By Elizabeth Karam, U.S. Snowboarding

LA MOLINA, Spain – Lindsey Jacobellis of Stratton Mountain, Vt., led the U.S. charge winning her third career World Championship gold as the U.S. landed three of six snowboardcross medals Tuesday.

Seth Wescott of Sugarloaf, Maine, and Nate Holland of Squaw Valley also landed on the podium with silver and bronze.

After qualifying second for the finals, Olympic silver medalist Jacobellis was on fire out of the gate nailing all of her starts. As soon as she pulled out of the gate, it was no looking back as she grabbed the hole shot – taking all heats on her road to the finals.

With the win, Jacobellis is tied with the late Karine Ruby of France for the most World Championship victories with three. Ruby won four World Championship medals over the course of her career.

In the men’s race, Australia’s World Cup leader Alex Pullin was crowned champion, while the United States swept second and third. Two-time Olympic champion Wescott earned his fourth career World Championships medal – the most of any SBX rider, while six-time X Games champ Holland picked up his second bronze.

“At the start I looked across, we [Wescott and Holland] were at opposite ends of the gate and I yelled ‘shake and bake Wescott,'” said Holland. “We’ve done this so many times and it’s always a pleasure to ride with him and shake and bake.”

Wescott battled hard with Pullin in both the quarterfinals and semifinals trading spots with the Aussie taking the quarterfinals and Wescott the semifinals – both advancing to the big final. In the end, Pullin took charge dominating the finals run and crossing the finish first. Wescott’s silver puts him one ahead of France’s Xavier de le Rue in career medals.

Holland was second in every heat as he advanced to the finals. In the semifinals he was matched up with Italy’s Luca Matteoti, with the Italian taking the heat win. However, the big final was a different story with Holland finishing ahead of Matteoti for the final podium step.

“I have X Games coming up and that’s definitely a major focus of mine,” said Holland of the Winter X Games in Aspen Jan. 27-30. “I came out healthy and I’m going to enjoy this podium. I look forward to defending my title at X Games.”

Official results, FIS World Snowboard Championships, La Molina, Spain, Snowboardcross

Men

1. Alex Pullin, Australia

2. Seth Wescott, Sugarloaf, ME

3. Nate Holland, Squaw Valley, CA

–

8. Jonathan Cheever, Saugus, MA

26. Alex Deibold, Manchester Center, VT

Women

1. Lindsey Jacobellis, Stratton Mountain, VT

2. Nelly Moenne Loccoz, France

3. Dominque Maltais, Canada

It’s National Ski Safety Week. Resorts throughout Lake Tahoe are having special events related to this all week.

Here is the ski report from Curtis Fong, the Guy from Tahoe.

By Kathryn Reed

STATELINE – It’s not just a bike ride. It’s not just a one-day gig for the South Shore.

Carol Chaplin, executive director of Lake Tahoe Visitors Authority, last week made this extremely evident about the Amgen Tour de California during her presentation to the South Lake Tahoe Lodging Association.

The plan is to have a week’s worth of events leading up to the start of the race on May 15. Chaplin and others are starting to make the rounds this month to service clubs in the area to see how they would want to participate and if they would be responsible for a day of fun.

Events on the books include a Gala on May 13 for all involved, and what’s being called the Lake Tahoe Legends Participation Ride on May 14. The latter will be for anyone.

LTVA is talking with an unnamed property about having a party for the community.

As the host area, 1,848 rooms must be provided – for free, along with 3,844 meals for staff and teams. MontBleu and Harvey’s will be providing the rooms for the teams.

The eight-day race through California – and this year part of Nevada – is touted as having a $400 million economic impact each year. Chaplin said communities have reaped $3 million to $10 million from being a host city for the tour.

“I hope each one of you can take advantage of those wallets out there,” she told the meeting attendees.

Law enforcement and transportation representatives met last week for the second time to begin coordinating efforts. The highways around Lake Tahoe (50, 89, 28) will be closed in stages as the 200 riders pedal through the area.

