Archive for the 'Tahoe' Category

Today was our last “official’ day on the hill. Cleaning out the ski locker all the way down to the spent duct-tape balls, empty Hotties wrappers and that broken goggle lens from January got me all teary-eyed.

This was a ski season I’ll never forget. BIG snow in Tahoe. And more BIG snow in Tahoe. New fat skis. New thooperphat skis. Seven a.m. KAAAHHHBOOOOMS as avvy control woke us up to unreal powder.

Dozens of days of good times on the hill with dozens of family, friends and colleagues. Hundreds and hundreds of runs with Logan and Cody. Logan can ski everything now. Cody’s almost there. It’s an unreal feeling to not have to wait for the kids anymore!

The free wifi in the lodge at Alpine Meadows made it a little easier to work/ski/work/ski. And the 450+ inches of snow made it easy to ski and ski and ski and ski.

Sad to see it end, but it’s time to get back on the bikes. Here’s some video clips from today with the LoganCody knuck’n around the hill. ‘Till next season!

- Submit a Comment to this Post -

Last weekend the LoganCody competed in a cool little air contest at Alpine Meadows. Props to Justin at Snowbomb.com for organizing and dealing with the usual parent BS. (Rant: why do parents CARE so much about prizes for their 6 yo!? Some parents were idiots because this event wasn’t judges like the Olympics…EVERYONE was a winner and that seemed to upset a few Type-A “my-kid-is-fifth-in-the-nation” dorks. Go to Killington then…sheesh!)

Anyway, for those of you who know the little snots, there’s a cool video of the contest. Photos here. Cody’s in the red pants and green sweatshirt. Logan is in all black pants, green sweatshirt. He’s got the yellow Reno Bike Project sticker on top of his helmet. They all got Shane McConkey, Tanner Hall and Johnny Moseley huck dolls and were stoked!

- Submit a Comment to this Post -

SKI Magazine calls it “The social event of the year in the Lake Tahoe Region…" which is funny because SKI Magazine targets an older 50+ demographic and I can tell you that there’s not a lot of 50-year-old folks there. That said, SKI Magazine is right. This is a social event not to be missed. Unless your lame. Then you should probably miss it…

Anyway, in the spring of 2005, the Squaw community got together to throw a prom – not a high school prom, a ski town prom in which all proceeds went to charity. Three years and three Proms later, the Squaw Valley Prom is recognized as one the premier ski town bashes in the country.

I missed last year because of an out-of-town speaking engagement where I actually got paid, but will be up there this year. Unfortunately my attorney and doctor may not make it which is always uncomfortable to me to be out in public without them. <grin>

At least who takes themselves to serious is in Austin for SXSW leaving the rest of us to make silly in Tahoe.

Order up the corsages, make a hair appointment, and find a date because the 4th Annual Squaw Valley Prom, “Enchantment Under KT,” is on again this year! The legendary event will go down at Squaw Valley’s Plaza Bar on Saturday March 8, 2008. Get your tickets on sale at www.squawvalleyprom.com.

- Submit a Comment to this Post -

Anything and everything you ever wanted to know about launching an entrepreneurial venture can be found at the upcoming Entrepreneur Week (eWeek), March 8-16 in Greater Reno-Tahoe. Events include workshops, seminars, networking opportunities and a week-culminating Entrepreneur Expo.

March 10 – eWeek Kick-Off – Truckee Meadows Community College, 5:30 - 7:30 p.m.  Celebrate the start of eWeek Nevada and join Nevada Secretary of State Ross Miller, EDAWN’s Chuck Alvey, Reno-Gazette-Journal’s (RGJ) Ted Power and the winners of the RGJ Entrepreneur of the Year Awards. Donation and RSVP required.

March 11 – Northern Nevada Development Authority’s Business Resource Forum, Luncheon & Workshops - Plaza Hotel & Conference Center, Carson City - 9:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.  Hear about state and local resources available to all businesses while learning effective networking techniques and legal tips from HR pros. Featured speaker is Lynnette Hahn, Dale Carnegie Systems. RSVP by calling (775) 883-4413.

March 11 – ActionCOACH - “6 Steps to a Better Business" - Reno - 6:00 - 8:00 p.m.

March 12 – NCET’s Wi-Fi Wednesday - Location TBD - 5:30 - 7:30 p.m. Be part of the hippest, hottest new networking event for up-and-coming young professionals in the Greater Reno-Tahoe area!

March 13 – EDAWN Business Buzz - The Atlantis - 7:00 - 9:00 a.m. Featured speaker is Ben Casnocha, author of "My Start-Up Life: Best Practices from a Young Entrepreneur."

March 15 – NCET’s Entrepreneur Expo - 9:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. - Reno-Sparks Convention Center - Free - Open to the Public

· Attended by 500 to 1,000 small businesses

· Access to organizations that can help jump-start a business

· Expert advice on virtually every facet of starting and running a business

· 75 exhibitors - see complete of exhibitor here

· 25 speakers and panelists - see schedule and complete list of speakers here

eWeek events are managed by Nevada’s Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology (NCET). For more information visit www.ncet.org.

