Barney Drake and some friends were skiing down a slope at Sky Tavern on Mount Rose Highway one day late last month when someone rode up in a Sno-Cat and stopped them.

“He said, ‘Well, guys, that was your last run,’ and handed us a note,” Drake recalled.

Due to rising costs of insurance and liability concerns, the note read, the city of Reno was closing access to all skiers, snowboarders, sledders and others not associated with Sky Tavern’s junior ski program or holding a city permit.

Since then, signs threatening violators with fines have been erected at access points to the historic resort. The closure is effective November through April.

Drake, who lives in a cluster of seven homes just north of Sky Tavern, is among a growing number of nearby residents, backcountry skiers and others who are upset that the city is blocking access to a place they’ve enjoyed for years.

“It’s our backyard. It’s part of the reason we love living up here,” Drake said.

But officials from the city and the nonprofit Sky Tavern Junior Ski Program insist this winter’s decision to crack down on improper use of the 143-acre ski area is simply enforcement of a policy that’s always existed. They call it a realistic response to a real threat.

“We have people going into the back areas of the park, and it creates liability,” said Tracy Chase, a deputy city attorney for Reno. “It’s just appropriate to control the facility.”

First opened for business in 1945, Sky Tavern was one of the Lake Tahoe area’s first ski resorts, visited by the likes of Gary Cooper, Ingrid Bergman and Rita Hayworth.

Over the years, Sky Tavern was the site of an increasingly popular program to teach northern Nevada youths to ski and, more recently, snowboard. Reno and Washoe County purchased the resort in 1968, with the junior ski program operated by the nonprofit group since 1991. Reno still owns the site.

This year, volunteers are teaching some 2,500 youths how to ski and snowboard safely over the course of eight weekends that commenced Sunday.

Residents debate question

Just about everyone raves over the success of the junior ski program but disagreement has surfaced recently over use of the area by others, a practice particularly common during the days when the ski school is not in operation.

Continued use by backcountry skiers and others raised concern someone could be hurt or killed in an accident or avalanche, leading to a joint decision by Reno officials and organizers of the junior ski program to close the area.

Contributing to that decision were threats of a lawsuit made by a mother whose child was injured in a sledding accident at Sky Tavern around Thanksgiving, said Terry Bell, executive director of the junior ski program.

“One major lawsuit could do in our program, so we have to be very careful,” Bell said. “This has been ongoing for years; it’s always been an issue. We made the decision that it would be in everybody’s best interest that it be closed during (the winter).”

Some nearby homeowners said the closure makes sense.

Margot Appleton, a resident of the old Mount Rose Highway, said skiers should not be able to use the city-owned area without permission.

“What if someone breaks a leg?” she asked. “There’s no ski patrol. Maybe there’s a snowslide and there’s no one to take care of them.”

But Appleton’s neighbor, Reno lawyer Scott Freeman, has skied the slopes of Sky Tavern several times each winter since 1985.

“It’s been open as long as I lived here,” Freeman said. “I don’t know why they’ve never had liability concerns before.”

Environmentalist group opposes closure

The closure has caught the attention of the Coalition for Safe and Appropriate Winter Sports, the organization that in 2001 successfully lobbied the U.S. Forest Service to close the majority of the nearby Tahoe Meadows to snowmobiles.

This time, the group intends to fight to protect access to Sky Tavern for backcountry skiers, said the coalition’s founder, Gail Ferrell.

The area is particularly convenient for access into and out of the Galena Creek drainage, a popular spot for backcountry skiing, Ferrell said.

“All the years Sky Tavern has been in existence, backcountry skiers have used that area. It’s really a public park,” Ferrell said. “Now people are getting booted off. There’s been threats of having cars towed.”

Ferrell said some compromise should be possible, perhaps issuing parking permits that include a liability waiver.

Mike Selby, another nearby resident who regularly skis Sky Tavern, is concerned the closure could set a dangerous precedent.

“I’m afraid if we start closing public land for liability, you could make that claim for any land,” Selby said, adding that the closure runs counter to Sky Tavern’s mission statement that calls for the park to be used by the general community.

Instead, “it’s more and more like it’s a private country club,” Selby said.

Sparks resident Kyle Smith, 20, said he has no intention of obeying the closure.

“I’ll keep using it,” Smith said. “Even though it’s closed, people are going to keep skiing down the mountain. I think this is just going to cause a lot of problems.”