The start will be near Stateline, with the cyclists going the 72 miles around the lake in about two hours and then doing much of it again before finishing at Northstar-at-Tahoe. The exact route – which may include city streets – will be released in February by tour officials.

The second stage starts at Squaw Valley and ends in Sacramento.

There will be 100 support vehicles, with more than two dozen California Highway patrolmen with them.

Chaplin was asked how the Highway 50 closure over Echo Summit will affect the cycling event. Weather permitting, it is possible Caltrans could start on the rock wall replacement project the Tuesday after Easter – April 26. This would start the two-week closure of the main road into the South Shore.

If all goes according to plan, it would open two days before the international teams arrive in Tahoe.

What hasn’t been addressed publicly is what happens if there is snow or ice on the road during the race. Lake Tahoe is notorious for long winters. One only need look at the snowfall for May and June 2010.

About 300 volunteers are going to be needed on the South Shore to handle various jobs. Sean Sweeney, an avid cyclist and director of skier services at Sierra-at-Tahoe, is heading the volunteer team.

Chaplin said she hopes this is the first of many years Tahoe will be involved with the bike race.

More information about the May 15-22 cycling race is on the Amgen Tour de California website.

By Jeff Delong, Reno Gazette-Journal

Major change is coming to what is arguably the Sierra’s most famous ski resort.

Squaw Valley USA, acquired in November by the Colorado-based investment firm KSL Capital Partners, is planning a $50 million upgrade to the resort made famous by hosting the 1960 Winter Olympics.

An infusion of cash is designed to put Squaw back on world stage. Photo/Kathryn Reed

It’s doing so, CEO Andy Wirth said, through a novel competitive approach involving three of the world’s best mountain planners.

“In essence, this is basically a bake-off,” Wirth said.

Three companies — Vancouver, Canada-based Ecosign Mountain Planners, Ltd.; International Alpine Design of Avon, Colo., and the Salt Lake City-based SE Group — are designing proposals for $50 million worth of mountain improvements.

On Feb. 1, Wirth and colleagues plan to decide which proposal they like the best and then proceed with improvements to be built over the next three to five years.

Nothing’s off the table. Changes could include renovation of the High Camp lodge, accessed by the resort’s iconic tram, new or relocated ski lifts, regraded ski runs and new restaurants.

“The only thing changing here is everything,” said Wirth, 46. “We want to make sure we have the best of the best. This is an incredible piece of rock on which we operate.”

None of the coming changes will compromise Squaw’s reputation as a “mountain of legend,” with extreme terrain such at KT-22 and the Headwall serving as beacons for adrenaline junkies, Wirth said.

Read the whole story

By Elizabeth Karam, U.S. Snowboarding

Five riders hailing from the United States qualified Monday for the snowboardcross World Championship finals scheduled for Tuesday in Spain. Olympic silver medalist Lindsey Jacobellis of Stratton Mountain, Vt., qualified second, while two-time Olympic champion Seth Wescott of Sugarloaf, Maine, and six-time X Games gold medalist Nate Holland of Squaw Valley were among the top 32 men to advance to the finals.

The snowboardcross finals are scheduled for Tuesday morning.

On the men’s side, 32 advanced including all four Americans with Holland leading the charge into Tuesday in 10th.

Official results, FIS World Snowboard Championship, Jan. 17, Snowboardcross Qualifiers

Men

1. Markus Schairer, Austria

2. Pierre Vaultier, France

3. Luca Matteotti, Italy

–

10. Nate Holland, Squaw Valley, CA

12. Alex Deibold, Manchester Center, VT

16. Jonathan Cheever, Saugus, ME

21. Seth Wescott, Sugarloaf, ME

Women

1. Nelly Moenne, Loccoz, France

2. Lindsey Jacobellis, Stratton Mountain, VT

3. Deborah Anthonioz, France

–

17. Faye Gulini, Salt Lake City

26. Callan Chythlook-Sifsof, Girdwood, AK

Sun is the word for the day.

