By Claire Martin, Denver Post

If you’re looking forward to hitting the slopes this winter, start training now to get the most out of that ever-steeper price on your lift tickets.

“When you buy a $100 lift ticket, you kinda want to go all day,” says Patrick Abramson, a longtime coach for the University of Colorado’s snowboard team.

“That means thinking of October and November up to Christmas as time to get ready for a season that really gets going in January. I tell my team to use the fall to really get prepared. Training prevents injuries, and if you want to progress in your sport, you have to be stronger than you were before.”

Snow sports involve a lot of lateral movement. They require balance and flexibility as well as endurance, said David Stewart, who coaches the Nordic ski teams for the University of Denver.

So even if you’ve sailed through Ride The Rockies, the Triple Bypass and other demanding summer rides, don’t assume you’re ready to step into your ski bindings.

All that cycling may mean your quadriceps are more developed than your hamstrings, creating an imbalance in your leg muscles that could put extra strain on your vulnerable ACL and other knee ligaments, Stewart said.

“Off-season sports, like long-distance running and cycling, are excellent, and great for the legs, but our sport is at least half upper-body as well, and that’s where you generate a lot of your force,” Stewart said.

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By Kathryn Reed

Even without a definitive recreation plan in place, South Lake Tahoe is moving forward with improvements.

This includes going ahead with a bike park at Bijou Community Park. The topic will be discussed by the Planning Commission this week and will be before the City Council in November. Bike paths are being improved, Regan Beach enhancements are being discussed and ball fields are being upgraded.

But a lot more needs to take place if the area is ever going to live up to its moniker of being a year-round playground.

Improvements to Bijou Community Park are being talked about. Photo/LTN file

Much of the South Lake Tahoe City Council discussion on Oct. 7 was about the draft master recreation plan that the city and El Dorado County are taking comments on. But what each council member stressed is the need to make sure Douglas County is at the table. Douglas used the same consultant for its rec plan.

Lauren Thomaselli, parks manager, on Tuesday pointed out how the South Shore falls below the national average when it comes to providing adequate recreation facilities.

In the more than 1,600 responses the city and El Dorado County have received on the draft recreation master plan, trails continue to be an overriding issue for people. The problem is that they don’t connect to one another, are disjointed and many are not in great shape.

The rec and swim center ranks high in terms of importance to people, but low when it comes to being a quality facility.

Another thing that keeps being pointed out is there needs to be a one-stop shop for people to find out what facilities exist on the South Shore, how to rent them, and when they are available.

While a master calendar would seem easy enough to devise, the problem is facilities are owned by various entities – including two K-12 districts, two counties, a college, one city, two states and private companies.

It’s not just the 35,000 people who live on the South Shore who want to use the facilities, but the 1.6 million people who visit the area each year. It’s a balancing act.

The council agreed the city should take the lead on bringing the parties together to create a gatekeeper type system. The electeds tasked staff with getting the stakeholders together and then asked for regular updates to be brought back.

Carol Chaplin, head of the Lake Tahoe Visitors Authority, said her agency is ready to be the major marketing arm for whatever the city goes forward with in terms of promoting recreation on the South Shore.

Wendy David, speaking as president of Lake Tahoe Unified School District, said the district wants to be at the table too. With the expanded sports medicine facilities at South Tahoe High School, she said this has generated interest in people wanting to bring larger and different types of recreation opportunities to the area.

In the two- to five-year span the city hopes to work on:

• Trail development

• Bike and pedestrian crossings

• Improve the swim-recreation center

• Improve Bijou Park

• Restore Regan Beach

• Upgrade Bijou Golf Course.

Funding to do these things could be the obstacle. Councilmember Brooke Laine more than once suggested dedicating a percentage of excess revenues to recreation capital improvement projects. Her colleagues did nothing with that suggestion.

—

Notes:

• More info about the plan is online.

• The deadline to comment is Oct. 10.

Because of the progress in suppressing the King Fire and repair efforts the road and trail closures on the American River Ranger District are no longer in effect.

The Tahoe National Forest has also made repairs to the Western States Trail and reconstructed the Swinging Bridge and smaller Pacific Slab Bridge are complete. The trail closure across the North Fork of the Middle Fork of the American River has been lifted.

Ongoing salvage logging is making the Western States Trail not accessible from Devil’s Thumb down to the Swinging Bridge.

The Tahoe National Forest routes that were reopened today include: National Forest System Road 96 (Mosquito Ridge Road); National Forest System Road 22; and National Forest System Trail 16E10, the Western States Trail, and Tevis Cup Trail.

By Michael McFall, Salt Lake Tribune

Deer Valley Resort is buying Solitude Mountain Resort and will take over its operations this May — the second major shift in Utah’s ski industry in weeks.

The purchase was a private acquisition and a news release about the deal does not disclose how much Deer Valley paid.

The Deer Valley management does not anticipate “any major changes in staffing at Solitude at this time,” according to a Deer Valley Resort news release. Some of Deer Valley’s staff will work alongside Solitude’s this winter to learn how they manage the resort, the release adds.

