squaw valley

As the 2018 Olympics come to a close, taking a look back to the 1960 event at Squaw Valley and Lake Tahoe puts a lot into perspective. Perhaps those Olympics should have been called "Against All Odds."

A Truckee man died after falling more than 100 feet down a cliff Wednesday night, Placer County sheriff's officials said.

The Placer Search and Rescue and Nordic teams responded when they received a call of a fallen hiker at 10:00 p.m. near Squaw Valley.

The unidentified man was with two friends in the area of Big Chief, just east of Highway 89 and Squaw Valley Alpine Meadows Ski Resort. The men, in their 20s and 30s, did some rock climbing during daylight hours and then went to hike to the top of Big Chief after dark with their headlamps on.

To help achieve Squaw Valley Alpine Meadows’ goal to be powered by 100 percent clean, renewable energy sources, Liberty Utilities, the electric service provider in the Lake Tahoe region of California, is actively collaborating with resort leadership to identify and develop new renewable energy generation, storage and energy efficiency projects to benefit the Olympic Valley and surrounding areas. Subject to regulatory approval, the two companies intend to achieve the resort’s 100 percent renewable goal as early as December 2018.

Azul Latin Kitchen, located in the Heavenly Village, awarded a check for $6,000 to Tahoe Youth and Family Services during the board meeting on January 22.

Gold medalists Maddie Bowman and Jamie Anderson are representing the South Shore once again on the global stage as they head to the 2018 Olympics in PyeongChang February 9-25.

Below are the Olympic snowboarding, free skiing, alpine and freestyle teams headed to South Korea. (names in bold are Lake Tahoe area athletes)

2018 U.S. OLYMPIC SNOWBOARDING SKIING TEAM

Women's Snowboard Slopestyle/Big Air
Jamie Anderson, South Lake Tahoe, Calif. (9/13/1990) *
Julia Marino, Westport, Conn. (9/11/1997)

Join the Lake Tahoe Historical Society at their first 'Fireside Chat' of the year on February 13 at 7:00 p.m. David Antonucci will share the exciting story of how, in 1960, the eyes of the world focused on Squaw Valley and Lake Tahoe as the Winter Olympics played out for the first time on television.

Location

Five ski resorts in the United States are official training sites for the U.S. Ski & Snowboard team, and now for the next five years Squaw Valley Alpine Meadows is one of them. They join Mammoth Mountain in California, Deer Valley in Utah, Copper Mountain in Colorado and Timberline Lodge in Oregon. In addition to being an Official Training Site for the U.S. Ski & Snowboard Team, Squaw Valley Alpine Meadows is a U.S. Ski & Snowboard High Performance Center and U.S. Ski & Snowboard Development Site.

The spirit of Christmas comes to life as the 17-piece Reno Jazz Orchestra and the Pat Esters Gospel Choir blend Christmas favorites, jazz, and soul - with a few surprises mixed in – for three performances of feel good, ‘get ready for the holidays’ music and song. The Reno Youth Jazz Orchestra will perform as well.

“Last year’s Gospel Christmas Show with the RJO was such a success we decided to bring it back to the Reno and Lake Tahoe region,” said Chuck Reider, Music Director.

Location

Sierra-at-Tahoe is the latest Lake Tahoe area ski resort to open for the 2017/18 winter season. The slopes open on December 2, 2017 with limited terrain.

Grandview Express and Easy Rider Express will give skiers and riders access to 11 trails and two terrain parks. Early season conditions are present throughout the mountain and guests are asked to obey all signs and closures.

Kirkwood Mountain Resort kicked off their 2017-2018 ski season Friday. They have opened four of their 15 lifts (1,5,6,11), giving access to 250 acres of skiing on 15 percent of their terrain.

Operating hours at this time are 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.

Heavenly is open in South Lake Tahoe, with Squaw Valley Alpine Meadows and Mt. Rose open on the North Shore. Northstar was originally planning on opening Friday but instead will announce their opening day on November 27.

New at "The Wood" this year:

Red Cliffs Family Lodge

The South Shore has been getting just rain, and lots of it since the recent storm reached the Sierra Wednesday. Heavenly Mountain Resort received 11" of snow overnight, just ahead of their Friday opening day. Squaw Valley / Alpine Meadows each received 14" from this storm, and 7" at Kirkwood.

Snow is expected at both lake level and at the resorts tonight before the system passes through.

The following is the scheduled roadwork by the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) for roads on the California side of Lake Tahoe and in El Dorado County.

LONG-TERM PROJECTS

The Tahoe Restaurant Group, operators of BaseCamp Pizza and Azul Latin Kitchen in South Lake Tahoe, Fireside Pizza Company in Olympic Valley, Rubicon Pizza Company in Truckee will be fundraising for victims of the fires in Northern California and hurricanes in Puerto Rico on November 13, 2017.

