Squaw Valley Institute presents: How Scientists Study The Earth’s Biosphere And Are Making A Difference in honor of the upcoming Earth Day. The Institute has done a fabulous job in bringing cultural, education and entertaining events to our local area. To learn more about the events of the Squaw Valley Institute visit www.SquawValleyInstitute.org.
Posts Tagged ‘Squaw Valley Institute’
Squaw Valley Institute presents…
Thursday, April 14th, 2011Memorial Weekend in Squaw Valley
Tuesday, June 1st, 2010Memorial Weekend was full of activity for us all right here in the valley. Saturday we did our property owner part by going to the Firemen’s pancake breakfast and then volunteering to pick up trash in our neighborhood. Always a fun morning full of familiar faces and who can turn down a yummy breakfast made by the fireman.
In the afternoon I attended the annual Squaw Valley Property Owners Meeting. There was a well thought out agenda with speakers giving updates from Squaw Valley Ski Corp, Squaw Valley Public Service district, Squaw Valley Mutual Water Company, Squaw Valley Fire Dept., the Bear League, Fish and Game, an informant to supervisor Jennifer Montgomery, a local realtor (they rotate through different ones each year), Squaw Valley Institute, Squaw Valley Museum Foundation and I think that was it. Each person had a about 10 minutes to give an update. It was great. If you have any questions please feel free to give me a call, it saves me recapping everything here.
On Sunday we enjoyed the skiing for the morning. The resort seemed to do quite well with the parking lot about half full each day. We went up around 10am and the cable cars were running full capacity, a steady flow of filling them but no additional waiting in line. The 0nly lifts open were Links and Shirley Lake however a lot of the mountain was open for hiking. We had a family ski day and enjoyed quite a few runs down Shirley, even with our 2.5 year old. The line at the bottom was moderate, not a long wait. It seemed the hikers of the day had fun too. We spotted tracks on Granite, Siberia, Headwall, KT and Red Dog. Fun stuff.
New Water Tank Dedication
Just after skiing we attended the naming ceremony or dedication of the new water tank put in by Squaw Valley Mutual Water Company last fall. A small group of property owners from the Mutual gathered at the water tank at 1pm along with the guest of honor John Chisolm. Margot Garcia gave a nice little talk about the prolems with the old redwood tank and the process of obtaining the new one. She also gave her thanks to John Chisolm for his many years of caring about the water in our valley.
Guest of Honor, John Chisolm
Margot christened the new tank with a bottle of champagne and then we all toasted to it’s newness and to John. After the toast we opened the tank for a taste of our fresh water.
Water Tasting
Monday we enjoyed a family stroll along the Truckee River from Squaw to Alpine. The bike path has been cleaned all the way to Tahoe City and it was fairly busy. With all the activity we did manage to fit in real estate as well including several open houses. It has been nice to see some continued interest in real estate during May. All in all it was a great spring weekend in Squaw and now one to summer.
Freeride World Tour: Tram Face
Tuesday, March 2nd, 2010Once again the Freeride World Tour came to Squaw Valleywith hopes of skiing the Tram Face. The comp was slated for Sunday, but a big slide made the comp organizers decide to move the event to Monday on Silverado. Check out the Freeride World Tour website for a video of the slide and athlete comments. As well as results of Monday’s competition. Hats off to all the athletes, good luck as the tour continues.
New Snow Today; Squaw Opens Tomorrow & JT Holmes Base Jumps from the Tram
Thursday, November 26th, 2009It starting snowing heavily around 1PM today and as of 6PM we have 8″inches on the valley floor. It is forecasted to snow until late this evening and I would expect to see 12″ inches on the valley floor. Higher elevations will probably see 18 inches or more.
Squaw is opening tomorrow and festivities include a base jump by JT Holmes from the Tram in the early afternoon. Shane McConkey was to have done this jump and JT Holmes will be doing it with Shane in spirit. Skiing and riding should be good tomorrow for the first day of the season.
Have a Happy Thanksgiving.
A Toast To Tahoe Skiing, 2nd Annual
Wednesday, October 28th, 2009Get your tickets for the 2nd Annual fundraising event for the upcoming Squaw Valley Institute event, A Toast to Tahoe Skiing.
