Nachtspektakl draws a good crowd!

The first ever Nachtspektakl as held Saturday evening, Feb. 4th at Squaw Valley ski resort. A group of about 45 locals from Tahoe’s north shore showed up to skin up the summer road to Squaw’s High Camp.

The first wave of backcountry skiers skinning up the summer road to High Camp at Squaw Valley.

It was rather fun to be part of the first crew to legally skin up the runs of a resort known in the backcountry world for having a rigid closed boundary policy. That was hardly the topic of conversation on the skin up, rather it was a typical backcountry outing, albiet in-bounds at Squaw, where a large group of like minded skiers were brought together and it became an excellent opportunity to meet and make new friends.

When everyone arrived at High Camp, which took over two hours for the stragglers to arrive, packs and skis were stashed, boots swapped for hut slippers, drinks were poured and dinner served. Even though the restaurant lacked a pot belly stove there was plenty of warmth between strangers to make it a festive event.

Can you say party?

Just as we were all getting to know each other a bit ski patrol gave us a five minute warning that the mountain run back down would close in five minutes so everyone had to quickly say their goodbyes, cinch their boots back on and clip in for a fast ride back down. Though headlamps were recommended for the ski down, Squaw had the entire run lit with night lights and – wonder of wonders – almost nobody but us turn earning splitboarders, rando skiers and telemarkers to share the run with.

Have you ever bombed the mountain run at Squaw without having to play dodge-em with a couple thousand skiers? That in itself was a unique experience, but not as fun as the skin up.

Thanks to the Alpenglow crew and Dynafit for putting this great event together. May there be many more to come.

3 comments

1 ping

  1. Thanks for a great write up Craig and good to see you at the event. Just wanted to let you know that Tahoe Mountain Sports was one of the other sponsors in addition to Alpenglow and Dynafit and we also posted a write up on the event here.

    Thanks for all your good work and see you in the backcountry!

    • Dostie on 6Feb2012 at 12:14 pm
      Author

    Ah, yes, I forgot to mention Tahoe Mt. Sports as well. Happened to become aware of the whole event through Alpenglow Sports so that came to mind first. Noticed your write-up and was going to add the link but you beat me to it.

    Indeed it was a great event and I’ll see you somewhere in the backcountry later this season.

    • rando on 7Feb2012 at 10:27 am

    As someone who comes up to Tahoe a lot in the winter, it would be great to see more of these. I could not make this one, but it would be great to be able to participate. This is a great way to build BC awareness and community.

    Please tell folks to do more! Let’s get the euro ski mentality in N. Tahoe!

  1. […] combining dining, drinking, and ski touring, three sports that mix together well, even in Amerika. Last year Alpenglow Sports hosted the event with co-sponsor Dynafit. About 50 people showed up to participate […]

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