Mount Rainier rises like a wayward iceberg from the green sea of moss, fir and ferns that drape both sides of the White River. Towering 10,000 vertical feet above us, it is a disorienting and intimidating glacial behemoth creased and crinkled by yawning crevasses and...
Bob Howard had been benched. Again. For five games in a row, the college football coach had stared hard at the lanky running back from Hug High School and jerked a thumb at the sidelines. What am I doing here? Howard thought, pacing down Mendocino...
Those who experienced Tahoe’s 2018-19 winter will not soon forget it. After a modest start, Old Man Winter socked the Tahoe region with one powdery storm after another in January and February, blanketing the mountains in a thick coat of white and treating skiers and...
Squaw Valley groomers experience adventure and beauty in their nightly mission to create pristine runs It will be hours before the sun peeks above the shoulders of Marlette Peak, splashing pink color into Emerald Bay and across the freshly frosted peaks of Squaw Valley. Pine martens...
A small but adept crew overcomes difficulties to provide prime skiing surfaces at Tahoe Cross Country On the evening of April 30, I was in mourning. It appeared as if I had skied my last day of the great winter of 2019 at Tahoe Cross Country...
The sound of metal edges slicing over hardpack gives way to silence as Cody LaPlante launches from the lip of a jump, already halfway through a rotation. He completes the first 360 and begins to alter the axis of his rotation, incorporating front flips into...
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...
The California Highway Patrol is best known for the troopers who safeguard the state’s highways, but an elite team of helicopter rescuers also responds to the most complicated emergencies by air Brandon Hallam is hanging out the open door of a California Highway Patrol helicopter above...
Come fall, when thoughts begin to drift toward sliding on snow, purchasing a new pair of skis or a snowboard is perhaps the surest way to shift the stoke level into high gear. But selecting the right planks for your ability is never an easy...
Those tempting backcountry slopes should be enjoyed with a healthy dose of avalanche education and awareness Laughter, stemming from disbelief at the amount of snow falling on this late-January day, was the only sound along a socked-in road on Tahoe’s West Shore as our group worked...