Sierra At Tahoe Repairs Fire Damaged Grandview Express Cable

Sierra At Tahoe has successfully repaired the cable on the Grandview Express’. This is the first major step towards restoring operations at Sierra. They say:

145 days after that infamous night. In the dark, glued to the webcams, we all watched in shock + disbelief, as glowing embers turned to red flames and engulfed our beloved resort, scathing our most iconic lift….Today, Grandview showed us that she still has a lot more laps to take with you.

Since the day Paul Beran, our Director of Mountain Operations, returned to Sierra-at-Tahoe to witness the damage in the aftermath of the Caldor Fire, getting Grandview back on-line has been one of his crew’s top priorities — and most daunting tasks. The damage caused by the Caldor Fire to Grandview’s haul rope, literally melting it from the inside out, necessitated an entire replacement of the 10,000-foot rope. Each haul rope is created to the particular specs for each lift, and replacing a piece of equipment of this magnitude typically has long shipping times and even longer lead times. Add supply chain issues affecting everything from nuts + bolts to wire and widgets, made the likelihood of receiving the rope from the manufacturer in Switzerland, a tall order. But, not trying, was not an option.

With the haul rope being fabricated, the crew used the time to prepare + strategize on how best to accomplish a complete install in the middle of winter, with access only available over snow, limited hours of daylight and the unknown variable of Mother Nature’s visits. Projects of this scale are typically tackled in the off-season, along with yearly maintenance so by the time winter arrives, the lifts, terminals and chairs have all been repaired, safety-checked, permitted and are ready to spin when the white stuff starts to fly. But nothing about this project would be typical. It would take grit, ingenuity and most importantly faith — complete conviction and buy-in from the maintenance crew to accomplish the (near) impossible. With many on the sidelines looking on, commenting to “throw in the towel” or wait ‘til next year, it would have been the easier option to pursue. But the love of skiing and riding runs through the veins of every single member on Beran’s crew — it’s why they work here, it’s why they choose Sierra, and nothing was going to stop them from giving everything they could to get it done.

And then all the planning, all the time spent prepping, all of the endless hours strategizing would be put to the test. On Monday, January 17th, 2022, when most were enjoying a day off to reflect and remember the honorable Martin Luther King, Beran and his team, led by Kevin Schmidlin or “Smudge,” arrived to work as the sun kissed the mountain and the thermostat read a bitter 9 degrees, to execute their mission. Delayed from delivery due to December’s record breaking snowfall, the 42,000 lb. rope arrived on site. Multiple pieces of heavy machinery would be required to offload the massive rope and position it to be unspooled to perform a process known as a “construction splice”. This particular splice involves interweaving the strands of the damaged end with the new rope while simultaneously spinning the lift to thread the rope onto the lift shives. The rope must be laid out from tower to tower while this splicing is completed, held up by the crew in a tedious and grueling act, requiring patience and steady footing. 

Once the rope has successfully been threaded on the shives, the task of pulling tension to get the “bellies” of the rope out requires hydraulics, due to the sheer weight of the rope. From sunup to sundown the crew tackled the task, and 5 days of around the clock focus, Grandview’s haul rope was successfully hung today.

Watching this first major step towards getting Grandview back on line was not only an incredible feat but an opportunity to begin to heal — for them, for you and the resort. The burn marks and scars are still fresh, the wound has only begun to heal but the accomplishment despite the obstacles is a symbol of the resiliency of Sierra, of nature + of the human spirit. 

We still have a long way to go before we are making Grandview laps again. The reality is, the crew is starting from square one, as all of the maintenance that is typically performed on Sierra’s lifts in the summertime was completely undone from the fire, and can now begin again. With the haul rope in place, the crew can now begin additional restoration projects on Grandview, to prepare this lift and others for operation. The crew continues to work outside, entirely in the elements, as the single most important maintenance building that housed their daily work, tools and shop, was lost in the fire. In addition, the project for necessary tree mitigation to fire-weakened trees has not started — held up as El Dorado County’s Resource Conservation District awaits for federal funding to be released. These are true challenges, not mere excuses or trivial tasks to check off prior to welcoming our Sierra Fam home, but the determination to open is written on the faces of every single member of our staff. And while we are taking a moment to savor the feeling of a job well done, tomorrow we regroup and refocus on the next milestone to tackle, as another step in the direction to reopen before the snow melts away for the 2021/22 season. 

Keep sharing your stories, your memories + your support. It makes all the difference in reminding us what we are fighting for when the days are long, but the season is short.