Nancy Blachly — 1952-2011

South Lake Tahoe’s first licensed massage therapist, Nancy Blachly, died Jan. 12 from injuries she had sustained two days earlier while skiing at Heavenly Mountain Resort.

Ms. Blachly was born June 8, 1952. She was 58.

Ms. Blachly spent most weekdays skiing. She would start the day taking the Gunbarrel lift up, doing three runs on the face and then making it to Mott Canyon for the 10am opening.

Nancy Blachly

Ski patrol was called at 10:30am Jan. 10. Her equipment was about 150 feet up the hill. Although a highly skilled skier, Ms. Blachly was not wearing a helmet, according to resort officials.

She was airlifted to Barton Memorial Hospital. Ms. Blachly was kept alive so her organs could be harvested. Health care was a big part of her life.

“She was always studying cutting-edge therapies,” Gay Romeis, a longtime friend said. “She was into different healing modalities.”

Ms. Blachly graduated magna cum laude from the University of Wisconsin with a pre-med focus in human anatomy, physiology and kinesiology. She taught high school for several years. She also taught at Lake Tahoe Community College.

In the 1980s, Ms. Blachly was issued the first massage license by South Lake Tahoe. At that time she operated a business at the Y in the Raley’s Center called Wave Makers.

An Association of Massage Therapists is the company she was running at the time of her death. Ms. Blachly was highly respected in the massage community – as a leader and advocate for therapists.

Besides skiing, Ms. Blachly was an avid recreationist. Some mornings she would go for a run before hitting the slopes. In the summer she would inline skate from her house to Fallen Leaf Lake where she would then take a swim.

“If she had any challenges, she saw them as opportunities,” Romeis said. “Her love of skiing was unreal. She would ski down Mott and make it look like Ridge run.”

Services will be Jan. 16 at 2pm at Embassy Suites, where she had done massage for years.

Ms. Blachly is preceded in death by son Patrick Egan.

She is survived by her mother, Aleta; brothers David and Dennis; and sister Boni, all who live outside of Lake Tahoe.