Caltrans is alerting motorists to be prepared for winter driving conditions as an intense cold storm is forecast for the Northern California area.

The National Weather Service has issued a winter storm warning for a weather system expected to arrive mid-day Wednesday and continue through Friday morning. Snow level could be as low as 3,000 feet as the cold storm moves into the Sierra.

Lake Tahoe Basin locations are expecting significant snow accumulations.

This storm will result in winter driving conditions throughout the area, including areas of localized flooding. Strong winds are also forecast, creating low visibility from white-out conditions in the higher elevations.

Chain controls on Interstate 80 over Donner Summit, on Highway 50 over Echo Summit and on other Sierra mountain roadways should be anticipated Wednesday afternoon through Friday morning.

By U.S. Ski and Snowboard

A strong and deep U.S. Olympic Freeski Team is headed to PyeongChang for the 2018 Olympic Winter Games. U.S. Ski & Snowboard on Jan. 22 announced the selection of 15 halfpipe and slopestyle freeski athletes who will compete at the Games beginning Feb. 9.

Highlighted among the 2018 U.S. Olympic Team athletes are defending halfpipe gold medalists David Wise (Reno) and Maddie Bowman (Meyers), defending slopestyle silver medalists Gus Kenworthy (Telluride, Colo.) and Devin Logan (W. Dover, Vt.), and defending bronze medalist Nick Goepper (Lawrenceburg, Ind.). The selections will be confirmed by the United States Olympic Committee when it formally names Team USA this Friday.

“My first trip to the Olympic Games was a true lifetime highlight. If anything, qualifying for the team this time was even harder. It is an unbelievable honor to be among this great team of Americans going to South Korea to represent our country,” Wise said.
 
Athletes qualified for the team through a series of five selection events beginning in February and concluding at Mammoth Mountain this past weekend.

Logan, who won silver in slopestyle at Sochi, will return in both slopestyle and in halfpipe.

Of the 15 athletes named to the team, 10 were members of the debut Olympic squad at the 2014 Olympic Winter Games in Sochi, including six of the eight halfpipe team members named.

The freeski team will have its first competition on Feb. 18, with women’s slopestyle qualifications. Finals are on Feb. 19. 
 
Team facts

• The team won six medals in 2014.
• Wise and Bowman return for their second Olympics to defend their halfpipe skiing Olympic gold medals from the 2014 Olympics in Sochi.
• Voisin will be returning to the Olympics with redemption on her mind. She injured her ankle in Sochi during training and was unable to compete. This will be her second chance to make an Olympic podium.
• Logan, who competed in slopestyle at Sochi, will be representing Team USA for the first time in halfpipe – the only dual event Olympians for the U.S. Freeskiing Team.
• After nearly missing the 2014 U.S. Olympic Team, Alex Ferreira found redemption by locking in an objective position in halfpipe at Mammoth Mountain.
• Torin Yater-Wallace will be returning to the Olympics, this time healthy and as an objectively qualified athlete vs. a discretionary pick in 2014.
• 2014 slopestyle medalists Kenworthy and Goepper qualified for the 2018 Games on the final day of the selection period, with Kenworthy coming from behind in dramatic style, winning in Aspen-Snowmass and then taking second in the Mammoth Mountain finale.

2018 U.S. Olympic Freeski Team

Slopestyle 
Men:

Nick Goepper, Lawrenceburg, Ind.
Alex Hall, Salt Lake City,
Gus Kenworthy, Telluride, Colo.
McRae Williams, Park City, Utah

Women

Caroline Claire, Manchester Center, Vt.
Devin Logan, W. Dover, Vt.
Darian Stevens, Missoula, Mont.
Maggie Voisin, Whitefish, Mont.

Halfpipe
Men

Aaron Blunck, Crested Butte, Colo.
Alex Ferreira, Aspen, Colo.
Torin Yater-Wallace, Basalt, Colo.
David Wise, Reno

Women

Maddie Bowman, Meyers
Annalisa Drew, Andover, Mass.
Devin Logan, West Dover, Vt.
Brita Sigourney, Carmel.

