About events at Alpenglow Sports

For nearly 50 years, Alpenglow Sports has operated in a community-oriented business model. We feel very strongly that we have a responsibility to give back to our community that has supported the shop for nearly 50 years. One has to look no further than our diverse and engaging calendar of events, from the Broken Arrow Skyrace, Tailgate Talks, the Lake Tahoe Backcountry Demo Event, Mountainfilm on Tour, Community Book Initiative, and our flagship event, the Alpenglow Sports Winter Speaker Series.

The beauty of small communities is that we are all in it together. As such, the majority of our events are unique in that they are mostly free and always have a community-fundraising effort associated with them. The Winter Speaker Series alone has raised nearly $2,000,000 for local nonprofits. The good news is that this is never going to change! We will continue to host free events that bring our community together and support local nonprofits, as we are stalwart believers in our responsibility to do so.

Our event events team is comprised of four individuals that work tirelessly to continuously improve our offerings and increase our nonprofit fundraising. We're not exaggerating when we say that no specialty retailer in the world does what we do - big or small, corporate or independent. And for good reason: a year-round calendar of free events is a taxing proposition for any business.

Our team pulls out all the stops to work with partner brands and organizations to fund each event, which allows them to remain free to the community. However, events such as the Winter Speaker Series have become so big and expensive, that this model still stretches our finances thin.

As such, we're also hoping to make an appeal to YOU, our community, to help us offset some of the cost of our events, particularly the Winter Speaker Series. Whether you have been to one show or nearly all of them, we would be ever so grateful if you would consider supporting our team with a small contribution. 

Thank you for your support

Your generosity will help our team members retain full-time work with Alpenglow Sports while prioritizing, growing and improving our event portfolio. We know that many of you are as inspired as we are by these shows, and that you are galvanized to go chase your own dreams in the mountains while also making our community a better place to live. Thanks for your consideration in joining us in this holistically positive, community journey.

Meet the events team:

My Story

I grew up in Laguna Beach, where both the importance of family and the significance of connecting with the environment were ingrained in me at an early age. I spent my free days at the beach and in the ocean feeling the presence and peace of mind that comes with being immersed in Mother Nature. Combine that with my parents’ passion for adventuring, which led us on many family trips to Tahoe — we were lucky to have the best of both worlds, and opportunities to explore and play in the mountains. I followed my older siblings around attempting to prove I could hang with the big kids, which meant quickly figuring out how to push myself outdoors.

I went on to play college soccer on the East Coast at Tufts University, where I majored in Sociology. During my time in Boston, I worked at the Boston Public Market, and enjoyed exploring the historic city. It was an experience I cherish, but one that also solidified which coast I wanted to live on. I made my way back to LA to work at a start-up and begin my career. Unfortunately, I still wasn’t quite satisfied. Three years of trying to make LA work helped me to understand what I was missing — presence of community and the opportunity to contribute to a collective group, accessible adventure, and being somewhere I could breathe.

Enter Tahoe. I packed up my car and road tripped up the coast, camping along the way, until I made it to the mountains. In just arriving, I felt more myself. I was able to get my foot in the door with part time work at Alpenglow, while supplementing it with much other part time work. I was biding my time until I could make it a full time job. This was a family and I felt so grateful to have landed somewhere that embodied everything I was searching for. When Brendan, Jeff, and Tracy took me climbing for the first time, and Jeff started giving me rap directions mainly before, but also quite a bit after I was over the ledge, I knew that I wouldn’t be leaving this place. 

My Story

I grew up in Minnesota and spent most of my 20s in Arizona. It was in the Southwest that I began my love of the outdoors and knew that I wanted to find a way to incorporate that into a job. I found myself working at a National Forest Visitor Center, then moved on to an outdoor retail store. This ultimately led me to a job at Gregory Mountain Products and a move to Northern California.

After Gregory relocated to SLC, I worked as a tech rep for a couple of great agencies, but ultimately felt more at home in retail. After a lot of planning and some luck, my husband, pup, and I arrived in Tahoe, and I hoped in time I would find my way to Alpenglow…a shop I had loved since the first time I walked in back in the summer of 2009.

I truly enjoy being part of a long-time, independent brick-and-mortar like AG and how much we tie into our local community. It feels pretty unreal to look out our shop’s front windows and see beautiful Lake Tahoe and the Sierra within my reach!

My Story

After graduating college in Virginia, and a stint pursuing professional soccer in the Netherlands, I moved west to chase dreams of untracked powder. I began working at Alpenglow in 2003 as a part-time employee and mostly full-time ski bum. During this time I was lucky enough to fall under the influence of legendary Alpenglow-ers Dave Nettle, Aaron Zanto and Mark Kircher. These veterans taught me the value of pre-work dawn patrol and a commitment to the alpine lifestyle. I eventually moved into full-time work at the shop and finally ownership in 2011, when I purchased the shop from Alpenglow’s original owner, Don Fyfe.

Way back in 2004 I also had the good fortune of meeting my fellow co-workers Jeff Dostie and Tracy Brostek. While we all began working together at roughly the same time, none of us knew then that we'd still be together nearly twenty years later. I consider myself extremely lucky to have these two stellar humans in my life - not only do we collaborate on a daily basis at Alpenglow, but I've enjoyed some of the coolest adventures of my life with them. Building something special with both Jeff and Tracy, plus all of our other amazing staff, will always remain one of the greatest honors of my life.

My life work revolves around cultivating community through a rich and connected retail experience. I am an experienced creator/founder of a litany of high-end, large-scale experiential events in North Lake Tahoe, California. These include the Alpenglow Mountain Festival, the Alpenglow Winter Speaker Series, the Broken Arrow Skyrace and Afterglow, A Mountain Storytelling Podcast.

I will always reminisce about skiing knee-deep powder off the summit of 20,320-foot Denali, the tallest peak in North America, in 2010, a near FKT, car-to-car alpine ascent of Mt. Rainier’s Liberty Ridge and regularly backcountry skiing 5,000+ feet… before getting to work at 10am. I am fascinated by the concept of building something bigger than myself in partnership with my co-workers, and I'm extremely honored by my role as the current steward of Alpenglow Sports. Established in 1979, Alpenglow Sports is now considered a legacy brand and a thought leader in the outdoor industry. I am inspired by my co-workers on a daily basis.

My Story

I was probably seven or eight, riding the whoopdees trail on Mount Watson, when I first caught proper air on my mountain bike. I did a tiny little bar turn but in my mind that was a full-on X-up. From that moment on, I was committed to being a mountain athlete.

I chased the mountains to Boulder, Colorado where I learned to love champagne pow and bigger adventures on 14,000ft peaks. I learned marketing and software development in school, skills I'm stoked to use here at Alpenglow Sports.

My biggest progression was stepping into the backcountry in 2020. I learned the value of mentorship and community and used both to hone my skills. I'm currently trying to find the limit of hardboot splitboarding. I haven't found it yet!