High Fives T-Shirts

Get your fresh new gear to support High Fives Foundation!! Assorted colors in every size, stickers in 3 sizes, assorted colors. Email james@highfivesfoundation to get your High Fives swag and pricing today!

Roaring March - Winter Storm Warning

After receiving 48 hrs of rain last week, the storm train is back in action with the first series to come in right on schedule for the Tahoe area. All reports look positve for significant accumulation at all elevations in the Tahoe area....this is why we live here. Hope you have some sick time stashed away!!

* TOTAL SNOW ACCUMULATIONS: 15 TO 30 INCHES AT LAKE LEVEL BY
WEDNESDAY MORNING MAINLY FALLING TONIGHT THROUGH WEDNESDAY
MORNING. 3 TO 4 FEET OF SNOW WILL FALL ABOVE 7000 FEET WITH UP
TO 6 FEET ABOVE 8000 FEET NEAR THE SIERRA CREST.

Also check the Tahoe Weather Geek: http://www.tahoeloco.com/weather-geek/
MONDAY MARCH 2 5:35 AM…..A winter storm warning remains in effect through Wednesday morning as the pattern shifts today from a warm, wet “Hawaiian Hoser,” in the words of one forecaster, to a true winter storm. The subtropical moisture plume that doused California and much of Tahoe Sunday is sagging to the south this morning. It will soon be replaced by a cold front spinning ahead of a low-pressure system sitting off the coast of Washington and Oregon. That front has the potential to dump up to a foot of snow on Tahoe by midnight, with snow levels dropping to 5000 feet or below, and it will be followed by at least two more very strong waves of precipitation. Tuesday still looks like the peak, snow-wise, with very heavy snow all day. Snow should continue into Wednesday, tapering to snow showers during the day. Total accumulations by Wednesday night should be at least three to four feet at the highest elevations. Thursday looks dry, and the outlook for the weekend is uncertain. One forecast model has more storms coming our way through the weekend. A competing model has a low pressure system drifting far off the coast and not approaching land until at least Sunday. But for now, brace yourself. The next couple of days should be fun.

High Fives 540 Contest Video

For those that didn't make it to last year's High Fives 540 contest at Sugar Bowl Resort, check out this video put together by Trent Palmer of Stone Broke Films. With 3 weeks to plan and minimal budget, I think everyone was throwing High Fives to eachother all day long!! Come out for this years event, TRAINS, on April 18th at Sugar Bowl once again. More to come!!!!

High Fives from Stonebroke Films on Vimeo.

High Fives presents TRAINS

April 18, 2009, Sugar Bowl Resort, High Fives Nonprofit Foundation presents TRAINS. Following last season's High Fives 540 contest, TRAINS will host a 5 team format, with personalities from Tahoe's talented ski community. Check back for more details as the event comes closer and for information on the development of High Fives Nonprofit Foundation.

Shaun White's Private Pipe in the Heaven's

This shit is balln' to the definition. I mean really, a private pipe in the backcountry to the backdrop of Silverton?!? Has White seariously opened the gates to heaven and stepped right in? Oakley and Red Bull make it happen once again...can't wait to see what ridiculous action happens with this project.

Squaw Valley Prom 2009

Help support local charity with Charitysmith Friday night at the Plaza Bar in Squaw Valley. This year's proceeds support the Lake Kip Memorial Fund. $50 couples, $100 stag....go find a lady fellas.

the Breakz 2009.3 - Fabulous February

Fabulous February has left its mark on the Tahoe area with over 8 ft of snow thus far and epic conditions everywhere in sight. Instability had, and still exists throughout much of the backcountry and even within the resorts. Here're some clips of the crew getting rad at Squaw with some storm skiing and from this past Wednesday when Granite Peak popped and Silverado had this season's debut opening. With Standard Films, Warren Miller and other freelancers out to document their piece of the action, the mountain got tracked out quickly!!

tha breakz 2009.3 from James Preston on Vimeo.

Claim your home Turf - Helly Hansen Big Mountain Battle

Endurance, speed, and local knowledge are sure to take the Helly Hansen Big Mountain Battle. With the course designer being non-other than Chris Davenport, it's sure to be long and cover a lot of vert. If you haven't already, check out Chris's own challenge he had set to climb and ski the tallest peaks in Colorado, 14er's. Too bad this overlaps with Dew Tour championships over at Northstar...but think about how epic conditions will be with our recent 5-7 ft of snow!

Ski Town Girls - stand your ground

Couger Barbie on the loose and coming to a town near you. I'm sure you may have even spotted her already!

2/18/09: Ryan Salm - Indi(a)gestion, Wanderings through Tribal India

Check out local photographers and athletes right here in Squaw as they share their travels, experiences and photos in an intimate setting. See you there!

