TAHOE NUGGET #260: HAWAI’I: BIG ISLAND ADVENTURE!   My wife Nora and I recently returned from a “honeymoon” trip to the Gold Coast of Kona, Hawaii — 7 years after our wedding. We had a wonderful time and Nora finally got to swim in a warm ocean and experience the joys of snorkeling. We’re definitely going back to the Big Island next year.

TAHOE NUGGET #259 COLLAPSE OF SQUAW VALLEY’S BLYTH ARENA    Among some longtime locals, the collapse of Squaw Valley’s Blyth Arena on March 29, 1983, is a legendary tale of conspiracy, mystery, and subterfuge. Even after 30 years, unsubstantiated rumors still persist that the structure, completed in 1959 for the 1960 Winter Olympics, was purposely destroyed to expand parking at the famed resort. Analysis by engineers and Squaw Valley management determined the likely cause to be inadequ...

TAHOE NUGGET #258: CATS THAT RUN ON SNOW Over-snow vehicles are ubiquitous today in Tahoe’s mountain country. They range from high powered “sleds” as modern snowmobiles are commonly called, that scream up the steepest slopes to the super expensive and sophisticated snow cats that can level moguls and groom a resort’s snow surface into ribbons of smooth corduroy. Outfitted with specially designed implements, modern snow cats enable operators to trick out perfectly formed half pipes and other arti...

TAHOE NUGGET #257 30th ANNIVERSARY OF THE BIG ONE (1983) This winter started off at a blistering pace precipitation-wise, but then after the Christmas holidays the spigot turned off and we just set a new all-time record for the least amount of precipitation for the first two months in the calendar year.  Average precipitation for the months of January and February—normally two of the wettest months of the year with a combined average of more than 17 inches of water—was just 2.2 inches. At T...

TAHOE NUGGET #256 TRUCKEE SLED DOG RACING The Central Sierra’s first sled dog race in 16 years, slated for March 2-3 during the upcoming Snowfest celebration, was recently cancelled due to poor snow conditions at the Royal Gorge Cross Country Ski Resort near Donner Pass. The Truckee-Tahoe area hasn’t had a significant snowstorm since the Christmas holidays nearly two months ago. Fortunately resorts are still sitting on a solid snowpack due to cold temps this winter and skiing and riding has been...

TAHOE NUGGET #255: TAHOE’S SNOWIEST WINTER (1938) It’s been 75 years since the Tahoe-Truckee region was crushed under nearly 70 feet of snow in 1938. And similar to this winter, that epic season started off with a very wet fall, followed by a bone dry January. But the Storm King roared back after that and never let up until setting a snowfall record on Donner Pass that still stands today.

TAHOE NUGGET #254: BIG WINTER ON A ROLL! Winter 2013 has come out of the gate fast and furious and snow sports enthusiasts are loving the abundant fresh powder during this holiday period. Tahoe-Truckee resorts and businesses are reaping the economic benefits derived from a solid early season snowpack that draws visitors.

TAHOE NUGGET #253: TAHOE’S OLYMPIC BID REJECTED The weather has been quite cold and unsettled this week with frequent, but generally modest snowstorms dropping powder on Tahoe resorts. Snow quality has been excellent since that big rain event a couple of weeks ago and ski conditions are outstanding with fluffy skier-packed powder and corduroy groomers. Two potent storms expected next week may add several more feet to the substantial early season snowpack. Skiing and snowboard...

TAHOE NUGGET #252: TAHOE SURVIVES PACIFIC STORMS—BARELY! SYNOPTIC SET UP: A “mother ship” of low pressure that originated in the Gulf of Alaska remained stationary off the Pacific Northwest coast as it shunted slugs of deep tropical moisture into northern California over the course of five days, from Nov. 28 to Dec.

TAHOE NUGGET #251: CALIFORNIA’S 2012 SUPERSTORM California’s version of a Pacific-bred “superstorm” is currently pounding the central and northern portions of the State with damaging wind gusts and torrential rain that’s generating urban and small stream flooding. Thousands are already without power in the San Francisco Bay Area and the strongest, most potent of three storm surges is still more than 24 hours away. This graphic depicts jet stream position with core wind speeds exceeding 140 ...

