#Adventure Sports Journal // Feb/March 2017 // Issue #95

Nordic Racing I Tahoe Backcountry Women I Event Profiles I Calendar

Feb/March 2017

Issue #95

Stone Nudes Evocative photography

by Dean Fidelman

Earning Mt Tom dogs in the backcountry Death Valley on two wheels Epic Rides, Epic Trails

weed’s water war

PHOTO / ŠPATITUCCI PHOTO

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Table of Contents

Photo: Court Brock

departments

6 7 8 10 24

Editor’s Note

The Carbon Cancer

Inbox / Switchback Readers sound off

Ear to the Ground News & notes

EPiC

Weed’s Water War

Event Profiles

A look at upcoming events

25

Event Calendar

Events at a glance

features

12 14

Death Valley on Two Wheels Exploring Death Valley NP

Stone Nudes

Dean Fidelman’s evocative images

16 18 20 21

Photo: Brian Leddy

Photo: Michael Yates

Photo: Dean Fidelman

Photo: Peter Clark

Earning Mount Tom Sierra ski adventure

Canine Snow Safety

Backcountry skiing with dogs

Race Nordic

Cover Photo

Training for XC skiing

Erica begins her journey up an unnamed chimney climb in Yosemite.

Tahoe Backcountry Women

Photo: Dean Fidelman/StoneNudes.com

Women unite for safety and fun

DON’T MISS AN ISSUE – Subscribe to Adventure Sports Journal Mail a check for $20 to PO Box 35, Santa Cruz, CA 95063 along with subscriber name and address, or order online at adventuresportsjournal.com/subscribe.

D

o you have a favorite non-profit organization dedicated to promoting stewardship and access for the outdoor sports community throughout California and beyond?

Nominate it for our Environmental Partnership Campaign (EPiC) program for a chance to be featured in an upcoming issue of Adventure Sports Journal (ASJ)!

EPiC

Adventure Sports Journal’s ENVIRONMENTAL PARTNERSHIP CAMPAIGN 4 ASJ — Feb/March 2017

ASJ’s mission is to provide inspiring coverage of California’s epic terrain, and to help the outdoor sports community preserve and maintain access for future generations.

Email us at info@adventuresportsjournal.com.

Follow us on Facebook and Instagram and/or visit our website for more information:

adventuresportsjournal.com facebook.com/ASJmag instagram.com/ASJmag Photo: Jim Wilkinson-Ray

asj contributors what’s the best way to spend a snowy day?

leoniesherman

Playing out in it, of course!

PUBLISHING + EDITORIAL PUBLISHER Cathy Claesson cathy@adventuresportsjournal.com EDITORIAL/MARKETING Matt Niswonger matt@adventuresportsjournal.com

chrisvanleuven

Running in the mountains with the dogs. Depending on the snowfall, this may mean post holing but that’s a small price to pay for spending time in the hills surrounded by beauty while falling snow muffles the sounds.

kurtgensheimer

With two waxed sticks beneath my feet in the White Room all day long.

timhauserman

Taking the Strider Glider kids out for a skate ski at Tahoe Cross Country when it is dumping snow.

After a day pent up in school they are excited to glide, and they remind me that it is all about playing in the snow.

brennanlagasse Breaking trail with friends all day, reaping the rewards of the down thereafter. A fire, hot tub, and some tasty food doesn’t hurt at the end of the day either.

courtbrock

Shoveling, skinning and taking in the beauty, skiing and getting the pow all up in my grill, swilling a citrusy IPA, smelling wet dog, snuggling (hopefully not with wet dog), snoring, repeat.

joshpearlman

All things skiing and snowboarding. Ripping laps on KT-22 at Squaw Valley, snowboard mountaineering in my beloved Eastern Sierra, hut touring in Idaho, if skis are on my feet, then it’s a good day.

derrickpeterman Indoors.

EDITORIAL Michele Charboneau michele@adventuresportsjournal.com EDITORIAL ASSISTANT Jennifer Rothman INTERN Joe Spota CONTRIBUTING EDITORS Leonie Sherman, Chris Van Leuven, Kurt Gensheimer, Tim Hauserman, Brennan Lagasse, Court Brock, Josh Pearlman, Derrick Peterman, Michele Charboneau CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS Leonie Sherman, Dean Fidelman, Dan Severson, Sue O’Daly, Brennan Lagasse, Louie Traub, Scott Rokis, Bryon Dorr, Brian Leddy, Michael Yates, Peter Clark, Jeff Glass, Court Brock, Tobias Albrigtsen LAYOUT Cathy Claesson & Michele Charboneau WEBMASTER Brooklyn Taylor brook@adventuresportsjournal.com ADVERTISING ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE Cathy Claesson I 831.234.0351 cathy@adventuresportsjournal.com EVENTS & DISTRIBUTION Matt Niswonger matt@adventuresportsjournal.com All content © Adventure Sports Journal 2016. No part of this publication may be reproduced without permission of the editors.

ADVENTURE SPORTS JOURNAL PO BOX 35 Santa Cruz, CA 95063 Phone 831.457.9453 asjstaff@adventuresportsjournal.com PROUD MEMBER

www. advent ur espor t sjour nal. com

5

Editor’s Note The Carbon Cancer

Can we afford President Trump’s fossil fuel ambitions?

I

n my last editor’s note I wrote about Donald Trump and the pros and cons of staying To date, the clean energy sector has always had a monkey on its back as fossil fuel silent vs. taking a political stand. A few readers shared some pretty strong arguments politicians and corporate lobbyists have asked “who is gonna pay for it?” Now, anyone for staying politically silent. After all, ASJ’s core mission is to unite California outdoor who asks that question is just demonstrating his or her ignorance. In the last five years enthusiasts around a healthy, adventurous lifestyle. Given this, who cares whether you this question has become completely irrelevant as solar and wind power has achieved call yourself a Democrat, Republican or something else? cost parity with coal and other fossil fuels on a per kilowatt basis in states like California, Texas and South Dakota.

However, for a variety of reasons--all outlined in the last issue--we cannot stay on the sidelines. Trump’s ambivalence towards climate change more than anything else has Of course this “apples-to-apples” cost analysis does not count the billions of dollars we spend to defend our oil interests in countries around the world, or the environmental forced our hand. Simply put, rejecting science is unacceptable. The earth is round and costs of oil spills and climate change. With these hidden costs burning fossil fuels is a clear and present danger to our species. included, there is absolutely no justification for any president of This is the scientific consensus. With irrefutable data showing an increase in both global average temperature and atmospheric the United States not to have a bold, ambitious plan for the total carbon dioxide, there is no excuse to keep feeding our addiction phase-out of fossil fuels. The days of subsidizing the fossil fuel to fossil fuels, especially when clean energy is so viable. industry are over, whether Trump gets it or not. Consider this: we now know that the tobacco industry resisted, downplayed What’s frustrating is that the clean energy opportunity is just and offered “alternative facts” to discredit the science linking sitting there, waiting for the right leader. With all of Trump’s cigarettes to cancer for decades just to squeeze more money emphasis on keeping our manufacturing jobs, America could out of a dying industry. Any president who does not embrace become the global leader in clean energy, with abundant supplies clean energy in 2017 is putting short term profits ahead of our of domestic natural gas providing a bridge to ever increasing children’s future. solar and wind energy capacity. Given the right inspiring leader, it’s not unrealistic to assert that we could put ourselves on a So this is where Adventure Sports Journal stands. We have path to completely phase out fossil fuels in both the energy and chosen sides and yes, it has cost us some readers as you can transportation sectors by the end of this century. see from some of the letters printed below. Ideally, an outdoor sports publication like Adventure Sports Journal would remain Electric car chargers could be installed at every gas station, apolitical, but the fate of the outdoors is being threatened by a and over time internal combustion engines could be almost president who is in bed with the petro-chemical industry and completely phased out. All energy sources except electricity and we can’t stay silent.

ASJ co-founders Cathy Claesson and Matt rechargeable batteries could be eliminated over time, making our Niswonger. After 16 years and 95 issues they are energy system much more streamlined.

Maybe a Trump presidency will prove a pleasant surprise, but more committed to the adventure lifestyle than ever. we are not optimistic. As I write these words, he is pursuing Job creation would be off the charts, and clean energy union the largest oil development deal in history with Russia, a hostile foreign power that apprenticeships could help both men and women become highly skilled wage earners treats climate change like a joke. His nominee for secretary of state, former Exxon CEO who bring home benefits for their families and set aside money for retirement. Again, Rex Tillerson, will be in a perfect position to make the deal happen. He has also issued none of this could happen without strong leadership. Right now, wages in the solar executive orders to expedite both the Keystone XL and Dakota Access pipeline projects. and wind industries are too low. This is a heroic part of our economy and it should be I call this an infuriating step backwards. What do you think? Send an email to matt@ unionized and given the respect it deserves. All solar and wind Installers should be adventuresportsjournal.com. invited to join the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers with Journeyman wages on par with union electricians--about $50/hour plus benefits and retirement.

—Matt Niswonger

INBOX

Letters to the Editor In response to “A Ripple in the Force” in ASJ #94 WE MUST PUSH BACK As for “toning down the politics,” I vote for you speaking the truth on social and environmental issues in the context of adventure/outdoors life here in California.

We don’t have the luxury of being non-polarizing or a-political. We must push back. ASJ is totally an appropriate platform for editorializing as far as I’m concerned. If readers are looking for a “pleasant escape from the realities of the world,” suggest that they climb on to a bike, board, trail, slope or rock.

Ask your editors to let you speak.

—Jeff M, Santa Barbara

RESIST THE TRUMP AGENDA I got ASJ at Get Fit Davis. Thank you for voicing your opinion about how bad our 45th president is, and for sure will be. Let’s never forget that Adolf Hitler was elected ... and Donald, that “hijo de Putin,” was “elected” while in fact he was the biggest loser ever, with Hillary winning the popular vote by almost three million votes!

Let’s not wait passively until the 2020 elections. Please refer to the attached “Practical guide to resist the Trump agenda.”

Keep up the good work!

—Jean-Marc Leininger, Winters

Follow Us

TONE IT DOWN First of all I love your magazine and will keep reading most of the interesting stories that are included in your publication.

When I read your editorial in the Dec/ Jan issue it kind of hit a nerve. I consider myself a conservative who loves the outdoors but obviously am not as informed or intelligent as you are.

I’d like to make an comment that the tone of your editorial is exactly why Trump won the elections. I know the people that voted for Trump are not up to your intellectual standards and most of us need to be educated so that we would understand your point of view more clearly. Obviously if we were more educated our views would change to mirror yours.

I look forward to enjoying our magazine in the future ( I’ll get someone to read it to me).

—Paul Hanson, South Lake Tahoe

6 ASJ — Feb/March 2017

PROTECT OUR ENVIRONMENT Poignant and eloquent Editor’s Note!

As one of the coaches for our high school mountain bike team in Oakland, a fellow cyclist, skier, and general outdoor enthusiast – I truly think we need MORE personal accountability these days for environmental causes.

There is no way to mention this in current media these days without accepting, and thereby acknowledging the wave of negativity, racism, and sexism that has come in tow with the current environmental climate change deniers.

I have often wondered why more companies like Nike, Red Bull, etc. do not do more to promote protecting our environment.

If you want to make money and market to active lifestyles, or even enjoy having an active lifestyle, you should be motivated to help protect all the the beauty that surrounds you, and speak up when others threaten it.

—Dara Richman, Oakland

INBOX

Fan mail, feedback, ideas & opinions STAY TRUE Us Nevadans ( I moved to Tahoe/Nevada side from Santa Cruz 32 years ago) agree with our western neighbor in preferring Hillary and her policies over Trump. I don’t think you can separate nature and politics and the worst thing anyone can do is to stay ‘escaped’ in nature and ignore the realities of the un-natural world. To paraphrase, ‘the only way for evil people - and their policies if powerful enough - is for good people to do nothing’. We wouldn’t have the nature we have now if it wasn’t for the John Muirs of the world out there fighting. We need educated, passionate people who are kept informed of important issues and give them the avenues to ‘fight the good fight’ even if they can’t be in the front lines themselves. I’m also a Sierra Clubber and support their/our vision but that doesn’t mean I want all my other media input to be politics-free. For one thing, your bringing awareness to your readers might be the only source they are exposed to.

