When will KSL stop shooting themselves in the foot? It seems like they have been a magnet for negative publicity lately. The battle over Squaw Valley and KSL Capital’s plans for expansion has been making headlines not just here, but in larger publications such as Curbed, Powder and The Wall Street Journal. Most recently, the Tahoe Daily Tribune reported this week on Squaw Valley Ski Holdings quarter of a million dollar contributions to Save Olympic Valley, fighting the will of local residents and small businesses.
The announcement of the new SquawAlpine.com website was made with little fanfare today via the Alpine Meadows and Squaw Valley Facebook pages. As much as some of us don’t want to believe it, SkiAlpine.com now leads directly to the new site at SquawAlpine.com. Guess what, there’s not one Alpine Meadows logo at the new site. KSL…keeping skiing lame again.
We’ve been reporting for the last two years about the assimilation of Alpine Meadows by Squaw Valley and KSL Capital. Even though Todd Chapman of JMA and Andy Wirth of KSL stood together in 2011 and promised us that maintaining the individual identity of each resort would be a key element of success, we’ve seen that is no longer a part of “the Renaissance” at Squaw Valley and Alpine Meadows. We knew it was coming. Just in the last six months we published:
• A Coffee Parable, which explored the significant loss we all experience through the lack of competition. Back when we posted this editorial, many people didn’t believe it would ever happen…because Andy and Todd had promised us separate identities.
• The Assimilation Continues: Alpine Meadows Teams Lose Their Identity, which resulted in an uprise and revolution amongst Alpine Meadows teams. Bravo to those that have stood their ground.
• Sign Of The Times: Will Squaw Kill Off The Alpine Meadows Brand, which also served as a rallying cry for Alpine Meadows loyalists, resulting in huge new numbers of Alpine Meadows stickers everywhere.
We also noted at the end of last season that the SkiAlpine.com site was barely being maintained and was often filled with erroneous information toward the end of the season.
Some of my friends have told me it’s hopeless, and that I should just accept the fact that Alpine Meadows is dead. If we all took that sort of position, we would have been forced to drink “new Coke” since 1985. So no, we’re not done being UnofficialAlpine just yet. We hope you’re not done reading UnofficialAlpine.com yet.
Just to be safe, we purchased some new domains today:
Yeah, they all just lead right here, to our home at UnofficialAlpine.com. We hope you join us in keeping the Alpine Meadows brand alive.
This is a bad idea. You claim to be ‘The soul of skiing’ and instead of letting two distinct souls of two very different mountains exist, you crushed them both and are trying to force a soulless merger no one wants. If the mountains merge they can still keep their own identities. Alpine and Squaw are two different places with two different communities. KSL has come into a community as outsiders and with every decision they are pushing the community and KSL further apart. There is a way for KSL to be accepted. This is not it. Decisions need to be made based on the opinions in Tahoe, not the opinions of people in Denver.
– Greg via Facebook
And within three hours, this post has been seen more than 1,500 times…and a new Facebook page was born:
https://www.facebook.com/FriendsofAlpineMeadows
Skiing at Kirkwood after 30 years..selling my condo…KSL sucks
I just threw up in my mouth.
What’s next? How about a new CEO without lame promises? One that skis with public, one that is willing to stand in a lift line, and who could be loved by the employees and customers!
#FreeAlpine form the madness!!
UA is the best!
The CEO is too busy trying to be rad with the bro-brahs. That’s why he can’t ski with the locals or hang in the lift lines. He sends the hostesses out to approach guests with questionnaires about customer service and THEY pass out the free hot chocolate coupons for Starbucks. Give us a break KSL….please.
Come on, we all know there’s no such thing as a KSL executive.
Has anyone ever seen one???
Love
Tahoe Tessie,
Sent by i-Pineapple6
Gilligan’s Island
Keep fighting the good fight, Mark! Long live Alpine!
