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Tough winters, tough people

November 14, 2007

Mark Lucksinger, a 30-year resident of Lake Tahoe, says it takes commitment to live in an environment that can be challenging, especially in harsh winter conditions.


"They're just tough people," Lucksinger said. "Clearly Tahoe is not for some people. To live here you have to be adaptable."

As a child, Lucksinger's family traveled from San Luis Obispo, Calif., to vacation at Tahoe's North Shore each summer. However Lucksinger had never considered what it would take to endure a Tahoe winter — something year-round residents are used to doing.

Having "never seen a snowflake until the fall of 1974," when he moved to Tahoe, Lucksinger had to learn how to cope with Tahoe's cold and harsh winters.

Recalling the birth of daughter in March of 1975, while he was still a newcomer to the area, Lucksinger said he worried about how he would clear the driveway and keep the road open, in order to get his wife to the hospital in time to have the baby.

"It was a huge adventure," he said "We really weren't Tahoe people yet. You eventually become that."

As Lucksinger and his family became Tahoe people, his family discovered that living in Tahoe has its distinctive advantages.

Lucksinger's daughter, who grew up on skis in Tahoe and still lives in the area, enjoys a way of life possible only for those who are willing to live in Tahoe year round.

"She can do in the course of her lunch break what it takes others an eight hour drive to do-without worrying about the drive, traffic, crowd and huge lift ticket prices."

However, this recreational way of life is only possible for those willing to endure the difficulties brought on by the winter season. Few stay to deal with power and gas outages, snowed-in roads and walkways, and the unavailability of commercial goods because of inclement weather.

Recalling the winter of 1982-83 in which 80 percent of South Lake Tahoe was without heat because of a gas outage, Lucksinger said that people used electric heaters, wood-burning stoves, and "just bundled up" to get by.

"People just dealt with it," Lucksinger said. "It's just the way it was. It's a part of living here."

Lucksinger, who doesn't own snow removal equipment "has learned to shovel snow pretty well."

Lucksinger said there were other Tahoe residents who were are able to adapt to even more extreme winter conditions. During the early 80s as new Tahoe resident, Lucksinger said he would visit Ralph King, who lived in the Echo Summit area since the early 1930s.

"Here is a guy who lived in a remote area in the winter time," Lucksinger said. "They lived up there with a wood stove. They didn't have utilities and all that. They had unreliable power that was out all the time. He lived this way for 50 some years."

During his early days as a Tahoe resident, Lucksinger said he'd visit King to gain a sense of perspective.

"Whenever I'd feel sorry for myself, while we were struggling trying to get by up here, I would drive up and listen to Ralph," Lucksinger said.

During one of his visits, Lucksinger said King told him a story about how he'd get supplies in the winter while snowed in.

"He told that me when he was younger he would ski to Kybers which was the nearest outpost that had anything," Lucksinger said. "He would load up with as many goods as he would carry on his back, and ski back up the hill back to Echo Summit. It's 20 to 25 miles. It's not a short trip."

Upon returning home from his visit to king, Lucksinger said he'd found the sense of perspective he needed about dealing with the realities of life and getting by in Tahoe.

"I'd go up there and listen to him, come back to Tahoe and say to my wife, ‘We've got it made. Life is really good,'" Lucksinger said.

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Written by Dan Sorensen · Filed Under Nuestro Tahoe 

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