Boeing 737-800 (N530AS)

Although runway 17L was the designated arrival-departure runway, ASA's N530AS is captured here as the first of three "wrong way" departures from the other end of 17L ... runway 35R.

Departing toward the direction of oncoming aircraft making landing approaches is (to put it lightly) frowned upon. However, the circumstances that existed at this time necessitated the decision to have aircraft arriving at RNO use the designated runway (17L-35R) while aircraft departing use the opposite end (35R-17L) and take off toward the approach path of arriving planes.
The ATC personnel in the RNO tower handled the situation quite proficiently. Departures such as this Alaska Boeing and a United and Delta aircraft were queued at the 35R end of 17L and landing aircraft were given priority. Then, when the approach route to 17L was clear and airspace north of RNO was empty, the aircraft in the queue at 35R were cleared to take off. It was all very "routinely' handled, despite the increased stress caused by the heavy smoke and ash being blown into the southern end of the airport by the high winds from the southwest that were whipping up the Davis wildfire just a few miles SW of the airport. And added to the danger of the thick smoke and ash at low altitude level was the presence of 15 firefighting aircraft (jets, props, and helicopters) operating in the airspace just south of runway 17L-35R.