I’m absolutely convinced it’s the same CEO… my goodness… their mother’s must be wondering what they did wrong…
So sad, so like politicians. Thanks Mark for all you do to keep AM alive!
AM is real no matter what KSL says
What’s next is the dreaded connector lift and a lift into High Beaver/Estelle (the horror!). That will be the stake through the heart of the Alpine ethos. We’re with you Mark, but we don’t have the cards…
I certainly spend more time on your site than I did on Alpine’s! It’s an indicator of the assimilation, but not much of loss in terms of information. Long live UA!!
I hope we never see the day. Those hikes got me hooked.
#FreeAlipne
Skied and worked with my then high school aged daughter in the mid-eighties. AM will never go away in our hearts. Wirth and the rest of the KSL carpetbaggers need to be stopped. Keep up the good fight Mark.
They can never take our freedom!
Sad, sad day for all of those who have grown up and raised their own families at Alpine Meadows. Mark, thank you for fighting on in Alpine’s name. Hoping enough people will stand up for Alpine’s identity. Looking at the new website AND logo I fear for KSL’s involvement in the future of Squalpine.
Bet you fifty bucks an announcement about the interconnect is forthcoming.
This could be a great opportunity for UA ! Sometimes less is more.
Adding insult to injury, it’s a pretty awful design. Looking at it from the perspective of someone unfamiliar with either mountain, I would be hard-pressed to understand what they offer. It looks like they couldn’t decide if they wanted to present this as “one resort” or build their site to reflect the reality of two separate experiences. Whatever happened, it really doesn’t work.
They’ve also inexplicably decided to put graphics on the top of the page and useful information below the fold, where it’s easy to miss.
When the misinformed tourists ask me, I gotta say the skiing is better at Squaw!
Yep. Those folks over at Alpine are cranky.
The logo from the toilet cleaner is brilliant subliminal advertising -. These days, every time I flush, I think of squaw 🙂
I can’t find a name for a chairlift or a trail on this here map. Is this how ya all do it in California?
They told me to go to KT22….
http://squawalpine.com/skiing-riding/mountains/trail-maps
We have started a new Facebook Page.
“FOAM is dedicated to preserving Alpine Meadow’s character, culture and heritage.”
https://www.facebook.com/FriendsofAlpineMeadows
Why on earth would they take two distinct, unique brands and converge them into one homogenized brand? Even if the two resorts are connected, they should still retain their own identity. This might be the stupidest move yet, and that’s saying a lot.
Marketing is as marketing does.
I got me some Alpine branded shirts and a sweatshirt, long live Alpine!! When people ask, I ski ALPINE!!!
Let’s talk skiing!!!!
I did the $350 Sun-Fri pass at ALPINE and a pass at Sugar Bowl. One hill (2 really) for me for one hill for my crew.
My family has Sugar Bowl passes only. I have 2 boys, 9 and 7 and they are ready to rip. The 9 year old is getting the Volkl Gotama junior for Xmas. As long as I can bum rides to Alpine from Sac I will have a pass at Alpine since gas is pricey.
Of note, Sugar Bowl lowered their pass prices last year to try and compete with Squaw/Alpine and Northstar. It was good Spring skiing there last year and was empty. They actually run all the chairs late in the season, just like Alpine used to. Free Alpine Bowl chair!! Grooming was nice also, lots of groomed spring softness.
It was a fun end of season at Alpine as well. Thanks for those days in May!! With Alpine only open it was session on with everyone on display, it was a blast. 3 months to go, I am going crazy.
I cried a little last night after reading this. Then I woke up this morning to the beautiful view of Alpine Meadows in all its glory. Ward Peak is still there, Scott Peak and Lakeview are still there. The beauty of this valley will make me call this home forever, because home is where the heart is. Long live Alpine Meadows.
