Lost ski areaCaliforniaSierra Nevada
Echo Summit
Closed after the 1988 season. A ski area beside U.S. 50 at Echo Summit, California, first called Nebelhorn, that ran from the 1940s until 1988.
Overview
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Imagery: USGS The National Map · Terrain: Mapzen, USGS and others
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The ski area lay just southwest of Echo Summit, the highest point of U.S. 50 in California, where the highway crosses the Sierra Nevada south of Lake Tahoe.1,2
Read the whole historyTodayAdventure Mountain Lake Tahoe runs a sledding and tubing area on the site, on Forest Service land it leases. (2026)1,2,3,4
Timeline
5 events · swipe
Memories
Skied Echo Summit, or worked there?
Tell us what you remember, or what this page has wrong. Memories show here, credited to you, after we read them; facts are checked against a source before they change a figure.
Lost near Echo Summit
The closest other lost ski areas, as the crow flies.
- 1941–1963 · 4.6 mi away · CaliforniaA ski area on Highway 50 just above Twin Bridges, at today's Camp Sacramento, that opened as the Strawberry Ski Hut in 1941 and closed in 1963.
- 1971–1995 · 15.8 mi away · CaliforniaA ski area off Highway 88 near the Mormon Emigrant Trail that opened as Silver Basin in 1971 and ran on and off under four names until 1995.
- 1957–1986 · 27.4 mi away · CaliforniaA small ski area at the foot of Alpine Meadows Road off Highway 89, opened as Powder Bowl in 1957 and run as Deer Park from 1980 to 1986.
History
Written by aurora.ski from the 4 pages below, each sentence numbered to its sources.
The ski area lay just southwest of Echo Summit, the highest point of U.S. 50 in California, where the highway crosses the Sierra Nevada south of Lake Tahoe. Skiing there went back to the 1940s. It was known first as Nebelhorn and later as Echo Summit Ski Area, and it ran chairlifts and a rope tow.1,2
In 1968 the site took on a second job. Its altitude was close to that of Mexico City, host of that year's Olympics, so a high-altitude training camp opened there in July. The U.S. men's Olympic track and field trials followed from September 6 to 16, run on a track laid in the ski area's parking lot, with pine trees left standing in the infield.1,2,3
The ski area closed in 1988. The California Conservation Corps used the site until 2002, and the trials site became a California Historical Landmark in 2014.1,2
TodayAdventure Mountain Lake Tahoe runs a sledding and tubing area on the site, on Forest Service land it leases. (2026)1,2,3,4
Sources for this history (4)
- 1Lake Tahoe News · Then and now: Echo Summit ski resort changes
- 2Wikipedia · Echo Summit
- 3Tahoe Quarterly · All Eyes on Tahoe's Echo Summit
- 4USDA Forest Service · Sno-Park Permits
Photos
No photographs of Echo Summit we may republish yet
Its old photos and trail maps live on the sites that collected them, and Google finds the rest.
Memories
What skiers remember of Echo Summit, in their own words.
Facts
Location
38.8117° N · 120.0334° W · California · Sierra Nevada
OpenSkiMap lists it as abandoned.
Years operated
until 1988 · the year it opened is not yet collected
Closed after the 1988 season. It stays here as part of the record of U.S. ski areas.
No figures from its operating years are collected yet.
Terrain contours: USGS 3D Elevation Program, public domain