Falllen Skier Lives on Through Climate Action Fund
The Tahoe area knows all too well the story of the skier hero taken too soon — Shane McConkey, C.R. Johnson, Amy Holland, Rob Gaffney. This spring it may be time to start truly remembering another: Kye Moffat.
The longtime area local died skiing at Palisades Tahoe on April 23, 2022, at the age of 25, but his legacy — of joy, and passion for the outdoors and the climate — continues to live on through Kye’s Climate Action Fund (KCAF), the foundation he inspired.
“Kye had a gift to get people outside their comfort zone and live their full potential,” says KCAF Director of Operations Octave Lepinard. “He was a positive force in people’s lives and a vocal activist for climate awareness and especially climate action.”
Started in late 2023, KCAF’s mission is to support young-adult climate advocates through grant-funding and professional mentorship while also building a joyful, activity-driven community.
The grants began being doled out last year. Recipients range from PhD candidates studying gaseous soil emissions to founders of Gen Z startups fighting Texan petrochemical interests — and the foundation looks to disperse another round in 2025. The foundation’s leadership, all young professionals themselves, encourages Gen Zers and young Millennials working in climate advocacy or climate science, or those who may know of such persons, to reach out at kyesclimateactionfund.com.
The foundation’s annual area event, Kye’s Memorial Weekend (unofficially known as ‘Huck Fest’), will take place April 25 and 26 in Truckee and at Palisades Tahoe.
Festivities kick off Friday evening with a friends-and-family-oriented remembrance and celebration at Alibi Ale Works in Truckee, with an open information booth and foundation members on-hand for anyone who may want to learn more about Kye or involvement with KCAF.
Saturday brings the crux of the event in the form of a good ol’ fashioned parking lot barbecue and a day of shenanigans and fun on the mountain at Palisades Tahoe. Starting around 9:00 a.m. and continuing through the afternoon, you’ll find the party between SnoVentures and the Red Dog lift; look for the community of circularly parked cars, tables full of food and drink, conversations on climate and skiing, merriment, and good vibes.
The food and fun are free, and everyone is invited to this unique celebration of all things ‘Kye-ness.’
“You won’t be able to miss us, and it’s just a great time,” Lepinard says. “Stop on by!”
Around 10:30 or 11 a.m. (after breakfast burritos and before a lunch of “something good and grilled”) join the group atop the Shirley Lake lift for what many consider the highlight of the weekend: the Human Slalom — a feat of teamwork and zaniness where skiers line up along the run as human race gates, the top skier skiing down between them to become the bottom ‘gate’ as the new top skier descends, the snake self-building on down the mountain.
The Human Slalom has grown every year to span nearly the entire vertical length of the Shirley Lake zone.
“We usually group up just looker’s left of the Shirley lift, and all are encouraged to join,” says Lepinard. “The more the merrier. And again, you won’t be able to miss us.”
In his life, no one was able to miss Kye Moffat. People who knew him speak in reverent tones about him, and you can hear the smile in their voices as they do. They speak of Kye’s big heart and they speak of Kye’s energy, of his love for the Golden State Warriors and a good drink special. And when it comes to climate advocacy, they speak of his constant pursuit to move beyond talk and into action.
After graduating from Middlebury College with a degree in geology, Kye came to work for the Berkely-based startup Deep Isolation, where he pioneered paths for feasible, safe, and long-term waste disposal of nuclear energy — the final frontier for heightened utility of the zero-emission clean energy source that Kye saw as a vital climate-leap in the right direction.
“Kye believed in doing things how he felt they should be done rather than how they had been ‘typically done,’” says KCAF President Michael O’Herron. “Kye Moffat was a ruthless questioner of the status quo.”
Known to wear Kobe Bryant jerseys and shorts to events where all others were clad in button-downs and blazers, on the mountain Kye would “go bigger than anyone else,” O’Herron continued, and at concerts would be the guy “dancing around like a crazy person.”
Kye revered his older brothers, Keith and Corey, and he loved his parents, Wendy and David, who inform that “Kye started in Mighty Mites at age 4 and never knew a life that did not include skiing in Olympic Valley.”
He went on to become a podium-regular for the [now Team Palisades Tahoe] and raced Far West through his senior year in high school. In college, he patrolled for 3 years on the Middlebury Ski Patrol and also played soccer for Middlebury College.
Kye lived a life of kindness with a smile upon his face. He held an immense love for the Tahoe region and cared deeply about all of us doing whatever we could to help combat climate change.
Thought-provoking author Issac Asimov once said that “Any book worth banning is a book worth reading.” With the current presidential administration’s effort to ban words such as activism, clean energy, and climate science from certain governmental communications, perhaps one could find worth in honoring Kye by using these words in everyday conversations — or better yet, for everyday actions.
Learn more and make your own informed decision by visiting his foundation’s website at kyesclimateactionfund.com and showing up in person the weekend of April 25 and 26.