Here is the ski report from Curtis Fong, the Guy from Tahoe.

By Kathryn Reed

Lake Tahoe Community College is creating a different kind of educational environment – a rail jam and more next month.

The nearly all-day event on Feb. 12 is being called the LTCC Winter Expo.

It is the brainchild of Kurt Green, interim dean of Instruction and Social Sciences.

Sierra, Kirkwood and Heavenly are sponsoring the rail jam that will be from 5-10pm that Saturday. The fee to enter has not been set, but signups will be just before the competition begins. Ages 9 and older may enter. Cash prizes will be awarded.

The festivities will begin at 2pm with local bands playing.

All of this will be in the parking lot near the Duke Theatre on the campus of the South Lake Tahoe college.

The night will wrap-up with a movie – possibly something from a local filmmaker – in the theater. It will start when the rail jam finishes.

College officials are hoping the event grow through the years to include more things to do.

Check the college website for updates.

By Jeff Delong, Reno Gazette-Journal

Nevada wildlife officials have finalized plans to plant more than 1.2 million trout across Nevada over the next two years — a program profoundly challenged by an invasion of exotic mussels at Lake Mead.

Closure of the Nevada Department of Wildlife’s Lake Mead fish hatchery, forced in 2007 due to the discovery of quagga mussels there, forced the department to ramp up production at its Mason Valley hatchery in Yerington as well as depend on another federal hatchery in Arizona.

With the Arizona deal set to expire, the department will cease stocking Lake Mead with trout beginning next fall, said Doug Nielsen, a Las Vegas-based spokesman for NDOW.

Quagga mussels, which now number in the trillions in Lake Mead, have become a “very significant factor” in fish-stocking operations as officials seek to halt spread of the invading mollusks to other water bodies, Nielsen said.

“That’s the key factor in the whole thing. We have to be able to guarantee we’re not moving mussels somewhere else,” Nielsen said.

Read the whole story

By Freddy Perryman, U.S. Ski Team

MONT GABRIEL, Quebec City – Olympians Ryan St. Onge of Winter Park, Colo., and Emily Cook of Bosto were the top Americans, both finishing just off the podium in fourth, in Sunday’s aerials World Cup at Mont Gabriel. St. Onge and Cook led a U.S. surge totaling five Americans inside the top 10.

Reigning World Champion St. Onge was joined in the finals by teammates Scotty Bahrke of Tahoe City and Dylan Ferguson of Amesbury, Mass.. The U.S. men’s team put more athletes into Sunday’s finals than any other country.

Bahrke who finished seventh and Ferguson who ended ninth, had a shared flight plan of full double full-full and double full full-full.

Aerials competition resumes Jan. 21 in Lake Placid, N.Y., at the Nature Valley Freestyle Cup. World Championships are scheduled for Feb. 2-4 at Deer Valley Resort.

Official results, FIS Freestyle World Cup, Mont Gabriel, Aerials

Men

1. Anton Kushnir, Belarus. 247.60

2. Guangpu Qi, China. 240.97

3. Stanislav Kravchuk, Ukraine. 234.60

–

4. Ryan St. Onge, Winter Park, CO. 233.22

7. Scotty Bahrke Tahoe City, CA. 227.13

9. Dylan Ferguson Amesbury, MA. 225.63

23. Nevin Brown, Streetsboro, OH, 88.69

30. Matthew DePeters, Hamburg, NY, 81.64

35. Jonathon Lillis, Rochester, NY 71.73

Women

1. Mengtao Xu, China. 192.28

2. Alla Tsuper, Belarus. 187.00

3. Shuang Cheng, China. 186.00

–

4. Emily Cook Boston, MA. 174.60

10. Ashley Caldwell Charleston, SC. 157.78

Skies will be mostly gray today, but the temps could hit 50. It might be time to find an Adirondack chair and sip a cocktail.

Here is the ski report from Curtis Fong, the Guy from Tahoe.