In addition, your opinion/thoughts might provide a perspective for me that I hadn’t thought about and it might inspire me to take action of some sort.

I really enjoy your publication. I myself was in the publishing world there in Santa Cruz from ‘74-’84 co-owning a book publishing company (Unity Press) as well as a weekly, “The Santa Cruz Express” , that provided the community with some other perspectives that “The Good Times” and Jay Shore lacked. Stay true to your “self” and your vision. I, for one, enjoy it and hope the majority of your readers feel the same way so that you get a go-ahead/ endorsement from the rest of the editorial staff. I don’t think your advertisers will mind either. Don’t restrict yourself with “either-or” thinking. Having a “bothand” mindset works best I think .

—Michael Caughlan, Gardnerville

TOO MUCH POLITICS IS NOT ZEN I love your writing and your magazine is always great to read for me! Just read your editorial on FB and it is a very good question you are asking. I absolutely think that our great lands and environment need protection. It is what “makes America great” IMO.:) I love the outdoors, I love the water, the beach, the mountains and most important, I love the access to these places.

Do these social and environmental causes belong in an adventure journal?

I think yes if advances and supports the cause of clean and accessible adventure, pursuit of relaxation, and love of our outdoors, but the other side of that coin to me is that, I tend to find my “zen” from the daily grind, Trump and shitty politics, their divisive rhetoric enjoying the adventure and nature that we are so fortunate to experience. So I guess what I am trying to say, if there is a legit and specific cause to rally like minded folks around that support our values, our cherished California abundance and nature and our ability to live and play in a clean and safe environment, then do it!! I support it!.. if it is more general unspecified whining, then I would leave it alone. (I haven;t seen what people are complaining about)..but there are too many sources of people, sites, and platforms that communicate political views that continue to perpetuate that divisive view that I start to wonder about their angle and overall, Intend to take a critical view that the site/blog/ mediasource has an alternative agenda, in which it risks tuning me out.

And since you might appreciate..here’s a shot of my California zen! Not thinking politics at any time, just enjoying what we have. https://youtu.be/nwR4JRimkng nothing quite like it mate!

—Mike Crowell, San Francisco

Switchback Results

Dec/Jan: Will the Election Affect the Adventure Sports Community?

50% — Yes // 28% — ­ Not Sure // 22% — No Looks like most of our readers think the new administration will affect the outdoor community.

Go to our Switchback page to chime in on this and our new question for Feb/March.

Our next question is: Do you think bottled water is better than your tap water?

Chime in at adventuresportsjournal.com/switchback-bottledwater.

Who Am I?

Answer this correctly for your chance to win ENO camping lights

• In 1972, I authored the now famous essay, “The Whole Natural Art of Protection” • “The father of clean climbing.”-Climbing Magazine- referred to my 1973 hammerless ascent of Half Dome with Galen Rowell and Dennis Hennek. This visionary ascent was featured on the cover of National Geographic and is widely credited for ushering in the modern standard for clean climbing.

• My first ascent list includes Dark Star on Temple Crag, the longest alpine rock climb in the Sierra, V-Notch Couloir on Polemonium Peak, Ice Nine on Mt. Mendel, and the 2nd ascent of Ama Dablam in Nepal, to name a few.

• I led the first continuous ski traverse of the 250-mile John Muir Trail in 1970.

• I hold the current speed record for skiing the Sierra High Route: 50 miles and over 11,000’ elevation gain/loss in 22 hours.

• I have been climbing for 58 years.

POLITICS AND ADVENTURE IS INTERTWINED Thanks for your continued contribution of the ASJ! I believe as well that separating politics and adventure sports is not possible. They are so intertwined and we feel so strongly about our environment that we cannot turn a blind eye or crawl into our bubble and look away. Our people are hurting, they are disheartened and frustrated. We need to help them heal and to stand strong.

The tragedy of this election could have been easily averted if people just showed up to vote. We need to help people assemble and understand that together we do have power. Lack of leadership is a major problem for this hope an understanding to take hold. We desperately need a leader that is strong, powerful and shares our morals for humanity and the environment. I continue, as I always have, to fight for our environment, to teach others and to practice compassion for others. When the right leadership is presented I will whole heartedly give my full support and be present.

I think the important lesson here is that we do support the candidates and policies that are closest to our beliefs. We need to participate and not sit idle or throw a tantrum like a chid when our perfect ideal is not realized. Change can take a long time and it can take many small steps. As you mention so often, adventure sports are not just recreation for us, they are a way of life and a connection to our environment, it’s where we get our strength and energy. Anything that important is worth fighting for and spreading awareness.

Keep writing the way you do, it’s great food for thought and just may inspire your readers to get off their ass, not just to go for a bike ride, but to vote and speak.

—Paul Allen, Santa Cruz

Can you name this iconic Sierra climber?

Go to adventuresportsjournal.com/WhoAmI to enter to win!

Leonie Update On January 19, to celebrate being one year cancer-free, ASJ backcountry editor Leonie Sherman and two friends tackled a 27-mile long mountain bike ride through Titus Canyon in Death Valley. The start was stormy, views were obscured and the mud was thick. The ride was easier than she imagined and over quicker than she expected – sort of the perfect metaphor for her encounter with breast cancer. Here’s hoping for Leonie’s continued good health!

Chime In

Tell us how you “Earn Your Beer” • Share your “Van Life” and “Adventure Dog” stories Respond to our articles and Editor’s Note Email: staff@adventuresportsjournal.com • adventuresportsjournal.com www. advent ur espor t sjour nal. com

7

Van Living

A Beer Worth Earning

Lynn Kennan & “Olive” “About a year ago I decided to change my life. I quit my reliable ‘normal’ job as the general manager of a restaurant in Tahoe City to be a nomadic guide for various adventure sports full time.

I rented out my home in Tahoe City and moved into a succession of “van-life” vehicles: first a van, then a 4-Runner, and finally my 13-foot camper I call “Olive.” After the first few months I realized I didn’t need much of the stuff I left behind in storage, and went back to Tahoe to do a major purge. Living outside most of the time brings life back to the basics.”

Read Lynn’s full story at adventuresportsjournal.com/olive.

Letters to the Editor

In response to last issue’s ABWE: New Belgium Ben & Jerry’s Chocolate Chip I like a lot of New Belgium's beers but this is a bit much. I do like flavored beer, but this just seems a rehash of the 90s micro explosion. Good craft beer needs to be focused on beer flavored beer, not fruit, desserts or cookies.

—Chris Thomas

–continued–

MISSION AWARENESS I love your desire to engage and your openness to accept input. In my opinion, I believe your question should be framed in the context of the journal’s mission statement. I don’t see it on the website, so I cannot comment on it specifically. It should be your Magna Carta.

If “expanded coverage” fits with the current mission, go forward. If not, look for another way to meet the need.

I enjoy dessert and don’t feel guilty when I indulge. That does not mean I put chocolate chips into my salad. Dessert is something distinct and does not effect the integrity of my salad. Examine the purpose of the magazine carefully before making any major change to business as usual.

—Tim McKenna, Houston

WRONG MESSAGE First of all, in your Editor’s Note, you said Leonie Sherman traveled to South Dakota to write about Standing Rock. If you don’t even know that it’s in NORTH Dakota, maybe you shouldn’t be publishing an article about it in Adventure Sports Journal?

I have lived and adventured in Lake Tahoe for years now, but I grew up 20 miles from Standing Rock. My family and friends still live there and have a much different view of the situation. Your story is biased, and has no place in ASJ. These protesters should have been protesting lawfully, for the past two years, in the courts and meetings that allowed this pipeline to be built. You are sending the wrong message to your readers. If you really want them to be active in stopping climate change and fighting for environmental issues, they need to do it the right way (lawfully and peacefully) during the process, not when the project is 98% complete.

And one more thing, the protesters vandalized a bridge on a major highway in North Dakota, closing it for the past couple of months.

This closure is preventing North Dakotans from getting to the places that they love to hunt, hike, bike, and enjoy the outdoors. I would say THAT has more importance in a publication about ADVENTURE than biased politics does.

—Tracy Schmidt, Truckee

TOO MUCH Your staff was right, that was a pretty weird and unfortunate editorial(s).

Bear in mind, much of the country you “drive through” to get to your various playgrounds shares the same values as “fly over” country.

While I haven’t agreed 100% with your editorial reviews in the past, 8 ASJ — Feb/March 2017

W

Mendocino Brewing Red Tail Ale

hen Mendocino Brewing’s Red Tail Ale hit the shelves over 30 years ago, it was a radically different beer during a time when light industrial lagers dominated the beer market.

While a lot has changed in California’s beer landscape since then, this brew remains one of the classics.

Amber ales aren’t always the most exciting beers in these days of überhoppy IPAs and everything-but-the kitchen-sink brews you’ll find these days, but beers like Red Tail Ale are underrated.

It’s drinkable, yet hardly boring. It’s complex, with its caramel character accented with deeply toasted malt note and an earthy finish. A radical brew when it debuted long ago, and pretty damn good today.

— Derrick Peterman

Online

I still have picked up your mag for the other articles and ads.

Being called, by association, a racist woman hating destroyer of the planet and little girl’s dreams is a bit much.

Ride a bike, do some pushups, have a beer and chill out. I command it! (Read in the voice of your Sith Lord of choice.)

—Kenrick Walz, Santa Cruz

SPOT ON Your Editor’s Note was spot on and I do think ASJ should continue down the path of expanded coverage for environmental and social causes.

One way you might consider doing that is to cover some of the innovative things people and companies are doing to make a positive difference as it relates to the environment or social issues.

The feel good stories.

Things like Patagonia giving 100% of their Black Friday sales to organizations fighting climate change, or Squaw Valley Alpine Meadows working with local energy providers to remove coal from the grid it gets power from, or Sierra-at-Tahoe and Squaw eliminating the sale of plastic water bottles. There are so many examples of companies and people who are doing great things because it’s the right thing to do.

—JessVanPernisWeaver,Kings Beach TIME FOR ACTION I fully agree with your decision to address political issues. There was a time where outdoor

enthusiasts could legitimately be a D or an R, but those days are long since passed. A clear dividing line emerged when GW Bush broke his campaign promise to combat climate change. Trump is a doubling down of the Republican party’s war on the environment.

I’m a “Decline to State” independent voter in CA. I don’t like the Democrats much either. But if a person cares anything about the planet, they cannot vote Republican (at least not in federal elections) without betraying those values.

It couldn’t be more black and white.

I’m not advocating for your paper to push one party or another. But you cannot remain silent on the issues and our politicians’ actions and positions on those issues. Not doing so in the face of such blistering contrast and pivotal times would make you complicit in the destruction of the very thing you exist to promote.

The time for spectating is over.

Fictional dichotomies of values and politics are over. Action is the only integrity! And honesty to these truths is a journalist’s prime directive. Speak up!

—Donald Simon, Oakland ADVENTURE ONLY I will never read your publication again. Stick to adventure not politics. You’ve lost me as a reader.

—Vickie Woodring

In response to online articleThe Pros and Cons of Hot Yoga by Dara Richman So much of this rings true. I have found myself pushing way past my comfort zones during hot yoga, leading me to injure my knee in a pose- an injury that prevented me from doing any yoga beyond basic stretching (let alone any other weight-bearing exercise) for almost a year. I love hot yoga and will continue to practice, with caution and increased awareness, listening closely when my body says “stop.” Thanks for the valuable insight Dara!

—Celeste

In response to online Profiles in Courage article on Joceyln Judd by Domenica Berman What a wonderful, inspiring story. Go Jocelyn!

—Scott Cameron What well written article. Your magazine is blessed to have such an insightful journalist who brings a story to life.