- Submit a Comment to this Post -

This year’s Subaru Squaw Valley USA Freeskiing Open is consistently bringing out the best of the best in big mountain freeskiing’s elite. The sold-out roster of 120 competitors faced wind-packed snow conditions during the second leg of the competition earlier this week, with Elyse Saugstad of Alyeska, Alaska grasping the women’s title with a total of 97.51 points. Squaw Valley’s own Allie Donovan took second with 92.26 points and Crested Butte, Colorado’s Tanya Christensen claimed third place with 89.14 points. The men’s competition blew away spectators with non-stop powerhouse skiing with perfectly-executed backflips, multi-hit cliff drops and airplane turns. Kirkwood, California’s Craig Garbiel –who rides for Reno’s MOMENT ski company — claimed top honors with 115.01 points, followed by Mt. Bachelor, Oregon’s Jesse Bryan with 110.76 points and Bryce Newcomb of Sun Valley, ID, who put in a hard-charging performance to earn third place, with 110.63 total points.

Griffin Post took home the coveted Tobias Lee Memorial Sick Bird Award. Next up…

2008 Subaru U.S. Freeskiing Series & Freeskiing World Tour Schedule

• Subaru U.S. Extreme Freeskiing Championships, Crested Butte, CO, February 19-23 (World Tour #1)

• Subaru Jackson Hole Freeskiing Open, Jackson Hole, WY, March 13-16

• Subaru U.S. Freeskiing Nationals, Snowbird, UT, March 18-23 (World Tour #2)

• Subaru Freeskiing World Championships and Subaru U.S. Freeskiing Series Finals, Alyeska, AK, April 9-13 (World Tour #3)

Check out comprehensive same-day video coverage on www.usfreeskiing.com.

- Submit a Comment to this Post -

Need some help making the right  IT decisions in the coming year? Check out NCET’s February 19 “Tech Tuesday” at Great Basin Internet Services (241 Ridge Street, Suite 450, Reno). This is one of the best tech/entrepreneur networking venues in Reno-Tahoe. The Feb. 19 event will  serve up good food & drink and a chance to be part of “The Right Choice in ’08,″ a glimpse at the latest and greatest offerings in the tech market. Give-aways include six months of GBIS Virtual Voice vPBX service including a VoIP phone.

NCET’s Tech Tuesday:

Tuesday, February 19, 5:30 – 7:30 p.m.
$10 donation at the door
RSVP by Monday, February 18 to Emily Lowe at Emily@NCET.org

- Submit a Comment to this Post -

More than 60 men and 30 women are scheduled to compete at the Subaru Squaw Valley USA Freeskiing Open February 13-16, including freeskiing champions Cliff Bennett, Kevin O’Meara, Griffin Post, last year’s men’s winner Adrien Coirier and Tour Champion Jess McMillan. These world-class freeskiers will battle it out for $7,500 with the men’s and women’s overall U.S. Freeskiing Tour point leaders taking home $2,500 each.

“Squaw is the perfect venue for a freeskiing contest; awesome terrain, great access, and perfect spectating spots. Not to mention, the local talent is unbelievable,” said former U.S. Freeskiing Champion and Squaw Valley USA local Ingrid Backstrom. "The month of January has been epic here; it’s shaping up to be excellent conditions for a contest. I can’t wait to see everyone charging."

With 34 lifts accessing six peaks, 4,000 acres of terrain, three terrain parks, spectacular mountain views and endless possibilities, Squaw Valley USA is a “must experience” on any snow sports enthusiast’s list.

MSI will be posting same-day video Webcasts on the newly-redesigned www.usfreeskiing.com, which features state-of-the-art video and photo player technology. The daily uploads of video, photos, news and results of each day’s competition action will be available after each day concludes.

For more information log onto www.usfreeskiing.com

- Submit a Comment to this Post -

I’m a 3rd generation skier raising a 4th generation. Just how many generations before skiing starts to become embedded within our DNA?

Over the last three weeks, Reno-Tahoe’s seen several winter storms. As I write this, it’s cold outside and all the Tahoe peaks are covered in the good white stuff. This year will be Logan’s (8) third year on the Alpine Meadows ski team. Cody (5) will be starting his first year. Yay! Last year, Logan played hooky from school about 13 days to hit every day of ski team plus the few powder days we had. I expect Logan and Cody will be missing a similar amount of school again this year.

Skiing for us is a lot of time spent together as a family. (See post from 2004.) It means 50+ days of being together. The 50+ days of 1.5 to 2.5 hours in the car together is where Logan gets a massive amount of homework and reading. It means a lot of discipline getting out of bed at 6:30am to be on the road by 7:30am to be in the lodge by 8:30am booting up and ready for 9am ski team start. It means a lot of lodge-time playing foosball, wrestling, eating, goofing off and hanging out with friends and other family. It means a lot of time riding the chairlifts with my kids and good wife talking and singing/making up stupid songs. And, of course, it means skiing! Whether the snow is great or the snow sucks, at least we’re skiing!

Skiing also introduces my kids to mentors like Shane McConkey…who my kids idolize as an “educational role model”. Shane can read. He can also ski, too!

Here’s a video of Cody from last January (2007). He was 4 at the time…about a month before his 5th birthday. Juxtaposed to that is a video of Paul Dugan — the Washoe County School District’s Superintendent (who kicks ass BTW) — giving Logan a reading award when he was in kindergarten 2 years a go.

The point: ski for literacy <grin>.

- Submit a Comment to this Post -