Letter: Stop Heavenly’s fire break plans
To the community,
An emergency snowcat access route would be cleared at strategic locations along the (Heavenly Mountain Resort) gondola line below the gondola midstation. This access route would facilitate evacuations of the gondola during emergency situations. It would allow Heavenly employees to deliver rescue supplies and personnel and transport passengers in the event of a gondola evacuation. It would be used during the winter in times of operational emergencies.
The clearing would be 25-30 feet wide to allow a standard-sized snowcat to access the gondola line in key locations. The route would begin to the southwest of the gondola midstation at the existing midstation access road and terminate near gondola line tower number 16, for a total length of approximately 6,830 feet, resulting in approximately 4.7 acres of tree removal. The entire route would be located on National Forest system lands. No permanent ground disturbance or development of a new permanent road prism or platform would be necessary for the emergency snow cat route. Tree stumps would be cut at a height of approximately 6 inches — up to 12 inches on steeper slopes — and large rocks/boulders would be reduced to a height of approximately 12 to 18 inches.
A Cat track down the Fire Break.
Please read the full plan at the TRPA’s website.
1. Tell everyone. The TRPA vote is March 11 and March 24. Please act fast.
2. Let the TRPA know how you feel.
3. Let the Forest Service know how you feel.
4. Tell everyone you know no cat track down the fire break.
Sean Rutkowski, Stateline
I would support this emergency this emergency access route.
I would support this emergency access route.
Sounds like a good idea.
How does a snowcat go over the remaining tree stumps and rocks, when there is no snow, which is now the norm ?
And why wasn’t this done when the gondola was built ?
Steven there’s a $50 question ??
Why was the gondola allowed to be built with no means of egress ?
In the name of safety , many projects are allowed to be completed for the safety of the general public.So this whole scenario is stating that the gondola project was allowed to be built creating a dangerous situation?? duh !
heavenly City !
Why on earth wouldn’t you support added safety measures? Afraid of the CATS hurting the rocks? I favor this project.
I’m not in favor of the cat track going up the fire break. Why the gondola was allowed to be built without this issue being addressed durinig construction is beyond me.
After the gondola fire from an errant cigarette butt was tossed, this issue should have been dealt with then.
Another scar on the mountain, thereby, creating more erosion from the hillside, causing more sediment flowing into the lake!
Another new ski run leading you right to the casinos!
Have a happy Vail day! OLS
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This “featured muse article” just seems weird. I’m supposed to call my friends and tell them no cat trail because? Oh, any kind of an opinion in the body of the article would show it for the op/ed piece it really is. This article is not news. Come on man! Is this about somebody poaching your favorite run? (If we had snow…) Free the cat track!
Come on Man — The article is in Voices which is an op/ed column/page.
/not meant as snarky
//firebreaks are a good thing in forested communities
From a safety perspective it sounds like it is needed. If it is primarily for a fire-break (and it doesn’t seem it is) then there is no reason for it. While common in the past, they have not show they work as fire jumps them easily.
There was a day when forests could not be cleared and trees could not be cut. Then the “Angora Fire”. Now forests are cleared, trees are cut and we have less likelihood of a devastating fire. Will it take a tragedy for people to open there eyes again? I hope not…
First, it looks like the proposed snow cat access is for the Gondola lift line, not what is commonly referred to as Fire Break. So I think the request from Mr. Rutkowski is a bit misleading.
Second, the sate of California regulates chairlift evacuations. Heavenly currently has the ability to evacuate the lift safely in all conditions and is in full compliance with all state requirements. However, the only access to the lift from the mid-station down is by foot, so, if the lift had to be evacuated when the cabins are full (which most typically happens when there is snow on the ground), it would take a long time to get everyone off the mountain. With the proposed cat track, they could significantly shorten the evacuation time for those situations when there is snow. In my opinion, that’s a good thing.
But, to be clear, this does not impact the gaper “back country” experience commonly referred to as “Fire Break” as implied in the letter.
sounds like Vail wants to offer a “snowcat skiing experience” on Heavenly mountain! Just another thing they can charge up the @ss for!
Joby says,
Government lots were thinned prior to the Angora fire and fared relatively well.
What would be so wrong if Heavenly had snowcat skiing and charged for it? I am sure if they wanted to do that it would have to be permitted by the USFS and TRPA.
Back to widening the fire break. When I was a kid some people in town thought that was the boundry between Calf. and Nev.. Sounds silly now but I bet some old timers might remember that.
More than likely it will just become another ski run. I skiied it once back in the early 70’s and didn’t really care much for it. Narrow and rocky. Maybe I hit it on a bad day.
If Vail wants to cut trees and widen? Well, I’ll bet they get the okay from the USFS and the TRPA. That mountain is so scarred up, whats one more gash in forest service property? They don’t care!!!
That’s the way it goes in South Lake Tahoe. OLS
One persons gash is another s ski run of enjoyment.
That whole half of town is an ugly gash. What percentage of locals actually head that way unless forced to? Let them keep funneling the tourists that way, and focus on the parts of the lake we actually care about.
Steve Buttling raises a very good point. At this time, is it better to ask forgiveness then permission?
TahoeMom. ,Yes, an ugly part of town. Wait until they start “work” in Meyers, logging bulding strip malls and paving their way around the west shore for the new developments planned for the north shore.
The chainsaws are sharpened and the bulldozers are tuned up. All at the ready. Set to destroy what is currently a few small quiet communities in the forest.
Do we have much of a say? Not really. The people with the bucks and political connections are the ones that controll what happens.
Just another day in what was once a paradise.
Take care, Old Long Skiis
sounds like some propaganda to me. im gunna be cuttin those switch backs on my bike in a couple summers, dropping the 3000 feet to town in a couple minutes.
tahoeser.. now why would heavenly run a snowcat touring op on a run that is serviced by a gondola?
OLS. Have you ever been to the Ahwahnee Hotel in Yosemite? Built with a thousand tons of steel, five thousand tons of stone, thirty thousand feet of wood and tons of concrete in 1927. More then three stories tall (the original plan was for six stories.) The Miwok Tribe had used the area for generations and the Ahwahnee destroyed their village site permanently. All this development and more smack dab in the middle of a National Park no less. People must have some beaver DNA because we just need to build things.
Anyway. Tahoe was denied National Park status a century ago and the development has really never stopped since Fremont “discovered” Lake Tahoe in 1844.
Listen to Big Yellow Taxi by Joni Mitchell for reference.
So yes, clearly money talks in Tahoe too.
OLS again you have no clue what you are talking about. If you are going to give your opinion at least be informed.
rock4tahoe- I was just about to write that we all need to listen to the Eagles “The Last Resort”.
“Somebody laid the mountains low…. while the town got high”. Prophetic- same idea as “Big Yellow Taxi”
On the safety issue. It is hard to believe that measures were not taken when the gondola was built, to evacuate people but also to keep people from accessing the base of the Gondola towers. Four of us had free- ride passes when it first opened, and it stopped for 20-25 minutes. Having been roped down from a chairlift a couple of times, I kept expecting some activity to be seen. Nothing. The next day we found out a “device” had been strapped to the bottom of a tower and it was marked with the E.L.F. letters. Luckily- a fake. How could Heavenly have NOT made safety changes since then. It sounds criminal or at least very neglectful. The area needs to be inaccessible to anyone but safety personnel and L.E.- in my opinion, sorry riders & skiers.