On Thursday, November 19th, Alpenglow Sports is pleased to welcome local guide Dave Nettle as the first speaker of the 15th annual VIRTUAL Winter Speaker Series, presented by Peak Design. Established in 2006, the Alpenglow Sports Winter Speaker Series is a free event designed to motivate, inspire and educate. Traditionally held at Squaw Valley’s Olympic Village Lodge, the Winter Speaker Series is a five-part series that showcases one show per month from November through February. Due to the global pandemic, Alpenglow Sports will take the 2020-21 season “on the road” to living rooms around the globe in a virtual capacity.
In his kick-off show “Sheltering in Place”, Dave Nettle will blend challenge and adventure into classic stories and images about a couple of climbing trips to Alaska on Moose’s Tooth and Mount Huntington and an expedition into the Kichatna Spires. Nettle will depict how on these climbs he and his partners found themselves unintentionally experiencing what it means to “shelter in place” while literally “stuck in place” tent bound deep in a remote mountain range for over 2 weeks of intense, continual snowstorms.
In traditional fashion, Nettle will bring lighthearted humor and fun to the soul-crushing effect of what so many days of uncertainty look like while trapped in the middle of nowhere with limited supplies and at the complete mercy of the weather. Nettle will round out his show with a couple of recent COVID-influenced rock climbing adventures that allowed him to pursue his passion closer to home while following required and common-sense pandemic restrictions.
In addition to Dave Nettle’s kick-off, other presenters at the 2020/21 season include famed athletes Cody Townsend, Angel Collinson, Ingrid Backstrom, and Vasu Sojitra. According to Alpenglow owner and series coordinator Brendan Madigan, “While we will miss the electrifying in-person evenings the series provides, this is the next best thing and we’re excited to open the series up to a global audience.”
Madigan added, “We know that the larger mountain community around the world will appreciate the power of adventure storytelling that the Winter Speaker Series embodies … as well as the magnitude of our fundraising for local non-profits.”