Sierra-at-Tahoe Fire Recovery: A Forced But Incredible Ski Resort Transformation

Background

A few years ago, California’s Sierra-at-Tahoe faced every ski resort’s worst nightmare: a massive wildfire. In August 2021, the Caldor Fire moved into Sierra’s boundaries, and despite significant preparation on the part of the resort, the majority of the mountain saw damage from the smolder. The fire especially impacted the western parts of the resort, and the mountain essentially remained closed for the 2021-22 season to clear out the damage.

But following years of recovery work, Sierra finally reopened for regular operations for the 2022-23 season. However, the new footprint has changed substantially compared to the pre-fire Sierra, and certain parts of the resort are almost unrecognizable compared to years’ past. So did what was essentially the worst natural disaster to hit a ski resort in recent memory destroy the Sierra-at-Tahoe experience as we know it, or was the resort able to recover and build something better out of the fiery ashes?

We had the chance to stop by the revitalized experience this season. Here are our thoughts on what’s changed at Sierra this winter, the benefits of the new setup, some of the less favorable impacts, and what remains the same.

A USFS screenshot of the active Caldor Fire within Sierra-at-Tahoe’s boundaries on August 29, 2021.

Image credit: SnowBrains

Fire and Recovery Work

Summer 2021 was an especially dry season for the Lake Tahoe region. The Caldor Fire was first reported in El Dorado county on August 14 of that, and it quickly spread eastward. The Sierra Nevada range’s high elevation historically protected it from fires further west, but the extraordinarily dry vegetation and intense wind gusts gave it just enough charge to overcome the elevation and threaten the Tahoe Basin.

Despite extensive mitigation work, including heli operations and scores of snowmaking machines repurposed to blow water, the fire unfortunately broke through Sierra-at-Tahoe’s boundaries on August 29th. It was just a matter of bad luck—the resort was no less prepared than other ski areas in the region, but the mountain just happened to be in the natural line of the blaze.

In the immediate aftermath, the resort initially reported that just one maintenance building had been destroyed in the fire, but resort staff eventually discovered that the fire had impacted 80% of Sierra’s footprint, with extensive damage to trees, lifts, and operational equipment, especially in western resort areas. At that point, the future of Sierra was uncertain.

But the Sierra team didn’t give in. The recovery efforts that followed the fire were nothing short of remarkable. The Sierra team cleared tens of thousands of trees, replaced critical, hard-to-source parts on lifts, and engaged in complex reconstruction projects, all while continuing to attend to regular maintenance items. 

Much of the recovery work necessary to reopen Sierra was time-consuming with long lead times, with supply chain issues compounding the matter. When all was said and done, Sierra-at-Tahoe basically remained closed for the whole 2021-22 season, only opening for an anniversary weekend in April with extremely limited operations. But the hard work eventually paid off, and after a full summer’s worth of continued efforts, Sierra was finally able to open its entire trail network for the first time post-fire this past winter.

The Sierra-at-Tahoe team replaced the Grandview Express’s haul rope as part of their recovery efforts in early 2022.

Image credit: Sierra-at-Tahoe

Restored Footprint and Experience Changes

The first thing that’s impossible not to notice about the new Sierra is just how many of the trees are gone. In fact, the footprint west of the base is now basically bare, with the once tree-laden West Bowl now boasting a footprint that’s arguably much more suited to its name. Rather than a tree-defined terrain pod with multiple distinct trails, this area is now one continuous bowl, with trails essentially marked out based on where the trail signs and grooming lines are. If there’s a fresh layer of snow on the ground—as has happened regularly this season—it can be nearly impossible to tell where a marked trail ends and the technical off-piste terrain begins. Fire-tarred trees are present right outside the West Bowl ski area boundary, so it’s quite plain to see where the maintenance work ended and to get a sense of what the footprint looked like before the restoration efforts. In fact, a lot of the terrain surrounding the resort is burned, so you’ll now be seeing these fire-tarred trees in the much of the surrounding footprint rather than the dense forests of years’ past.

