The Tahoe Basin remains at the center of an atmospheric tug-of-war between a low pressure system off the Pacific coast and a ridge of high pressure in the desert southwest. The result: cool but gradually warming days, gusty winds and very dry conditions. Highs should be in the low to mid 70s around the Lake and the low 60s near the mountain passes. Winds will gust around 30 mph, peaking in the late afternoon. All of those elements will begin to change once the low pressure system drifts down the coast this weekend and begins to move east. That transition should bring a brief surge of moisture from the south as the ridge weakens and some subtropical moisture from Tropical Depression Blanca seeps northward, increasing the chance for thunderstorms south of Tahoe, especially on Saturday. But that moisture will be limited and short-lived, felt in Tahoe proper mostly by an increase in humidity and perhaps some cumulus clouds over the higher elevations. By Sunday the low should be well to our east and the ridge is forecast to rebuild and strengthen, bringing calmer winds, clear skies and temperatures back to normal or slightly above for next week.

El Nino Update Eastern Pacific ocean water temperatures continued to warm in June, making the April-May-June period the first this year with an Oceanic Nino Index reading above 0. This index, which measures the temperature change from normal in either direction, adds more strength to the developing consensus that the 09-10 winter is going to be at least a mild El Nino year, perhaps stronger… See our full report at www.tahoeloco.com

When the mighty Ts Marte is not running there are always some good old Cenidor runs. Here is some helmet cam video of a typical early morning Las Lenas Cenidor lap.

Following last week’s announcement of the formation of “The Kick-Ass Blasters”, we have received numerous emails about, well, how kick-ass Hot Dog… The Movie is.  Of course to those of you that don’t know, “The Kick-Ass Blasters” (the team) pays homage to the 1984 film set in Squaw Valley.  Within those emails were several links to some of the great scenes and quotes from the movie, so I have decided to provide the clips for you today, as some ski porn (not quite literally) for this summer season.

So without further ado, here are some of the best clips and quotes from “Hot Dog… The Movie” from all over the web.  Of course if you know of any that we have left out, please feel free to leave the links or quotes in the comments section below.  ENJOY!

Hot Dog… The Movie Trailer

Intro

Race Official: [at the top of the jump ramp] What’s your jump?
Harkin Banks: The Kiss-Ass Blaster.
Race Official: I’ve never heard of that, what is it?
Harkin Banks: It’s my jump.
Race Official: Well you’ll have to tell me what it is before I can let you go down.
Harkin Banks: It’s a twistin’ triple.
Race Official: A twistin’ triple? I’ve never even *seen* one of those done before. Are you qualified to do that?
Harkin Banks: We’ll I’m gonna do it.
Race Official: [shakes his head] Allright… go ahead.
Harkin Banks: [smiles and skiis off]

Mitch Ryder Montage

Ahhh, Rudy…

Ski Ballet Scene

Snowball Fight

Chinese Downhill

Hot Dog… The Movie Wikipedia Page

Hot Dog… The Movie IMDB Page

Memorable Quotes

Check out this rad story from the Sierra Sun on Squaw local Kip Garre.

On May 21 I boarded a plane for Alaska, where I would meet Fred Marmsater, Courtney Phillips and Andrew McLean. If all went as planned we would have 19 days to climb and ski Mt. Foraker. Talketna is the stepping-off town for the Alaska Range and is where we had to convince bush pilot Paul Rodderick to fly us over the Sultana ridge on Foraker so we could see what our proposed route looked like.

Paul was keen on a fly-by, and an hour and a half later we were standing on the southeast fork of the Kahiltna glacier staring at Mt. Foraker and the 4-mile ridge that connects it to Mt. Crosson. One reason Foraker sees such little traffic is its difficult ridge to Crosson that must be crossed to descend. Climbers could easily get stuck on the ridge for days if the pressure dropped and weather turned bad.

Full Story Here

Here is a look at one of our runs from today in the Las Lenas Valley.

Can anyone out there in the Unofficial community ID this cliff drop?

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Life is full of unexpected turns. For Tim Dutton, 2009 was filled with unexpected turns of awesomeness. The Squaw Valley local had soured on competition in his youth, but a random hook-up at the Freeskiing World Tour (FWT) in Kirkwood landed him back on the competition scene. In his first big mountain comp, Timmy was the unexpected winner. From out of nowhere at Kirkwood, Timmy went to the World Freeskiing Championships at Alyeska and repeated his Kirkwood feat. Tim Dutton is on the rise. Hop on the bandwagon of this 19-year-old while there are still seats!

Hey Ski Channel, fix your embed code!

July 2, 2009

The Independence Day weekend in Tahoe should be warm but not hot and mostly free of thunderstorms. We can’t ask for much better than that.

The thunderstorms that have been building in the region all week should peak today, with widespread storms possible along the Sierra Crest and the most intense activity north of Interstate 80. By Friday a dry westerly breeze should push most of the T-storm activity to our east for the weekend, though we might still see some cumulus clouds forming over the higher elevations in the afternoon.

Temperatures will be seasonal, around 80 near the Lake, and the upper 60s to close to 70 at the higher elevations. By Sunday, however, we will begin to see the leading edge of a pattern change as a trough of low pressure setting up off the coast of California starts to move inland. As that system sweeps from west to east, it will bring significantly cooler temperatures, with highs by mid-week dropping to 10 to 15 degrees below normal. Any precip with that system, however, is expected to remain to the north of the Tahoe Basin.

El Nino Update

Ocean water temperatures continue to warm in the eastern Pacific, and the ocean status has already shifted from La Nina to neutral, leaning toward El Nino. This trend has intensified in recent weeks. The government’s ocean watchers will be out with a new monthly report next week and we will bring the results of that update to you on July 9.

July 1, 2009

Here are a few clips from Today at Las Lenas. It was just about the best day one could have in LL with out the mighty Marte open.

Music by Ween
Song: Gloria