By Jason Blevins, Denver Post

Vail Resorts. American Skiing Co. Aspen Skiing Co. Boyne USA. Triple Peaks. Intrawest. Peak Resorts.

North America’s largest ski resort operators have historically directed more creative effort into marketing and business plans than picking a company name —  with the exception, arguably, of Utah’s Powdr Corp. Resort companies tend to be more imaginative in picking their stock market ticker symbol, such as MTN, SKIS and SNOW.

Don’t expect that to change as the newest giant in the resort world — the partnership between private equity firm KSL Capital Partners and Jim Crown, the owner of Aspen Skiing Co., which this year has acquired 13 ski areas — ponders a name.

“We are going to have a name soon so we can stop calling it ‘NewCo,’” said David Perry, the former Aspen Skiing exec who is captaining what is now the continent’s second-largest resort operator. “If we wait any longer, we are going to have to call it ‘OldCo.’”

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Publisher’s note: This is one of a series of stories about Lake Tahoe area athletes who hope to compete in the 2018 Olympics in South Korea.

By Kathryn Reed

PARK CITY, Utah – Age is not spoiling the free spirit known as Jamie Anderson. She still marches to her own drummer. She is just as unconventional on the snow as she is off.

While her laid back, crystal loving, essential oil using, holistic lifestyle may be more apropos in someplace like Santa Cruz, she is 100 percent homegrown Lake Tahoe.

At 27 she is a veteran in the world of snowboarding competition, having been the youngest woman to win an X Games gold in 2007.

Jamie Anderson knows the competition will be stiffer at the 2018 Olympics. Photo/Kathryn Reed

She acknowledges there is another generation eager to dethrone her. They are practicing tricks on dry ground, something she scoffs at. Anderson is old school. The sport is supposed to be all about the snow and being one with it.

Cheating is what those air bags used to be considered. Now they are mainstream.

“It takes away from the fear factor,” Anderson said. “It’s changing the sport; it’s progressing faster.”

An air bag has been set up at the Olympic training facility in Park City. The idea is to try tricks with a controlled landing – an inflated contraption that takes the pain out of falling. Anderson tried it a couple times last summer but has not been won over by it. She remembers going to the mountain and building jumps or finding natural ones. That’s how she still likes to ride, even when she’s at her home resort at Sierra-at-Tahoe.

Anderson tries to get back to Tahoe when she can, but it’s hard with her travel-competition schedule. She’ll be in town this month specifically to work out with her trainer Eufay Wood who owns the Stateline gym Club 100.

“He knows that I don’t like a lot of intense work,” Anderson said smiling. Maybe so, but Wood’s reputation is all about being intense and getting his clients in incredible shape. “I’ve been so bad at training this year,” she admitted.

Anderson intends to be in PyeongChang, South Korea, in February to defend her slopestyle gold medal.

“Qualifying will be the hardest process,” Anderson said. She acknowledged once she gets to South Korea, half of her teammates won’t be there. There are a series of qualifying competitions, with one having taken place last season, which she won.

Anderson was in Park City in September for the Team USA media summit along with more than 100 other athletes hoping to compete in February’s Winter Olympics.

She admits there are more responsibilities with her elevated stature in the snowboarding world. Sponsors take time, her charity takes times, it’s no longer just about snowboarding. But the young competition, well, she knows their No. 1 focus is the sport.

Anderson acknowledged she’s not sure if her gold medal run in 2014 would be good enough to get her into the finals in South Korea. Things have changed that much.

But she has a leg up on some of her competition by having already visited South Korea in a test run last season.

“South Korea is like nowhere else I’ve been to,” Anderson said. The food, the culture, the people, the hot springs – she loved it all. The mountains reminded her of the East Coast of the United States.

For the first time in a Winter Olympics there will be a big air competition, which has been in the X Games for years. This means Anderson will be vying for two medals. Big air focuses on one trick, while slopestyle is a series of tricks.

For now, Anderson calls Tahoe (she was raised in Meyers, where she was home schooled) and Whistler home. Her boyfriend, also a professional snowboarder, hails from Canada.

