27 Sep Optimal Conditions
Sitting inside a brightly lit real estate office on a sweltering summer afternoon in early August, Norm Nicholls is searching for the right words....
27 Jun Man on the Mountain
There are ways to take the measure of a man. The years in his life; the life in his years. Two thousand one hundred twenty-five feet is as good a measure as any when it comes to Norman L. Sayler....
27 Jun Shawn Estes: Finding His Form
Shawn Estes was on a much-needed sabbatical. It was the summer of 2010, and for the first time since he started throwing a baseball on fields in Minden, Nevada, the 37-year-old major league pitcher was not on a team. No games on the schedule. No injury-riddled...
25 Apr Evolving to a New Hight
When Elena Hight speaks about optimizing her mindset, how activism and professional snowboarding have converged in her life or any other topic pertaining to her esteemed career, the 32-year-old South Lake Tahoe resident oozes both a casual tone and a depth of experience. With so...
25 Apr Who is Rick Gunn?
It’s a sunny, warm afternoon at Kirkwood Mountain Resort, but it’s been so sunny and warm lately that the snow has turned to concrete. Nobody without obsidian edges is having much fun. Well, except one person. ...
25 Apr Family Ties
Many an athlete has represented the Lake Tahoe region over the years on the grandest winter sports stage of all: the Olympic Winter Games. After the most recent iteration in Beijing, JC Schoonmaker can add his name to that lengthy list. But while a significant...
06 Dec Calm Like a Bomb: Jamie Anderson’s Uncanny Ability to Excel in the Clutch
Jamie Anderson didn’t win 19 X Games medals and two Olympic golds without extraordinary talent. But the South Lake Tahoe snowboarder’s skill in staying chill—that is, the ability to maintain Zen at the world’s most tightly wound, high-stakes athletic events—is what sets her apart from...
06 Dec The Call From the Wild
Claire Hewitt-Demeyer had just unloaded a chairlift when she got the call. On this particular Friday afternoon in February 2021, the South Lake Tahoe snowboarder was taking advantage of the lifts at Kirkwood to get as many runs in as possible, rather than venturing out to...
06 Dec Bryce Bennett: Trained by the Steeps of Tahoe
Bryce Bennett is not your average ski racer. Most conspicuously, at 6-foot-7, the North Lake Tahoe native towers over most of his U.S. teammates and World Cup competitors alike. He readily admits to enjoying summer over winter (better fishing weather, for one). And he is...
06 Dec Travis Ganong: The Mind of a Seasoned Speed Skier
With nearly 200 World Cup starts under his belt, highlighted by two downhill victories, four podiums and 37 top-10 finishes, Travis Ganong could hang up his racing skis today and proudly reflect on a long, successful career at the pinnacle of his sport....