NorCal cross-country ski area 1st to install snow machines. Climate change made investment worth it - KCRA Sacramento

Northern California cross-country ski area 1st to install snow machines

NorCal cross-country ski area 1st to install snow machines. Climate change made investment worth it

As the global average temperature rises, natural early-season snowfall is becoming less reliable in the Sierra, making it harder for resorts to stay open.

A Northern California cross-country ski resort is looking forward to a long and busy season even if the weather doesn't fully cooperate.

The Tahoe Donner Cross Country Ski area is now open thanks to its brand new snow-making system.

Resort manager Sally Jones believes Tahoe Donner is the first cross-country resort in the West to invest in the infrastructure.

"We're currently open with one kilometer, so a little bit smaller than normal [for this point in the season], but we've got some incredible conditions for skiing," Jones said.

The resort has a total of about 62 miles of trails. A network of pipes and a few mobile snow guns will allow Jones and her team to keep a healthy base on about 2 miles over the next few months.

"There's no guarantees in the ski business, but we can pretty much guarantee that we can ski through the spring on this base that we have," Jones said.

That, despite a very slow start to the 2023-2024 snow season.

Just down I-80, at the UC Berkeley Central Sierra Snow Lab, data shows that these slow starts may be occurring more often.

"October and November used to be very dominated by snowfall, and now we're seeing a lot of rain that tends to take over," Dr. Andrew Schwartz, lead scientist at CSSL, said.

According to CSSL, snowfall was at just 48% of average, as of Dec. 14.

The Tahoe Donner team has experienced other memorably slow starts since the resort opened in the late 1980s, several of those coming in the past 10 years.

"We've seen quite a few drought years. Our reliable Sierra snowpack isn't as reliable as it used to be," Jones said, adding that 2015 is the worst season she can remember.

During the 2015-2016 season, Tahoe Donner was open for just 30 days of cross-country skiing.

"And that was very scratchy to make 30 days," Jones said.

It was during that season that management first seriously considered making the big investment in snow-making infrastructure. That would require a network of piping for water and air, snow guns, and housing for all of the equipment. Plus labor and costs to run the machines.

The total cost came out to about $1 million. But Jones says that the cost was worth it for peace of mind and customer satisfaction.

"We have a huge seasons pass base that come, they use it as their winter gym basically," said Jones, "and I'm not worried about my employees being out of work because we don't have snow."

For now, snow-making is planned for two of the resort's 62 miles of trails. Plans for expansion are in the works a few years down the road.

But even with the luxury of making snow, natural powder is always preferred. And this time of year, that next big snowfall could be just around the corner.

"Slow starts to winters don't really give us any indication of what the rest of the winter will look like," Schwartz said.

That provides more hope for 2024.

"Even though we haven't really had any big snow kick in, it doesn't mean it won't happen."

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