Discussion: Tahoe Events Cancelled
in: BAOC: 2014 Sierra Ski-O Tour (Feb 1–9, 2014 - Truckee, CA, US)
Jan 16, 2014 3:55 PM
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Message from Tony Pinkham, event director:
Hi Everyone,
It is with great regret that I have to cancel our Tahoe Area (Truckee) Ski-O events due to a lack of snow on the ground and a lack of snow in the extended forecast. We remain hopeful for at least the Bear Valley events and will make a decision about them on Friday 24-January. Currently, the snow levels at Bear Valley are also too low but a couple of storms could save us as has happened in the past.
In the past, we didn't make the decision to cancel events until a week before they happened because there was at least a snow base on the ground. This year, however, there is no base. The resorts require at least a week of preparing their base and grooming their trails before we then need at least a week for our course setters to make courses (and update maps).
As it currently stands, three of our five Truckee/Tahoe venues are closed to skiers and the other two have just a total of about 12 km of groomed trails (and those trails require lots of shoveling of snow, so their quality is not good). Bear Valley also has just about 10 km of groomed trails with lots of shoveling but we get an extra week to decide on those events (and they had a red-flag fire watch until this evening). Normally, most of these resorts have at least 60 km of groomed trails with lots of snow for off-trail skiing. Not so this year.
My many thanks to those who have volunteered to make these events humanly possible. Trinka Gillis gave us our first online registration system that works wonderfully and would save me many hours of work during the events. Greg Walker, Anna Voegele, Brenda Giese, Bob Baylor, Jonathan Owens, Donatas Ereminas, Paul Carson, Carol Schick, and Denise Kowal were available to design the courses or to help set them up. Bob Cooley, of course, was, as always, ready to print our maps. The management at each of the venues we would use remained upbeat and supportive of our events to the very end.
Stay tuned. Maybe next week we'll have better news for our Bear Valley event, which Damian Swift and his wife, Robi, are busy working on.
Tony Pinkham
Hi Everyone,
It is with great regret that I have to cancel our Tahoe Area (Truckee) Ski-O events due to a lack of snow on the ground and a lack of snow in the extended forecast. We remain hopeful for at least the Bear Valley events and will make a decision about them on Friday 24-January. Currently, the snow levels at Bear Valley are also too low but a couple of storms could save us as has happened in the past.
In the past, we didn't make the decision to cancel events until a week before they happened because there was at least a snow base on the ground. This year, however, there is no base. The resorts require at least a week of preparing their base and grooming their trails before we then need at least a week for our course setters to make courses (and update maps).
As it currently stands, three of our five Truckee/Tahoe venues are closed to skiers and the other two have just a total of about 12 km of groomed trails (and those trails require lots of shoveling of snow, so their quality is not good). Bear Valley also has just about 10 km of groomed trails with lots of shoveling but we get an extra week to decide on those events (and they had a red-flag fire watch until this evening). Normally, most of these resorts have at least 60 km of groomed trails with lots of snow for off-trail skiing. Not so this year.
My many thanks to those who have volunteered to make these events humanly possible. Trinka Gillis gave us our first online registration system that works wonderfully and would save me many hours of work during the events. Greg Walker, Anna Voegele, Brenda Giese, Bob Baylor, Jonathan Owens, Donatas Ereminas, Paul Carson, Carol Schick, and Denise Kowal were available to design the courses or to help set them up. Bob Cooley, of course, was, as always, ready to print our maps. The management at each of the venues we would use remained upbeat and supportive of our events to the very end.
Stay tuned. Maybe next week we'll have better news for our Bear Valley event, which Damian Swift and his wife, Robi, are busy working on.
Tony Pinkham
This discussion thread is closed.