—John Denison, Gold Coast – Australia I am so fortunate to know the beautiful young lady that wrote this article. She is a very special, talented person.

—Dicksie Patterson, City

EAR to the GROUND

Backpacker Maps Best Long Distance Hikes

News & Notes

Backpacker magazine recently published a comprehensive map of the best long-distance hiking routes throughout the US, several of which are found in California.

If you enjoy trekking for days on end, covering hundreds – if not thousands – of miles in the process, check out the map at backpacker.com/trips/longtrails/map-americas-long-trails/.

Green World Cup at Squaw Valley Squaw Valley Alpine Meadows is dedicated to preserving California winters and the alpine environment for current and future generations. The resort has pledged to continue to reduce its carbon footprint, remain an early-adopter of sustainable technologies, and to work within the community to encourage peers and partners to do the same. Many of the initiatives Squaw Valley Alpine Meadows have ingrained in the culture at the resort will play contributing roles in the Audi FIS Women’s Alpine World Cup in March 2017.

California Drought Update Pacific storms in January have brought widespread, intense precipitation to California, providing relief to some drought-stricken regions but also flooding. According to the US Drought Monitor, about 35 percent of the state is no longer experiencing drought, and the proportion of areas under extreme-to-exceptional drought fell from 38 percent on January 3rd to 28 percent by January 10th.

Cumulative precipitation hit a record high, doubling the historical average for this time of year. While a weak La Niña persists, sea surface temperature will transition back to normal by February 2017.

Surface reservoirs, especially in Northern California, are beginning to refill, but groundwater aquifers in many parts of the state remain severely overdrafted and will take far longer to recover.

Called To Creation

CA Enduro Golden Tour Events Make EWS Qualifiers

All three California Enduro Series Golden Tour events – China Peak Enduro, Northstar Enduro and Kamikaze Bike Games – have been designated as Enduro World Series (EWS) Qualifiers for 2017.

Riders must have active EMBA membership to be eligible to collect EWS Qualifier Series ranking points – points will not be assigned retroactively.

The Northstar Enduro – the sixth stop on the California Enduro Series 2017 schedule – is the finale for the inaugural IMBA National Enduro Tour which highlights the highest paying races and best trails from premier series in six different US regions.

With all six races recognized as EWS Qualifiers, this new series provides a stepping stone for athletes hoping to race at the international level.

PHIT Act Tax-Deduction

New MTB Podcast MTBpodcast.com covers all the latest news, racing, products, insider stories and more in the world of mountain biking. If it has to do with two-wheels, no topic is off-topic. Co-hosts Jonathan Lee and Steven Lewis draw from years of experience in the mountain biking world as enthusiasts and members of the industry to give you the info you need to know and the banter you want to hear.

Squaw Valley Ski Patroller Dies in Accident

Bike Monkey Debuts New Adventure Race Bike Monkey – producer of such acclaimed cycling races as the Boggs 8 Hour and Annandel XC – recently announced registration for its inaugural Fish Rock event out of Boonville March 11, 2017.

A mixed road and gravel adventure race, Fish Rock features a 72.4-mile course with 9,670 feet of elevation gain. The fully-supported event includes timed segments, stocked aid-stations, mechanical SAG support and a post-race hoedown.

Northstar Finale for IMBA National Enduro Tour

Pacifc Coast Trail Runs

The “Personal Health Investment Today Act” bill, introduced to the House of Representatives in 2015, aspires to address obesity in the US by rewarding active Americans with lower medical costs. The bill would amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 and “treat certain amounts paid for physical activity, fitness, and exercise as amounts paid for medical care.” If passed, the PHIT Act would allow an individual tax deduction of up to $1,000, or $2,000 for a household of “qualified sports and fitness expenses.”

In what Turn Loose called the “cycle of inspiration and support” the organization keeps the stoke going by sharing the stories of the beneficiaries to further inspire the adventure community.

Turn Loose Pros Support Up & Comers No one knows how to best help the development of a sport than the athletes themselves, which is why Turn Loose collaborates with professional athletes across all sports. Pro athletes help develop a product or product line, and a portion of the profits will be donated to a young athlete or organization of the pro’s choosing.

Joe Zuiches, a 42 year-old resident of Olympic Valley and a member of the Squaw Valley professional ski patrol since 2012, was killed in a fatal accident prior to regularly scheduled operations, during avalanche control activities at the top of Gold Coast Ridge.

The team at Squaw Valley/ Alpine Meadows is deeply saddened by this tragic event, and ASJ extends our deepest sympathies to the family and friends affected. Joe will be survived by his wife and infant son. If you would like to make a charitable donation to the Zuiches family today, check out Joe’s GoFundMe page at GoFundMe/Squaw-PatrolFuneral-Fund.

Ryan Kelly/Daily Burn Spartan

Applications Now Accepted for Tahoe Rim Trail Thru Hikes Applications are now being accepted for the Tahoe Rim Trail Association (TRTA) annual thru hikes scheduled for Jul 22-Aug 5 and Aug 26-Sep 9.

These 15-day guided hikes raise funds to support the TRTA’s mission: to maintain and enhance the Tahoe Rim Trail system, practice and inspire stewardship and preserve access to the natural beauty of the Lake Tahoe region.

Experts and guides support you every step of the way.

This adventure offers an experience of a lifetime, the opportunity to meet new hiking friends, disconnect from modern life and create lasting memories of traveling through some of the most beautiful scenery in the Northern Sierra Nevada and Carson Range.

Daily Burn/Spartan Race Obstacle Race Training Daily Burn, the leading streaming fitness service offering more than 600 workouts, announced the launch of a first-of-its-kind interactive partnership with Spartan Race. The partnership brings Spartan Race’s official training philosophy, Spartan SGX, to the Daily Burn ondemand library, which allows users to work out anytime, anywhere.

Created for users who want to compete in a Spartan Race, or just experience the Spartan lifestyle, the six-week Daily Burn Spartan program prepares people of all skill levels with workouts that simulate obstacles and challenges a racer will face on a Spartan Race course. The regimen allows users to train like a Spartan at home, using minimal equipment that can be found in and around the house to increase strength, endurance, and athleticism.

Read the full stories at AdventureSportsJournal.com/ ear-to-the-ground-febmar-2017/ www. advent ur espor t sjour nal. com

9

EPiC: Environmental Partnership Campaign

Weed’s Water War How residents of a small town at the foot of Mt. Shasta is fighting back against the bottled water industry

By Leonie Sherman Photos by Michael Yates

F

or 107 years, residents of Weed, California, a picturesque hamlet nestled against the flanks of snow-capped Mt. Shasta, have been drinking water from nearby Beaughan Spring. The water is so pure it flows straight to their faucets; no treatment is necessary.

Locals take gallon jugs of it with them when they leave town.

But Roseburg Forest Products, the Oregon-based timber giant that owns the land around the spring, has other uses for that pure water. Crystal Geyser already bottles Beaughan Spring water in Weed, and RFP wants to sell them even more. The timber company has told the 2,700 folks who call Weed home to find their water elsewhere.

“No way,” says Michael Yates of the Weed Area Water Alliance. “I’ve been drinking that water for 60 years. I can taste the chlorine in other tap water.”

Before it was a stop along Interstate 5, Weed was a classic timber company town. Abner Weed bought the land and the Siskiyou Lumber and Mercantile Mill in 1897 for $400. Roseburg is still the largest private employer in town.

The company changed hands a few times before 1959, when International Paper approached the state for permission to subdivide the land and sell it to residents.

A condition of the sale (completed in 1961) was creation of the non-profit Weed Water Works to provide water, sewer and fire protection for the fledgling community.

Rates and charges are determined by the California Public Utilities Commission.

“I don’t understand how it got this far,” says City Council member David Pearce. “The California Water Code says water is intended first for domestic use, then for Fish and Game, then for parks and recreation and lastly for industrial use. How can an industrial use take priority over our domestic water supply?”

10 ASJ — Feb/March 2017

When the Weed Water Works sold all assets to the city in 1966 they included the infrastructure but excluded rights to the water. Instead they granted a 50-year lease to provide 2.0 cubic feet per second for $1 a year. That lease expired June 26, 2016.

Beaughan Spring is located on Roseburg property, but ownership of the water rights is murky. Ten years ago Crystal Geyser began negotiating directly with the city for rights to bottle more of that pure spring water.

Finding a cloud over the water rights, they turned their attention to the land owners. Five years ago Roseburg entered into lease extension negotiations with the city.

Nine months of formal mediation failed to produce results.

This past February, facing the prospect of renting water trucks and making 45 trips a day to provide for household consumption, the city of Weed declared a state of emergency. In April, after hours of emotional testimony from over 100 concerned citizens, the city council approved a new Water Lease Agreement by a 3-2 vote. The five-year lease reduces the city’s water supply by 25%, raises annual costs to $97,500 a year and requires the city to pursue alternate sources of water within six months.

“This is a classic David and Goliath situation,” says former Weed mayor Jim Gubetta. “We’re the little guy and they’re hammering the hell out of us. Roseburg forced the city into this new lease agreement by threatening to withhold our drinking water.”

“There was never any negotiation,” echoes local activist Vicki Gold. “Just threats to take away our water.”

“We would love to negotiate this out and have Roseburg do what’s right, but our next step is to take this to court,” says current Mayor Pro Tem, Bob Hall.

“Basically it’s a water grab. This is something the company won’t be proud of when all the facts come out.”

In June, four concerned residents formed the Weed Area Water Alliance and filed a lawsuit, challenging the city’s claim that the lease agreement did not require a full review under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA).

“There is no question that a CEQA review is necessary,” says Philip Gregory of Cotchett, Pitre & McCarthy in Burlingame, CA, counsel for the plaintiffs. “It would be

both irresponsible and illegal for the City to proceed without proper environmental review. The new Water Lease Agreement incorrectly assumes that the water in question is actually owned by Roseburg. This assumption is not at all clear based on a legal analysis.”

When Weed resident Bruce Shoemaker tipped off a New York Times reporter, the resulting article, published in October, produced a national outcry that put Roseburg on the defensive.

“Our executive team has decided not to answer any more questions from journalists,” Corporate Communications Director Rebecca Taylor told me recently. “We are not interested, at this time, in talking about this issue.” What is there to say? We want more money, so those people can go drill a well?

As for Crystal Geyser, when the billionaire founder of its parent company visited town, he threatened to blow up the Weed bottling plant, a major local employer. Now that company’s representatives won’t even answer the phone.

“I don’t understand how it got this far,” says City Council member David Pearce. “The California Water Code says water is intended first for domestic use, then for Fish and Game, then for parks and recreation and lastly for industrial use. How can an industrial use take priority over our domestic water supply?”

As the matter winds its way through the courts, the Weed Area Water Alliance is hoping to revisit the city’s decision to agree to the new water lease agreement.

It’s difficult to imagine any California judge approving Roseburg’s right to deprive citizens of water so they can make a buck sending it to Japan in little plastic bottles.

But a legal victory often comes with a hefty price tag.

“Our former water attorney, who resigned during this process, advised us that Roseburg would bankrupt the city in court,” explains Hall. “But we really don’t have any other choice.”

Whatever the legal outcome, the moral imperative is as clear as the disputed water that continues to bubble out of Beaughan Spring.

“Roseburg is missing an incredible opportunity to generate good will by doing the right thing,” says Shoemaker. “They have an important role to play in our community, but they need to take their hands off our water.”

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PHOTOS Top to bottom: Mount Shasta from Weed’s Lake Street; Roseburg Forest Products plant; Beaughan Spring; Weed’s Main Street.

very autumn, Theo, the janitor at Branciforte Middle School, cleans out the gutters before the first big storm. This year he found over 200 discarded plastic water bottles.

He says that’s typical. And that’s in eco-conscious Santa Cruz.

Our landfills, oceans, city streets and public lands are clogged with these thin plastic containers. The carbon footprint of pumping, bottling and shipping all that water is enormous.

Sometimes springs are located on public land which is leased for a pittance with little environmental review.

