The Alpenglow Mountain Festival’s winter edition — set for its inaugural appearance Feb. 14 through March 2 — seeks to set a new definition for a Tahoe festival. While the focus is on human-powered athletic events, the goal is not to compete, but to participate. It’s not about the distance traveled or how fast you cover it; it’s just being out there doing it. To make that happen, the majority of events are free or inexpensive.
Festivals and events have become an important means of attracting visitors to the Tahoe region. For the most part, events focus on one of two arenas: athletic competition or having a good time. IRONMAN Lake Tahoe is the latest example of a major athletic event, but there are a host of others including triathlons, bike rides around Lake Tahoe, and the classic of them all, The Great Ski Race. Then we have festivals that showcase the beauty of Lake Tahoe by giving visitors the chance to have some fun while they are here. These include single day events like Squaw Valley or Tahoe City’s Oktoberfest or the Tahoe City Wine Walk, as well as the long-running weeklong party that is SnowFest (Feb. 28 to March 9 this year). The Alpenglow Mountain Festival is striving to combine both kinds of festivals into one.
Similar to Alpenglow’s 2013 summer festival, which focused on hiking and other warm weather outdoor activities, this year’s winter festival hopes to introduce winter sports to a wide array of people.
“The festival is designed so that a family could come and spend an entire week at North Tahoe and go to a wide range of events,” said Brendan Madigan, event organizer and owner of Alpenglow Sports. “We have an overabundance of marketing in our community towards the extreme athlete. We wanted to have an event that is free, fun, and geared towards the beginner and intermediate athlete. There is a large educational component and an instructional component, and the classes are free. It’s a chance for people who have never tried a winter sport to come out and try it, and a community to rally around an event that will introduce the visitor to the sports we know and love.”
There will be a variety of snowshoe and skiing tours, cross-country and backcountry ski clinics, an extensive avalanche safety course, and almost every evening a movie or presentation on winter recreation-related topics. In an era where pushing the athletic envelope to the extreme is a focus of much of the media and sports, this event is trying to appeal to the large swatch of normal humans who, when visiting Lake Tahoe, want to get outside but have no interest in being an IRONMAN. They are willing to try something new, but need a guide and a helping hand. Being that helping hand is a primary goal of the festival.
Will Richardson, co-founder of the Tahoe Institute for Natural Science (TINS), will lead two natural history snowshoe tours during the event. Richardson looks at the festival as a win-win situation. Participants get to learn about winter ecology and how animals get through the winter, and TINS programs are introduced to the public.
“We hope the festival continues to grow and become a major event for the community,” said Richardson.
Madigan is excited about the festival’s potential.
“We have such an amazing product here at North Tahoe,” he said. “We love our community so much, we want to share it with other people. We want to wed them to North Tahoe so that they have a great experience and want to return. We really feel strongly about sharing the stoke of the mountain sports.”
Information on all the dates, details, and registration requirements for the Alpenglow Mountain Festival can be found at alpenglowsports.com.
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