New Growth

Climate change is altering the land on which we operate. An increasingly extreme heat–drought–fire cycle is ravaging the American West (and the globe), and no ski area is more attuned to the impacts of this cycle than Sierra-at-Tahoe. In August 2021, the Caldor Fire continually outmaneuvered thousands of firefighters on its way to charring more than 80 percent of Sierra-at-Tahoe’s footprint, leaving melted infrastructure, thousands of damaged trees, and an inoperable resort littered with new hazards—and, in many ways, new opportunities.

Daunted but unbowed, the Sierra team rolled up their sleeves and, with the help of countless friends and partners, got to work remediating the damage and evaluating the new landscape. Now, just 16 months after the devastating blaze, the resort’s chairlifts are spinning again. This season, visitors will be able to slide on every one of Sierra-at-Tahoe’s cut trails, many of which look very different now.