In the San Bernardino National Forest, for example, Nestlé North America, the nations largest bottled water company, draws over 25 million gallons of Arrowhead Springs water every year. For this privilege, they pay an annual fee of $524 under a lease that expired in 1988. Though they cooperate with the US Forest Service, there is no environmental oversight of how their operation affects the watershed or wildlife.

While the residents of Weed contemplate the nation’s first ballot initiative to tax the export of bottled water, the solution to this ecological catastrophe is literally in our hands.

Just Say No to bottled water and encourage everyone you know to do the same.

—LS www. advent ur espor t sjour nal. com

11

Death On Two Wheels Exploring Death Valley National Park’s vast array of treasures Words and photos by Leonie Sherman

W

hen rain lashes the coast, wind scours the desert and snow pounds the mountains, chances are the sun is shining somewhere in the largest national park in the continental US. Sixty-five miles an hour is the wrong speed to absorb Death Valley’s spectacular salt flats, sand dunes, canyons, valleys and mountains, but hundreds of miles of paved roads traverse the varied terrain. Get on a bike and find your park.

Sparse vegetation throughout most of the park means the bones of the earth are laid bare and geology is on display. The 140-mile long rift that gives the park its name is a relatively flat ride, but four mountain ranges provide plenty of challenge for an ambitious rider.

Start small, aim high, go big. That’s how I explored Death Valley on two wheels.

Start Small My chromoly companion of 20 years was stolen this past autumn. I was just getting to know my new bike when we arrived in Death Valley. We chose the 23-mile loop of Artists Drive and Palette for our first tour. I left my car in front of the historic Inn at Furnace Creek, pointed my bike south, and started pedaling.

Drivers are remarkably polite on the

12 ASJ — Feb/March 2017

heavily trafficked Badwater Road. About three dozen cars passed me before the turnoff; each of them slowed down and moved into the oncoming traffic lane while passing. The one-way traffic on Artists Drive features even more considerate motorists. At one point, three cars were patiently cruising behind me, waiting for the road to widen; I pulled over to let them pass.

The road ascends a broad alluvial fan of jumbled rock which spills out of a deep gash in the face of the Black Mountains.

Exposed rock dates back over 20 million years from a period of violent volcanic activity. Oxidization of minerals produces spectacular and varied colors. Iron turns pink, red and yellow, mica creates a pale green, and manganese becomes a vivid purple.

the west, two vertical miles below, the Panamint Valley is a sandy plain rising to the escarpment of the Argus, Inyo and Sierra Mountains; Mt. Whitney glimmers in the distance.

Bike or no bike, a climb of Telescope Peak grants a new perspective on the hottest, lowest park in the country.

PHOTOS Opposite page, clockwise from top: Entering the park along Highway 190; Sunrise on the Panamint and Inyo mountains; Biking near Zabriskie Point. This page, above: Reaching the pass was a relief after 3,300 feet of climbing.

Artists Drive itself is a single lane of pavement that climbs over 2,000 feet, dipping and swerving to create a ninemile long stomach-dropping roller coaster.

All but the most cynical cyclists will return to their car with a grin still plastered on their face.

Aim High Four major mountain ranges tower over Death Valley. The highest peak rises 11,300 feet in under 15 miles. With a summit 11,049 feet above sea level, Telescope Peak isn’t just the highest point in the park, it’s one of the greatest vertical rises in the country.

Over 8,000 feet of vertical gain stand between the turn off and the trailhead.

Nine miles and about 4,500 feet of that climbing are on a rough dirt road best tackled in a 4WD vehicle. My new twowheeled steed only has shock absorbers on the seat post. I decided to bike 25 miles to Wildrose Campground and meet a friend there for the climb.

Emigrant Campground, where I began my jaunt loaded down with gear and six liters of water, is 1,800 feet above sea level. My destination was only about 2,400 feet higher, but a 5,319-foot pass stands between them. The road climbs a relentless grade through Emigrant Canyon and levels out for a few miles before the final ascent. The last ten miles of downhill cruising tested my old school cantilever brakes.

The rutted tortuous nine miles to the Mahogany Flat trailhead the next day took 45 minutes in a high clearance vehicle and I was glad for the internal combustion engine.

I’ve hiked thousands of miles, from New Zealand to Alaska to Nepal. The trail to Telescope Peaks’s summit is among the most pleasant seven miles I’ve ever walked. It winds through pinyon, limber and bristlecone pines, mostly following a glorious ridge and gaining 3,100 feet without ever getting too steep. A broad saddle about halfway provides stunning views of the distant snow-capped Sierra.

From the summit a panoramic vista spreads in all directions. Whipping wind often encourages a hasty retreat, but linger a moment and savor the vast spectacle. To the east, the floor of Death Valley shimmers 11,000 feet below and the summit of Mt. Charleston, the highest peak in the Las Vegas area, is visible beyond the Amargosa Range. To

Go Big From Furnace Creek, a 120-mile loop includes a meandering desert river, a passage through rugged mountains and the surreal erosion of Zabriskie Point. The loop also climbs over 6,000 vertical feet.

A bike warrior could complete it in a day, but I planned to take two nights.

A hundred cars passed me in the first 17 miles of Badwater Road. The boardwalk leading to the lowest spot in the US, 282 feet below sea level, was clogged with camera-wielding tourists. The line for the outhouse was 12 deep. I rode off to pee on a creosote bush.

Death Valley National Park encompasses over three million acres of wild terrain, but humans congregate in only a few locations. After Badwater Basin, I saw half a dozen cars in 30 miles of gentle rolling terrain. In the gleaming indigo twilight a coyote stepped onto the road and strolled a hundred yards before crossing.

The road hugs the east side of the valley, hard against the Black Mountains, where deep canyons spew rubble onto steep alluvial fans. Vegetation vibrates in the fierce wind and the dark bulk of the Panamint Mountains rises across the saltencrusted plain.

The next morning I watched the sun seep into day, casting rose and orange hues on the snow-capped peaks. I didn’t see a car for three hours as I struggled towards Jubilee and Salsberry Passes. After Shoshone, California Highway 178 skirts the eastern edge of the park, following the winding Amargosa River. Traffic was minimal and even big rigs crossed the double yellow line to give me plenty of space.

At Death Valley Junction I ducked into the Amargosa Cafe to escape the relentless wind and discovered the finest bakery for 100 miles. Europeans rave about the coffee. I devoured thick slices of homemade bread and downed half a glass of fresh goat milk. Most of the ingredients are organic and sourced locally. The proprietors, Bobbi and Travis, are enchanted with the land and you can taste the love in their food.

I sheltered from the wind that night in an abandoned adobe shack and enjoyed the final 30-mile ride back to my car the next morning. The 1,000-foot climb through the Funeral Mountains was so moderate I barely had to change gears. It was followed by the best 20 miles of my journey, a screaming descent past dunes and mountains and into the bustle of Furnace Creek.

I returned from even the shortest of my bike tours caked in filth and sweat. Under bluebird skies I suffered heat exhaustion; on overcast days I dressed like I was ice climbing. But it only took 24 hours before I was plotting my next tour of Death Valley on Two Wheels.

A SERIES OF WELLNESS EVENTS

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The first annual Restorative Arts and Yoga Festival is a unique event that features therapeutics, energy workers, yoga instructors, guided meditation and metaphysical teachings that will inspire and heal the mind, body and soul.

Wellness Weekend 2017 will feature speakers, workshops, and seminars from a variety of health professionals and medical doctors.

CE credits available to nurses.

Get 10% Off Event Registration when you book before May 31

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13

Stone Nudes

By Chris Van Leuven

The story of Dean Fidelman’s evocative imagery

“I

look at my work as music. You like it or you don’t. It’s just my music that I make with my friends,” Dean “Bullwinkle” Fidelman tells Adventure Sports Journal from his modest home just west of Yosemite’s park gates.

Today, 61-year-old Fidelman makes his art simply, passionately and without compromise — just like he did as a teenager in Southern California.

In addition to making images of climbers sans clothing on rocks throughout the world, he also edits and collects historic climbing photos for coffee table books with his longtime friend John Long. These include: The Stonemasters: California Rock Climbers in the Seventies (2009); Stone Nudes: Art in Motion (2010), The Valley Climbers: Yosemite’s Vertical Revolution (2012); and Yosemite in the 50s: The Iron Age (2015). To date he’s published 18 Stone Nude calendars.

In 2010 The Stonemasters: California Rock Climbers in the Seventies won Best Mountain History Grand Prize at the Banff Mountain and Book Festival. In 2016, also at Banff, Yosemite in the 50s: The Iron Age won Best Mountain Images. Yosemite in the 50s also won the National Outdoor Book Award.

Stonemasters Era In 1971, at age 15, after getting a tip from his photography teacher at James Monroe High School, Fidelman hopped on his bike in Northridge (northwest of Los Angeles) and rode the five miles one way to Stoney Point in Chatsworth to capture a shot of a climber bouldering. Stoney Point attracted many of Southern California’s elite climbers – many who would later call themselves Stonemasters — in the San 14 ASJ — Feb/March 2017

Fernando Valley and beyond. Having never witnessed climbing before, Fidelman was mesmerized by the fluidity and simplicity of climbers moving over stone. Not only did he come back with images from that day to show his teacher, he began frequenting the bouldering area so often that he eventually became a climber himself. Climbing and photography took over his life.

By 16 he was catching rides to Joshua Tree and Yosemite. This is where the Stonemasters, including John Bachar, Ron Kauk, Lynn Hill, Rick Accomazzo, John Long, John Yablonski and many more, spent the climbing seasons honing their skills, and Fidelman was right there alongside them. Whether he was with his crew sleeping side-by-side in J-Tree’s arid and desolate landscape, or in the boulders behind Yosemite’s historic Camp 4 with Yosemite Falls pounding in the background, he always had his camera with him and captured everything.

Fidelman captured the climber’s lifestyle and his friends became his subjects. These were athletes in their youth — some were troubled, full of angst, quick to react, passionate, childlike. Others had deep wisdom, some a bit of both. This band of outcasts would later influence the future of rock climbing and some would go on to become authors, lawyers, professional athletes. Fidelman kept hold of all his images and safely put them in storage.

Fashion Photography As the 70s came to a close and many members of his crew moved on to adulthood, Fidelman, too, also changed.

He enrolled in the film school Brooks Institute in Santa Barbara in the early 80s, moved to New York City and finally Milan,

Italy in 1988 to shoot fashion. For a decade his work took him away from climbing and the simple lifestyle he embraced.

“My fashion stuff was good but not great,” he says. “My portraits and my old climbing shots were my favorite. It seemed like everyone I worked with in Milan and New York was chasing everyone else. I thought maybe there is more to this game than just these kinds of photos.”

The work lacked the intimacy he shared with the subjects during his youth. He missed focusing on the simplicity of making portraits of his friends. He also missed working with black and white film.

Through it all, the fashion shoots, the travel and producing images for money, it was not uncommon for Fidelman to be without a camera. In a way, he still had that same communal approach to life that he found among climbers, and his work didn’t rely on a mentality of “have or have not.” “I would meet people that had really nice cameras who weren’t using them. They would let me borrow one for however long as I needed.”

Stone Nudes In 1997 Fidelman returned to Yosemite and settled in just like he had done many years earlier. Again he met up with the rock stars of the day: Dean Potter, Chris Sharma and Lisa Rands.

Carrying on his tradition of borrowing cameras, he ended up in Yosemite with Charles Cole’s 5 X 7 Pentax mediumformat camera. (Cole is founder of the climbing, approach and mountain bike shoe company Five Ten). Cole’s deal with Fidelman was that he could use the camera in exchange for giving him images now and again.

“I was doing work in the industry for Five Ten, Boreal, and it was going against what I originally thought. I wanted to shoot art.

I wanted to see what I could do. What my evolution to climbing photography could bring.”

Photographing nudes was nothing new to Fidelman and he wanted to see if he could combine nude photography with landscapes and climbing. His “aha” moment came after he processed the first batch of nude images, captured on the borrowed Pentax, and realized his idea could work.

