Granlibakken | |
---|---|
![]() | |
![]() | |
Address | 725 Granlibakken Road Tahoe City, California 96145 |
Location | One-half mile inland of northwestern shore of Lake Tahoe |
Coordinates | 39°09′20″N120°09′18″W / 39.1556°N 120.1551°W |
Owner | Parson family |
Opened | 1928 |
Renovated | Most Recent - October 2007 |
Enclosed space | |
• Breakout/meeting | 16,000 square feet (1,500 m2) |
Website | |
www.granlibakken.com |
Granlibakken is a conference center and lodge that operates year-round one mile (1.6 km) southwest of Tahoe City, California. [1] The resort has 190 rooms and 16,000 square feet (1,500 m2) of meeting space, [2] and occupies a historic location on Lake Tahoe's northwest shore. The small ski hill at Granlibakken is Lake Tahoe's oldest ski resort.
Circa 1928, D.L. Bliss built a double toboggan slide in ‘Snow Canyon’ (the locals’ name for Granlibakken Valley at the time) to provide winter activities for Tahoe Tavern Resort. Horse-drawn sleighs shuttled guests to and from what became known as "Olympic Hill" which was also frequented by Tahoe City families. [3] Locals had been frequenting the valley as early as 1922 to enjoy the ski jumpable terrain and deep snow.
At about the same time, a group of Norwegian skiers, including seven-time national champion Lars Haugen, was touring the west and giving ski jumping exhibitions. After performing demonstrations on a locals built jump, Haugen declared that the jump was located on a ‘natural’ 60-meter jump slope. In support of a plan to bid on the 1932 Winter Olympic events for the 1932 Olympics, the Tahoe Tavern directors hired Haugen to design a 60-meter ski jump at Olympic Hill, which took two years and $10,000 to complete. [4] [5] The bid failed as the U.S. Olympic Committee selected New York's Lake Placid location. That year, the U.S. National championship were held at the ‘Olympic Hill’ (Granlibakken).
The Lake Tahoe Ski Club, founded in 1929, helped organize events and exhibitions at Olympic Hill throughout the 1930s, including the United States Ski Championships in February 1932. It wasn't until after World War II, however, that the downhill ski resort was developed there. [6]
Kjell “Rusty” Rustad, a retired sea captain and former ski jumper, had moved from San Francisco to Lake Tahoe because it reminded him of his home in Norway. With the goal of providing local skiing for Tahoe City residents, he secured a land use permit from the U.S. Forest Service and purchased 74 acres (300,000 m2) in the Olympic Hill valley. Rustad cleared an area for the ski slope, installed a 450-foot (140 m) rope to the top of it, and constructed three buildings for overnight guests as well as a day lodge. [5] This rope tow was the first lift in the Tahoe Basin and followed the lift line of currently operation POMA platter lift.
Rustad named the ski area Granlibakken (which is Norwegian for “hillside sheltered by fir trees”), after the Granlibakken ski jump located to the East of Bergen, Norway, where he had ski-jumped as a boy. In 1946, he began bringing skiers from the road to his resort aboard a surplus World War II landing craft (shared with Squaw Valley's Wayne Poulsen) that could navigate the snow. [4] [5] Granlibakken continued to attract ski jumpers on the original jump, as well as downhill skiers, thanks to construction of a small jump, next to the wider slope, in 1952. [5]
With a location protected from heavy winds and strong sun, the ski area enjoyed a longer season and its reputation grew beyond the local area. In 1953, Rustad relinquished part of his US Forest Service lease on acreage on the North side of the valley to University of California (UC) Berkeley's International House. [4] [5] The organization's volunteers built a lodge there. Bought by the UC Berkeley Alumni Association in 1958, the lodge became a year-round education and recreation center with additional facilities including a conference room, dining room, swimming pool and beds for 150. In 1969, a New York publisher, Hughes Miller, bought the property. Changing the name to the Four Seasons at Lake Tahoe, he built the first of what would eventually be 84 condos in the valley. [5] The name was changed back to Granlibakken almost immediately as a more appropriate reflection of the property's sense of place and role in the area's history.
Bill and Norma Parson purchased the resort area property in 1978, reviving it out of the developer's bankruptcy. Since 2019, the resort area is owned by Ron and Lauren Parson. The Parson family continues to operate Granlibakken today with lodging, restaurant and conference facilities. The ski area has been retooled for sledding and entry level downhill ski, snowboard and cross-country ski opportunities. The 10 acre ski area is open, in Bill Parson's words, "I suppose for historic reasons." [5]
Alpine skiing, or downhill skiing, is the pastime of sliding down snow-covered slopes on skis with fixed-heel bindings, unlike other types of skiing, which use skis with free-heel bindings. Whether for recreation or for sport, it is typically practiced at ski resorts, which provide such services as ski lifts, artificial snow making, snow grooming, restaurants, and ski patrol.
