History and Future of Sky Tavern | Yale Spina and Steve Wentz | E17

Generations of Reno kids learned to ski at the local ski hill, Sky Tavern, including our guest Yale Spina, a legendary ski aerialist and stunt man who is now the Board Chair of Sky Tavern. First formed in the 1940s through the efforts of Marce Herz gathering up children in her station wagon and driving them up the shoulder of Mount Rose, Sky Tavern has become an institution for local youth ski development. Our discussion with Spina about the past and future of Sky Tavern and his trajectory in life is both fascinating and inspiring. Steve Wentz of Momentum Trail Concepts, who Spina regards as a Picasso of trail building, also joins us to talk about all the exciting developments at the new Sky Tavern Bike Park. We cover a wide range of topics including family lineage, youth development, leadership, commitment to community, adaptive cycles, making rad trails, night skiing and leaving a legacy.

Show Notes:

2:30 – Introducing Sky Tavern Ski Hill, Yale Spina and Steve Wentz of Momentum Trail Concepts.

7:00 – The history of Mount Rose, Reno Ski Bowl, Sky Tavern, Yale’s grandfather Rocco Spina and the legend of Marce Herz.

11:45 – Building Sky Tavern Bike Park after getting a 50 year lease from the City of Reno.

15:30 – Sky Tavern – Largest and oldest junior ski program in the country – 3,000 kids!

18:00 – Raising $2.5 million for water system and snowmaking for winter programs.

21:30 – Soil content of Sky Tavern – decomposed granite – and being a trail builder

25:30 – How did Yale know that Steve Wentz was the right choice for Sky Tavern?

27:00 – Adaptive mountain bikes, Bob Vogel and building a flow trail for High Fives Foundation, City of Reno Adaptive and John Kirsch. Creating an adaptive cycling program at Sky Tavern.

31:00 – High Fives trail and the case for making awesome adaptive trails for all riders.

35:00 – The craft of Steve Wentz and his trail building artistry.

38:45 – The Sky Tavern Bike Park trail network and fundraising to keep making more trails.

41:00 – Building a more sustainable Sky Tavern and generating revenue to pay a full time staff.

43:45 – Yale Spina’s background – professional mogul skier and aerials, and founder of Freestyle Ski Program at Squaw Valley in 1978. Sponsored by Volvo, Coors, American Airlines, and Marlboro and traveled the world for ski shows.

47:00 – Worked for Ceasars in hotels and traveled the world after blowing out his knees.

49:30 – Yale moved to Biloxi, Mississippi and lost everything in Hurricane Katrina.

52:15 – Teaching the youth general life skills and the importance of community ski hills.

55:00 – Today’s youth have lost courage and confidence and have learned to be alone.

56:20 – Having lights for night skiing changes everything for a community ski hill.

59:00 – Scotty Lapp Foundation wants to build a skate park at Sky Tavern.

1:00:00 – Ride for 5 – donate $5 every time you ride at Sky Tavern.

1:06:00 – Sky Tavern is a place for kids to do things they couldn’t afford to do otherwise.

1:07:30 – October 14 – Sky Tavern fundraiser – Party in the Sky on the Solar Eclipse.

1:16:30 – Besides money, what’s the biggest challenge to building a future Sky Tavern?

1:20:00 – Getting Jeremy Renner from Rennervation to donate time to youth transportation.

1:24:00 – The origins of Rick Sutherland trail.

1:31:00 – Building mountain bike trails like you build a runs on a ski hill

1:33:00 – What does “Mind the Track” mean to you?