It’s July 1st, just days from summer’s most popular holiday. Do you know what you’re doing this weekend? Put Lake Tahoe’s North Shore on your agenda and join us in Kings Beach. Tahoe Mountain Sports is staying open late (until 9 p.m.) on Saturday July 3, and we’re fully stocked with all your beach-going, fireworks-watching needs. Here’s where we’ll be hanging for the holiday, and what we’re taking with us:
FRIDAY July 2: The Music on the Beach summer concert series kicks off with local favorite the Blues Monsters in downtown Kings Beach, behind the playground area. We’ll be dancing to their combo of funk, jazz, blues and R&B starting at 6:30 p.m.
[our gear] Keen shoes that won’t slip on the dance floor but are comfy and cool
SATURDAY July 3: We’ll hit the beach, head back to the shop for the pre-fireworks rush, then get shore-side again for the official July 3rd Fireworks Celebration. The VIP viewing deck party at the North Tahoe Event Center starts at 7 p.m. (doors at 6:30), with music from Under the Radar with Serina Dawn. The fireworks go off at 9:30 p.m. Don’t forget we’re open until 9 p.m. if you need us!
SUNDAY July 4: We’re sponsoring the Run to the Beach 5 and 10K along with the Big Blue Adventure Series, Vasque running shoes and Lole women’s clothing, so look for us panting across the finish line. Register to run with us!
May 11th has come and what better way to celebrate than with yet another day of light, epic powder skiing? Woke up to about a foot of fresh snow and Alpine Meadows ski resort was the choice of the day. Since the resort is closed and I have been skiing Squaw all year, we thought it was a great choice. The crew started hiking and with a groomed track to follow, it made easy and fast going. The group had all sorts of gear from Tahoe Mountain Sports including the Deuter Freerider 30 backpack, some Black Diamond skis, poles and bindings and my Mammut Viento Jacket. Once at the top, we headed over to the Palisades and skied a lap there and then donned our skins again to get up to High Yellow and skied that all the way to the glorious bottom. Who knows how much longer this pow series is going to last, but here at Tahoe Mountain Sports, we love skiing, so we are ok with it…….though some flip flop weather is not too much to ask for;) Happy turns!
Lake Tahoe shining in the early morning light
Luca skinning up under Summit chair
Some people had gotten to the top before us and their tracks were nice!
Pam and I just got back from a 5 day trip down the Eastern Sierra Nevada. I will provide some condition details, but they have already changed so not sure what good that will do. Our trip started with powder tree skiing outside of Mammoth on the Punta Bardini ridge. We then headed north to June Lake for a day on the Hemlock Ridge, back south again to Little Morrison and Old Man’s Bowl and then north again to Dunderburg where we skied north and south facing aspects.
Pam coming down the "Tele Bowl" on Punta Bardini
All in all, very little corn so far as we went from powder to 60 degree temps in about 2 days and now it is snowing and super stormy once again. During our time down there, we did see mostly powder on north facing slopes, though those were starting to get super wind affected by Sunday. The snow was also getting fairly soft on most south and east facing slopes, but it was not consistent and it was more like soft snow rather than the corn that we all love to hunt!
Started the hike up Dunderburg with South Peak in the background
After 4 days of early rises and long skiing with lots of sun exposure, we decided it was time for our own private hot springs, so we called up the folks at Benton Hot Springs in far eastern California and they hooked us up with our own private tub and campground for the night. Wow, it was truly an awesome place with nothing else around and we loved our private hot spring. Here is a pic:
View from our hot tub to the White Mountains
Now, time for a little gear talk as that is what we were really there for, gear testing. I won’t mention everything here, but there are some hightlights. First and foremost is the Nemo Losi 2 Person Tent. If you don’t know anything about Nemo, start looking them up now! This tent has so much head room and easily fits 2 people. It has very steep walls thanks to the engineer’s design sense who built this thing and overall it is light, super livable and stands up to whatever elements it has to. Check out the headroom on this thing:
Showing off the head room in the Nemo Losi 2 person tent
Another highlight was my new Mammut Viento Jacket. I am a sucker for soft shell jackets, but they have to work, and with this Mammut jacket, I was not disappointed. It had amazing breathability and it kept the wind and light snow off me with no problem. When you are standing on a ridge and the wind is howling at 50 knots and you are sweaty but chilling down quickly, the Viento was able to keep me warm enough and active enough to stay on top of my game and not let the weather faze me at all. My final, and new favorite piece of gear is the Black Diamond Verdict skis mounted up with Dynafit TLT ST bindings. I chose the Verdict because I didn’t need a huge ski for all this touring and in the 170cm size, it was the perfect length for short turns as well as for skinning up with ease. I also can’t say enough about the Dynafit bindings as they offerred up effortless travel and easy climbing the whole way. I don’t know if I will ever Telemark in the backcountry again!
This week mother nature gave us a fairly warm storm that left very little snow at lake level but a foot or so of cream cheese above 8000 feet. Although this storm looks like little more than a warm up considering the series of storms NOAA is predicting for next week, but it was an extremely fun day to be on snow. The weather was pretty variable, with the sun in and out of the clouds and snow showers periodically throughout the day. The VholdR ContourHD did a great job of adjusting to changing light conditions and got some good footage in so so light conditions. Check It Out!
