While Las Vegas Sleeps…

I knew it was dry but this is crazy! Brothas’ gotta drink out here, yo!

When I first moved to Las Vegas a number of years ago we were already at like year three or four of what is now like an eight or nine year-long “drought.” I remember thinking, “wow - drought in a desert? It’s supposed to be normally dry. It must be like crazy dry.”

Then some other interesting, counterintuitive things happened. Aside from hearing mention a few times of the local area being ahead on average rainful, a huge amount of snow fell up on Mount Charleston. So much so that at the Las Vegas Ski and Snowboard resort there was an avalanche that killed a boy named Allen Brett Hutchison. Avalanches kill people in the United States but not at ski resorts. They are invariably backcountry skiers, snowboarders, or snowmobilers, that are hurt or killed in avalanches. So it was that much more shocking that an avalanche killed a boy in Las Vegas - during a “drought,” no less. (He was on a chairlift when the avalanche occurred - it took out the ski lift and him with it. Very sad.) Later in the spring, the snow melt from that year’s record-setting snowfall washed out roads and caused some flooding in a school forcing it to be closed for a time.

So what does it mean to be experiencing a “drought” in the desert Southwest when locally there are places with record snowfalls, ahead-of-average rainfalls, et cetera? “Why live in the desert - it’s environmentally irresponsible,” you say? Well the truth is, Las Vegas uses a relatively very small percentage of the drought-ridden water supply. A couple of hours to our southwest there are a few towns you might have heard of that are interspersed with other towns connecting them, in what seems like a sea of never-ending sprawl… Los Angeles, San Diego.. those ringing a bell? Well Southern California uses an unbelievably disproportionate amount of water from the Colorado River on which Lake Mead sits behind Hoover Dam. Drought in the Southwest, Las Vegas, specifically, is all about the Rocky Mountains. The headwaters of the Colorado River start in - you guessed it - Colorado, where they’ve been experiencing lower average snow packs for the basically the last decade. Lake Mead isn’t the only lake dammed up on the Colorado River, any more. The water has to make its way through Lake Powell in frickin’ Utah before it can get down here into Lake Mead, which then, by treaty with several states and Mexico, passes the lion’s share of it on to Southern California. It’s true that the lake is Las Vegas’ primary water source. There are things they call “straws” that pump out our water from Lake Mead. It’s equally true that we’re not not the cause of the drought and sucking the lifeblood out of the river water conservation system’s coffers. That would be California.

So how bad is it? Well that is the reason I wrote this article. According to a new study as reported by MSNBC.com, it’s worse than they’d originally thought. It’s so bad, in fact, that there is a 10% chance that Lake Mead will be dry by 2014. That’s six years from now! By 2017 there is a 50% chance that water levels in Lake Mead will be so low that hydroelectric power generation will have to be halted. The scariest statistic of all? By 2021 - thirteen years from today - there is a 50-50 chance that Lake Mead will be dry.

I know this is Las Vegas and if you’re a regular reader you know I got a little gamble in me… But I ain’t lovin’ these odds - not even a little bit.

Lake Mead is currently hovering about a nut hair above 50% capacity. It is the policy of the Powers That Be to not let a large amount of water out of Lake Powell to drastically increase Lake Mead’s levels until Lake Powell returns to a certain level that satisfies their requirements. Sounds like someone needs to start taking all the rumors of massive, multi-billion dollar desalination projects seriously. All that water and ya can’t drink a drop..

Las Vegas, Nevada, is famously dry in the middle of the desert. Most people think of the desert as a place where things are dry as a bone - barely supporting life as we know it. The truth is, everything needs water. It rains here. It even snows here upon occasion (though it almost never sticks to the ground anywhere near the Strip.) In fact, it snows here every year on the mountain. That’s why we even have our very own little ski resort, The Las Vegas Ski and Snowboard Resort (owned by the same people that own the Park City Mountain Resort, incidentally.)

