Half Dome seen from the north rim, a fallen log on sunlit granite slabs in the foreground

Nic Fiore

1920–2009

The French-Canadian ski instructor who, for more than four decades, directed all five High Sierra Camps every summer — the warm, familiar host who was the camps for a generation of backcountry travelers.

A younger Nic Fiore in a white turtleneck sweater, smiling among golden autumn aspen leaves — Nic Fiore. Courtesy of Cindy Fiore Volpa

If Stephen Mather is the origin point of the High Sierra Camps, Nic Fiore is their human face. From 1963 to 2004 he directed all five camps every summer — more than forty years as host, manager, and living spirit of the loop. For a generation of Yosemite backcountry travelers, he was the High Sierra Camps.

From Montreal to Yosemite

Born in Montreal on December 1, 1920, one of twelve children, Fiore served in the Canadian Army in World War II and taught skiing in the Laurentian Mountains before crossing the continent by train to Yosemite. He arrived in the Valley on a snowy night in December 1947, meaning to teach for a single winter at Badger Pass. He stayed the rest of his life.

Badger Pass and the ski school

Nic Fiore grinning on the snow in a red ski-school jacket embroidered with his name, white cap and mirrored sunglasses, skis in hand, a lodge deck behind him — Nic at Badger Pass. Photo: Cindy Fiore Volpa

Named director of the Yosemite Ski School at Badger Pass in 1956, Fiore led it for roughly 45 years. He is credited with teaching well over 100,000 people to ski — some accounts put the figure near 137,500 — and is believed to have taught more people to ski than any other instructor in North America. He helped found the Professional Ski Instructors of America and was the only ski instructor inducted into the California Tourism Hall of Fame. He stepped into a "ski ambassador" role in 2001 and retired in 2004, after more than 60 years on the snow.

The High Sierra Camps

Nic Fiore resting against a tree in the Sierra high country, an external-frame pack and ice axe beside him — Nic on the trail

Beginning in 1963, Fiore added a second season to his year: every summer he managed Yosemite's five High Sierra Camps in the backcountry. He ran the whole loop hands-on, greeting guests with an unmistakable accent and a friendly grin, hosting the camps' famous evenings, and thinking nothing of hiking the high country between two or three camps in a single day to check on them. Colleagues remembered him as entertaining, kind, and caring — upbeat even in bad weather, the host who made the camps feel like a welcome rather than a lodging.

He never stopped moving between seasons, either. A professional bicycle racer before he was ever a ski instructor, Fiore spent his vacations pedaling through California's wine country — and around Yosemite Valley he was a familiar sight on his bicycle, the way people who lived and worked in the park still remember him.

That continuity is the point: one warm, familiar person embodying the experience for forty summers. It is exactly the kind of human institution — built patiently over decades and easily lost — that makes keeping these camps open worth the effort.

Death and legacy

Fiore died on June 16, 2009, at age 88, in Fresno. His wife, Midge, had died in 2003; he was survived by two daughters and eight grandchildren. He is remembered in Yosemite as the man who, across two seasons and half a century, welcomed more people into the mountains than almost anyone before or since.