By Kathryn Reed

With Mt. Rose proposing a $23.5 million expansion to the ski resort over 10 years, it could be in the position to be a player if Lake Tahoe-Reno ever gets the Winter Olympics.

In 1960 the resort was the alternate for the women’s downhill when Squaw Valley hosted the Games. Today, it along with Heavenly Mountain Resort, are the only Tahoe area resorts capable of hosting the men’s downhill, Tahoe-Reno Olympic committee officials have told Lake Tahoe News.

An artist's rendering of what the skier bridge over Mount Rose Highway might look like.

While regional Olympic officials are now eyeing 2026 as the potential year for hosting the Game because the U.S. Olympic Committee won’t go after the 2022 event, Mt. Rose is ready to make improvements that have nothing to do with the Olympics.

The Reno area resort is hoping to start the environmental phase of the process this fall. The U.S. Forest Service will have to sign off on the ski area’s plans. The resort is on the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest.

The soonest the plans could be implemented would be next year, though resort officials are saying it could be the following year.

A little work that has nothing to do with the mega plans is going on now.

“Granite Construction is still working on the secondary entrance to the ski area about a half-mile west of the Mt. Rose main lodge. It is being put into place with the future goal of improving circulation into the resort, but entry will not be accessible for the coming season,” Kayla Anderson of Mt. Rose told Lake Tahoe News.

What looks like construction in the main parking lot is actually the staging area for crews working on the erosion control project for highways 28 and 431.

The multimillion-dollar plan includes increasing terrain, more lifts and snowmaking improvements.

Next door, on the north side of Mount Rose Highway is the acreage known as Atoma.

“Mt. Rose looks to expand skiing services onto this 99-acre parcel to complement the beginner terrain on the Mt. Rose side of the mountain. This open, mosaic-glade style skiing would make for a unique lower level snow experience combining open runs with pods of trees intermixed throughout the new area,” the resort said in a statement.

A 3.5-mile run would be created from top to bottom. To make this happen, a bridge for skiers over the highway would be built. This bridge would link Atoma to the existing trails at Mt. Rose. Even the chairlift is proposed to cross the highway.

Ponderosa and Galena chairlifts would be taken out to make way for a high-speed chair going to the top to access runs in the Galena area.

Plans call for lengthening the Lakeview lift, which would provide views of Lake Tahoe as well as easier access to some terrain.

A restaurant near the top of Norwest Magnum 6 is on the books. It would provide 270-degree views of Lake Tahoe and Virginia Peak.