The first Stone Nude calendar was shot in Joshua Tree in 1999. Models arrived through word of mouth, mainly from climbing gyms in the Los Angeles area, or Fidelman photographed his friends. He uses the same camera for this project to this day.

A Personal Connection Stone Nudes is more than capturing moments. Relationships are built.

Memories are frozen in time and displayed in the pages of each calendar. His website stonenudes.com calls the concept “A photographic project that captures the essence of the climbing spirit.”

Once Fidelman has chosen the location and matched it with the model, then the day is scheduled and the climbing – fully clothed – begins. A subject may climb a boulder problem several times so he or she can get comfortable with it. It’s during this time that trust is set. And Fidelman may shoot off a few frames to make sure he’ll get what he’s after.

Once everyone is ready then the clothes, and maybe even climbing shoes, come off. Fidelman shoots a few images, waits

and shoots a few more. A single roll of medium-format film only has ten frames, so each one counts. This isn’t a rapid fire, collect-as-many-images-as-you-can endeavor. He may reload the camera perhaps two to four times total, and may call the shoot done after merely 30 to 40 images are collected. The whole process takes perhaps 15 to 20 minutes.

It’s an organic process that includes only the basics: light, location, the model and spontaneity. Making a Stone Nude is as much about being in the present moment for the model as it is for Fidelman.

“You have to show the texture of the rock and make sure it looks good with the [model]. You can’t be anxious. You can’t be anything but patient because you can’t lose the trust.” He adds, “You can attain perfection in a very simple manner. When I look at the background, look at the light and look at the [model], I’m like ‘this is perfect.’ I like the lines where the shape of the boulder is reflected in the shape of the model, and the sun is repeating the shadow of the model on the boulder.

That’s what I’m looking for.”

A Stone Nude is more than just a picture in a calendar, more than just an image.

“You’re trying to make a connection for a moment. You’re trying to make something that’s timeless. And that’s what works the best. I know what I’m looking for when I see it. I go on much more of a feeling level, emotional level. The camera is never on a tripod. I want to be in the moment with all my work. That’s what I look for in [my] collections.”

In 2010 Fidelman published the book Stone Nudes: Art in Motion, which contains his favorite work from over the years including the time he shot nude male models. (The author of this article is featured in the book and is also in one of the calendars.)

The woman who graced the second cover of the calendar is also featured in the 2017 Stone Nudes calendar. She remembers that sometimes when she met up with Fidelman to do a Stone Nude it was bitterly cold. Other times incessant mosquitoes attacked her. Sometimes she was afraid that a family would show up at anytime for a picnic and see her exposed.

Other times it was, “as casual as going on a hike with someone you get along with, but seeing everything for the first time again. It was an opportunity to collaborate and to make something beautiful.”

She recollects one photo shoot in which Fidelman directed her to “Jut your right hip a bit. More arch in your back. Turn your chin towards me so you look more natural.” “But this is so uncomfortable,” she recalls. “How can it look natural? It takes a lot of effort to look relaxed.” She adds, “Dean is so familiar, so intimate with those landscapes, we are, with each other and with [these places].”

For many years this model was “instrumental in setting up Stone Nudes as a barely sustainable commercial enterprise,” Fidelman says.

Having been in front of Fidelman’s camera myself in 2001 to make a Stone Nude at the Buttermilks in Bishop, I can attest to the making of the photo as a quiet, personal experience.

Years go by It’s been close to 20 years now that Fidelman has been making Stone Nudes.

In that time some of the models have moved on from climbing and the lifestyle they knew, and their lives have become more complicated. Some models have had children and their bodies have changed. “’I wanted to have a photograph about how I feel right now, how I feel about climbing,’” one model told Fidelman regarding her motivation to make a Stone Nude.

“It means a lot to me to capture them in the way they want to feel as well,” Fidelman says. “I keep making the project because the photos continually get better.

They seem to be evolving and I want to see where they’re going to lead me. I’ll keep making calendars as long as I keep evolving as a photographer. It’s also the path of least resistance in my life in many ways.”

In an act that is both gratifying to Fidelman and also one that improves the eventual outcome of the images, he processes the film in the basement at the Ansel Adams Gallery located in the center of Yosemite Valley. It’s the same darkroom once used by the legendary landscape and portrait photographer. Later, Fidelman scans the negatives.

Fidelman says: “Using this darkroom is like being accepted into Yosemite’s community, and having a connection to the beginning of photography’s acceptance as an art form. Ansel Adams is definitely the genesis of that acceptance.

“It’s about making original work.”

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15

Earning Mount Tom A worthy objective for Sierra ski mountaineers

By Josh Pearlman • Photos by Peter Clark

M

ount Tom is situated in the middle of the southern Sierra Nevada.

This area – known simply as the “Eastside” – spans nearly 400 miles and boasts an impressive 21 designated Wilderness areas and two national parks.

Just northwest of Bishop, as the Owens Valley begins a steep climb toward Mammoth Lakes, the 13,658-foot Mt. Tom becomes visible as it noticeably dominates all of the surrounding peaks. This peak, a must-do in the Eastside backcountry ski circuit, is named after Thomas Clark who bagged the summit sometime in the 1860s.

It is unclear who first skied Mt. Tom, but based on the active scene there in the 1970s and 1980s, it was most likely done

by Galen Rowell or Doug Robinson or someone in that group. Today, Mt. Tom is the logical next step for the experienced backcountry skier who has nailed the classics such as Dana, Laurel, Morrison or Bloody, and is ready to move on to the bigger southern peaks such as Whitney, Split or Williamson. If you can ski Mt. Tom, then you can probably ski Mt. Whitney in a day with a slightly earlier start and a

noticeably later return time.

In 2001 I was living in Mammoth Lakes and fully immersed in the ski mountaineering culture there. Mt. Tom seemed like a noble goal, so I got together with three friends and we hatched a plan to skin up to the top of Elderberry Canyon, climb the technical headwall to the top of the peak, and then ski back down.

Mammoth Lakes was a smallish community back then, full of ultra-fit dirtbags who knew the magic of climbing and skiing in the Southern Sierra and

were willing to train hard and take risks.

I was working at Lakefront Restaurant and trying to save money, even though it was easy to blow a whole day’s wages just sitting at the bar and planning adventures.

Mt. Tom was perfect for us. It was a big gnarly objective but not necessarily dangerous. We had our plan and waited for the perfect weather window and conditions. Problem was, we weren’t the only ones with Tom in our scopes. It was time to step up and get it done before someone else did.

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Available at the bay area’s best outdoor equipment stores: Down Works, Redwood Trading Post, Sports Basement, Sunrise Mountaineering, Young’s Backpacking 22 ASJ — Feb/March 16 Dec/Jan 2014 2017

Skiing Mt. Tom Getting there:

PHOTOS Opposite page, clockwise from top:

Local mountain guide Howie Schwartz California dreamin’ in short sleeves; Savoring every turn of the massive descent; Traversing Tom high in the Horton Creek drainage; Skinning up the Horton Creek drainage. This page, above: Jim Barnes contemplates the 4,000-foot descent from the headwall of Horton Creek. Sidebar: Skiing the corn on the south face during an unseasonable June-uary.

Shortly thereafter we were skinning up the old mining road that leads to the top of Elderberry Canyon. It was 3am and we had 4,600 vertical feet of skinning before the technical climbing on the summit headwall was to begin.

We threw our skis and skins in our packs and started the tedious climb up a rocky spur to gain the summit ridge at just under 13,000 feet. Fighting for breath, we reached the summit, which is absolutely spectacular. To the west we saw Bear Creek Spire, and the spiky skyline of the Minarets to the north. Up and down, over and under, around and across, the lengthy summit ridge is a wonderful and exhausting final push that seems to take forever.

The climb took nine hours and we were lost in the weary euphoria of a successful ascent, smug with the knowledge that we would soon be descending at full speed. It only takes about 15 minutes to descend Mt. Tom on skis, but those minutes feel like the ultimate prize to a ski-mountaineer who has earned every inch of a blissful run.

The whole way down we were human projectiles, with flapping Gore-Tex and fluttering pack straps. It felt as if we were going 100 miles per hour, although in reality it was probably half of that speed.

It’s hard to comprehend that we were able to ski down a mountain for such an extended period of time. On and on, we occasionally stopped to spot each other and to catch our breath. Pumped on adrenaline and knees shaking with exhaustion, we finally reached the car, literally riding up to and touching the hood of my trusty old Subaru.

Pausing, we looked back at the mountain in silent praise, basking in the experience as the last ten hours began catching up to us. We started to chuckle, which turned into loud laughter as the high began to overwhelm our bodies. It had been a perfect day in the mountains, no avalanches or injuries, politics or war, bills or mortgages. A simple test of body and soul, just four buddies with a bit of ambition that had, once again, left us with ear to ear grins and an incomparable buzz rivaled by nothing else on earth.

• From Bishop head North on US 395 toward Mammoth Lakes for ten miles.

• Turn left (west) on Pine Creek Rd. to Rovana • Mt. Tom sits directly above Rovana and numerous obvious dirt roads lead to the bottom of the well-defined drainage known as Elderberry Canyon.

• Drive as far as you can towards the foot of the canyon and park it, on big snow years one can drive right to the snowline.

When to go: • I have found the best time has been in March or April. After a good year the snow blankets the entire peak avoiding having to hike 1,000 feet or more of scrub on a dismal year.

• Mid-winter snow conditions can be exceptional with high altitude blower powder on the headwall that gradually firms up as you descend through the enormous Elderberry Canyon. But with short days, unstable weather and variable avalanche conditions, it can sometimes be a gamble on success.

Resources: • The town of Mammoth Lakes, 7,880', 30 miles north on US 395, sports numerous restaurants, hotels, breweries and bars.

• Mammoth Mountaineering Supply, run by longtime Mammoth hardman Dave Talsky is the local climbing shop with a very knowledgeable staff and a wide variety of backcountry gear.

• Mammoth Mountain is a fantastic ski area, and with a top elevation of 11,053' it is a great way to acclimate before pushing it to 13,658'.

• Bishop, 4,150', has numerous restaurants, hotels, breweries and bars as well. It has more of a western cowboy feel compared to the ski bums and LA social crowds of Mammoth. It also has a large year around climbing community with endless bouldering and sport climbing in the surrounding hills and washes within just a few miles of town.

• In Bishop, check out Eastside Sports to outfit you with any necessary gear or knowledge. Todd Vogel and his staff are amazing.

Guidebooks: • The High Sierra- Peaks Passes And Trails by R.J. Secor • Backcountry Skiing In The High Sierra by John Moynier —JP www. advent ur espor t sjour nal. com

17

Canine Snow Safety 8 things to consider before backcountry skiing with your dog

By Court Brock

T

hey say that a dog is man’s best friend. And what’s better than a day in the backcountry with your best friend? All my life I had been a cat lover until I skied with Buddy, a friend’s dog who excelled in the backcountry.

I knew right then that was what I wanted. Fast forward two years to November 2012 when I adopted six month old “Nacho” from the South Lake Tahoe Animal Shelter.

Nacho is a Whippet/Aussie/Sheltie mix which means he’s “fast and furrious” – something I learned our first day out pre-season at Alpine Meadows. For the first two years this speed was something of an issue since his behavior wasn’t always the best. He has taken out several ski partners whose only crime was shralping the pow. Afterwards he sat over them gloating as if he saved all the fresh tracks for me.

Humor aside, working with your dog to help him be a safe companion out in the snow is an important undertaking. We were lucky to escape incidents unscathed, but I’ve heard stories of those not so

Photo by: The Nichols www.nicholsphotographers.com

18 ASJ — Feb/March 2017

fortunate. Without a doubt, skiing with your pup can be one of the most rewarding things you can do for both of you, but it’s not something you can take lightly, since in addition to ensuring his or her behavior is appropriate around others, you’re responsible for his safety out there. There are a myriad of threats we all face whenever we enter the backcountry. Some of these threats are exacerbated and new ones are added when your canine friend is added to the mix.