By Case Keefer, Las Vegas Sun
 
Bettors who zinged punchlines at Nick Foles at the end of the regular season must have felt a lot like Bill Belichick after he bear-hugged Matt Patricia on Sunday evening.

Both seemed like great ideas in the moment, but turned out to be quite miserable. The Patriots’ notoriously standoffish coach appeared to recoil once he was deep in his defensive coordinator’s arms celebrating his team’s 24-20 win over the Jaguars on Sunday to reach Super Bowl 52.

Those who faded Foles throughout the playoffs also wish they could have pulled themselves away before the backup quarterback led the Eagles to a 38-7 victory over the Vikings in the NFC Championship Game. Between the win over the Vikings and the divisional-round triumph against the Falcons, Foles completed 77 percent of his passes for 9.5 yards per attempt to lead the Eagles to their first Super Bowl appearance in 13 years.

The run should reiterate one of the most important lessons of sports betting — Never over-react to what you see last.

Read the whole story

By Eddie Pells, AP

The first time they met, Chloe Kim was in awe. And why not? Kelly Clark was, after all, an Olympic gold medalist and one of best snowboarders in the world.

“My parents were, like, ‘Oh my gosh, you touched Kelly Clark’s jacket,'” Kim said of that day, nearly 10 years ago, in the lift line at Mammoth Mountain.

Kim said she felt like the luckiest girl in the world to get to ride up the chairlift with Clark.

These days, the friendship remains strong, and those rides to the top lead to much grander pursuits.

Read the whole story

By Courtney Harkins, U.S. Ski and Snowboard

In the Toyota U.S. Grand Prix, both the U.S. men and women swept the snowboard slopestyle podium at Mammoth Mountain. With Olympic spots on the line, Kyle Mack (Bloomfield, Mich.) led the men, clinching his spot in the Winter Olympics, while Jules Marino (Westport, Conn.) and Hailey Langland (San Clemente) took second and third, respectively, for the women to grab their spots in Korea.

Red Gerard (Silverthorne, Colo.), who qualified for the Olympics at the Toyota U.S. Grand Prix at Snowmass last week, took second place. Brock Crouch (Mammoth Mountain) was third.

Mack, who was sitting in third place in the Olympic standings behind Gerard and Chris Corning (Silverthorne, Colo.), locked up his spot with a clean run. “I’m feeling just amazing, unbelievable right now,” said Mack. “Red is one of my best friends—he’s been such a homie, and I couldn’t be more excited to be heading to Korea with him. I’m just excited to go and be a part of it and represent my country.”

In the women’s event, Jamie Anderson (Meyers) had already qualified for the Olympics in the Dew Tour in December, but still went all out to take the win.  

“I knew I would be going with Jules and Hailey,” said Anderson, after her run. “They are just so talented and young and filled with good energy. They’re just amazing people and riders”

Langland and Marino were equally as excited to attend their first Olympics. “This is a really surreal moment right now,” said Marino. “It definitely hasn’t sunk in. Before Hailey and dropped in for our last run we knew we were going to the Olympics together. We’re 17 and 20 and we are going to the Olympics. That’s insane. It’s such a big event and I can’t believe it. We were so stoked and just gave each other a hug and couldn’t be happier that we get to experience it together.”

The fourth spot on the U.S. Olympic snowboard slopestyle team will be named at the beginning of next week.

By Peter Flax, Outside

If you live in the U.S., you’ve surely heard an oral history of naughty cyclists. There’s a widely held perspective that city and suburban streets are overrun with lawbreaking riders—a swarm of oblivious, entitled cyclists rolling red lights, blasting through stop signs, slaloming down one-way streets, then (hypocritically!) flipping off drivers. 

As someone who has driven hundreds of thousands of miles over the past 34 years, and ridden a bike for even longer, my point of view is different. Everyone seems to break the rules, whether they’re on two wheels or four. The big difference is that some do it on an 18-pound bicycle and some do it in a 4,000-pound SUV that can cause exponentially greater harm. 

