The two skiers calmly looked into a steep, rocky hourglass nestled against a triangle of heavily wooded cliffs in a section of Kirkwood called “Thunder Saddle.” The area’s 1,200 feet of vertical ranged in pitch from 42 to 57 degrees, with trees, rocks and cliffs bisected by an ugly avalanche chute as narrow as the aisles between airline seats.
“This looks pretty good,” one skier said to the other.
According to some historians, the beginning of extremism was born in 1939 when two Frenchmen, Emile Allais and Camille Tonnais, ascended 4,000 feet up the Glacier du Mileu to the top of the 12,680-foot peak called Argentiere. Strapping on their stiff wooden boards, they descended down a narrow rock-walled needle of snow, over 40 degrees of slope. It was beyond rational thought, but in one afternoon the two alpinists redefined the limits of skiing.
In today’s ski industry the wooing of “extremism” is so big that no one can deny its influence. Its movement has changed the perception of ski terrain radically. High risk means high pleasure. Emboldened by modern ski technology and spurred by adrenaline, freeskiing’s increasing popular disciplines have grown hand-in-hand with modern MTV-brainers. Wall Street ad men pitch its romanticism. And if one-upmanship is not the rule of the day, it still hasn’t been lost on equipment, beverage, and sportswear designers.
The Lake Tahoe Basin, surrounded by a dozen alpine resorts and blessed with big mountains complemented by big snowfall, is extreme skiing’s breeding ground.
“Lake Tahoe is the biggest proving grounds for up-and-coming freeskiers,” states Chris “Uncle E” Ernst. Ernst is the announcer for Olympic, X-Games, and other big-time freeriding competitions. Ernst believes that extreme skiing – or “competitive freeskiing” – the politically correct term among the high mountain rippers – is going to pass traditional ski racing in the public eye. Tahoe’s terrain “is a rite of passage for the ski or snowboarding enthusiast, especially Squaw Valley,” says Ernst.
Consider the Palisades above Squaw Valley’s Siberia Lift. These upper rock cliffs of over 9,000-feet elevation loom over Squaw’s upper mountain like a monstrous sentinel. The Palisades are big. Their gargantuan geography makes first-time visitors feel as though they’re looking through the wrong end of a telescope. Dropping into some of its chutes is as abrupt as dropping into an elevator shaft. Straight-lining its steep plunges is a forbidding thigh-burner.
“Squaw Valley is the mother ship for extremists, but certainly not the only Tahoe area which offers lift-accessed extreme terrain,” adds Eric Deslauriers, noted author and adventurer.
“Sugar Bowl, Alpine Meadows, Kirkwood, parts of Heavenly and even Homewood offer a full-fare buffet that lets your mind and skis wander enough to satisfy any thrill seeker’s appetite. That’s what makes Lake Tahoe a freeriding paradise. You combine terrific snowpack with big mountains, and you have skiable snow in resort areas not found in any other region of the country.” |