Before you even don your skins, your plan for the day has to include your dog. Following are a few things to consider; some will obviously be more of an issue with some dogs more than others.

1

Your dog’s claws will give him excellent traction moving up icy slopes. Coming down the same slope in the same conditions the claws are no help and stopping could be impossible if the slope is steep. I once had to back out of the top of Carnell’s in the Cirque at Kirkwood for this very reason.

PHOTOS This page, top to bottom: Nacho enjoys the rewards of

the climb as much as his human. View: Desolation Wilderness from Maggie’s Peak ... Descent: Powderhouse on Luther Pass (Jeff Glass).

Opposite page: As a backcountry partner Nacho is always at your side and the first on scene with kisses after a crash (Contributed).

2

Avalanche assessment has to take your pooch into consideration. If he is the type that could run off in a situation when you need him to stay at your side — such as near cornices or areas under a slope that could release a slide remotely — you should consider leaving him at home for the day.

3

Some dog breeds do better in extreme weather than others. The day’s weather is something I have to pay special attention to as Nacho does well in the snow, but is not a breed naturally designed for it. Colder temps (and especially winds) can get him shivering and send us home early. Fortunately Sierra temperatures stay relatively mild, and a jacket – although no substitute for Husky fur! – keeps him comfortable on the colder days. It’s important to note that a dog’s paw can become stuck inside the jacket which can completely immobilize him in deep snow. It might be best to let your dog wear a jacket only on the uphill.

4

Snow conditions definitely play a role in your dog’s safety as well as enjoyment. Early season conditions can mean your dog’s paws are busting through to whatever is hiding a foot under the snow, and it is often sharp.

Similarly, a breakable crust could be easy for your Corgi to negotiate while a 24" cold smoke powder day could be permanently over his head. That same breakable crust could wreak havoc on those with smaller paws. Booties are available for dogs and although I have never seen an active dog keep his boots on for more than 30 seconds, they may be worth trying out if you have concerns about your dog’s paws.

5

Are dogs allowed? Regardless of how you feel about a certain area’s policy regarding dogs, you should know the fines for having your best friend with you can be extremely punitive. I once received a “dog off leash” citation in an

empty D.L. Bliss State Park during the winter that ended up being a $500 fine.

The ranger pointed out that I was cited for only one out of four possible citations, as I had two dogs off leash and they’re not allowed on the beach even on leash.

6

Like their human counterparts, dogs get injured in the backcountry. The most common injury is caused by our skis slicing their tendons when they get too close. Some dogs are better than others at staying a safe distance, but it’s an interaction between both the skier and pup so the skier’s ability comes into play as well. What will you do if Fido gets injured when you’re five miles out? It is important to have a first aid kit with you whenever you enter the backcountry.

Fortunately, if you already have a first aid kit for yourself there is no reason to carry an extra one for your dog since the kits are all virtually the same.

20 feet of fresh snow in January!

7

Be sure to consider your dog’s water and food needs. I can’t get Nacho to drink on ski tours. It’s never hot and they constantly eat snow. Your dog might be different however. Collapsible bowls are light and take up very little space.

8

Is your pup old enough? It’s imperative that your pup be appropriately developed before you push him too hard, especially in deeper snow.

The proper age varies greatly by breed so it’s a good idea to do some research, and start off with smaller tours.

While all that seems like a lot to think about, it rarely stops us from enjoying the backcountry, though it sometimes changes our plans. Nacho consistently manages to get over a hundred days in and it looks like this year will be the same.

Court Brock spends every day climbing, skiing and/or biking in the Sierra with Nacho and his furry pals (Stoke and Whiskey). Follow Nacho on Facebook (Facebook.com/Nachothewonderpup) and Instagram (@climbskibikedog).

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19

Race Nordic Training for a lifetime of cross country skiing

By Tim Hauserman

T

here are just a few sports that one can happily participate in from the age of four to 84.

One is cross country (aka Nordic) skiing. While it might not have the Red Bull dopamine star power of downhill skiing or snowboarding, cross country skiing develops strength, flexibility and aerobic capacity. And while almost anyone can enjoy sliding on snow, the upper echelon of cross country skiing produces the world’s greatest aerobic powerhouses. Outside recently ranked cross country skiing as the world’s toughest outdoor sport.

The Lake Tahoe region has produced a vast number of Olympic medalists in skiing and snowboarding, but even though it has the largest concentration of Nordic trails in the United States, it has not yet produced an Olympic cross country ski athlete. There are, however, a variety of programs in the Tahoe region which are designed to create a life long interest in cross country skiing, as well as perhaps training a future Olympian.

Whether it is Auburn Ski Club’s Super Slider and Super Sonic programs, Tahoe Donner Cross Country’s Nordic Kids, or Tahoe Cross Country’s Strider Gliders, the goal of programs geared towards the youngest skiers is simple: introduce kids to cross country skiing. Strider Gliders starts at four years of age, while the other programs begin at five and they continue through fifth grade. In general, these programs focus less on technique, and more on giving kids the opportunity to have fun on snow.

The reasoning is simple: if kids are not having fun, they will find something else they would rather do. The good news, says Valli Murnane, Director of the Tahoe Cross Country Ski Education Association, is that even if they stop cross country skiing and take up other sports in middle school or high school, the seed has been planted, and later in life the Strider Glider experience might bring them back to cross country skiing.

Once they reach fifth grade, kids in North Tahoe and Truckee can join the Middle School Nordic Teams. While these teams are large and active, it is at the middle school level when students begin the process of narrowing down what sports they will choose to focus on. By high school, competition for kids’ time gets even more fierce, and more activities are chopped from the schedule. Dancers start dancing a few more days a week, soccer becomes a year-round sport, and those who are competing in both downhill and cross country skiing have to choose which one they prefer.

“Training programs are designed partly to create successful cross country ski racers, but mostly to create successful people.”

20 ASJ — Feb/March 2017

To get a leg up on the competition and keep Nordic kids skiing, ski clubs developed to provide additional focused training for those who chose Nordic skiing as their primary sport. One of the longest running development programs is at Auburn Ski Club (ASC). ASC Coach Gus Johnson has a Development Team (Devo) for 11-15 year olds, and a Competition Team (Comp) Team for mostly 14-19 year olds, but it is more about ability than age.

“At the Devo level we keep it light and fun. Some train year-round, and some just on weekends. We are flexible to other programs,” said Johnson. But when the athletes advance to the Comp level, usually in high school, they have made the decision to focus on cross country skiing and will train four or more days per week.

The Tahoe Cross Country’s Devo program has a new coach, Eliska Albrigtsen. Originally from the Czech Republic, she has been a ski racer for over 20 years, and found great success racing in college for the powerhouse University of Colorado in Boulder. Albrigtsen says, her focus with the kids is on “setting progress goals more than outcome goals. We don’t think about the results, but focus more on whether you did V2 on the easier uphills, did you not snowplow on the downhills, and were you tight on your tuck?”

Johnson says that the kids “really have to have the mindset that this is tough and I can do it. Cross country ski racing is really a hard sport. But how much fun we have and how tough it is, is the draw.”

While it is a challenge being a Nordic racer, Johnson feels that kids get a great return for their investment.

“We’re teaching kids the value of hard work and time management. They come out with a set of skills that will set them up for future success, no matter what they are doing,” said Johnson.

Albrigtsen agrees, saying that her charges already talk about skiing with their own kids some day. She says they are even learning an important money management lesson: how to save enough money to get better skis and roller skis.

Once students from the Sierra region graduate high school, the closest college cross country ski programs are in Montana, Utah and Colorado, but the biggest concentration of racing schools is in New England. Thus kids who want to race, and go to college, have to leave the area.

PHOTOS Top to bottom: Eliska Albrigtsen of Tahoe Cross Country points the way to her students (Tobias Albrigtsen); Nordic skiing requires yearround aerobic fitness (Auburn Ski Club).

After college, folks who return to Tahoe can find plenty of opportunities to race, but the training opportunities are more limited. The Far West Nordic Ski Association schedule includes a community race almost every weekend between Mammoth and Tahoe. Albrigtsen teaches a masters program, and many of her students are parents of the younger racers she coaches.

The problem for cross country ski racing is that it takes a long time to build up the endurance and strength needed to compete at an international level. The best racers are in their 30s, having spent decades training. Except for the very few who have earned a spot on the US Ski Team, there is no real support network to enable skiers to keep training for the 5-10-15 years after college it might take them to build up the endurance to compete at the highest level. And since Nordic skiing doesn’t have the fame to attract the sponsors that savvy snowboarders and skiers can accrue via social media, a cross country skier usually needs to somehow fit in all that training while working full time doing something else to make ends meet.

While this reality is daunting and discouraging for those who seek to create an Olympic cross country skiing legacy, for the vast majority of skiers, becoming an Olympian is not the point. Training programs are designed partly to create successful cross country ski racers, but mostly to create successful people. The goal is to develop love for a sport which will keep you fit and strong for your entire life. It also helps kids become well-rounded and grounded adults that you would enjoy hanging out with. Although Albrigtsen says, for her, it is really all about the fact that “there is no sexier man than a man in tights.”

Tahoe Backcountry Women Backcountry leaders share their passion Story and photo by Brennan Lagasse

A

s backcountry skiing has continued to grow in popularity throughout the Lake Tahoe Basin, educator and community leader Whitney Foehl saw the need for a women’s specific group. Joined by other female leaders that love to backcountry ski, Whitney decided to put together a few events and the rest is history. The following is a collective Q&A with Foehl and fellow core female backcountry ski leaders Holly Yocum, Sarah Kunnen, and Jillian Raymond.

Q: Where did the idea for Tahoe Backcountry Women (TBW) come from and how did you first get started?

Tahoe Backcountry Women was founded during the 2011-12 ski season, when I [Whitney] was taking a year off from my teaching job to work in the outdoor industry. With the support of Alpenglow Sports in Tahoe City. I set up some initial events to see if I could get any response from the community. It was clear that women were waiting for a group like this.

Q: What are you up to right now, besides skiing all of this great new snow in Tahoe?

We have seen a dominant representation of males, both in-bounds and in the backcountry, in film and print media, so

we want to inspire and excite women to get out there and have fun — without and with the boys! We have a loose but organized committee to get our message out there, and ultimately involve as many women who want to be involved.

it’s rarely easy and not something to take lightly. We want women to be adventurous, educated and safe by building the skill they need to lead and the ability to communicate effectively while backcountry skiing.

Q: How do you feel now looking back from where you started?

TBW is in its fifth year and we have stayed intimate and true to our mission of empowering women in the industry – both novice and advanced – to get out there and send it!

Q: What can backcountry women look forward to from TBW this season?

We host our annual “My Turn Slide Show” and lead guided ski tours. We also offer avalanche education, host a gear swap and an annual hut trip in the Sierra.

New this year we have added our “Speak the F#CK Up!” night to foster dialogue among women about speaking up in the backcountry and feeling confident to use their education as well as their intuition to be a competent and rad partner in the backcountry.

Q: Why is it important to have an all women backcountry group?

Backcountry skiing is serious business;

Q: What do you see for TBW’s future?

Whether it’s coming together for events or to go skiing, TBW is about networking

CROSS COUNTRY SKIING

within the community to foster support, education, and inspiration around women who backcountry ski. Since it revolves around those big themes, we are everevolving. We want it to grow organically as a local group, as it has over the past four years.

We have an e-mail list server for women who aren’t on social media but all our gatherings can be found on our Facebook page. We just started an Instagram feed last spring so you can #tahoebackcountrywomen to share your own experiences and come together in the virtual world.

Nothing really beats seeing those smiling faces in real time though, so we encourage women to meet up with each other and create their own adventures.

If you are in the Tahoe area this winter looking for some ladies to get out in the backcountry with, hit us up and we will see you out there!

