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The SquAlpine Gondola Connection: A Community Divided

Image via SkiAlpine.com
Image via SkiAlpine.com

We thought the news might be coming sometime soon. After a dismal series of snow seasons, Squaw Valley Ski Holdings needed to do something to maintain interest in the selling of ski passes, and more importantly, to sell the dream of the proposed new village at Squaw Valley. As our last two surveys have shown, the community is really split about whether the connection between Alpine Meadows and Squaw Valley would be a great thing or a terrible thing.

We’re definitely late to the party in reporting the story. While I was at work today, it seemed like I received 47 emails and texts alerting me to the announcement, asking why I hadn’t posted a piece yet, or asking for my commentary. The story has been already widely reported by both the ski media and the mainstream media too. So we’ll be totally transparent in telling you that this piece is nothing more than an editorial, as it is far too late to call it “news.”

A quick summary of the details

• The base area to base area connection would likely be served by a gondola, but that is subject to change as the planning process continues. Reviewing the maps and video, the base at Squaw Valley would be in the vicinity of the KT-22 lift, while the base at Alpine Meadows would terminate at the current location of the small magic carpet lift.

Screen Shot 2015-04-13 at 7.35.58 PM
I know I consider the “walk-up view” of Alpine Meadows lodge to be one of the best in the industry. The tower would be nice method to block out the view of that pesky remaining Alpine Meadows classic logo.

• Plan’s call for two angled mid-stations along the ridgeline above White Wolf. One would be located near the Saddle of KT-22, on property that is owned by Troy Caldwell, unless that ownership has changed as a part of this deal. The second mid-station would be located near the top of the Buttress or Bernies Bowl on USFS land.

Graphic Via USA Today
Graphic Via USA Today

• Although an initial reading of the informational site at SkiAlpine.com suggests that loading and unloading will be done only at the base stations, further reading reveals this is not true. Subsequent interviews with Andy Wirth have revealed that the three sections of the gondola will be set up to operate independently. That means there will be an ability to load or unload guests at the angled mid-stations. From either side, that gives skiers and riders nearly direct lift served access to terrain near The Buttress and Bernie’s Bowl, eliminating some of Alpine’s best hike to terrain. It’s that sort of hike to terrain that defines Alpine Meadows, not our easy blue groomers.

• No new terrain will become available as a result of the connection, meaning that skiers and riders will not have access to any of the White Wolf terrain. The addition of the gondola appears to just be a matter of convenience that will allow skiers and riders to move more easily between mountains. It will also allow more non-skiers access to the Village at Squaw Valley from Alpine Meadows. You and your grandma will be able to share a GNAR burger at the Rocker for lunch.

• In a Powder magazine interview with Andy Wirth today, he revealed that by Squaw Valley lift access records show 20 to 25 percent of customers ski both mountains on the same day. He claims even he was surprised by the figure. Our survey results show that far fewer people are actually riding both mountains in the same day. We would be willing to bet that a very substantial portion of those people using both mountains are the large numbers of teams that move back and forth between mountains to alleviate crowding at Squaw.

• Today’s announcement is only the first step in a very long process. It simply means that Troy Caldwell has finally figured out how to finance his dreams for White Wolf, and not much more. There’s a long way to go in the process: Squaw has to actually complete a plan, and has contracted ski industry heavyweight, the SE Group to complete it; plans must be submitted for approval to both Placer County and the USFS; the final construction plans must be completed…all before anyone can think about starting anything. If things don’t move quickly enough, a newly formed town would also become a part of the approval process. We expect that Squaw’s efforts to kill off the incorporation will be redoubled. They have already spent just about a half million dollars on stopping the incorporation.

• Andy Wirth knows that the proposed gondola will be a battle. The informational site already suggests that the project can only happen with the support of the people. We can already guess that people will be encouraged to let Placer County and USFS know how badly they want to see the gondola in place. It’s also a sure bet that the gondola connection will be used as a carrot to generate support for the proposed village project, and to reject the incorporation proposal in Olympic Valley. Can Mr. Wirth and SVSH do any better at dividing the community?

• In watching the video presentation, there is no lack of Olympic imagery. It suggests that ultimately, the goal is to bring the Olympics back to SquAlpine and the Tahoe region, which would be the death of Tahoe as we know and love it. But it’s the only thing that would make the over expansion of the village at Squaw viable finically, at least in short term sales.

We’re not the only one that are not jumping on the cheerleading bandwagon with this story today. My Facebook feed was full of RIP Alpine Meadows imagery today. We also ran across a great post that questions the reality of the gondola effort over at Death Of the Pressbox.

Screen Shot 2015-04-13 at 8.23.37 PM

Ultimately, Squaw Valley Ski holdings will not be creating the largest ski area in North America by any measure. With the impending connection between the Canyons and Park City Mountain Resort, which is scheduled for completion this summer, that title has been claimed by Vail Resorts. So do we really need a mega-resort in Tahoe? We don’t think so. Alpine Meadows and Squaw Valley are both awesome mountains, and for a number of reasons, they draw different clientele. We hope that some day, SVSH will realize that there is far more value in operating two different mountains for two different sets of clientele.

We wish that Andy Wirth was worth his words.