But it’s not just West Bowl that’s been altered by the tree clearing. Even the more eastern Grandview zone has seen quite the transformation; while many of the trees in that area are still intact, a large portion of the terrain surrounding the lift line has been cleared out to make way for a fairly substantial bowl area. This change is not readily apparent on the trail map, and you really have to see it to believe it. While there’s limited terrain impact since the zone is really just one trail, all the trees surrounding the short beginner Easy Rider pod have been cleared as well.

Some of the tree clearing in the Grandview zone was not able to be completed for the current season, so it’s entirely possible that more trees will be cut out for the upcoming winter; in the mean time, select glade zones remain closed to skiing and riding.

Sierra-at-Tahoe’s West Bowl, pictured here, was cleared of nearly all its trees as part of the fire recovery efforts.

Pros and Cons of New Setup

This substantial terrain transformation has had notable impacts on Sierra’s terrain, both positive and negative. On the plus side, the fire damage has now given way to one of the largest bowl areas in the region, with West Bowl providing 1,500 continuous vertical feet of above-treeline-like terrain. In fact, given the tree clearing in other areas, it’s now possible to access wide-open bowl terrain from basically every lift. A significant portion of West Bowl is intermediate-pitched in nature, making for blue-rated bowl terrain that’s hard to come by elsewhere in the Tahoe region. We also appreciate the preservation of some fire-scarred tree stumps in West Bowl, making for some really cool paths to ski or ride through.

On the other hand, the wide-open nature of Sierra’s bowl terrain does have a handful of less-than-desirable side effects. The much more open footprint has significantly increased wind exposure in the West Bowl area, and while the impacts still aren’t horrible compared to several competitors, the change is very noticeable. On top of that, West Bowl’s transformation from tree to bowl terrain means that some previously hidden powder stashes are now scooped up much faster. Much of Grandview’s tree terrain remains closed this season, and we’re sure there are anxious locals waiting to find which hidden stashes will still be present there once all the tree maintenance is done.

What Remains the Same

But in the wake of all these substantial terrain impacts, several of the aspects that make Sierra Sierra have remained the same. We’re happy to report that at least some of Sierra’s tree terrain is already reopen and here to stay; a handful of expert-level glade zones at the top of Grandview have weathered the fire, and while some of the terrain at the middle and bottom of this area has been cleared out, there are still some hidden powder stashes to be found if you know where to look. In addition, Sierra’s expert Huckleberry Canyon zone, which hosts what’s perhaps the most unique, extreme terrain at the resort, was left essentially untouched by the fire, and remains the same untamed terrain zone it used to be. Sierra has also maintained its status as a distinguished freestyle mountain, and the same competitive terrain park setups that have been built in years’ past still exist this season; in fact, some of the tree clearing surrounding the base means there’s technically more room to build bigger and better features should the resort choose to. Finally, Sierra-at-Tahoe’s lifts and on-mountain facilities are basically the same as in years’ past; there is some minor visible damage to a few of the lifts, but it looks to be mostly cosmetic in nature.

Much of the area surrounding the Grandview lift line has been cleared into bowl terrain, but some tree areas in higher elevations remain.

Final Thoughts

So Sierra-at-Tahoe’s fire damage means that some of the best tree terrain in Tahoe has been relegated to the history books. But it’s remarkable that a resort whose future was wholly uncertain a year-and-a-half ago has not only made a full operational recovery, but has actually gotten better in a number of circumstances.

Sierra-at-Tahoe still isn’t the biggest or best overall ski resort in the Lake Tahoe region—and it probably won’t ever be—but it’s always put up a fight against the destinations thanks to its local feel, unique terrain, and strong ticket value, and we’re glad to report that even with all that’s changed, it still does.

For more information on Sierra-at-Tahoe, check out our comprehensive mountain review and our Lake Tahoe ski resort rankings.