While we haven’t had a big storm in a few weeks here in Tahoe, we have been getting a series of smaller storms that have kept the snow great. With holiday season pass blackouts and the avalanche danger at considerable, we decided it was time to lap some pow in the trees in the sidecountry outside of Alpine Meadows. The skiing was fairly low angle mellow terrain but there were some fun rocks and pillows to drop off of and the snow was pretty much perfect. The area we were skiing can be accessed by a traverse out of the boundary of the ski area, but we were earning our turns and skinned up for three laps of perfect pow.
I’m still trying to find the perfect spot to put the Vented Helmet Mount for the VholdR on my helmet. I moved the mount slightly forward from where it was in the last video and I think I moved it a little too much. I think about half way between the two spots I’ve used so far should be the money spot. While the Vented Helmet Mount is more solid and steady than the Goggle Mount, the Goggle Mount does have the advantage of getting an angle that is very close to the point of view of the skier pretty much every time without any trial and error. It was a cloudy day with some intermittent snow and the VholdR ContourHD 1080p did a great job of capturing good footage in less than ideal light.
We were the Deuter Backpack crew out there on this day, Phil was rocking his Guide 45 while I was using the Freerider Pro 30. The more I use the Freerider Pro the more I find little details that make it a really great ski pack. For example, the hip belt pocket is larger than on most other ski packs and it fits my small Canon point and shoot camera easily without cramming it in. The helmet attachment system is also very well thought out and easy to use.
Overall it was another great day with perfect snow and a very mellow vibe. Hopefully the snow keeps coming and we have the kind of season people will be talking about for years. Enjoy!
Headed up to the Mt. Rose Area this morning for an early dawn patrol run on Incline Lake Peak. Got about 3 inches at 6,000 feet last night and probably 6-10 in. at 8,000 feet. It was super dry, awesome powder that made for some great before work turns. Kevin and I had out Black Diamond Megawatts out and it was his first time on them, and all he could do was smile wide. We are both using the Black Diamond 01 Tele binding on them and they simply rule. Everybody had something from Tahoe Mountain Sports on and we appreciate that business very much. Mike is using his Deuter Freeride Pro 30 everyday now and Jeff had his new Black Diamond Guide Gloves on along with his BD Traverse Poles. Here are a couple images and some video from this awesome morning in the backcountry.
Jeff riding the wave of pow
Ciappa loving it
Kevin using the Megawatts
Early morning faces getting ready to head up
And some video for your viewing pleasure as well. This video was NOT taken with the Vholdr ContourHD 1080P.
Well this storm certainly didn’t disappoint. I woke up to at least two feet of light fluffy powder on my deck this morning and it keeps coming. If there were any base below all of this fluff it would be an all time amazing day for skiing. In reality there is almost no base below all of this new snow so even though a lot of lines look very inviting, lots of rocks and logs are lurking just below the surface waiting to ruin your season. Today’s advisory from the Sierra Avalanche Center indicates high avalanche danger, but once the snowpack has some time to settle and bond, we should have a nice base to start the season. Game On!
To help Tahoe shop local this holiday season, Tahoe Mountain Sports is staying open until 8pm on Wednesdays in December! As an added bonus for our local customers, we will have free beer, wine, and appetizers to help alleviate the stress of holiday shopping. This is the perfect time for locals to check out the newly expanded store if you haven’t already.
Tahoe Mountain Sports is Open Until 8pm Wednesdays in December
So this storm diddn’t end up being the 2-3ft dump we needed to really kickstart the season, but it did dump 8-12″ on the higher elevations. Just barely enough to get some skiing done. It was only 15 degrees at the trailhead and I was worried I would be cold, but once I got moving I was fine just in a Icebreaker BodyFit 200 base layer, my Mammut Outline as an insulating layer, and a Mammut Ultimate Hoody to keep me dry. Up at the Mt. Rose summit area there was just enough snow to skin up and find a north facing aspect that had some base before the storm. After that I’ll let the pictures do the talking. Despite a few core shots it was a fun morning and a great way to start the season!
Kings Beach based outdoor retailer Tahoe Mountain Sports is expanding operations in anticipation of a busy holiday season and the continued growth of their online retail operation. The Lake Tahoe based retailer launched a new website in mid September that features a store blog, learning search, live chat, and other state of the art features. They are also doubling the size of their retail location on North Lake Boulevard in Kings Beach in response to growth in both the online and local sales channels.
Founded in 2003, Tahoe Mountain Sports has continued to grow through the recession and is poised to make an impact in the competitive retail outdoor gear industry. “People are being smarter with their money and shopping around more. This really benefits us because we have a unique combination of knowledgeable staff, great customer service, and competitive prices and we can now serve our customer even better” said Tahoe Mountain Sports’ owner David Polivy. “The new website has some really great customer service tools, like live chat and The new retail space will give us room to expand both online and here locally in North Lake Tahoe.” he continued. The new website, www.tahoemounainsports.com has been live since mid September, and the new expanded retail location is scheduled to open mid November.