TAHOE NUGGET #250: HERMIT OF EMERALD BAY Near South Lake Tahoe is a spectacular, glacially-carved basin known as Desolation Wilderness. Towering above the shattered cliffs and glacial debris looms Dick’s Peak, elevation 9,974 feet, standing stoic and solitary in this region of rugged extremes. The obdurate mountain is a fitting monument to Captain Richard Barter, a man whose remarkable feats of survival have withstood the test of time.

TAHOE NUGGET #249: OCTOBER STORMS & 1993 DROUGHT BUSTER! As I sit here writing this the snow continues to fall outside my office window in Carnelian Bay. This week’s impressive 3-day snowstorm isn’t a record breaker for the month of October, but frigid temperatures brought enough of the white stuff to Truckee and the Tahoe Basin that schools closed and traffic got snarled over Donner Pass.

TAHOE NUGGET #248: MICKEY DANIELS: TAHOE FISH HUNTER Mickey Daniels is a funny guy who loves practical jokes, but when it comes to catching fish in Lake Tahoe, he’s all business. As skipper of Big Mack II, a 43-foot-long fishing boat designed and equipped specifically for Tahoe, Mickey spends most mornings trolling the depths searching for trophy-size trout and the beefy Mackinaws that make his clients smile and come back for more. Mickey Daniels is a master guide, a passionate, knowledgeable fi...

TAHOE NUGGET #247: SALACIOUS LUCKY BALDWIN Following the warmest August on record in Reno, Nevada, September 2012 also went down as the toastiest in the Biggest Little City since 1888, with an average temperature more than 5 degrees above normal. Sacramento set a new Sept. record with 26 days at or exceeding 90 degrees.

TAHOE NUGGET #246: TAHOE’S PONDEROSA RANCH It’s been nearly eight years now since visitors to Lake Tahoe could treat their imagination with a visit to the legendary Ponderosa Ranch in Incline Village, Nevada. The popular western theme park, where some scenes from the television series Bonanza were filmed, closed in September 2004 after it was purchased by David Duffield, the wealthy founder of the software company PeopleSoft. The loss of the Ponderosa Ranch, among northern Nevada’s most popular ...

TAHOE NUGGET #245: TAHOE'S BEAR FACTS On July 29, 2012, an angry lakefront property owner allegedly shot and killed a well-known bear named "Sunny" on Lake Tahoe’s West Shore. Sunny, the unofficial mascot of the Tahoe BEAR League, a bear advocacy group, was shot in the back after wandering onto a property to get food from a cooler left outside on a porch. "Sunny" was a friendly, mellow bear that enjoyed daytime strolls (hence her name).

TAHOE NUGGET #244: HARRY JOHANSON: LEGENDARY TAHOE LAWMAN It was a sad day for the small community of Tahoe City in the spring of 1932. Citizens dressed in black were in the process of burying the town’s first constable, the revered pioneer Robert Montgomery Watson. Watson had arrived at Lake Tahoe in the 1870s and was appointed Tahoe City’s first constable in 1906.

TAHOE NUGGET #243: SQUAW VALLEY TRAM: A RIDE INTO HISTORY The aerial tram at Squaw Valley will lift you effortlessly up into the Sierra high country, where ice-carved cirques, extruded thrusts of volcanic rock, and stellar views of Big Blue will take your breath away. Squaw Valley's aerial tram whisks passengers up to elevation 8,200 feet, where an array of fun activities await summer guests. A bonus this year is that the rides are free for anyone holding an active 2012-13 season ski pass at Squ...

TAHOE NUGGET #242: FATE OF LANSFORD HASTINGS & BRAZIL If you ever hear about Portuguese-speaking Brazilians dressing up in American Confederate uniforms, waving the Rebel flag, wearing Southern-belle skirts, and playing the banjo at a Fourth of July barbecue, one of the people you can blame is Lansford W. Hastings. Anyone familiar with the Donner Party story will remember Hastings.

NUGGET #241: DONNER PASS 20 MILE MUSEUM Tahoe’s summer weather is so beautiful why would anyone want to spend one of their precious days at a museum? Well, Norm Sayler, president of the Donner Summit Historical Society, is out to show people that his Society’s “20 Mile Museum” concept is one of the most rewarding outdoor experiences in the region. Blessed with accessible terrain and unique geologic and transportation features, visitors of all ages can interact firsthand with the kind of Ame...

TAHOE NUGGET #240: BIKE THE TAHOE FLUME TRAIL! It’s official. Lake Tahoe’s spectacular flume trail is open for mountain bike enthusiasts.