Bear Valley is a ski area in the western United States, located in the Sierra Nevada of California on Highway 4 between Lake Tahoe and Yosemite—about three hours southeast of Sacramento and one hour from Angels Camp. The alpine ski area and a portion of the real estate in the village of Bear Valley was owned by an investment partnership led by a Canadian company, Dundee Realty, from 2005 to 2014, when Skyline International acquired Bear Valley.
Geilo is a centre in the municipality of Hol in Viken county, Norway. Geilo is primarily a ski resort town, with around 2,500 inhabitants. It is situated in the valley of Hallingdal, 250 km from Oslo and 260 km from Bergen. The Bergen Line facilitated Geilo's development as the first skiing resort in the country, and it is still one of the largest. It is also known for having some of the most luxurious and expensive holiday cabins in Norway. The center of the town lies at 800 meters above sea level, and its highest point is 1178 meters above sea level.
Olympic Valley is an unincorporated community located in Placer County, California northwest of Tahoe City along California State Highway 89 on the banks of the Truckee River near Lake Tahoe. It is home to Palisades Tahoe, the site of the 1960 Winter Olympics. Olympic Valley is the smallest resort area to host the Olympic Winter Games.
Snowbasin Resort is a ski resort in the western United States, located in Weber County, Utah, 33 miles (53 km) northeast of Salt Lake City, on the back (east) side of the Wasatch Range.
Bogus Basin Mountain Recreation Area is a ski area in Boise County, Idaho, sixteen road miles (26 km) north-northeast of the city of Boise.
Guthega is a ski village and the site for a hydro electric dam located in the Kosciuszko National Park, on the upper reaches of the Snowy River, on the western face of Mount Blue Cow, Snowy Mountains of New South Wales, Australia.
The U.S. Ski Team, operating under the auspices of U.S. Ski & Snowboard, develops and supports men's and women's athletes in the sports of alpine skiing, freestyle skiing, cross-country, ski jumping, and Nordic combined. Since 1974 the team and association have been headquartered in Park City, Utah.
Badger Pass Ski Area is a small ski area located within Yosemite National Park. Badger Pass is one of only three lift serviced ski areas operating in a US National Park. It is situated five miles (8 km) south-southeast of the Chinquapin intersection of Wawona Road with Glacier Point Road in the southern area of Yosemite National Park. Glacier Point Road provides the access to this ski area. During high snow level and/or ski season, Glacier Point road terminates at Badger Pass Ski Resort. Under these conditions, the remainder of Glacier Point Road is used for cross-country skiing access to Glacier Point and other destinations in the high country.
Canaan Valley Resort State Park is a state park in the eastern United States, within Canaan Valley in Tucker County, West Virginia. Located in the highest valley east of the Mississippi River, the park contains the second-largest inland wetland area in the United States. The valley featured the first commercial ski development in West Virginia.
Anders Olsen Haugen was a Norwegian-American ski jumper who won four national ski jumping championships. He competed in the 1924 Winter Olympics in Chamonix and the 1928 Winter Olympics in St. Moritz. Anders Haugen was the first and, as of 2022, only American to win an Olympic medal for ski jumping.
The Summit at Snoqualmie is a recreation area in the northwest United States, located on Snoqualmie Pass, Washington. It provides alpine skiing and snowboarding, Nordic skiing, mountain biking, and winter tubing. Owned and managed by Boyne Resorts, it is 52 miles (80 km) east of downtown Seattle on Interstate 90.
Black Mountain of Maine is a ski resort in Rumford, Maine which is most famous for its Nordic skiing facilities, and has hosted several national cross-country skiing championships on its 17 km of trails.
Montgenèvre is a commune on the Italian border in the Hautes-Alpes department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region in Southeastern France. In 2018, it had a population of 456.
Boreal Mountain California is a ski area in Soda Springs, near the Lake Tahoe area of California. It has six chairlifts and two surface lifts, and offers the only night skiing in Tahoe, until 8 pm. It is owned by Powdr Corporation.
Skiing in Australia takes place in the Australian Alps in the states of New South Wales, Victoria and the Australian Capital Territory as well as in the mountains of the island state Tasmania, during the Southern Hemisphere winter.
Skiing in New South Wales takes place in the high country of the Snowy Mountains of New South Wales during the Southern Hemisphere winter.
Ed Z'berg Sugar Pine Point State Park is a state park in California in the United States. It occupies nearly two miles of the western shore of Lake Tahoe and a total of about 1,000 hectares of forested mountains in El Dorado County. Originally called Sugar Pine Point State Park, its name was changed in 2003 to honor Edwin L. Z'berg, a California state assemblyman who specialized in environmental legislation and worked to develop state parks and other natural areas.
The 1962 NCAA Skiing Championships were contested at the Squaw Valley Ski Resort in Olympic Valley, California at the ninth annual NCAA-sanctioned ski tournament to determine the individual and team national champions of men's collegiate alpine skiing, cross-country skiing, and ski jumping in the United States.