The property extends to the Nevada’s Ruby Mountains. Photo: Wikimedia Commons
A California businessman has been approved to build a private ski area in the Ruby Mountains. The Elko Planning Commission has approved a proposal by Peter Christodoulo to build a lodge with up to five guest rooms and five chairlifts on his sprawling property extending up to the mountain range known as the “Swiss Alps of Nevada.”
Christodoulo is a partner at a Bay Area-based technology investment firm. In 2024 he purchased nearly 3,000 acres that stretched from the town of Spring Creek to the crest of the Ruby range. That year, he made a request to rezone several thousand acres of the property to develop a public ski facility, which the Elko Planning Commission denied. However, they did approve rezoning a smaller, 900-acre parcel.
In response, Christodoulo drafted an updated plan for a private facility. This would include a private lodge that could also provide meals, as well as five chairlifts. According to the proposal, this would be “primarily for the use of friends and family.”
On Thursday, dozens of residents weighed in at a meeting of the Planning Commission, with most voicing disapproval of the project. As The Nevada Independent reports, dozens of residents weighed in on the issue, with four dozen more submitting comments in writing. At the end of the day, though, the planning commission approved the request with a 5-2 vote.
However, there are some conditions to the approval, including banning night skiing and removing chairlifts if they don’t operate for five years.
“Our family loves this generational property as well as the surrounding area and this conditional use permit would give us better access to our very rugged and beautiful mountain terrain,” wrote Christodoulo in the conditional use application.
Dissenting commissioners Richard Genseal and Dena Hartley had a different take, though. Genseal said the new request amounted to “different color lipstick on the same pig.”
The proposal has a 10-day appeal period that ends on March 30.