Worked for Whistler. Same thing happened there initially where lots of disgruntled Blackcomb locals fought the combined nature of those two hills. Now they have a single logo uniting two distinct mountains. The Blackcomb faithful still ski exclusively there. Maybe it’ll work out for the best, and most of the sheep will end up in the Squaw parking lot.
And is a complete ****. and anyone who supports his efforts is a **** as well, yes that includes you self proclaimed ‘Squaw Royalty’ types and band wagon co-letter writers in support of over development.
****, couple of questions for ya, you say you are an environmental conservationist, and you say that by building a hideously huge commercial real estate monstrosity at the base of a state registered historical landmark that will contribute tons of carbon to the air in form of heavy construction vehicles over a span of TWO freakin’ decades and that will deplete an already compromised water resource,that it will reduce single passenger vehicle traffic to Squaw which will reduce overall carbon emissions? Then I ask, do you ****, drive a freakin Prius to work everyday, fly commercial instead of private corporate jet for your little excursions, and live in a multi-plex efficiency residence yourself instead of a over built, McMansion in Lahontan for you and just your wifey??
Didn’t think so.
So hows’ your individual carbon footprint you *** *******, ***-***** ****?
Editor’s note: Yeah, we had to do some serious editing on this one. I think somebody got people’s attention…
I think what we need, and what KSL needs is a local liaison. Someone who can explain to them how the Tahoe ski community worked for 50 years before they showed up. One person or several who can advise them on how to make decisions that don’t constantly contradict what Wirth has promised. If they keep making changes like this they are only going to widen the divide between the community and the corporation and never be accepted.
KSL owns the mountains but every rider feels that they own a part of them too. They need to listen to the local opinions and long time customers before they are outright hated by their own community and employees. The two mountains are different, even KSL agrees with their ‘different experience’ statements. Let the mountains have their own identities while allowing riders to visit both on one pass. They can still advertise the combined skiable acreage which is their main motivation to attract visitors. Let the two mountains keep their sense of individuality and pride at the same time. Everyone wins. Alpine and Squaw are not one ‘resort’. At least not yet.
I found a green jacket on the hotel, food selling blue website
http://squawalpine.com/skiing-riding/league-racing-team
OMG, they also let an Alpine Meadows logo sneak into that same picture. 😉
Ummm. These all seem like first world problems to me. All of us who ski are environmental antagonists.
When you read the article in the September 10 “Sierra Sun” et al. about how much KSL/Squaw Valley Ski Holdings has spent fighting the incorporation of Squaw Valley, it’s not really around a quarter of a million dollars, an astounding sum. It’s really more like $550,000 when you add in the amount listed that Save Our Valley — what a deceiving but oh so obvious misleading piece of crap name: George Orwell gets further credit for another example of Double Speak — since that’s of course just a front group for KSL/Squaw Valley Ski Holdings. Things just keep on getting curiouser and curiouser…not too meant ion more and more expensive.
The reporting in the Sierra Sun was not very clear. I agree it looked like both Squaw Valley Ski Holdings and Save Olympic Valley had spent about $250K. The truth is, as reported here at UA, that SVSH has been the sole contributor to SOV, so the money spent by SOV came directly from SVSH and KSL. The Sierra Sun article was also outdated in that it did not account for the latest month of reporting. The total amount spent is now $293K. New numbers should be available next week…
Does this mean that squaw now gets the famous chalet raclette or not?
I think ksl said it was traditional alpine fare
Though even in the Alps it is less than 22 dollars
gerkens and onions not included
also the $293K figure does not include the $44,000.00 in payables listed in their filing
Ksl s next filing should be fun
I think it’s great AM goes to the dustbin it was full of hideous old yuppies, they need to be sent to Northstar. Squaw Valley needs to be connected to the old Alpine Meadows and then all vestiges if that yuppie spores club need to be hereded to Northstar or the nursing home.
Free Alpine Bowl Chair!!
You should print that sticker!
One would assume the person that sent me that artwork is planning to do so…would be a cool think to see around.