Lienz, Austria, and Kranjska Gora, Slovenia.

By Ben Nuckols, AP

WASHINGTON — With the Supreme Court poised to rule on a case that could end the federal ban on sports gambling, more than a third of U.S. states are considering legislation to get in on the action, and professional leagues and casino interests are lobbying against each other for the biggest cut of the winnings.

The push to legalize betting on sports has already led to fractures in an uneasy alliance that had developed between leagues and gambling legalization advocates before Supreme Court arguments last fall.

The NBA and Major League Baseball have been asking states to give them 1 percent of the total amount wagered on their games, calling it an “integrity fee” so they can protect their products and snuff out attempts at cheating and game-fixing.

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By Case Keefer, Las Vegas Sun

Don’t be fooled by photos of money line tickets and high-priced parlays still circulating on social media a few days after the initial weekend of the NCAA Tournament.

Sports books aren’t hurting through the first 52 games of March Madness.

Sure, they may have taken a hit on a few highly-shared bets like UMBC at 25-to-1 to beat Virginia last Friday night but they more than made up for all the minor bumps before the weekend concluded. It remains to be seen if casinos can top last March’s record $41.2 million win on basketball, but they’re probably at least on pace.

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Skiers have been flocking to Tahoe area resorts. Photo/Sierra-at-Tahoe

By Tom Stienstra, San Francisco Chronicle

Nature bats last and the weather in March is hitting a grand slam for the outdoors.

The latest storms to sweep across the Bay Area, Sierra Nevada and Northern California are a game changer for the snowpack, reservoir levels — and the imminent blossoming of spring across the parklands and greenbelt in the Bay Area.

In a two-week span, the bottom of the ninth for winter, the storms arrived in time to transform the prospects for camping, hiking, boating, fishing and wilderness for the spring and summer recreation season.

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The California Tahoe Conservancy board approved a $3.182 million grant to El Dorado County to build the next phase of the South Tahoe Greenway Shared Use Trail.

The first phase was completed in0 October 2015, providing a .42-mile neighborhood connection between Glenwood Way and Herbert Avenue. Together with the first phase, this phase will provide almost two miles of continuous shared use trail in the heart of South Lake Tahoe.

It will link Tahoe Sierra and Bijou neighborhoods, Lake Tahoe Community College, and the community play fields.

By Jack Foersterling, Powder
 
 According to SnowSports Industries America (SIA), human-powered snowsports, which includes backcountry skiing and touring, is becoming one of the fastest growing sectors of the winter sports industry. Studies from SIA have shown that nearly 7 million skiers and snowboarders explored the backcountry in 2016-17, a 15 percent increase from the previous season, and sales of backcountry ski equipment see a similar increase year over year.

But a lot of skiers aren’t just using their gear in the backcountry–as access to better and lighter touring equipment has become available, many resorts across the U.S. are also seeing a significant uptick in visitors opting to skip the lift line and skin up the hill themselves.

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The  Vans crew is heading up to Sierra-At-Tahoe on March 17 for the grand finale of the 2018 Vans Hi-Standard Series.

The last stop of this free, all-ages international snowboard event welcomes local talent to join the series’ MVPs from around the globe for a final showdown to compete for the overall 2018 Vans Hi-Standard Series MVP title.

It’s an open-jam format that features a big air session where participants are judged solely on their individual style with no inverts or spins over 720 allowed.

Free lift tickets, lunch vouchers and cash prizes will be handed out on the spot.

In addition to the snowboard jam, Vans amplifies the spectator experience with a pop-up House of Vans workshop for non-competitors and family members.

Registration begins at 8:30am.

For more info, go online.

By Tom Millham

Late August into early September 2017, Lake Tahoe Wildlife Care had two bear cubs die suddenly over the space of two weeks; a shock to the entire organization.

LTWC’s veterinarian, Kevin Willitts, worked with Brandon Munk of the California Department of Fish and Wildlife to determine the cause of these bears’ deaths.

After extensive work by Munk and his team, alongside various other agencies, it was determined that a virus called canine adenovirus was responsible for the cubs’ deaths.

Through additional testing, the remaining four cubs being cared for at LTWC’s facility have proved to be positive for the virus. Initial concerns included the source of this virus so LTWC took immediate measures to quarantine the remaining cubs, in addition to the rest of the rehabilitation compound.

The four remaining cubs continued to show excellent health and are expected to remain healthy. They entered into their hibernation period – in early December – and have been seen nestling in the straw inside their den.

The loss of these two bear cubs stimulated additional investigation by Munk and pathologists at the California Animal Health and Food Safety laboratory. Their work has shown that other black bears in California have been exposed to canine adenovirus. Their investigations are ongoing and the significance of these findings is yet
to be known.

The two cubs (Burns Canyon and Laytonville) are expected to be released sometime in late March/early April, while the two cubs from the Tahoe area (Sky and Bliss) are scheduled to be released in late April/early May.

Tom Millham is the co-founder of Lake Tahoe Wildlife Care.

The Nevada Commission on Off-Highway Vehicles has awarded $1,290,293 to 28 off-highway vehicle projects and initiatives in the state. 

Funding comes from the registration fees of off-highway vehicles in Nevada. The program provides grants to fund OHV related projects throughout Nevada, including trail improvements, mapping, signage, law enforcement, education, safety training, restoration, and other projects.

Projects funded in 2018 include:

• Avalanche training, statewide;
• Signing of motorized trails in Gold Butte National Monument, Clark County, and in the Boundary Peak area, Esmeralda County;
• OHV management plans for Prison Hill in Carson City, and Shoshone Trail south of Battle Mountain, Lander County;
• Trail maintenance and signing throughout the Ruby Mountains, and near Jarbidge and Mountain City, Elko County, as well as the Ranger Trail in the Schell Creek Range, White Pine County;
• Studies and reconstruction of the flood damaged Kings Canyon Road, Carson City, in partnership with federal funding;
• Multiple law enforcement, search and rescue, and education grants throughout Nevada.
   

By Richard N. Velotta, Las Vegas Review-Journal

The American Gaming Association believes $10 billion will be bet on the NCAA men’s basketball tournament, and only 3 percent of that will be wagered legally.

Most of the betting money that will change hands as 68 teams vie for a national championship beginning Tuesday night will occur in office pools and bracket contests that are illegal in most states.

But the association representing the $240 billion casino industry used the kickoff of March Madness to highlight its fight to repeal the federal Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act and legalize sports wagering nationwide.

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