Iron Mountain
A Sierra Nevada ski area that ran under four different names, was shut for three years after its owner was arrested for felling trees without permission, and went bankrupt in 1995; its decaying lift line is still there.
- Region
- California
- Country
- USA
- Status
- abandoned
- Year opened
- 1971
- Year closed
- 1995
- Reason for closure
- Bankruptcy. After a stop-start history the area reopened for the 1994-95 winter as Carson Ski Area under hopeful investors, and by the following year bankruptcy had ended it for good. Earlier closures had been caused by rising insurance rates in 1986 and, from 1991 to 1994, by the arrest of the owner for cutting trees for an expansion without US Forest Service approval.
History
Iron Mountain sits on California Highway 88 near the junction with the Mormon Emigrant Trail, about 13 miles west of Kirkwood in the Sierra Nevada. It opened in 1971 as Silver Basin and ran only intermittently for the next quarter century under a succession of names - Silver Basin, Ski Sundown, Iron Mountain and finally Carson Ski Area. Its layout was the reverse of the usual arrangement: the base lodge and car park sat at the top, so skiers began the day by descending and used the lift only to come back up. Its history is a catalogue of interruptions. It closed in 1986 citing rising insurance rates and reopened in 1989 under new ownership. In 1991 the owner decided to cut trees for an expansion without US Forest Service approval, was arrested for it, and the mountain stayed shut from 1991 to 1994. Investors reopened it for one more winter as Carson Ski Area in 1994-95, and bankruptcy silenced the lifts for good the following year. A group tried to revive it in 2000 without success, and the site is now scattered with decaying lift infrastructure; it was put on the market in 2025 at 5.8 million dollars, with the asking price later reduced. Trail names and the lift inventory are not compiled in accessible sources; the coordinates mark surviving lift pylons recorded in OpenStreetMap.
Lifts
| Name | Type | Manufacturer | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Unnamed lift | Chairlift | The area lift infrastructure was left in place and is now decaying on the mountain; pylons remain mapped along the old line. Individual lift names, types and manufacturers are not compiled in accessible sources |
Sources and further reading
- https://www.tahoedailytribune.com/news/a-history-of-empty-slopes-old-iron-mountain-ski-resort-hits-the-market/
- https://snowbrains.com/the-abandoned-iron-mountain-ca/
- https://unofficialnetworks.com/2025/06/29/abandoned-california-ski-resort/
- https://www.powder.com/news/iron-mountain-california-for-sale-ski
More in USA
Location
38.6314, -120.2138