Event aimed to publicize state’s rural attractions

Thursday, May 19, 2005 | 10:38 a.m.

Reno attorney Kent Robison looks at today's scaling of a sandstone rock face at Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area as the biggest challenge he'll face in the production of "Nevada Passage," a made-for-television competition that will serve as an advertisement for the state's rural attractions.

"I'm not euphoric on that wall," said Robison, the oldest participant in the six-stage competition that will include taping at Red Rock today and at Lake Mead on Friday.

Robison and 19 other nonprofessional athletes split onto 10 two-person, opposite-sex teams, will climb the wall in a competition that will award points for speed and the degree of difficulty of the climb route. He and teammate Ashley Brooks of Richmond, Va., will represent the law team.

The two-person teams paired by profession are expected to give the event a "common-man" feel and appeal to adventure travelers looking for a place to enjoy outdoor activities.

Other professions represented include finance, aviation, education, bartending, medicine, independent business owners, journalism, firefighting and veterinary medicine. Susan Hughes, a 39-year-old commercial pilot from Incline Village, and Tom Lyons, a 43-year-old real estate investor from Reno, are two other Nevadans in the event, which will include watercraft time trials between Lake Mead and Echo Bay marinas.

Other events scattered across the state include a four-wheel-drive rally near Ely, a bike race and hiking trek in Lamoille Canyon near Elko; sandboard time trials at Sand Mountain near Fallon; and whitewater kayaking between Verdi and downtown Reno on the Truckee River.

While the television show is being presented as an adventure sports competition, the Nevada Commission on Tourism, which is backing production of "Nevada Passage" with a $500,000 budget, views it as a tourism infomercial.

The show will be shown locally on KLAS-TV, Channel 8, the CBS affiliate, but an air date has not been announced. TEAM Unlimited, a Honolulu-based production company, announced on Wednesday that the one-hour show highlighting the six events has been sold to stations in 54 markets.

The show is expected to be seen between August and February by 2 million viewers. The program will be aired primarily on weekend days when sports viewership is at its peak.

Robison said he is proud to be able to represent the state and thanked Lt. Gov. Lorraine Hunt for the opportunity as she kicked off the event on a postcard-perfect day at the popular hiking area west of Las Vegas.

Hunt said tourists from around the nation will see "landscapes they've never seen before" and that "there's no better place for a multisport competition and in multifaceted Nevada."

Robison, who has competed in Hawaii's Iron Man Triathlon, noted that the final event, the Truckee River kayaking, will take him to within 100 yards of his downtown Reno office. He's also eagerly awaiting the unpredictable sandboard time trials.

"It's like skiing on really thick mashed potatoes," Robison said in describing a trial run at the Fallon landmark.

Weather is expected to play a role in the event at Lamoille Canyon. The competitors will begin on bicycles up Lamoille Canyon Road and change to snowshoes for a hike through snow and rugged conditions.

Robison, who will celebrate his 58th birthday in the midst of the competition, is anxious to compete with other participants, some of whom are less than half his age.

"But I'm not really a rock climber, so it will be a little difficult going out in an area that is really the Super Bowl of rock climbing," he said. "There's not an outdoor publication out there that doesn't reference this place (Red Rock Canyon) as one of the premiere locations for rock climbing."

And what will be his best event?

"I don't know, probably the bus ride to Ely," he joked.

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