Fire On The Mountain

If you are an avid skier in this area, you probably have been glued to Watch Duty, the Alert fire cams and other resources wondering about the impact of the Davis Fire on Mount Rose and it’s tiny neighbor Sky Tavern. I’m in love with Alpine Meadows, but Mount Rose is my mistress. Like Alpine Meadows, Mount Rose offers multiple aspects of skiing and used to be known for both early season openings and late season corn…and The Chutes. Losing it would be a tragic loss for all of us that have enjoyed that mountain.

The Davis Fire started on September 7th in the Davis Creek Regional Park near the I-580 freeway in Washoe Valley. Initially, southerly winds pushed the fire mostly parallel to the freeway, quickly spreading in the chaparral and tinder dry trees. Thousands were evacuated and the image of wild horses fleeing the area spread across the evening news and the internet…like wildfire. But my immediate concern was the topography above the Washoe Valley, a steep slope rising toward Mount Rose, Sky Tavern and a lot of expensive homes scattered through the forest. All it would take would be a slight shift in the wind to push the fire in that direction, as fire naturally wants to travel uphill. It was a recipe for disaster.

The next day, the fire took off uphill, sparing the subdivisions at the lower elevations. It marched right up the Winter Creek drainage right toward Mount Rose, Sky Tavern and my former summer employer, the Project Discovery ropes course. I spent the next three days glued to the Slide Mountain and Calaveras NV cameras at ALERT and the webcams at SkiRose.com, until they went offline. Chatting with some buddies online, we agreed that the Winters Creek lodge and Zephyr Express chairlift would probably be safe, but the other side of the mountain was at risk. Dense forests surround the Chuter and Northwest Express lifts as well as the main lodge. As we have seen in the past at other mountains, Rose activated sprinklers and snowmaking guns to protect the lodge

With each passing hour, the smoke columns got closer and the fire line got closer and closer. Fortunately there were two days of intensive work both on the ground and in the air that appears to have saved both mountains and the surrounding community from disaster. Watching the action on FlightRadar24.com, there were a half dozen helicopters dropping water from Washoe Lake, a number of planes making the rounds from Stead dropping red slurry and a team of 4 Super Scooper planes making 10 minute rounds from Lake Tahoe.

Wednesday, September 11th, promised to be the biggest challenge for firefighters. A cold front was moving in that brought winds up to 70 mph over the ridges and gusts up to 40 mph down in Washoe Valley. Those winds grounded all aircraft, and fire personnel cautioned the Reno community to prepare for the potential of the fire spreading up to 7 miles in one day. But that did not happen. Due to the hard work of firefighters developing multiple redundant fire lines, the flames stayed within the containment lines established the day before. The winds died back and humidities rose with the passing of the front. Everyone breathed a giant sigh of relief. It now looks like the two ski areas and the greater Reno community avoided a huge disaster. Still there are a number of families that lost their homes, and many are still without power, unable to work or send their kids to school.

I’m thankful that I will again get a chance to enjoy turns at Mount Rose this season. Generally that means early season turns in Kit Carson Bowl, or late season corn on the Slide side and in The Chutes. I’m thankful that Sky Tavern will continue in its mission of getting thousands of kids into the sport of skiing through its developmental programs. In my mind, it is a miracle that they were able to survive the Davis Fire and I know many of you would join me in thanking the many firefighters and other people that made that possible.

The Fire Battle In Southern California Continues

There are three massive fires still ongoing in Southern California. The largest, the Bridge Fire, is over 51,000 acres this morning. This week, it exploded from 4,000 to 40,000 acres in one day, burning completely across the San Gabriel mountains in about 24 hours. In its path was the Mountain High ski area, and a couple of smaller ski areas. They were not as “lucky” as Mount Rose. When fire is moving that fast, there’s really nothing that is going to stop it. Reaching the farmlands of the southern San Joaquin valley did slow it down.

Looking at the stories in the media, they followed the classic trope that the ski area was saved by turning on the snowmaking guns. While there is likely some truth to that, there’s a lot of concrete parking lot in the base area, and the lower slopes of the mountain are pretty much all smooth decomposed granite, devoid of any brush. This allows Mountain High to operate with a minimal manmade snowpack. There’s just not much to burn at the base area.

Higher on the mountain, the fire raged through as a crown fire, skipping from tree to tree and at least one chairlift. The frightening scene was captured on the mountains webcams before the flames also took them out. There is no amount of snowmaking equipment that will protect a mountain from 100 foot tall flames in a 70mph wind.

A full damage assessment has not been completed at Mountain High yet, so operations for the upcoming season are still a big question. Nearby, the Snow Valley and Mount Baldy ski areas were skirted by flames and seemed to avoid any damage.

Climate Change Is Real

Whether you choose to believe it or not, climate change is real. Despite the fact that we had an epic snow year two season ago, our summer seasons are getting hotter and hotter. The result of that is that we are seeing mega fires throughout the west that are nothing like we have seen in our history. Before this decade, we never saw a fire that burned across the Sierra Nevada, and it has now happened twice since then. It may not be a higher snow level that kills skiing in California, it’s looking more like it will be wildfires potentially destroying ski areas.

The conventional wisdom has always been that the granite peaks of the Sierra will stop a fire from moving in from the West. We now know that is not a truism. We have also learned that no amount of snowmaking can save an entire ski area. It’s only a matter of time before we are facing a major wildfire at Alpine Meadows and our neighbor to the north. Nobody is looking forward to that day. May we be blessed with the same dedicated firefighting effort and good luck with a break in the weather.

Speaking of weather, here’s the forecast for Alpine Meadows next week, looking much more like fall weather:

Who did it better: The Marshall Tucker Band or The Grateful Dead? I’m guessing one of those two songs popped into your head when you read the headline. Me: Marshall Tucker