30 Apr The Gift of Music Through the Bal Bijou
Bijou means “jewel” in French, and as an adolescent boy in the early 1950s, the Bal Bijou on Lake Tahoe’s South Shore was the crown jewel of my and many others’ social and cultural lives....
30 Apr One Love for Lake Tahoe
Those who live outside the Lake Tahoe Basin tend to view this place as one destination—and, technically, they are not wrong. But those of us who live here know there are at least two Tahoes, North Tahoe and South Tahoe, with many smaller subcommunities with...
25 Sep Martin Arrouge: The Sheepherder Who Unlocked World-Class Ski Terrain
The story of how Wayne Poulsen developed Olympic Valley in company with—and then without—Alex Cushing is well documented. There is no need to repeat it here. What is far less known—even among ski historians—is the embryonic influence of Martin Arrouge, the man responsible for introducing...
27 Jun Atom Bombs, Uncle Harvey and a Lifelong Love for the Sierra
I was almost 7 years old when World War II ended in 1945, and my mom, dad and I lived very different lives during the previous four years. Dad was in charge of a military warehouse on Guam, mom lived with two of her sisters...
23 Apr Staycation Dreaming
We all dream about travel, global pandemic or not. Where will we go next? What unforeseen adventures await? What will we discover about the world, its people, cultures, traditions and, most importantly, ourselves?...
19 Feb Home Sweet Home
As I sit on the balcony outside my studio condo, the winter sun gently warming my skin, the realization is clearer than ever that my home is not behind me, but in front of me....
24 Sep A Summer of Flames Hits Home
Editor's note: The following is the Editor's Letter that appears in the 2020 Ski & Ride issue. Adding to a long list of inconveniences in 2020, Tahoe residents awoke on September 5 to find a thin coat of ash on their cars and patios. Heavy smoke choked...
23 Apr Is Tahoe Better than Ever?
“Tahoe ain’t what it used to be back in ‘The Day.’” It’s a refrain I’ve heard from longtime locals since almost the day The Day ended (sometime prior to the mid-90s if you’re a Boomer; if you’re under 40, maybe 2006). But when judging whether Tahoe...
27 Sep A Season to Remember in the Range of Light
The Sierra is often slighted by hardcore skiers, but as last winter showed, when Mother Nature unleashes on the mountain range, there is nowhere better to be Last winter I found myself in a familiar conversation with a friend who lives in the Rocky Mountains. We...
24 Jun Beautiful Deception at Donner Lake
A failed sunset balancing act under Rainbow Bridge results in one indelible moment captured on camera A highline, as a noun, is an elevated length of tubular webbing tensioned between two fixed objects. The webbing is an inch wide and has a tensile strength of 4,000...