mountain

Reigning Olympic gold medalist halfpipe skier Maddie Bowman celebrated both her birthday Wednesday and a ticket to the finals of the Toyota U.S. Grand Prix at Snowmass this weekend.

The 24-year-old South Lake Tahoe native competed against the top eight women half pipe skiers, qualifying easily behind Cassie Sharpe, the 2016 X Games Oslo champion.

David "Stryder" Franklin, age 44, passed away in a tragic accident on January 1, 2018 in Costa Mesa, California. Funeral services will be held at Pacific View Memorial Park and Mortuary located at 3500 Pacific View Drive in Corona del Mar, California on Friday, January 12, 2018 at 2:00 p.m.

Western Nevada College has named 322 students to the Fall 2017 Dean’s List. To earn this distinction, students must complete at least 12 units during the semester and accumulate a grade point average of 3.50 or higher.

Honorees from Nevada include:

Battle Mountain
Sruti Bhakta, Liliana Chavez, Danny Diaz, Drue Domagala, Audrey Farr, Grace Melver, Kade Quintana, Julia Ramirez

Carson City

Looking for somewhere to ring in the new year?

We've got you covered in South Lake Tahoe and here are some of your choices.

Hard Rock Lake Tahoe has two ways to enjoy the evening:

Starting at 9:00 p.m., enjoy live music by DJ Rizzo until the ball drops with people of all age at their Light Up The Plaza in front of the casino. This is a free event, but you can purchase an LED wristband that syncs with the music for $10 from Party HQ.

Kirkwood Mountain Resort has been fined $754,732 after their snow removal practices resulted in asphalt pavement grindings to get into drainages that flow into Kirkwood Creek and Kirkwood Meadows during the winter of 2015-16.

The financial settlement was with the Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board over the alleged violations of the federal Clean Water Act, the Board announced on December 28.

With no storms are on the horizon and snow-making operations ramped up, both Heavenly Mountain Resort and Northstar California have unwrapped more terrain for holiday skiers and riders, and they are joined by other area resorts with plenty to do for holiday visitors.

With funds provided by Vail’s EpicPromise grants, Heavenly Mountain Resort partners with Bread & Broth to annually host six Monday Meal dinners at St. Theresa Grace Hall. Every other month, Heavenly sponsors an “Adopt A Day of Nourishment” and sends a team of volunteers to help crew at their sponsorship dinner On. December 11th, hosting their last AAD of the year, Heavenly’s volunteer sponsor crew was manned by Michelle Beall, Kelly Campbell, Chris Eckert, Katie Ficeto and Frank Papandrea.

The rural mountain lifestyle we all enjoy at Lake Tahoe is not isolated from the major urban areas nearby. On a typical holiday weekend, the Tahoe Basin turns into a recreation thoroughfare as tens of thousands of day and overnight visitors who sustain our local economy drive up from the San Francisco Bay Area, Sacramento, and Reno.

Two homes in South Lake Tahoe were damaged Saturday evening after trees fell onto them as the area was under a high wind advisory. Both homes are located near Heavenly Mountain Resort.

A 54-year-old man is safe and warm today after getting lost in the forest between the casinos and Heavenly Mountain Resort Tuesday evening.

The Montverde, Florida man was out for a hike with his dog before dusk on December 12, 2017. He called 911 at 5:16 p.m., telling them he was lost.

Three teams from Douglas County Search and Rescue were called out and started covering the area on foot. The Washoe County Sheriff's Raven helicopter also responded, hovering around Van Sickle Bi-State Park in South Lake Tahoe with spotlights on the area.

Are you a college student looking for an internship this winter? Are you a retired school teacher who misses your students or providing education? Or maybe you simply love the outdoors and want to be involved in your community?

The U.S. Forest Service Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit is looking for volunteers to assist with their Winter Trek and Ski with a Ranger conservation education programs at Heavenly Mountain Resort from January through March 2018.

EpicPromise grants and donations were given away on Wednesday to dozens of non-profits who serve the communities around both Heavenly Mountain Resort and Kirkwood.

Grants and donations are given by Vail Resorts in all of the communities where they have operations and go to programs who serve youth or environmental initiatives.

This year's recipients:

Alpine County Unified School District
Alpine Watershed Group
American Youth Soccer Association #282
Austin's House
Barton Memorial Hospital Foundation (3)
Boys and Girls Club of Lake Tahoe
Bread & Broth
CASA El Dorado

Squaw Valley has created a nonprofit that will manage and distribute millions of dollars generated from the voluntary project transfer fee related to the approved redevelopment of The Village at Squaw Valley.

Named the Squaw Valley Foundation, a seven member board of directors will soon be selected and it's members will be a mix of local residents and business owners, second homeowners and a public service district appointee.

The longstanding tradition of a decorated fire engine continues in South Lake Tahoe as the SLT Fire Rescue team sets out on nightly travels through neighborhoods December 10-24. Each nigh the South Lake Tahoe Christmas Engine will leave Station 3 at the Y at 5:00 p.m. and the firefighters will be passing out candy canes to everyone who comes out to see them!

