Still attempting to recover from the devastating Caldor Fire, workers at Sierra-at-Tahoe ski resort face a daunting task each day, trying to resurrect a beloved ski hill that’s been around since 1946.
The fire decimated this Lake Tahoe ski resort, leaving the lingering question – What lies ahead for Sierra-at-Tahoe ski resort?
Skiers and snowboarders will descend on Lake Tahoe ski resorts this weekend during the Martin Luther King holiday. While neighboring resorts will be packed, Sierra will remain devoid of people, yet still clinging to the hope it can offer at least a hint of a ski season.
Downed and damaged trees are littered throughout the ski resort and 80 percent of them will have to be taken down. The late August fire scorched chairlift towers, totally demolished a maintenance shop, and damaged 6 of the 9 chair lifts.
Perhaps the most significant damage was Grandview Express, a quad-chair that runs 1,500 feet from the base area to the top of Huckleberry Mountain. The fire melted the haul rope’s core in several places and a replacement is needed.
Sierra officials have already said that the West Bowl lift, that accesses the resort’s most popular runs, will not be open for the 2021-22 season.
The Caldor Fire reached extreme temperatures in some areas of the mountain, rising to an estimated 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit. It was hot enough to melt a snowcat.
Hope remains that this season is salvageable. But some skeptical locals have concern that the resort may never open again. Sierra operates its 200 acres under a lease with Eldorado National Forest.
The Colorado company that owns Sierra-at-Tahoe – Booth Creek Resort Properties –says it has no intention shutting down the venerable resort for good.
John Rice, who has been the Sierra general manager for the past 29 years, says reopening the ski resort is still the goal. The hope is skiers and riders will be back on the hill sometime this spring and the resort is running at 100 percent by next ski season.
“We’re doing everything we can to try to get open again. But we’re also very mindful about doing it right. We’re not rushing,” Rice said.
A major challenge maintenance crews are facing is tree mitigation. Many of the trees are buried in the deep December snow, so the process of getting to the base of the trees is one more step Sierra must take.
Despite the job’s enormity, the Sierra crews are not overwhelmed. Katie Hunter, the resort’s Director of Sales and Marketing, says the workers have various milestones they try to achieve each day on the job.
“You see them come into work and there’s this level of inspiration, they’re not just coming in to clock in and clock out, they know they are building something,” Hunter said “The crews have this amazing purpose and because of it, the progress we have made is substantial.”
SIERRA FACING UNPRECEDENTED TASK: There is no precedence what Sierra is trying to overcome. In November, Scot Rogers, district ranger with the Eldorado National Forest, told the San Francisco Chronicle that wildfires have grazed the edges of ski areas before. However, no ski resort has suffered this much damage.
“There’s really no playbook to follow, so we’re making it up as we go,” Rice told the Chronicle. “This isn’t the last fire that’s going to hit a ski area, so the whole world is watching us.”
That leaves Sierra-at-Tahoe forging ahead with no blueprint to follow. Assessments have determined that the resort has major damage to ski infrastructure and landscape. This may eventually alter which trails return and the possibility that new ones are created.
“Underneath this burnt landscape is a resort waiting to come out of the ground and be glorious again,” a Sierra-at-Tahoe Facebook post stated, quoting Rice. “It could be a whole bigger, better thing. When you start looking at it that way, it gives you hope.”