Listen to “If You Build It” Dirtbag Diaries Podcast Episode

The Dirtbag Diaries / January 9, 2014 / Community, Culture

Powerful ideas often demand that we leave the comfort of a safety net. We quit a nine to five. We take out a second mortgage on our house. Along the way, we can expect to be called crazy one day and brilliant the next. In the late 1990s, Jeff Pensiero had an idea, to build a backcountry ski lodge that catered to snowboarders. It was outlandish – targeting a market that barely existed – and yet perfect. But, like any dream, it took years of sweat, worry, right-people-right-time connections, and damn good perseverance to make it all look seamless. From the shores of Lake Tahoe to the world renowned slopes of Baldface Lodge, we bring you one snowboarder’s journey to create his dream.

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Graphic by Walker Cahall

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The Dirtbag Diaries

The campfire tale—it’s ubiquitous in mountain culture. As long as we’ve climbed, skied, boated or traveled, we’ve been telling stories. In March of 2007, Fitz Cahall launched The Dirtbag Diaries, a grassroots podcast dedicated to the sometimes serious, often humorous stories from wild places. What began as a solitary experiment has evolved into a collaboration between writers, photographers, artists and listeners to produce the types of stories that rarely find homes in the glossy pages of magazines.