Sunday December 10 - Keys/Venice Blvd
Monday December 11 - Glenwood area
Tuesday December 12 - Keys Blvd/State streets
Wednesday December 13 - Barton/Tahoe Island park
Thursday December 14 - South Y / Tata Lane area

10:55 a.m. update: Crews have fixed the primary wire that went down in the Angora Creek area Thursday morning. At first restoration was estimated at by 2:30 p.m. It is unknown how the wire came down.

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Crews from Liberty Utilities are on their way to the US50 and Angora Creek area due to customers reporting partial, or no power.

The affected area includes Dixie Mountain Rd, Pyramid Court and Circle, Mt. Shasta Circle and Snow Mountain.

Conservation efforts are seeing the return of black bears into the Great Basin of Nevada, an area that hasn't seen the mammal for over 80 years according to a study released this week by the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), the Nevada Department of Wildlife (NDOW), and the University of Nevada-Reno (UNR).

Prior to this study, most of the state's black bears could be found around Lake Tahoe and the Pine Nut Mountains after being forced from the Great Basin by unregulated hunting and conflicts with domestic livestock.

Very mild conditions will prevail through Saturday with a few record high temperatures possible. Things will start changing Saturday ahead of a strong cold front which will bring snow to the Sierra and northeast California Sunday and Sunday night.

The National Weather Service has issued a High Wind Watch for Lake Tahoe on Saturday, November 25, 2017 from 10:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. as a potent Pacific storm moves inland, bringing rain and mountain snow along with those gusty winds.

Happy holidays from Lake Valley Fire Protection District. Here is the neighborhood schedule for their Holiday engines. The truck runs December 11-23, 2017.

December 11 – Echo View Estates, Tahoe Mountain Road, Mule Deer Circle
December 12 – Lake Tahoe Blvd from Boulder Mountain Drive to Grizzly Mountain Drive
December 13 – West side of North Upper Truckee from Zuni Street Highway 50, Chiapa Drive
December 14 – East side of North Upper Truckee from Grizzly Mountain to West San Bernardino Ave.
December 15 – Christmas Valley from Highway 50 to Grass Lake Road

The skies are clearing over Lake Tahoe Friday morning with cool temperatures and some snow still lingering. As this storm moves to the east, South Lake Tahoe should see a high near 42 and wind gusts up to 25 mph. This weekend forecast includes a high of 50 and sunny skies.

Heavenly Mountain Resort received 23" of snow over the last 48 hours, just in time for opening day November 17. On the North Shore, Squaw Valley had 7" in last 24 hours and Mt. Rose reports 33-40" during this storm.

On Friday morning, chain controls remain on South Shore roads (as of 7:30 a.m.):

Heavenly Mountain Resort will open for the 2017-2018 season on Friday, Nov. 17, just as a winter storm passes by Lake Tahoe.

“We’re thrilled to begin the ski season at Heavenly this Friday,” said Mike Goar, senior vice president of mountain division and chief operating officer of Heavenly Mountain Resort. “We’ve been hard at work making snow at every opportunity, and current forecasts are calling for snow. We’re excited to begin another terrific ski season.”

Tahoe Douglas Fire Protection District christened Marine 24 Monday, giving Lake Tahoe its first year-round firefighting boat.

At a cost of almost $500,000, Marine 24 is able to fight fire from hoses on board as well as hooking up to pipes along lakefront homes in Douglas County and piping water from the lake into water tenders. The boat can send water 300 feet, but their main function will be to pump water into pipes at the shore that water tenders will hook up to.

Dear John, Steve, Mo and Sombreros,

Thank you so much for all you did for us on the day we hiked Mt. Tallac. We enjoyed your company and couldn't have done it without you guys as our chaperones, or your encouragement.

The healthy, thoughtfully put together snack bags were so good, even the chipmunks were eyeballing them. They gave us the fuel to climb up the mountain and the taco truck gave us the motivation to do it. The tacos were delicious and so were delicious and so were the brownies!

Many people in Meyers and South Lake Tahoe heard "loud booms" early Tuesday afternoon. Those who have lived through winter recognized the sound as avalanche control cannons, but with no snow the reasons weren't clear.

Here is the story:

California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) was installing new cannons to replace the 25-year-old equipment on Flagpole Mountain, home to the Echo Summit avalanche control operations.

After a winter of historic snowfall and atmospheric rivers, what will 2017-18 have in store?

That has yet to be seen, but many resorts around the Lake Tahoe Basin are making plans for opening even without that "one good dump."

Planned opening days:

Heavenly Mountain Resort - Nov. 17
Kirkwood Mountain Resort - Nov. 22
Sierra-at-Tahoe,- mid-November
Squaw Valley/Alpine Meadows - November 17
Northstar - Nov. 17
Mt. Rose - Nov. 4
Boreal - Nov. 8
Homewood - Dec. 8
Diamond Peak - Dec. 14