The best way to explore Tahoe’s winter wonderland. Discover the fun and tranquility of cross country skiing this season.

gotahoenorth.com/nordic

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www. advent ur espor t sjour nal. com 21 11/18/16 8:17 PM

Build It & They Will Come Boosting community and trails with Epic Rides

By Kurt Gensheimer

I

n its inaugural year, the 2016 Carson City Off-Road mountain bike event was an enormous hit, filling all 600 available spaces well in advance. Put on by Tucson, Arizona-based Epic Rides, the Carson City Off-Road was far more than just a mountain bike event. Offering three different distance options, it was a celebration of community that welcomed first-time visitors to Nevada’s state capitol and helped raise funds for local trail stewardship organizations like Muscle Powered, Tahoe Rim Trail Association (TRTA) and Tahoe Area Mountain Biking Association (TAMBA).

The Carson City Off-Road suddenly became the city’s Super Bowl of sorts; hotels were full, restaurants and bars were brimming with customers and local businesses were ringing cash registers thanks to mountain bikers who traveled from all over the country to take part in the inaugural event. By helping develop mountain communities focused on a recreation-based economy, Epic Rides is able to take proceeds from each event and put them back into the community through trail building, making places like Carson City more bikeable and more attractive to families looking for a city with ample outdoor recreation.

“Each of the five mountain bike events we currently promote has a fundraising element to it,” said Todd Sadow, president and co-founder of Epic Rides. “A portion of every rider registration fee goes back to funding local trail advocacy and trail building organizations to not only help keep the trails we use in prime condition, but also to help build new trail, enhancing the quality of life for the town’s citizens.”

Since Epic Rides was founded in 1996, Sadow estimated the organization has given nearly $100,000 for trail

“Our events deliver communities international advertising value, tourism dollars, economic development opportunities and improved morale with local residents through building world-class multiuse recreational trails.”

22 ASJ — Feb/March 2017

advocacy efforts. And in its first year, the Carson City Off-Road raised $6,600 for Muscle Powered, TRTA and TAMBA. “Events are often times a missing component for mountain biking that allows it to play a key role in delivering good financial meaning for a community,” said Sadow. “Our events deliver communities international advertising value, tourism dollars, economic development opportunities and improved morale with local residents through building world-class multi-use recreational trails. And through these trails come more vibrant communities rich with outdoor recreation that appeal to a growing number of families.”

The Whiskey Off-Road, another Epic Rides event that started in Prescott, Arizona back in 2004, went from a couple hundred participants to a couple thousand within only a few years. It is now the most anticipated annual event the city has, and the only event popular enough to close the center of downtown to vehicle traffic all weekend with free live music and family friendly activities.

Additionally, the Whiskey has had an enormous positive impact on new trail construction, with Prescott now boasting some of the best mountain bike access in the West, less than two miles from the heart of downtown. One of the highlights is the recently completed Prescott Circle Trail, a 54-mile non-motorized trail that runs the outskirts of downtown through beautiful Ponderosa Pine forests. The Circle Trail is not only a favorite with locals, but its attracting mountain bikers from all over America.

“People have come to Prescott to participate in the Whiskey and love it so much they end up moving here,” said Sadow. “And our goal is exactly the same in Grand Junction, Colorado as it is in Carson City. Our events are a showcase of these iconic frontier towns, and we’re focused on giving back to help make them attractive places for families to live.”

Within the next couple years, through funds raised from the Carson City Off-Road, a new singletrack trail is in the works, connecting the iconic Tahoe Rim Trail with the award-winning Ash to King’s Trail Network.

This crucial connector will help the Carson City Off-Road offer one of the most thrilling singletrack descents in the West, dropping nearly 4,500 vertical feet in elevation

PHOTOS Clockwise from top: A stacked pro men’s field at the start of the Carson City Off-Road’s Capitol 50 (Dan Severson); Flowing through the pines back to downtown Carson City (Brian Leddy); Gary Fisher clicks pints with Epic Rides co-founder Todd Sadow during the inauguarl Carson City Off-Road dedication toast (Brian Leddy); Lake Tahoe is a beautiful sight from the saddle (Brian Leddy); Carson City Off-Road’s Klunker Crit participants get rowdy (Brian Leddy).

from Marlette Peak to downtown Carson City. And once this trail is complete, you can bet there will be new families moving to Carson just as they have in Prescott.

“The Carson City Off-Road was instrumental in legitimizing Carson City as an outdoor recreation destination,” said Joel Dunn, Executive Director, Carson City Visitors Bureau. “The event brought a resurgence in community pride, and with organizations like Muscle Powered, Carson City is developing a plan to further the expansion of our trail system, making for a more walkable and bikeable community.”

Thanks to the efforts of Epic Rides, local government, federal land management and community trailbuilders, the old quip “build it and they will come” applies just as much to trails as it does to baseball fields in Iowa corn country.

And if you’re planning on participating in the Carson City Off-Road on June 16-18, registration is already running 50 percent ahead of where it was last year at this time. Visit epicrides.com to register and get more details on all three Off-Road Series events.

It Takes a Village

By Michele Charboneau

Ashland Mountain Adventures’ enthusiastic trail crew (Sue O’Daly).

R

aising awareness of trail stewardship has long been a prime objective for Reno/Tahoe-area’s Sierra Sports Marketing, which has raised over $40,000 for local trail advocacy organizations through events like the Sierra Cup Mountain Bike Racing Series and Battle Born Enduro. Sierra Sports founder Kevin Joell – who has a full time job outside of event production to pay the bills – says, “It makes it easier for me to dedicate the time to organize the races, knowing that we’re not just connecting people to outdoor recreation through events, but utilizing that participation to provide awareness of trail advocacy issues and raise money for a cause that’s important to most riders.”

Local businesses spearhead events in their communities to benefit trails, too. Tahoe Area Mountain Biking Association (TAMBA) president Ben Fish says, “The Meyers Mountain Bike Fest started in 2013 as an idea from the owners of Divided Sky, a favorite restaurant and gathering place. It’s a perfect example of a local business partnering with our nonprofit organization to celebrate mountain biking

while raising money for the trails. Last year, proceeds from the festival went into heavy rock work and repairs on Mr. Toads Wild Ride.”

Yuba Expeditions, a Downieville bike shop/shuttle service, partners with Sierra Buttes Trail Stewardship (SBTS) to raise funds through popular cycling events such as the Downieville Classic, Lost and Found Gravel Grinder, and Grinduro. Yuba owner and SBTS Executive Director Greg Williams says, “For 14 years our top priority has been taking care of the trails, and while the health of our trails is still the primary focus, we now have one additional top priority, and that’s each other – the SBTS Tribe. This organization has grown from a chainsaw and simple mission statement, into a Tribe of amazing and caring volunteers, friends and families each with a passion for the Lost Sierra and its trails.”

Non-profit trail advocacy organizations themselves regularly produce top notch events to raise funds for their trail development, building and maintenance efforts. Mountain Bikers of Santa Cruz (MBoSC) Trail and Business Manager Matt De Young says, “Our events are a great way for us to educate people about our advocacy efforts while raising money to support them at the same time. A lot of people may not realize the ins and outs that go into trail advocacy, so we try to incorporate education and awareness building into events such as the Old Cabin Classic, The Santa Cruz Mountain Bike Festival, The Santa Cruz Super Enduro, and the MBoSC Super Swap.” De Young adds, “All of these events directly fund our mission, and serve as a fun introduction to the world of advocacy. Races, festivals and the like are great exercises in community building.”

California Enduro Series (CES), which promotes enduro events throughout California and just over the Nevada and Oregon borders, has plans to help maintain the trails its independently-produced races run on. CES

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director Steve Gemelos says, “In many riding areas, the trails we ride are built and maintained by local riders. As an organization that promotes mountain bike races on these trails built by volunteers, CES feels strongly about contributing to their efforts.”

Gemelos points out that the revenue from many of the races making up the series goes toward their local trail systems. He says, “Beyond the support we offer event organizers to put on a successful race, we also want to give back by picking up a shovel and directly help to maintain the trails.”

To that end, CES is partnering with Ashland Mountain Adventures (AMA) – an Ashland bike shop/shuttle service, and organizer of the Ashland Mountain Challenge, a popular series stop – to present a trail work weekend in February sponsored

by Santa Cruz Bicycles.

AMA’s owner Bill Roussel is an active leader of trail work efforts in the Ashland area. From attending community meetings to solo trail maintenance after a storm to organizing community trail work events, Roussel looks out for the Ashland mountain biking community’s best interests. He says, “AMA has always put trail work and trail building as a number one priority in the Ashland Watershed. We love our trail system and take care of it as if it were our home. We have a way of creating a stoke with our local riders that shows at our trail work days when we have 30+ show up in the rain, sleet or snow!” Roussel’s wife and business partner Sue O’Daly shares her husband’s sentiments, adding, “Mountain biking is our life and love.”

Stay tuned for future in-depth coverage of businesses and organizations that are committed to trail stewardship.

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23

Event Profiles

SEA OTTER CLASSIC

The 40th annual Great Ski Race offers a 30K (18-mile) event that starts at Tahoe Cross Country in Tahoe City, winds through the forest and mountains of North Lake Tahoe on groomed trails, and ends at Cottonwood Restaurant in Truckee. Hundreds of ski racers, touring skiers, and disabled athletes turn out for the race looking for achievement, adventure, and the famous finish-line party, with live music, hot lunch, refreshments and raffles.

The Race is the primary fundraiser for Tahoe Nordic Search and Rescue Team, volunteer skiers and snowmobilers who locate lost people in the Sierra Nevada. Race proceeds help purchase equipment and support winter survival education programs.

Fees are $60 through February 24, $70 until March 4, then $110 on March 5 (race day), and $25 for skiers 18 and under. Tax-deductible donations above these amounts to Tahoe Nordic Search & Rescue Team are appreciated.

A race entry fee buys a commemorative T-shirt, refreshments at two mid-course stations and hot lunch at the finish. Shuttle buses begin taking skiers (by reservation) from Cottonwood to the starting line at 7 a.m. Afternoon buses bring skiers back to Tahoe City 12:30–2:30 on a first-come, first-serve basis. thegreatskirace.com

Debuting in 1991 as the Laguna Seca Challenge with a total of 350 athletes and 150 spectators, the Sea Otter Classic is now regarded as the world’s premiere cycling festival hosting over 10,000 athletes and 65,000 fans.

The “celebration of cycling” attracts professional and amateur athletes alike who make the annual pilgrimage to participate in some of the sport’s most competitive and enduring events.

Mountain bike races include cross country, downhill, dual slalom and short track. Road cyclists compete in circuit, criterium, and road racing. Cyclocross and noncompetitive events are also offered. The event hosts the largest consumer bike expo in North America, and features an international food court, entertainment, bike demos, stunt shows, and carnival activities for children. seaotterclassic.com

Scott Rokis

March 5, Truckee

ALPENGLOW MOUNTAIN FESTIVAL February 18-26, North Lake Tahoe

Alpenglow Sports’ fourth winter Alpenglow Mountain Festival, presented by DPS Skis, is a nine-day festival in North Lake Tahoe that celebrates humanpowered mountain sports, events, clinics, equipment demonstrations, critically-acclaimed film and more.

Geared toward beginner and intermediate winter recreation enthusiasts, the Alpenglow Mountain Festival showcases some of the best activities Lake Tahoe has to offer – backcountry skiing and splitboarding, Nordic skiing, snowshoeing, natural history events and more.

Driven by fun, community, health, education and the embodiment of the mountain lifestyle, the festival has been designed to inspire participants as they enjoy and explore North Lake Tahoe’s playground with friends and family. With over 50 individual events, the festival offers an immense range of activities that span daily ski and splitboard tours, avalanche education, and criticallyacclaimed film and natural history excursions for outdoor enthusiasts of all interests and ability levels. The majority of events are free, so space is limited and participants are encouraged to register online to secure spots. alpenglowsports.com

Louie Traub

THE GREAT SKI RACE

April 20-23, Monterey

SLO MARATHON & HALF April 29-30, San Luis Obispo

Bryon Dorr

BANFF FILM FESTIVAL

SANTA CRUZ PADDLEFEST

Ignite your passion for adventure, action and travel.