The last couple of nights we’ve been experiencing one of two parts of what I think tend to generally constitute our “rainy seasons” here in Las Vegas. The Winter portion of that takes place at any time between December and February and usually happens when conditions in the Pacific Ocean cause a low pressure area to set up off the California coast and allow for sweeping bands of moisture to move in, resulting in the closest thing Las Vegas has to an actual “season” of rain. This is because it’s one system that’s affecting our weather for several days, as opposed to just several hours. This may or may not happen more than once or twice during the winter. Slow, steady rain is great for us around here just like it is anywhere. The difference for guys like me is that whenever it rains for a night or two here in Las Vegas, forty minutes away up on Mount Charleston, they’ve probably gotten a half a foot or more of fresh powder. That means it’s skiing/snowboarding time, baby!! Tomorrow I’m heading up to Mount Charleston on what will probably be the best conditions day up there in a couple of years. *crosses fingers*

[The other "rainy season" is when we get a monsoonal flow of moisture in late July and August that causes brief thunderstorms to zoom across the valley floor, often times causing flash flooding in some places while other parts of the valley remain bone dry. This slow, steady sprinkling rain is where it's at, for sure.]

Tags: fresh powder, Mount Charleston, rain, skiing, snowboarding, winter

I like to think I know a little bit about this town we call home - Las Vegas. The truth is, Las Vegas is big enough and has spread out enough that it’s really hard to keep up with all the new spots. There are hot spots and there are sweet spots. There are even best-kept-secret types of spots. There’s usually some overlap with those different types of places.

Last Friday my friend Dorothy, upon my suggesting that we drink fine wine until standing becomes challenging, said she has just the place. I thought I had just the place because I was in the mood for my favorite zin, and that can only be obtained at one of Emeril’s restaurants due to a contract with the winemaker, but she insisted. She had to make me feel a little guilty for always suggesting the place and not listening to others’ suggestions, which I don’t think is the case at all, but whatever her angle was, it worked. I’m glad it did!

I love wine. No, I mean I seriously love good wine. I like smelling it, I like tasting it, I just really love the whole wine experience. You might say I’m something of a wine snob in training… I know just enough to be dangerous, but it’s fun. Like some people say about sex, even when it’s bad it’s still good: wine always leaves you with a smile within a few minutes of it going down the proverbial hatch.

The problem with the process of trying new wines - figuring out what you like and don’t like about them, et cetera - is that you go to a wine shop, make a selection, take it home, maybe cook a meal, then you enjoy your bottle. By that point you might not feel like going back to the store to get another bottle or two. In a nutshell, the process takes time. In a restaurant the selection is, of course, bigger, but they also charge a 2-to-1 or 3-to-1 markup (or more) on what the bottle would actually cost either them or you in a retail shop. That comes with the territory, naturally, but sometimes you just want to have a decent meal and really try a number of wines without all the overhead.

For people who love wine and a good meal, thanks to Dorothy, I have found a place that might represent the perfect model for wine and food lovers: Marche’ Bacchus. As I understand it, Marche’ Bacchus started as a wine shop. There are rows of bins and racks on the walls with a a great selection of wines. They have a little bar where you can take your wine selection and for a $10 corkage fee they’ll open your bottle, decant it if necessary, and serve you at their bar inside the wine shop. They added a small cafe to their wine market a couple of years ago and it appears they have expanded it to its current size and menu, with outdoor dining on one of the three fingers lakes in Summerlin (it’s temporarily enclosed and heated during Winter.) The whole place still has the market in front and is still small and quaint. The great thing is, you don’t get the multiple price that is charged in a restaurant for your wine, and yet, from the smell of it, you can enjoy your wine over a tasty meal, all in a great environment outside, if you like. When that bottle runs out, you have an entire market to choose something different in the adjacent room. It’s sort of an interactive take on wine and dinner. I love it!

Thanks Dorothy!

I’ll be visiting Marche’ Bacchus again soon for more wine and will actually eat a meal, at which time I’ll be writing a review over at the new site we’re working on, Las Vegas Critics.

Tags: cafes, dining, las vegas secrets, Summerlin, wine

Wow. Who the hell would want to be inside? I just got back from dinner about thirty minutes ago and of all the reasons why I call Las Vegas home, the air out here - tonight - is high up on the list. As I recently wrote, “Magical Weather Week” changes everything around here, weather-wise. The highs this week are the very low nineties, which might sound hot, but for the dry air, it’s great. You are still comfortable enough outside to go to the pool all day and then as the sun goes down, you just want to change into some jeans and stay outside.. goof around on your laptop on the Internet (if you’ve got Wi-Fi kicking and stuff.)

Later this week I’ve got a big crew of friends from Austin coming in for a big bachelor party. Highs are going to be 86 degrees and the lows around 68. Mmmmm Perfect weather for strippers - not uncomfortably and sweaty-hot.. and not too cold either - just cool enough to keep zee neeplez perky >:P

Tags: bachelor parties, bachelor party, Las Vegas strippers, naked, Southern Nevada, strippers