Sky Tavern. Building Reno's kids futures, today.

                      

Sky Tavern is a 501c3 nonprofit that manages the ski area, year-round, and provides various outdoor activities for the community including camps, mountain biking, hiking, and lodge rentals. Sky Tavern receives no funding from the City so donations help provide scholarships, equipment, and improvements to the area including a new carpet lift for beginners, and snowmaking and lights to add more programs. With a new 50 year lease, there is a lot of new things happening at Sky Tavern.

Since 1948 kids have been learning to ski at Sky Tavern taught by adults that do it for the love of the sport and community. It is America's oldest and largest volunteer ski school with 500 volunteer adults working to create a ski area for 2000 children each winter.  All adults have a position from the parking lot to instructors for a few hours a day.  Some of the best skiers and riders come out of the program. Alumni include Tamara McKinney and David Wise, both superstar Olympians.

During the 2020 season it was very evident the last 1960's Poma lift was needed to be replaced. Sky Tavern Board of directors has made the decision to go ahead and upgrade the Rocco lift to a new carpet lift being built by Team Service in Italy. Installation was completed in December of 2020. Because of Team Service's very flexible payment schedule and donations from the Marce Herz . William H. Moffat, Benna, and Matley Foundations, Sky Tavern was able to make this happen right away but we still have a long ways to go on paying the whole bill off.  If you ever rode Rocco you know this will be a huge improvement. See the video below to see why in a low snow year the old way of moving kids up the hill just doesn't work.

With a base elevation of 7500 feet, snowmaking is a viable answer to a changing climate. Our goal is to install snowmaking by 2023 to make certain kids for generations will get to experience winter sports. The first step is water storage by rebuilding Grass Lake on the Mt.Rose Highway. This will give us water to make snow, provide recreation, lower the mosquito population, and make the drive up more scenic.  

Summers at Sky Tavern are becoming busier. New trails for bikes, including adaptive e-bikes, are being constructed as dollars are raised. Summer camps, concerts, and weddings will return soon. Keeping the area open, maintained and assessable to everyone is a major tack of the nonprofit.

Thank you for helping this Nevada Tradition.