This week:

Headhunters, Opium Dens, Sacrifices and the stunning Color of India are just a few of the encounters experienced during his Journey through India. Ryan is an accomplished local photographer and entertaining storyteller who loves to immerse himself in unique cultures from the far corners of the world and return with adventures and images to share.

The 8th annual Lake Tahoe Adventure Slide Show Series is sponsored by your friends at The BackCountry. This event is held every Wednesday night at Bar One, in the Olympic Plaza at Squaw Valley.
The 2008/2009 season offers 10 incredible shows, from some of the most adventurous people anywhere. These folks are extremely generous giving us their time, and often times traveling to Tahoe from far away. They want to spread that good mountain vibe, and get us all stoked on life. Many of these shows are once-in-a-lifetime opportunities to meet and hear from incredible mountain loving athletes and travelers
Shows start right at 7pm and usually last one hour. Arrive early for a seat. There is comfortable seating for about 150, and pretty good standing room for another 100. Most shows fill the room completely by 7:10

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Dumps like a truck!

Simply dumping out at Squaw today. It just keeps on coming with a major system covering the area as of this morning...winter storm warning though 4am Tuesday morning in effect. Upper mounain is on lockdown....trees not offerig much visibility with all the face shots being dealt out today! Shred it. Mattias Sullivan and Ashley Porter testing the depth on lower mountain.

Back from Mammoth and Snowing in Tahoe!!

Three excellent days down in Mammoth for the SoCal trade fair with Volkl/Marker. Along with Ingrid Backstrom, Emily Turner, Christen Lavalle, Ashley Porter, Adam Ruscitto, Kris Thomas and Jamie Lavalle, the week consisted of skiing blower pow and killer wind buff on upper mountain. With nothing in your way, massive vert and various aspects to choose from, it was ideal conditions for testing the 2010 line up of Volkl skis. Favs of the trip where the Kuro with improved sidewall construction and the new rockered Gotama....get familiar!

While we were gone Tahoe finally fell into the storm track with snow falling every other day this week, and its pounding out right now..forecasting 6-12" at 7000ft for today, with a monster on the horizon for Sunday!

Mammoth Sunrise

About 7am this morning at Mammoth Mtn. Upper mountain hadn't opened in days, and it was dirty. High speed pow/buff....nothing in your way to worry about! Winds came up late in the day and buffed the mountain out again, just in time for another system to come in with about 2-7 inches forecast through Thursday am.

Sailor Boy

Jamie Lavalle in Mammoth, CA....checking for whales on the horizon.

Squaw Pow Day!!

Finally after storm after storm missing the Northern Sierra's we've gotten a taste of the coolaid once again! So weather guru's held firm with forecasts of 4-7 inches for last night....i'd say we had about 6-8 inches before i hit the sack last night. Woke up to at least a foot in the driveway in the valley....and bombs in the far distance! Call for sure was KT 22, and you couldn't go wrong with your line choice. By far the lightest driest snow of the season, with blinding and choking face shots top to bottom on Olympic Lady, high speed pow turns through the alternates and even some sun shining through at times to light up the fresh fallen snow. Get out and get some!

Capri Sun son

Still tastes the same.

In case you haven't yet heard...

THe local Lange girl contest has come to and end and our very own local girl, Amanda Jean will be representing hard for Lange! Check out the winners, congrats to all the ladies involved, happy ripping.

Evil weed? Is Tanner banned from Canada early in the season??

Following up a citation for possesion of 'Evil Weed' in Boulder Colorado during a shoot on Dec 11th, Hall plead guilty yesterday and recieved 16 weeks of unsupervised probation, after which his record runs clean. Does this mean that Tanner is out of luck for the heart of winter in BC?? I mean, you can't leave the country when on probation right? How will this effect his filming for 2009 and committments for Oakley/Red Bull...

Who wants $10K??

Wax your skis and will the belt. The Red Bull Silver Belt is set to snap once again Feb 14/15th at Sugar Bowl. Bringing out the likes of Daron Rahlves and top skiers/racers in the Tahoe area, it's sure to be a fight in this 'chinese downhill' of the historic SIlver Belt trail. Winner buys 1st round!

Snow in the forecast? Check the weather Geek.

Are we going to get any snow from this system? For up to date predictions and where the snow will be falling the hardest, check out the Tahoe Weather Geek! Peace..

Volkl Smith Trail Mix Ep.2

Check out Sean Collin send the dirtiest switch 7 at 2:42. Siiick angle Trent. Looks like the Mammoth Park is dialed in!

Volkl Smith Trail Mix Ep 2 from Stonebroke Films on Vimeo.

Volkl Smith Trail Mix Ep.1

Trent Palmer's first of several episodes of the Norcal Smith and Volkl team riders kickn' it in Tahoe.

Volkl Smith Trail Mix Ep 1 from Stonebroke Films on Vimeo.