“Solitude has a distinct brand. What we want to do is build upon that brand,” said Coleen Reardon, Deer Valley’s marketing director. The Summit County resort will bring some of its service-oriented philosophy to Solitude, but they have no intention to re-brand. Deer Valley intends to keep snowboarding available at Solitude, and a name change would be limited to some acknowledgement that it’s now part of Deer Valley.

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Improving bike and pedestrian facilities around South Tahoe Middle School is going to the focus of several meetings this month.

Lake Tahoe Unified School District, Tahoe Regional Planning Agency, South Lake Tahoe and Lake Tahoe Sustainability Collaborative community mobility group will conduct a series of public outreach opportunities for community members, parents and students to help identify opportunities to create safer, more walkable and bikeable routes around STMS, Bijou Community Park and Lake Tahoe Community College. The project is funded by the On Our Way Grant from the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency.

The first outreach event will be Oct. 16 from 7-9am at STMS. Interested people will walk the project area and identify safety concerns during the morning drop-off at STMS. Parents are encouraged to attend. Meet in front of the school.

The second event will be Oct. 16 from 5:30-7:30pm in the multipurpose room. A public workshop is to introduce the project, identify opportunities and discuss challenges for walking and biking in the area.

Project alternatives will be discussed Nov. 19 from 5:30-7:30pm in the multipurpose room.

There will be a California avalanche workshop Oct. 18 at Lake Tahoe Community College.

This day long workshop is intended for all backcountry snow enthusiasts who spend time in or around avalanche terrain, whether just beginning or seasoned veterans.

The presentations and panel topics will include recent updates to avalanche forecasting and communication.

Cost is $15. The class is from 9am-5pm.

For more info, email reichel@ltcc.edu.

By Parimal M. Rohit, The Log

A recently approved law in California aims to finally address the state’s loose governance of recreational boaters navigating its many waterways. Gov. Jerry Brown signed into law a boater safety bill requiring all boaters in California to be in possession of a vessel operator card and pass a safety course.

While the new law will help shore up safety concerns on California’s waterways, there are many common sense and basic steps recreational boaters and other aquatic users can take to ensure a safe coexistence.

Co-authored by state senators Bill Monning, D-Carmel, and Mark DeSaulnier, D-Concord, Senate Bill 941 specifically requires recreational boaters to pass a sanctioned boating education course and obtain a vessel operator card in order to operate a motorized boat.

Both Monning and DeSaulnier pushed the bill as promoting boater safety and helping prevent common accidents.

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By Javaier Panzar, Los Angeles Times

With Californians being urged to cut water use as the state’s historic drought drags on, a growing number of local water agencies are enlisting the public to play water cop with their smartphones.

From Long Beach to Placer County, officials are rolling out apps that allow users to snap and send photos of homes and businesses that are violating watering restrictions or operating broken and wasteful irrigation systems.

The apps put more boots on the ground to spot waste and leaks that might go unnoticed, officials say. They say the high-tech citizen reporting programs are intended to encourage water conservation, and not to be used as evidence to fine offenders.

In Placer County, the water agency released a multipurpose water-saving app in May. It lets users report water waste, but it also features a shower timer that estimates how many gallons a person uses. So far, the agency has received 30 complaints, mostly about water runoff, said Matt Young, the agency’s director of customer services.

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Jim Payne after his 2,701 km flight. Photo/Provided

Jim Payne from Minden has won his third consecutive world championship in the Aerokurier Online Soaring Contest.

This yearlong contest has almost 15,000 competitors from around the world. To compete, glider pilots record their flights with a GPS logger and submit their flight logs to the contest website for scoring.

Payne’s six best distance flights covered 12,616.16 kilometers (7,839.7 miles). It makes him world champion in the OLC Plus (distance) for the fourth time in the last seven years.

He also won the world championship in the OLC Speed category. His average speed for his six best flights was 223 km per hour (139 miles per hour). This is his seventh world championship in eight years in the speed category.

Payne’s longest flight of 2,701 km (1,678 miles) was the world’s longest of the year. His fastest flight of 241 kph (150 mph) was also the world’s fastest in 2014.

Douglas County Parks & Recreation is registering youth for a fall basketball league at Kahle Community Park.

Registration is open until the leagues are full.

Divisions offered:
3-4 grade
5-6 grade
7-8 grade
3-5 grade girls
6-8 grade girls.

Cost:
$70 for 3-4 grade
$80 for 5-6 grade and 7-8 grade
$85 for 3-8 grade girls.

Nights of Play:
3-4 grades plays on Tuesday evenings
5-6 grade plays on Thursday evenings
7-8 grade plays on Wednesday evenings
3-5 grade girls on Tuesday evenings
6-8 grade girls on Wednesday evenings.
Games are between 5:30 and 8:30pm at Kahle Community Center

Season:
3-6 graders season will run November – March
7-8 graders season will run January – March

Teams usually will have one practice and one game per week.

For more information, call 775.586.7271.