The Banff Mountain Film Festival World Tour will exhilarate you with amazing big-screen stories when it comes to the Rio Theatre in Santa Cruz February 23, 24, 25 & 26 at 7pm.

Journey to exotic locations, paddle the wildest waters and climb the highest peaks. Get your tickets today and be taken away to the most captivating places on earth. This year the tour debuts a new program format, offering two programs (Program A & B; ratings in descriptions), four shows.

This stop on the world tour is hosted by UC Santa Cruz Recreation and benefits the UCSC Wilderness Orientation Scholarship Fund. Tickets can be purchased at brownpapertickets.com/event/2710762 and in person at Bicycle Trip in Santa Cruz. recreation.ucsc.edu/banffpage/banff.htm

The Santa Cruz PaddleFest is running for another year – come watch the spectacle from West Cliff Drive! The event continues its longstanding tradition of having elite level SUP surfers and kayak surfers battle it out at one of California’s most iconic surf breaks – Steamer Lane in Santa Cruz. The Lane will host high level kayak and SUP surfing Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Intermediate competition will play out along the Indicator section Saturday and Sunday.

Along with the surfing expect to see the race at Cowells Beach, which continues to grow in scale and talent every year. This year the race will include SUPs, prone boards, surf skis, and outrigger canoes. The 5k or 10k race sets off from Cowells Beach along the wharf and out to the harbor. Spectating is free to the public.

SantaCruzPaddlefest.com

February 23-26, Santa Cruz

24 ASJ — Feb/March 2017

March 23-26, Santa Cruz

Whether you are an elite competitor or this is your first Marathon, Half Marathon or 5K event, Race SLO events are all about you. Have fun, achieve your goal, finish strong, PR, and enjoy the journey. You’ll receive advice and support all along the way. In the end, you’ll be proud, and Race SLO organizers will be, too – hanging that medal around your neck and cheering your every step.

The new, beautiful loop course for 2017 is a fast and scenic tour of San Luis Obispo starting and finishing near the Madonna Inn. Runners will enjoy by heading out toward the beautiful Irish Hills Natural Preserve and then loop toward historic downtown San Luis Obispo. You’ll enjoy the Fremont Theatre, Mission San Luis Obispo de Tolosa, a Frank Lloyd Wright designed building. Runners will also experience the Railroad District, Islay’s Streets charming bungalows and Victorians and, finally, a scenic downhill finish line at the Madonna Inn where the SLO Life Expo will be in full swing to celebrate your finish. slomarathon.com

Promote YOUR Event Do you have an event you’d like to see featured in this section? Contact us to learn about our event promotion packages – we specialize in raising visibility for YOUR events! info@adventuresportsjournal.com

Adventure Events Calendar Visit us online for a full listing of upcoming California events.

Go to AdventureSportsJournal.com and click on the EVENTS button.

Biking FEBRUARY 4–5 — MTB Skills Core Fundamental, Marin Master and improve your skills in this one (4th) or two day course.

ASingleTrackMind.com 18–19 — MTB Skills Core Fundamental, Marin Master and improve your skills in this one (18th) or two day course. ASingleTrackMind.com Feb 20 — The Tainthammer Los Banos, 10 miles of the amazingly worst California Central Valley roads we could find. superproracing.com 25 — Wheel Lifts & Cornering, Woodsid Learn the fundamentals and purpose of cornering and wheel lifts.

ASingleTrackMind.com 26 — MTB Madness, Folsom Lake tbfracing.com

MARCH 4–5 — MTB Skills Core Fundamental, Sand Diego Master and improve your skills in this two day course.

ASingleTrackMind.com 18-19 — MTB Skills Core Fundamental, Marin Master and improve your skills in this one (18th) or two day course. ASingleTrackMind.com 11 — Solvang Century & Half Century 50/63/100 mile routes. Not a race! bikescor.com March 20 — Rumble in the Ranchlands Mariposa, A 82-mile rolling route through the Sierra foothills not far from Yosemite Valley. superproracing. com 20-26 — Solvang Spring Tour planetultra.com 11 — Fish Rock Booneveille, A mixed road and gravel adventure race There’s only one route for 72.4 miles and 9,670 feet of elevation gain. bikemonkey.net

Climbing

Bird Watching by Kayak, Elkhorn Slough Winter is the best time to to spot migrating birds in one of the best birding locations in the state. (831) 724-5692). kayakconnection.com

March 24-27 -- Red Rock Rendezvous Climbing Festival Las Vegas, Join and get an opportunity to climb with the world’s best professional rock climbers. redrockrendezvous.com

Monterey Bay Wildlife Tour, Paddle into the bay to try to spot migrating California gray whales. Santa Cruz (831-479-1121) or Elkhorn Slough (831-724-5692). kayakconnection.com

Miscellaneous FEBRUARY

Run/Walk

Feb 23, 24, 25 & 26 — Banff Mountain Film Festival World Tour Rio Theatre, Santa Cruz, Ignite your passion for adventure with amazing big-screen stories. ucscrecreation.com

FEBRUARY

Paddling

26 — Surfer’s Path 10k/5k Participants are treated to beachfront and bluff views of the Monterey Bay along the majestic Santa Cruz County coastline.runsurferspath.com

MARCH

March 23-25 — Santa Cruz Paddle Fest, Steamer Lane, Santa Cruz. An elite paddle surfing competition and paddleboard race with options for beginners and experts. Surf Kayak & SUP. santacruzpaddlefest.com

4 — Woodside King’s Mountain Half Marathon & 5 Mile, Huddart Park, Woodside. envirosports.com

Stand Up Paddling —Whether it’s your first time on an SUP or you’re looking to increase your skills, we have the class for you. Santa Cruz (831-479-1121) or Elkhorn Slough (831-724-5692) kayakconnection.com

11 & 12 — Shamrock’n Half Marathon, 5K & Kids Run, Sacramento. shamrocknhalf.com

5 — Napa Valley Marathon, Beautiful course. NapaValleyMarathon.org

www. advent ur espor t sjour nal. com

25

MARKETPLACE

l e W ten e Liv ki Of &S

bike • climb • hike • paddle • run • surf • swim • tri 26–April 2 — Chamonix Ultimate Experience Ski Tour, Chamonix France. Ski 3 Countries in One WeekFrance, Italy, Switzerland. Experience MARCH the Aiguille du Midi, the Valley 26 — Wine Country Half Marathon Blanche, Verbier and Courmayuer.

Run/Walk, 5K Run & 1/2 Mile Kids 844-LE GRAND (534-7263) www.

“Grape Stomp” WineCountryRuns.com legrandadventuretours.com

Run/Walk, cont.

18 — Napa Valley Trail Marathon, Half & 10K envirosports.com

Snow Discover the best of Santa Cruz with our premier guiding and coaching service. therideguides.com

831.818.6112 Bear Valley Cross Country (209) 753-2834 www.bearvalleyxc.com

Learn the skills of a pro from a pro!

We’ll Show You The Way

Guided Global adventure travel Ski . Snowboard . Mountain bike . road bike . YoGa

SKI THE ALPS

MTB Skills Coaching Certified IMBA ICP 1,2,3 & Betterride Certified. 3000 plus hours of professional coaching.

Jungfrau/Murren Engelberg/Andermatt Zermatt Chamonix

Feb 25 - Mar 4 Mar 5 - 12 Mar 18 - 25 Mar 26 - Apr 2

DEEP. JAPAN. POWDER. Hokkaido Jan 7 - 16 Jan 18 - 27

asingletrackmind.com • (209) 662-5392

www.LeGrandAdventureTours.com 1-844-LE-GRAND

Consignment boards, suits & accessories BLOWN OUT

WETSUIT REPAIR YOUR ALOHA SHOP

3055 Portola Dr., Santa Cruz

831.475.4942

26 ASJ — Feb/March 2017

FEBRUARY Feb 4, 18, 25 — Intro to Backcountry Skiing 1 Day This 1-day seminar is perfect for alpine skiers who want to learn to use convertible touring bindings, as well as telemark skiers ready to ski the backcountry. alpineskills.com

Looking Ahead April 2 — Oakland Running Festival, Oakland. Health and Fitness Expo, Full Marathon, Half Marathon, Team Relay & Kids Fun Run. See event profile on page 22. www.oaklandmarathon.com April 20-23 — Sea Otter Classic, Monterey Worlds’ Largest Cycling Festival seaotterclassic.com

April 29-30 — Race SLO, San Luis Obispo Have fun, achieve your goal, finish strong, PR, and enjoy the Feb 12 — TD Challenge Tour/Race journey. We’ll offer you advice and A tour or a race – you choose your support all along the way. In the end, fastest way to Drifter Hut, Hawks Peak, you can be proud and we will too, of Euer Valley Cookhouse and return. you, hanging that medal around your Lunch and raffle included in entry. neck and cheering your every step. tahoedonner.com/cross-country slomarathon.com Feb 18–27 — Alpenglow Mountain Festival, Tahoe City. A nine day celebration of human powered mountain sports. alpenglowsports.com Feb 25–March 4 — Murren-Jungfrau Swiss Bliss Ski Tour, Jungfrau Region Switzerland. Ski Around Three of the Most Iconic Mountains in the Alps - The Eiger, Mönch, and Jungfrau. 844-LE GRAND (534-7263) www.legrandadventuretours.com 18-26 — Alpenglow Mountain Festival, Tahoe City. A nine day celebration of human powered mountain sports. See event profile on page 24. alpenglowsports.com

MARCH 5 — The Great Ski Race, Covers 30 km from Tahoe City to Truckee. See event profile on page 22. (530)5467393 or thegreatskirace.com 5–12 — Engelberg-Andermatt Freeride Ski Tour, Engelberg & Andermatt Switzerland. Engelberg The Freeride Mecca of Switzerland.

Andermatt- a Hidden Gem With Expansive Advanced Terrain. Ski Big Descents in The Alps. 844LE GRAND (534-7263) www. legrandadventuretours.com 18–25 — Matterhorn-Zermatt Ski Tour, Zermatt Switzerland.

Engelberg Explore the Vast Terrain Along the Switzerland & Italian Border. Endless Skiing Surrounded

By Glaciers & Dozens of High Alpine Peaks. 844-LE GRAND (534-7263) legrandadventuretours.com

April 30 — Chico Wildflower Century, Chico. Four rides to choose from. ChicoVelo.org May 21 — Surfer’s Path Marathon, Capitola Half Marathon & Relay, Capitola Scenic courses, featuring breathtaking views of the Monterey Bay coastline and a series of world renowned surf breaks. runsurferspath. com June 16-18 — Carson City OffRaod Three different distance options of 15, 35 or 50 miles; each consisting of a carefully curated set of spectacular trails + enjoy three days of event festivities while being submerged in the mountain bike industry. epicrides.com Sep 9 -- SLO Ultra, Cherry Canyon 50M 26M, 13M & 5M This race will take you over wild undiscovered territories along the majestic California coastline where it’s rough, it’s rugged and it’s dirty. In private wild cherry canyon you will have to dig deep to earn that sweet metal and hot cherry pie. sloultra.org Sep 16-17 — Unkown Coast Weekend, Ferndale The ride starts and finishes along the quiet coastal towns of Ferndale and consists of two extremely hilly, but scenic days – 65 miles on Saturday and 35 miles on Sunday. ChicoVelo.org Oct 22 — Surfer’s Path Hang 10/5 Participants are treated to beachfront and bluff views of the Monterey Bay along the majestic Santa Cruz County coastline.runsurferspath.com

CONSUMER EXPO

GRAN FONDOS & TOURS

RACING

DEMOS

KIDS’ STUFF

BREWS & EATS

TESTED TOUGH WHERE WE PREFER TRAILS OVER TREADMILLS.

When you rethink an icon, you don’t mess with what makes it the smoothest ride on the trail. You focus on increasing support, comfort and flexibility with our patented FluidFoam™ and FluidGuide™ technologies. The Caldorado II is tested tough so you can focus on what’s important, getting out on the trail whenever you can. We know why you put in the miles, because Nothing Beats a Trail.

Caldorado II