But people who don’t bike don’t see it that way—they just see people on bikes charging through those stop signs. And it’s nearly impossible to combat their perceptions or even engage in meaningful debate without hard evidence of a different reality. And to date, very little research has produced quantifiable data comparing how drivers and cyclists actually behave on the road.

Read the whole story

By Jim Krajewski, Reno Gazette-Journal

If you were a proponent of facing the biggest and best schools in state athletic competitions, you got your wish.

But, if you preferred not facing Bishop Gorman — or any other large-school Southern Nevada powerhouses — you will have to suffer for at least two more years.

The Nevada Interscholastic Activities Association board of control voted, 7-2, Thursday to not create a new 5A Class in high school sports in the fall.

Read the whole story

The U.S. Forest Service’s Ski with a Ranger program at Heavenly Mountain Resort is resuming Jan. 26.

Tours begin at Tamarack Lodge every Monday and Friday at 1pm. The tours last approximately one-hour and continue through April 6, weather permitting. 

Participants must be intermediate level skiers/boarders or above and provide their own lift ticket. No reservations are required. Attendance is on a first-come, first-served basis. Group size will be limited to 12. Meet at the top of the Heavenly gondola outside of Tamarack Lodge. 

These conservation education programs are offered to educate the public about the mission and role of the Forest Service in ski area management, to improve public understanding of natural resource processes and issues, and to promote environmental literacy and stewardship. Programs are led by U.S. Forest Service conservation education staff and volunteers, and operate through a cooperative effort between Heavenly Mountain Resort and the City of South Lake Tahoe. 

For more information, contact Jaclyn Tain at 530.543.2730, email jtain@fs.fed.us.

The U.S. Forest Service Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit is seeking comments on a proposal to reduce excess vegetation on approximately 3,800 acres on the South Shore.

The purpose is to reduce the risk of wildland fires and create healthier forests. 

Treatments would include forest thinning using hand and mechanical methods, cable yarding and prescribed fire operations involving pile and understory burning. Tree planting may also occur in some areas to promote tree species or forest structure diversity. Treatments would take place in areas thinned within the last 25 years and in areas that have not been previously treated.

Hand thinning would take place on steeper slopes not accessible to mechanical equipment and generally steeper than 30 percent.

Mechanical thinning operations would include cut-to-length and whole tree removal. 

Work could begin this spring. It will take approximately eight years to complete. 

The proposed action available online. Comments will be taken until Feb. 16.

Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest officials are seeking comments on the Mt. Rose Ski Tahoe Atoma Area Expansion draft environmental impact statement.

The draft EIS analyzed the environmental effects of expanding the ski area permit boundary and associated facilities to improve the quality of recreational offerings. The purpose of the expansion project is to provide additional terrain that is comfortable and appropriate for lower-level skiers and improves the ski area’s ability to provide a consistent and quality snow surface on key ski terrain throughout the season.

The draft EIS analyzed three alternatives: no action, proposed action (Alternative 2) and the Forest’s preferred action (Alternative 3). Alternative 2 and 3 are similar in that they would amend the existing special use permit by approximately 112 acres to incorporate a portion of the Atoma Area located on the north side of Mount Rose Highway. In addition, a chairlift and skier bridge across the highway, 11 new ski trails, and a 5 million gallon water tank to support snowmaking would be constructed.

A Forest Plan amendment would also be required for both action alternatives, which would restrict future commercial development on approximately 3,446 acres of NFS lands in the area known as Galena Land Exchange with the exception of the 112-acre Atoma and 168-acre Chutes areas.

The difference between the two action alternatives is that Alternative 3 would require a two-chair lift configuration to service the Atoma Area. The lift configuration would require one chairlift to cross over the skier bridge rather than directly over the highway. Additionally, a restroom would be located on NFS land instead of on private land.

The comment period ends April 18. The draft EIS is online.