Red Bull's Jeff Regis on Snow Scrapers

A few words from Jeff Regis on how Red Bull Snow Scrapers came to be in NYC and their involvement within sport communities.

Alpine Meadows Industry Ski/Snowboard Demo

Christen Lavalle, Emily Turner and Katie Paciotti rockin' next year's Volkl skis. Stayed tuned for more on the new rockered Gotama and other skis in the line.....dirty.

Nissan Freeride World Tour - Tram Face Squaw Valley

Just in, Ralph Backstrom has been accepted into the Tram Face event to happen later this month (scheduled for Feb. 28th)! Way to represent and bring some local talent to the event Ralph! Check out the link to read more on the Nissan Freeride World Tour and Tram Face event, scheduled to be a showing of dirty riding on Squaw's most covetted terrain.

Hot this week - Red Bull Snow Scrapers

Sure to be on fire this week is the Red Bull Snow Scrapers throwing down Feb 5th in NYC! If you can't get to the east coast last minute on your G5, follow the action at Redbullsnowboarding.com. Travis Rice, Shaun White, and Pat Moore along with 13 other US and International athletes are sure to get up in the Big Apple. Check out the teaser...

The North Face Masters - Snowbird

Way to go Ralph! check out The North Face Masters for some sick shredding from Snowbird this past weekend. With a field of top freeriders including a showing from Travis Rice, competition was hot in Utah! Local ripper and friend Ralph Backstrom headed out midweek for Utah, fresh off a shoulder injury here at Squaw, that threatened to bench him for a bit. After some good news from the doc, Ralph peace'd out to the bird and laid down some turns. Apparently he was decent at it, as he claimed 2nd place! Nice work bro..

the what??

tha breakz. tha breakz are a serious of mini 'episodes' i decided to put together this season to highlight local athletes, lifestyle, passion and the work that goes into a lot of the snowsport photography and filming out there. Aside from having the heart of a true skier, embracing everyday i have on the snow and in the mountains, and having a great group of friends that dedicate their days to shredding hard, I don't have a drop of experience in the world of cinematography/editing/etc. But we know how to live right, ski hard, and get it done, so i hope you like it. Check out tha breakz this season to follow the life of local skiers and snowboarders in the Tahoe area.

tha breakz 2009.2 - blackwood

Finally a decent storm decided to follow the path toward tahoe just a few days before we got out to Blackwood. Lucky me, i dislocated my shoulder 2 days prior to this trip, but was able to run the sled and play camera man for the day. Early Wednesday morning our crew of Mat Jackson, Peter Kush, Ben Paciotti, Rafe Robinson, Jeff Pratt, GP Martin and myself, headed up blackwood canyon to find some leftover pow lines and scope features to work on a few tricks the guys had been practicing. Snow quality was iffy in most places, with rollers and a few wet slides visible from the previous day. Attempting to hit the good morning light, we summitted early enough to scope locations with enough time to go shoot before the sun was off them....stay tuned for some eye candy from GP and check out tha breakz 2009.2 for some highlights from the day!

tha breakz 2009.2 from James Preston on Vimeo.

tha breakz - squaw valley park

With limited options on a low snowpack at Squaw so far this year, most of our favorite lines are still unskiable...but the squaw park crew is doing a good job with the little snow they have to work with. January has given a great opportunity to work on some park tricks and work with our boy Colby to get aquainted with the mountain, in hopes of a pow day soon! Here's some footage from a cloudy day that turned out to be super fun. Check out tha breakz 2009.1 for the first edition from the new year!

tha breakz 2009.1 from James Preston on Vimeo.

the breakz - Papoose Barrel

December 12, 2008-
Winter was taking it's sweet time coming into Lake Tahoe this season, and we were all itching to get on the snow and get our feet back under us. Papoose, the beginner hill at Squaw Valley was the only snow in town, and we couldn't wait to get our buddy Colby, new to Tahoe via Costa Rica, on the snow and skiing around. The day before this shoot, we took Colby over to Papoose to begin the teaching process. We ended up having so much fun simply because we were on the snow, that we didn't want to leave! The next night was a full moon, so we could see how well the snow was lighting up the day before. Myself, Mat Jackson and Ben Paciotti got the idea to set a jib up on this pile of snow at the bottom and have a session the next day. We quickly called our friend and photographer, GP Martin, to throw the idea to him. Greg followed our stoke and set it up with Savanna at Squaw Valley who enthusiastically gave our crew the go-ahead. Next was setting up the barrel jib....we made a call to another close friend and Norcal Smith team manager, Roy Tuscany, to rap about some jib ideas. Later that night, and completely by a stroke of what I'd like to call, KARMA, we happened across the perfect barrel setup for the jib. Colby and Roy manaufactured the barrel jib over at The Mountain Forge, Truckee, CA, and had it ready for action in time for the shoot. Check out tha breakz to see the action!

the breakz - papoose barrel from James Preston on Vimeo.