Last Tuesday I took these pics of the home we at Rahlves&Rahlves Inc. are building.  Located in Truckee, CA in the Martis Camp development has private ski acces to Lookout Mountain off Northstar at Tahoe and in the summer a Tom Fazzio built golf course.  If you're looking for a home in the Tahoe area this is an option.  4 Bedroom, 5 bath, media room, 2 car oversized garage, open kitchen/dinning and great room, private guest master suite above garage and located at the end of a cul d'sac  backing up to the 18 hole putting park. It's for sale!  Scheduled to be finished by April 2010. A few more details to be finished on the outside.  Most of the work is concentrated on the inside for now.
front entry

garage

media room on south side

garage from street

The "Tomahawk", "Egg Beater" or "Yard Sale" is one of the worst crashes you can take on skis.  It happens when the speeds are high, you loose balance for a split second and then you're getting pulled like Stretch Armstrong in a front handspring spin cycle.  Total loss of control and equipment flying off is a good show for those on the ski lift.  Not so fun when you're the victim and if you have to hike back up to retrieve all your own gear. Thanks to Chris Hunt we can cringe and get some oohhs and uuggs and not have to feel the physical outcome.  At those speeds it's good to wear a Giro or Bell helmet.  I've seen their Santa Cruz, CA test facililty in action and that gives me more security on the skis and bike just in case I go down.  Let me get this straight, I don't encourage crashing, but it happens and all of you must be smart enough to wear the proper equipment to avoid injury.  This was a lesson to protect your heads.  Thanks to all the entries from ski, moto, snowboard, mtn bike, surf, monoski, and skate.  Got to give it up to all of you.  Chris, I hope you had some help cleaning up your mess.  Send me a message on what helmet, size, color and an address where to send your "Best Wreak" prize of a Giro or Bell helmet.  Check back soon for another "Snow vs Dirt" contest.  Everyone is invited.
winning crash pic

Here's the latest interview I"ve done with ESPN

Click on the SNOW vs DIRT Contest and submitt your best pic for your chance to win a Giro ski helmet or Bell Moto 8. Last Day to post is Dec 10th, 2009.
here are a few good ones

Perfect conditions for race day.  Top 3 finished within 0.04sec.  The Swiss young gun and Atomic skier Carlo Janka came out on top with my good friends Cuche in 2nd and Svindal in 3rd.  Bode threw down a good run except for 2 mistakes which landed him in 4th.  He was giving it like always. Weibrecht put the hammer down and took 11th, but the rest of the American boys looked timid and had results to show it.  To win on this hill it takes aggressive clean skiing.  The fast guys attack with confidence and you can see that they want it.  Marco has it in him to compete for the top spot, but he backed off and didn't take the risk needed to put down a winning run.  Come on buddy...Get After It this year.
After the race I took my YPO group down the race line.  They saw how steep and gnarly it is.  Thanks to Tunes for giving me the green light to give these guys this experience.  Tommy 11 and Oliver 9 skied the race line better than I expected.  The snow is rock hard and slick in spots, but they held on and didn't take the easy way down.  Nice work boys.

VAIL DAILY RAHLVES BIRDS OF PREY ARTICLE

Tommy racing to the line at our Gold Peak YPO GS race early morning before the BOP DH


Chad my TM at SPYDER selling T-Shirts and still wearing Junior's hat

Cody Townsend came back to his roots to watch

2009 Birds of Prey, "Americas Downhill Race" finish

No pics to show since it was a mad rush to put down laps.  I got on Jerome at 3pm for the last hour.  It was actually good timing since most skiers/boarders were gone.  8 laps bombing Trailblazer was pretty fun with locals Trevor, Barrett and Todd.  Skiers right is most exciting with little lips, mini road gap, banks around snow making towers and the 180 kicker at bottom.  The trail was in excellent condition and typical man made snow w / a soft sluff layer on top.  Fun hitting the lips and trannys of the park boxes too.  New Atomic Race boots were feeling comfy.  That was a surprise.  Only rocks were off lift where everyone was throwing them sideways skiers left.  My boards didn't have a scratch.

I'm talking with JD Hoss on Truckee's 101.5 KTKE Independent Radio about Tahoe Life and mine on snow this season.

Sugar Bowl hosted The Backcountry Ball last night at the Village Lodge.  I dragged the kids up there to hang out and was impressed to see all the support for this new program.  The fresh snow from Friday got everyone excited for what's to come this season.  Great turn out for the dinner and silent auction.  They included a tour of the new facility and information of the program that raised money for the Sierra Avalanche Center.  The event was to launch the new Backcountry Adventure Center or "BAC".  Sugar Bowl has joined Alpine Skills International in offering snow safety classes, guided backcountry tours, wilderness/outdoor preparation, survival tips and rental packages for all you need to access the terrain out of the resort.  Sugar Bowl's terrain in bounds is mellow to very advanced.  Out of bounds there's tons more to explore.  The last two seasons I've been pushing my adventure skiing and exploring to new levels off the Lincoln and Judah lift.  Now skiing off the new Summit Chair will open up easier access to some of that terrain.  Some of the best skiing in Tahoe is at Sugar Bowl and now the out of bounds skiing will be offered to anyone with the skills and desire to ski Donner Lake Runs and terrain out towards Anderson Peak.  3 or 4 days after a storm you can still get cold untouched deep pow if you know where and when to go. 

UNR's NCAA ski team has had their funding dramatically cut next to nothing. To keep the program that supports College athletics in the Far West region, they need your help.  Head coach Evan Weiss is a former USST team member and has the pressure of running a strong Top 10 NCAA team with limited funds.  The Wolf Pack Team contributes to the local ski sceen by fielding highly ranked athletes that improve the point system in the Far West and give young TAHOE kids idols to chase. 
I donated my SPYDER jacket and pant I wore in the opening Tahoe segment from Warren Miller's flic "Dynasty" which played tonight at the Reno Event Center. 
Click here for The University of Nevada ski team's fundraiser Saturday from 3-7 p.m. at Ceol Irish Pub located at 538 S. Virginia Street in Reno.
http://www.nevadawolfpack.com/ViewArticle.dbml?SPSID=45497&SPID=4087&DB_LANG=C&DB_OEM_ID=10000&ATCLID=204837110
Thanks for the support!

So I went for a ride on the FXR with Chulo and Klutch from my house to downtown Truckee and stopped in at Bar of America.  It just started to snow on the way there.  A quick stop didn't help much. 
Local photog Court Leve was walking the street and got this shot.  His comment:
"I'm glad my curiosity of 'what idiots would ride in a snowstorm' was answered so easily!"
Good laugh at the least.

Mother Nature hit us hard and I was stuck looking for a ride.
www.courtlevephoto.com