SIERRA-AT-TAHOE —Preacher’s Passion, Sugar N’ Spice, Hemlock – each of Sierra-at-Tahoe’s ski runs sat covered in snow and glistening on the windless, bluebird-sky morning. Someone even groomed Lower Main.“It breaks my heart, honestly, it does,” said Paul Beran, the resort’s director of operations. “I’ve had a chance to process it, and this is my new normal. And it’s going to change over the next six months again. You have to digest it.
“If there was a lesson learned for a ski area that we probably hadn’t been focusing on so much, is what it means if your forest gets devastated,” said Michael Reitzell, president of Ski California. “Businesses can insure their buildings. Businesses can’t insure the forest.” At first, Sierra-at-Tahoe looked like it would be spared from the Caldor Fire, when it ignited Aug. 14 south of the Grizzly Flats community, nearly 27 miles away from the resort.
Still, Sierra-at-Tahoe’s ski runs – thought to be a natural fire break – did little to halt the flames as they ran uphill through the West Bowl and torched broad swaths of forest known for great tree skiing.Replacement utility poles for Caldor Fire damage remediation are loaded onto a truck by a contractor staging in the Sierra-at-Tahoe parking lot, Friday, Feb. 11, 2022, in Twin Bridges, Calif.
A few miles east of the resort, for example, David Schlosser said he has considered taking out a line of credit for his ski rental shop and general store, Strawberry Station, after those customers vanished. But insurance plans don’t cover the trees, which are often federal property. The majority of ski resorts in western states – including Sierra-at-Tahoe and about 80% of ski resorts in California – operate on leased public land.
Meanwhile, the federal government will have to pitch in a “significant portion” of funds for forest work elsewhere at the ski area to help it recover, Marsolais said. But the details are still being worked out, and other entities are expected to pitch in, including a local resource conservation district.
At least 15 feet of snow fell in December – a record dumping that would usually be welcome, but this time meant halting the resort’s recovery work while crews spent the next several weeks digging out of the fresh powder. “I’m sure you’re going to see more snow than you used to,” Beran said. “It used to just be a blanket of trees.”
Northward view on Echo Summit as the glow from the Caldor Fire hangs over the Tahoe basin, Sunday, Aug. 29, 2021. A tree burns near Sierra-at-Tahoe, Monday, Aug. 30, 2021, after the Caldor Fire tore through Twin Bridges on Highway 50.
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