Anderson prefers to master her sport on the snow, not on an air bag like this one in Park City. Photo/Kathryn Reed

Anderson has never forgotten where she came from. She didn’t come from a family of privilege. She understands the costs involved to be an elite athlete. That is one of the reasons why in 2013 she started the Jamie Anderson Foundation as a way to help youngsters pursue their dreams.

In South Lake Tahoe, Anderson was instrumental in getting the sculpture that will be part of Champions Plaza to not resemble three men. The artist, while clamoring that it was gender neutral, revised it. It should be unveiled this year. Anderson will be one of the inaugural inductees.

“I’d like to do a skate park in Meyers. I’d love to do more in the community,” Anderson told Lake Tahoe News. “A Tahoe skate park is my next project.” Well, maybe right after the Olympics.

By Dave Zook, Moonshine Ink

That Tahoe/Truckee kids have a good amount of sporting options would be an understatement. There are the traditional ball sports that most Americans grow up with. And then there are the sports unique to a mountain town, such as mountain bike leagues and skiing — alpine, big mountain, and Nordic, with multiple competitive disciplines each — which all also vie for time with the endless list of recreational outdoor activities.

And if that weren’t enough, within the arena of traditional sports there is the increasing role of club sports as an option outside of official school leagues. These associations are organized independently of schools, and are commonly seen in soccer, volleyball, basketball, and baseball. They are available to kids barely out of preschool, and can steer a kid’s athletic direction for life.

Clubs draw in parents and kids with the promise of high competition levels, top-tier coaching, and exposure to the eyes of college recruiters, but they also require heavy travel and time commitments, and substantial cost to participate. With the increasing appeal of club teams, is club sports’ influence changing the youth sports landscape as we know it?

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Gabbi Fisher with partner Abby Burns will be representing South Tahoe High School at state. Photo/Gina Tarwater

The Tahoe-Truckee area will be well represented at the state championships in tennis.

The NIAA 3A regional championships for the girls and boys high school teams was played in Tahoe Donner in Truckee on Oct. 13-14. The top three singles players and doubles teams go to state in Las Vegas next weekend.

Viki Valente of Incline Village had to beat teammate Kate Tong to win the singles tournament. She did so 6-2, 6-3. Becky Ziegler of Truckee came in third by topping Kayla Mason of South Tahoe High, 6-3, 6-3.

Mason is a sophomore and No. 7 seeded singles player for the Vikings. Her coaches expect her to just keep getting better.

Abby Burns and Gabbi Fisher of South Tahoe dominated the finals with a 6-1, 6-2 bruising of Churchill County’s Brynlee Shults and Brooklynn Whitaker.

Abby Burns and Gabbi Fisher

“This team has played together since their freshman year and are best friends. This season they played our No. 1 line every match and only lost one set out of around 30 sets played,” Vikings coach Suzy Allione told Lake Tahoe News. “They communicate well, strategically figure out their opponents, and support each other positively.”

Courtney Engberg and Rachel Heath of Truckee finished third.

For the boys, Zach Haas of Truckee was seeded first in the local tournament for a reason. He breezed through his competition, winning the final 6-0, 6-3 against No. 2 seed Lucas Tong of Incline.

Mickey Sullivan of South Tahoe High prevailed for third place, besting Dalton Fry of Incline 6-4, 7-5.

In doubles, it was the Truckee combo of Zach Larson and Noah Warren who came out on top against Myles Getto and Blake Malkovich of Churchill County, 6-3, 6-2. The third seed at state will be Turner Drummond and Patrick Hogan of Truckee. They edged out South Tahoe’s Quinn Proctor and Pete Sullivan, 2-6, 7-6 (5), 6-4.

— Lake Tahoe News staff report

The U.S. Forest Service Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit will soon begin closing recreational facilities and forest roads around the Lake Tahoe Basin for the winter season. 

Tahoe Valley and Zephyr Cove Resort campgrounds remain open year-round, along with Camp Richardson and Zephyr Cove resorts and beaches. 

