Archive for the ‘Lake Tahoe’ Tag
By Tim Hauserman
View of the east shore of Lake Tahoe from Mt. Rose Hwy. Photo by Tim Hauserman
This mild winter is allowing Tahoe athletes to take on challenges that are usually not in the cards for March. My latest was to ride my bike from Incline Village to the top of the Mt. Rose Highway. It’s only eight miles to the top, but with 2700 feet of climbing and a destination elevation of just under 9000 feet, it will certainly get your heart pumping.
Pick your spot to begin in Incline and make your way over to the roundabout at the intersection of Highway 28 and Highway 431 and start heading up Highway 431 towards Reno. While the route is a steady uphill the entire way, the grade is mostly manageable and the shoulder is wide and smooth. While many people drive this road regularly, taking it at bike speed gives you a new appreciation of what it has to offer. About a mile up you start seeing Incline Peak standing high above. I’m not sure why it’s not called Pyramid Peak, because it certainly looks like a pyramid from this angle. More climbing brings you to the lookout point where you will find one of the best spots to see Lake Tahoe. And after over 3 miles of uphill, you will be ready for a break to check out those views. Check out Diamond Peak Ski Area below you. It was strange riding in bike shorts and looking down on the skiers still making their way down the few remaining ribbons of white.
Meadow area along Mt. Rose Hwy.
Photo by Tim Hauserman
Now the ride starts to get steeper, but the views of Rose Knob Peak and Relay Peak are sublime. You know you are getting closer when at 7 miles you reach Tahoe Meadows, still covered in snow but going fast. Just past the 8 mile mark is the summit and your turn around point at the Tahoe Rim Trail Mt. Rose Trailhead. The truly ambitious can keep going towards Reno but the heavily traveled road is narrow, often with little or no shoulder, and unless you left a car at the bottom you will have to come all the way back up. The ride back to Incline is a steady, long downhill with a nice shoulder.
Tip: Bring layers. The temperature difference from huffing and puffing up the hill, and roaring back down is pretty substantial.
THINK OF ME, LYNN RICHARDSON, FOR ALL OF YOUR LAKE TAHOE AND TRUCKEE REAL ESTATE NEEDS!
www.lynnrichardson.net
Share this: Lynn Richardson, Your Friend in High Places
By Tim Hauserman
An amazing week of nordic racing at Auburn Ski Club has came to a close this past weekend. The Junior Nationals, held right here in our backyard, was a meeting of the best 14-19 year old cross-country skiers in the country. Our Tahoe and Truckee young men and women, representing the Far West Division, were in the thick of things against some amazingly steep competition. They were able to make it into the middle of the pack in the overall standings behind such powerhouses as the New England, Mid-West, Intermountain and Alaska divisions.
Here in Tahoe, our world class downhill resorts and top notch coaching create Olympic downhill skiers and medalists. That’s great, but it reduces the number of athletes available for the pool of nordic skiers. Regions of the country with snow, but without the quality of our downhill resorts, produce a lot more cross-country skiers to draw from. But what we lack in size, we make up with great coaching, amazing parental support, and a small group of scrappy skiers who through a lot of hard work brought home some amazing results last week:
Hannah Halvorsen, from Sugar Bowl Academy, captured three top ten finishes, including a second place in a sprint race.
JC Schoonmaker, who races for Tahoe XC raced to a podium finish, with a last second lunge into third place in the 5K under 16 striding race.
Dylan Syben from Team Unleashed raced for a 4th place finish in the Men’s Under 18 Sprint Race.
Other top ten finishers included Tahoe XC’s Quinn Lehmkuhl and Sugar Bowl Academy’s Haydn Halvorsen
Now imagine how much faster those kids are going to be when we get the gobs of snow that are sure to bless us next year.
For more information on Tahoe’s great nordic kids, check out this article from last week’s Sierra Sun. http://www.tahoedailytribune.com/news/15433923-113/nordic-racing-tahoe-xc-racing-team-boasts-nine-locals
Share this: Lynn Richardson, Your Friend in High Places
by Tim Hauserman
2012 Far West Junior National Team at Soldier Hollow, Utah
The best 14-19 year old cross-country skiers in the country are coming into town March 8-14 to compete in the 2015 XC Junior Nationals at Auburn Ski Club. These racers first had to face a winter of stiff competition to qualify. Now at Junior Nationals, the best of the best may someday qualify for the Winter Olympics.
For those involved in the big family that is the Truckee-Tahoe nordic community we are stoked to see a crop of local athletes that we have known since they were little tykes have their opportunity to shine. The races will be fast paced and grueling, taking on the steep ups and downs of the Auburn Ski Club terrain.
Peter Holmes skiing into third!
Lynn Richardson, first volunteered for the Junior Nationals in 2000, when her kids were 4, and after being thrilled by the speed of the athletes, hoped her twins would become racers some day. By the time they were 9, and the next JN’s were here, they had already begun racing. Her daughter Skyler raced in two Junior National Races during her high school career. “I was so happy being at every race and cheering for them,” she says.
I coach 5th graders and direct the Strider Glider program at Tahoe Cross-Country Ski Area in Tahoe City. I remember some of this year’s JN competitors well: a shy Quinn Lehmkuhl in 3rd grade with a big smile on her face as she kept up with, and often passed, all the boys in her class. Or JC Schoonmaker who determinedly moved from the middle of a great pack of kids in 5th grade to the top of the heap just a few years later. And then there was Brandon Herhusky, who it seems would grow another foot taller every time you saw him.
To see our Far West Junior National athletes, please click on this link: Results/Far West Nordic
Truckee racers – Gabi, Savannah and Skyler
They are an amazing group of athletes that have worked hard to become great uphill skiers in a community composed mostly of downhill skiers. We should all be proud of them.
Click here for details and information on Junior Nationals: http://xcjuniornationals2015.com/
THINK OF ME, LYNN RICHARDSON, FOR ALL OF YOUR LAKE TAHOE AND TRUCKEE REAL ESTATE NEEDS!
Share this: Lynn Richardson, Your Friend in High Places
YOUR FRIEND IN HIGH PLACES 