TAHOE NUGGET #239: CALIFORNIA-NEVADA BORDER WAR After the United States’ victory in the Mexican-American War (1846-1848), both countries signed the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo giving the U.S. more than half of Mexico’s original sovereign territory. U.S.

TAHOE NUGGET #238: LAKE TAHOE: WHAT’S IN A NAME? For generations, Lake Tahoe has inspired untold numbers of people fortunate enough to view its pristine waters and forest-cloaked mountains. For countless summers, American Indians of the Washoe, Maidu, and Paiute tribes foraged, fished and hunted the region’s natural bounty.

TAHOE NUGGET #237: THE HANGING OF LUCKY BILL Fate had been kind to William J. Thorington. Although a short attention span had hindered his formal education in New York, young Bill was smart enough to join the thousands of Forty-Niners rushing to the California gold strike.

TAHOE NUGGET #236: CLIMATE CHANGE & SNOWPACK DEPLETION In response to a provocative prediction for accelerated California climate change that I read in the Sacramento Bee newspaper last week, I felt compelled to contribute the following blog to the dialogue. Warnings about regional climate change were kicked up a notch earlier this month with the recently released report by Robert Shibatani, a Sacramento-based hydrologist who is also CEO of The Shibatani Group Inc. This new analysis off...

TAHOE NUGGET #235: 2012 WINTER WRAP UP The 2012 water year for the Sierra Nevada won’t officially end until September 30, but for all intents and purposes Tahoe’s lackluster winter is over. It should be no surprise by now that precipitation last season was significantly below normal. After this early season snowstorm blanketed the Central Sierra on Oct.

TAHOE NUGGET #234: TAKING CALIFORNIA’S TEMPERATURE Working as a forecaster for the National Weather Service is not a job for the meek, especially if your zone of responsibility includes a region like the volatile Central Sierra. But there have never been so many tools in the arsenal of a professional meteorologist: satellites, buoys, radar, and complex computer modeling all feed into the mix before forecasts are issued. When predicting high and low temperatures days in advance, weather prof...

TAHOE NUGGET #233: WEATHER MODIFICATION: SCIENCE OR SNAKE OIL? Remember this past winter when instead of enjoying winter sports, people were riding bicycles and hiking well into the 2012 ski season? How different it would have been for the regional economy if we could have managed to temporarily change the stubborn dry weather pattern from calm to stormy.

TAHOE NUGGET #232: JAMES P. ESPY: THE ORIGINAL STORM KING I first came across the Storm King moniker in the 1980s while researching 19th century newspapers for information on Sierra winter storms. In the late 1800s it was common for editors to capture the reader’s attention with headlines like “Railroad Battles Storm King.” The Storm King headline would be followed by a riveting account of heroic railroad crews fighting against the violent Storm King, who wielded weapons of heavy snow, deadly av...

TAHOE NUGGET #231: HATFIELD THE RAINMAKER This March, Lake Tahoe finally had a decent month of rain and snow worthy of the winter season. However, the April 2 snow survey that measured the liquid equivalent in the Sierra snowpack came in at a disappointing 55 percent of normal. One above-average month of rain and snow wasn’t enough to make up for this mostly bone dry season.

TAHOE NUGGET #230: WINTER OF 1982 It’s been 30 years since one of the deadliest avalanches in Sierra Nevada history broke loose at Alpine Meadows Ski Resort and killed seven people. For those of us who remember this tragic event on March 31, 1982, and the days of grief and hope that followed, it represents a benchmark in time. The 15.5 feet of snow that fell at the Central Sierra Snow Lab between March 27 and April 8, 1982, still ranks as the greatest single snowstorm total on record for Do...

CAMP CENTURY: CITY UNDER ICE  (PART 2 OF 2) Around 1960 a secret United States military installation known as Camp Century was constructed 40 feet below the surface of the Greenland Ice Cap. Built by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the camp was powered by the Army’s first field nuclear power plant.

CAMP CENTURY: CITY UNDER ICE (PART 1 OF 2) Fifty years ago, a secret United States military installation known as Camp Century was constructed 40 feet below the surface of the Greenland Ice Cap, just 800 miles from the North Pole. The remote outpost, buried deep under Arctic ice, was manned by more than 200 American military personnel and civilian scientists. Camp Century’s subterranean location beneath the ice cap protected the men from some of the harshest weather on the planet.