Forest roads generally begin closing in mid-November for soil protection and public safety. For specific closing dates for forest roads, go online.

Campgrounds on National Forest lands in the Tahoe basin managed by Tahoe Recreation, a division of California Land Management, will close Oct. 15.  Campgrounds closing include Bayview, Fallen Leaf, Kaspian, Meeks Bay, Nevada Beach and William Kent. Day-use areas and beaches closing include Baldwin, Kaspian, Meeks Bay, Nevada Beach, Pope and William Kent.

Some sites remain open after Oct. 15.  For a complete list of sites and closure dates, go online.

By Thomas Moore, Las Vegas Sun

Online poker players in Nevada can now play against people in New Jersey after Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval announced Friday that New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie signed the Multi-State Internet Gaming Agreement with Nevada and Delaware. Nevadans can already face online poker players in Delaware.

“New innovations and technological advancements are connecting more people and increasing the capabilities of Nevada’s gaming industry. Gaming is one of our oldest industries, and it’s imperative that we continue to look for new opportunities to explore its full potential in a changing frontier,” Sandoval said.

A.G. Burnett, chairman of Nevada’s Gaming Control Board, praised the deal.

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By Thomas Moore, Las Vegas Sun

The U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in a case that could legalize sports betting across the country on Dec. 4, according to a calendar published by the court.

The Supreme Court decided to hear the case, Christie v. NCAA, in June. “Christie” refers to New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, and the case is an attempt by that state to overturn a lower court’s ruling that blocked an attempt to legalize sports betting in the Garden State.

The case involves the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA), passed in 1992, which prohibits sports betting nationwide except for four states: Nevada, Montana, Delaware and New Jersey.

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Placer County is seeking public input on its draft Truckee River Corridor Access Plan.

This will outline recreation and public lands access improvements along the Truckee River between North Lake Tahoe and Truckee.

Preliminary proposed is alignment for a continuous trail along state Highway 89 between Truckee and the entrance to Squaw Valley, which would complete a large part of the planned Resort Triangle Trail network connecting Truckee with major resorts in Placer County and eventually Lake Tahoe itself.

A community meeting is set for Oct. 18 from 4-6pm at the U.S. Forest Service Truckee Ranger District conference room, 10811 Stockrest Springs Road in Truckee.

The final plan is scheduled for completion in late 2018, with consideration by the Placer County Board of Supervisors to follow.

The white satin moth outbreak in Lake Tahoe Nevada State Park continues to be a problem.

A survey by the Nevada Division of Forestry revealed 226 acres of infestation, ranging from minimal to heavy defoliation.  Minimal defoliation was mapped on 52 acres, with moderate areas mapped on 107 acres, and heavy areas mapped on 67 acres. 

The good news is the freezing weather in the higher elevations is triggering the insects’ transition to their over-wintering stage which results in lower trap numbers.

In late August, the second hatch of larvae occurred and sampling found high caterpillar numbers feeding in upper North Canyon, Marlette Lake, and west of Hobart Lake. Bark and leaf samples found 10-15 caterpillars per leaf, which officials say is extremely high.

The high numbers are impacting fall colors.

Scientists say moth numbers are likely to increase next year, causing more defoliation, tree stress, and tree mortality.

State officials ares researching the possibility of conducting a biological insecticide spray project next year in the park.  This a non-native invasive insect.

With winter approaching, the Nevada Department of Agriculture urges consumers to be careful when purchasing firewood. Advertisements can mislabel firewood, leading buyers to believe they are purchasing more wood than they actually are.

Per Nevada law, firewood measurements have specific language. Legal terms for trade of firewood in Nevada are: full cord (128 cubic feet), half of a cord (64 cubic feet) and fourth of a cord (32 cubic feet). Buyers should use caution if sellers use any other terms, which could be an attempt to mislead.

The best way to prevent getting shorted firewood is to get the seller’s phone number, license plate, name and address. Buyers should also ask for a receipt showing the price, kind and amount of wood.”

If a dispute isn’t resolved, contact the NDA’s Consumer Equability Division.