Fire
On August 14th, the Caldor Fire began near Little Mountain in El Dorado County, and by the 16th, it had grown to 764 acres. On the 31st of August, it has grown to 191,607 acres and has actively burned for 17 days. According to Cal Fire, only 16% of the blaze is contained and has destroyed 669 buildings in its path. Warm temperatures and high winds are literally fanning the flames as it consumes fuel, aka trees, at an alarming pace.
With Sierra at Tahoe ski area lying directly in its path, it was only a matter of time before the resort would have to fight for its life. The resort has turned to its snow guns in a do-or-die effort to save the resort. To save the buildings, snow guns have been positioned to continuously douse the buildings with water.
Miraculously, as of August 30th, their utilization of snow guns has worked. The buildings and lifts have been saved except for one maintenance building. Surviving this apocalyptic fire doesn’t mean the end of Sierra at Tahoe’s problems, however. There are questions that need to be answered in regards to the upcoming ski season.
The equipment shed that burned—was it holding valuable equipment vital to its ski operation? If it was housing its fleet of snowcats, that might be too big of a loss to overcome in this short amount of time before the start of the season. Do the fire-weakened trees pose a safety threat to skiers and riders? It’s certainly possible that a tree laden with heavy “Sierra Cement” would be more prone to falling on a nearby skier. And will they be able to clear trees that have already fallen?
The heroic efforts to save the resort cannot be understated. This ski area has a rich history dating back to 1946 when brothers Ray and Floyd Barrett built a tow rope and a Poma lift on Echo summit. The firefighters and employees at Sierra at Tahoe are the heroes in this Herculean task of preserving that history and enabling the resort to continue to do what it has always done.
With fire season in California seemingly worse every year, is this strategy going to become commonplace? How would that affect water reservoirs needed to make snow for ski season? Unfortunately, it seems this fire has left more questions than answers.
The 1:29 minute video allows viewers to clearly observe the effects of Forrest wildfires. The use of snow guns is a positive and creative way to minimize the damage caused by wildfires.
Hats off to Sierra and their employees for working with fire fighters and saving their resort. Sierra at Tahoe is an awesome place; a lynchpin in the local freeskiing scene. They treat USASA groms like Dew Tour athletes. It’s amazing! Everyone is super friendly and welcoming. The park is legit and the terrain underrated. Hopefully they’ll be able to preserve the brown bag experience and keep the business running.
Anonymous— Bruh you so thirsty that you can’t wait to reply. Why don’t you write the solution for Snowbrains to publish so everyone & I men EVERYONE can see that you have the wild fire cure in the palm of your hand.
Routine forest thinning and controlled burns is all that is needed to fix our current wild fire problem.
It’s not that complicated Edward. Just takes the problem solving skills of a 5 year old.
Keep screaming Climate Change. You ain’t going to fix the problem.
No… Education is the key to saving the ski industry and the mountains in general.
We have a bunch of monkeys running screaming CLIMATE CHANGE CLIMATE CHANGE CLIMATE CHANGE.
Even if you somehow 100% fixed America’s CO2 emissions tomorrow, and then somehow fixed China’s, India’s and the rest of the worlds CO2 emissions the following day, YOU WOULD STILL NOT SOLVE THE WILD FIRE PROBLEM IN AMERICA.
THE WILD FIRE PROBLEM IS DUE TO 100 YEARS OF FORREST MIS-MANAGMENT AND NOT ALLOWING NATURAL FIRES TO BURN. WE HAVE 100 YEARS OF BUILT UP OVERGROWN FUEL. THAT IS WHY WE ARE HAVING HISTORICALLY LARGE FIRES. WE WILL HAVE ANOTHER 5-10 YEARS OF MASSIVE FIRES UNTIL THE FOREST NATURALLY THINS ITSELF OUT.
Fixing Climate Change will not fix the wild fire problem! Proper forest thinning an controlled burns will!
Our country is so dumb. No wonder we have so many problems that never get solves.
It’s like you are having a stroke while typing.
Too many idiots like you in the world. Have to start yelling.
This poster LIVES to have his/her voice heard here on Snobrains!!!
So, we need to be educated to stop global warming, it’s that simple.
No doubt. Dude is used to posting on news websites about how dumb everyone is. Somehow still uses the name “anonymous” so comes off like a coward. You find the biggest weirdos on the internet.
Stopping global warming will not fix the wild fire problem.
It’s that simple.
you already said that
I’m going to keep saying it until people start talking about the real issue, the real solution, which is proper forest management.
Pretty hard to argue that global warming isn’t part of the issue though. Same as how global warming isn’t entirely responsible for every hurricane or heat wave it does play a part in the big picture of climate. Complex issues never have simple one part answers.
No doubt it plays a role. But fixing it would not fix the wild fire problem.
For some reason its the only solution offered or talked about. Hardly anyone talks about the problem, which is man artificially putting out fires for the last 100-150 years which has caused the forest to become overgrown and denser that it would be naturally.
It’s really not that complicated. Controlled burns and forest thinning is what is needed.
Cooling the planet is not going to cause the forest to start thinning itself.
Its amazing how brainwashed everyone has become thinking Climate Change is the reason for all our problems. Climate Change causes the wars in the Middle East. Climate Change causes income inequality. Climate Change causes racial injustice. Climate Change is causing illegal immigration.
You guys have all lost any sense of rational thought or just basic common sense.