All proceeds from dinners purchased at of those four establishments that day will be donated directly to the victims.

Both South Lake Tahoe restaurants are located in the Heavenly Village, Rubicon Pizza is at 6001 Northstar Drive, and Fireside is located at 1985 Squaw Valley Road.

LAKE TAHOE – Ski season is almost here, and with it returns the popular “Plates for Powder” program. Individuals who purchase a new Lake Tahoe license plate in either California or Nevada can receive free lift tickets to one of eight Lake Tahoe resorts participating in the program. With snow heading to the mountains soon, now is the time to buy a Tahoe license plate so you can ski for free in Tahoe.

Squaw Valley Alpine Meadows formally announced its plan to install a base-to-base gondola connecting The Village at Squaw Valley and the base area at Alpine Meadows today. The freshly branded “California Express” gondola is targeted to open ahead of the 2019-20 winter season. The connection of these two mountains will realize the long-held dream of the pioneers who brought the sport of skiing and the 1960 Winter Olympics to Squaw Valley nearly 60 years ago.

Three small areas at the North Shore of Lake Tahoe will have electricity affected this week as Liberty Utilities works to replace transformers, pads and cable.

The planned outages:

On Monday, Oct. 9: From 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., Squaw Valley area (Squaw Summit Rd & Summer Place) to replace pad and transformer; 10 customers affected.

Tuesday, Oct. 10: From 8:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., Kings Beach area (Brockway Springs Rd & Chipmunk) to replace vault, 3 new pad mount transformers, rebuild primary riser, run 3 new runs of underground cable; 40 customers affected.

Top endurance athletes in the obstacle racing world demonstrated their skill and tenacity at one of the world’s most demanding racing destinations in this weekend’s 2017 Reebok Spartan Race World Championship at Squaw Valley. For a third straight year, a field of elite athletes and more than 15,000 competitors and spectators converged in Olympic Valley to take part in the pinnacle event of the obstacle racing season.

The following is the roadwork schedule from Caltrans on Lake Tahoe area roads.

SPECIAL EVENT
State Routes 28 and 267 (Placer County): Motorists should be alert for increased road cyclists on sections of State Routes 28 and 267 from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday during the “Stetina’s Sierra Prospect” cycling event. Remember to share the road and allow at least three feet of space. For race information, visit:https://www.sierraprospect.com/

EMERGENCY PROJECTS

Thirty countries will be represented at the Reebok Spartan Race World Championship, which is the preeminent event of the obstacle racing season, when it returns to Squaw Valley, Lake Tahoe September 28-October 1.

500 elite athletes from more than 30 countries are set to descend on Squaw Valley to put their skills and conditioning to the test in both individual and team competitions, and to celebrate the culmination of the 2017 Spartan Race season.

Motorists can expect longer delays on the Highway 50 project in South Lake Tahoe starting at midnight tonight as increased lane restrictions go into place for the rest of the construction season.

Beginning at 12:01 a.m. Monday, and around the clock until 11:00 a.m. Friday each week, Highway 50 (Lake Tahoe Boulevard) will be reduced to one lane in each direction from Dunlap Drive to Winnemucca Avenue to accommodate grinding and paving operations. Motorists can expect delays of up to 30 minutes.

Expect these lane restrictions to be in place until Friday, October 13.

Squaw Valley has applied for a permit to install Lake Tahoe's second gravity-powered coaster, the Timberline Twister.

In March, 2013, Squaw Valley scrapped plans for the coaster "due to business considerations and capital priorities," a.ccording to a letter sent to Placer County at the time

Now plans are back on for the ride that will expand on-mountain experiences for families. It will be located at the bottom of the mountain between the Far East and Red Dog chairlifts, an area already zoned for this type of recreational use.

Four brothers from San Francisco have been arrested in connection with the theft of an estimated $125,000 worth high-end mountain bikes from Truckee.

Starting in June, 2017, the Truckee Police Department began receiving theft reports of high-end mountain bikes from various locations in Truckee. The most common scenario happened with bikes on vehicle racks that were secured with the locking mechanism of the rack or a cable style lock.

The following is the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) roadwork schedule for the Lake Tahoe area. Please note, due to “Hot August Nights” events in Reno, and the expected extra traffic in Tahoe, most lane closures will be restricted from noon Thursday, August 10 until 8 p.m. Monday, August 14.

EMERGENCY PROJECTS

U.S. Highway 50 (El Dorado County): The highway is reduced to one lane in each direction at Bridal Veil Falls for slope repair work.

After a historic winter that saw more than 60 feet of snow fall on the slopes, Squaw Valley Alpine Meadows has made another notch in the history books with staying open until July 15, the latest date in their history.

They were open 200 days during the 2016/17 season, more than a month more than the average of 174 days.