The event brings winter enthusiasts together for night full of good fun, good food and good people. Speakers, fashion show, clip from a movie premiere and an auction are all part of the evening’s plan. We went last year and what a blast, certainly an event not to miss. The best part is the funds raised go to the Squaw Valley Institute, the organization responsible for bringing us a bit more culture, like the great talk by Greg Mortenson earlier this month. We look forward to seeing you there.
Squaw Valley Institute brings Greg Mortenson
Tuesday, October 20th, 2009A big thank you to the Squaw Valley Institute for the continued efforts to enrich our community with amazing presentations, like the speaker this past weekend Greg Mortenson.
Greg Mortenson, author of “Three Cups of Tea”, a repeated New York best seller, was in Tahoe this weekend to share his story, not only the book but his life passion. Greg is an amazing man inspired by the people in a small Pakistan village who helped him after a failed attempt to submit the world’s second highest peak, K2. As a token of appreciation to the villagers for their help, Greg decided to build them their first school. The story is amazing which I learned by attending his speach, but can also be gathered from his book. This first school had a chain reaction both in Greg Mortenson and the people of Pakistan and Afghanistan. Mortenson has been involved in a number of school constructions and is a huge advocate for education, especially for young girls, as a tool to solve many of the problems faced in the middle east. The speech was inspiring… it was followed by a in depth question and answer period and then a book signing session. The afternoon was great and it was to be followed by a repeat sold out audience for the second talk in the evening.
Thank you to Squaw Valley Institute. We are proud to be founding members and continual supporters of such a great organization who is enriching all of our lives a bit more.
Squaw Valley 1960 Winter Olympic 50th Anniversary Presentation
Monday, September 21st, 2009Squaw Valley 1960 Winter Olympic Presentation – Squaw Valley 50 year anniversary celebration of 1960 Winter Olympics- Squaw Valley Ski Museum Foundation
Presentation on Squaw Valley's Olympics
The Squaw Valley Institute hosted a presentation by Dave Antonucci covering the 1960 Winter Olympics at Squaw Valley. He gave a slide show presentation at the “potato chip church” last Saturday morning. Those in attendance enjoyed his dialogue and presentation recapping the history of the Olympics in Squaw Valley.
In the mid 1950′s, Alex Cushing was able to get the Olympic Committee delegates to vote 32 to 30 in favor of Squaw Valley as the 1960 Winter Olympic site over Innsbruck, Austria. The cost was first estimated at $1M and was upped to $4M which the California State legislature approved. In the end, the total cost was $15M. Opening day festivities waited for Vice President Nixon’s motorcade to arrive in a blizzard. The storm miraculously stopped and allowed the opening ceremonies before snowing heavily again.
There were many Olympic firsts at the 1960 Squaw Valley Olympics.
- Television broadcasting
- Electronic timing
- IBM 5 MB computer in a large building with many people working
- Biathlon competition
- Central athlete housing near the competition
- Extensive Pageantry by Walt Disney
- Women’s speed skating competition
- Cross Country competition through the woods instead on an open field or road
- Man-made ice for the ice hockey and speed skating events
- Metal skis were used by a Frenchman named Varnet
Several items of note
- US Military constructed a parking area in the Squaw Valley Meadow to handle approximately 50,000 visitors per day.
- Hwy 89 from Squaw to Truckee was 3 lanes one way to and from the Olympics
- Miracle on Ice- with US hockey team winning the Gold Medal
- 1000 Marines boot packed the ski runs after the heavy snows
- Varnet from France won a gold medal and went on to make sun glasses
Several Building are still standing which were used during the Olympics:
- Nevada and California buildings – one of these is the Squaw Valley Ski Area Locker Room
- Administration building- now Squaw Valley Ski Area Offices and large hall for private parties
- Two of the 4 athlete housing buildings – now are private time share condos
- Some smaller service buildings
- “Potato Chip Church”
In 2010, Squaw Valley Ski Area and other local organizations will be hosting from Friday Jan. 8 to Sunday Jan. 17th a 10 day celebration:
- 50th Anniversary of the Olympics
- 60th Anniversary of the opening of Squaw Valley Ski Area
- Ski Museum promotions
- Olympic Heritage events
- Temporary Museums at Squaw Valley and Sugar Pine Point State Park