As we move forward with consolidating our operations, we want you to know that what’s going to remain the same is as important as what’s going to change: We think the key to the success of the consolidation is our fervent commitment to maintain each resort’s distinctive character. People, terrain, activities, all come together to give a resort its individual character, and that’s what we’re committed to retaining.

– Andy Wirth, September 2011

The funny thing is he said a similar thing today:

My next question to our community would be, “How can we best activate that intent of managing, protecting, and respecting the heritage, history, and vibe of each mountain?” – Andy Wirth

Will Mr. Wirth be true to his words this time? We hope you join us in holding Andy and Squaw Valley Ski Holdings accountable to that promise. We would love to hear your comments.

 

37 thoughts on “The SquAlpine Gondola Connection: A Community Divided”

  1. One would think a 2 mile long gondola with 4 stations would cost many millions.

    Since no more terrain is being added, how does KSL plan on getting a return on their investment? By raising lift ticket prices?

    On a bright note, Squaw’s base elevation will be 700 feet taller, and you can still do the Village Shuffle.

    1. Regarding cost, Whistler’s Peak 2 Peak was north of $50M Canadian. I’m thinking this would be at least $15M. A 10% ROI on $15M is a lot of new season passes…

  2. I was a patroller and patrol doc- first at Squaw and then over 25 years at Alpine.
    I have loved Alpine all these years ans still ski ther.
    However, change is inevitable. As much as we would like things to remain “our way”, change will happen.
    Our best approach to the situation is to accept that it will eventually happen- and give our opinions about to make it as good as possible. A friendly and helpful approach- with suggestions suiting us- can lead to a much better result than an antagonistic,confrontational attitude that is ignored.

  3. I continue to believe Alpine Meadows would be well served by joining the Squaw incorporation movement. It would enable significantly more self-determination, rather than depending on the forest service to manage the valley’s development. Bad call Alpine.

  4. I call B.S. It is marginal improvement KSL wants to use to prove they’re good. Why not replace the existing slow/crap chairs? Why doesn’t Caldwell ski White Wolf?

  5. Wirthless trying to make spectacle in media. Nothing else positive to talk about anymore for wirthy, epic fail compared to Alec Cushy, that’s all.

  6. As a passholder with 52 squaw/ alpine days this year that has skiied both mountains a gondola with multiple drop offs between squaw and alpine seams like a great idea. I want squaw and alpine to be connected by lift.

    1. I agree. I think people are being way too negative. Doing this will enable SquawAlpine to build the other planned lift upgrades…..siberia, hotwheels, granite, red dog, etc.

      1. I don’t understand your logic. How does spending tons of money on one extraneous lift make it possible to upgrade other lifts and not drain funds from them?

        1. I think those lifts were put on hold for two reasons (1) the weather the last few years has impacted cash flow, and (2) determining how they were going to connect with Alpine. Rationale for this is if you notice all of the lift upgrades they have down have been/were on the upper mountain and away from the connection. Now that they know what they are going to do with the connection i think it will unlock issue (2). Issue (1) is still an issue though.

          1. Dream On? Andy just referred to those approved lifts in the Moonshine article. Are you saying he is lying? Why would he do that?

            Wirth noted that even after adding Squaw’s Big Blue Express chairlift in 2013 and with plans to update Siberia, Hot Wheels, Granite Chief, and Red Dog lifts, once the base-to-base gondola is completed there will be less uphill capacity than before 2011, when four chairlifts at Squaw were removed.”

            http://moonshineink.com/news/two-mountains-one-gondola

    2. As a passholder with over 52 days, I find this a complete waste of money. How about they complete the lift upgrades at Squaw first. Red Dog, Sibo, Granite are in dire need of being replaced. A bunch more need serious repairs. In my business we deliver excellence before we take on new projects. Just saying. Squaw is anything but world class these days. In fact the operations suck compared to places likes Jackson, Telluride, Snowbird, Revelstoke, and on and on.

  7. Back when IOV was first considering incorporation, they held a public meeting in Alpine Meadows and sent out a survey to Alpine Meadows resident voters to determine if they were interested in being part of the proposed new town. Back then, Alpine voters seemed to think that the proposed village expansion was pretty much a Squaw only problem. With the announcement of the gondola connection that now seems pretty shortsighted.

  8. Since there will now be this new fantastic transportation available I propose that KSL move the water park to Alpine Meadows and put some of the condo’s at the base of Alpine. Who needs the old day lodge when a 10 story building could go there.

  9. Great diversionary proposal to distract public ire from the great liftline powder day letdown last week. Where is any clarity concerning the current lift maintenance reliability questions and future equipment infrastructure investments that help with the same powder day dillemmas over and over????

    1. Oh snark, They can announce this and that, apply for permits, and that still doesn’t mean it will be built.
      Drought or naught, this is a poorly conceived use of revenue and capital investment.
      Similar to Big Blue, expensive and required removal of existing lifts to compensate for added capacity. What lifts will they have to remove for this capacity?? Squaw now has fewer lifts, and a relatively useless expensive lift that is poorly placed in a more direct cross wind aspect.
      Dumb just plain dumb, and yes, they can’t run a mountain for sh*t.
      Perhaps Mr Warm Regards hasn’t a clue about his ops, maybe he should check Squaw’s FB comments once in a while and really see what people think.
      Total debacle on lifts ops at Squaw this past winter, biggest fail over xmas holiday, sibo down for 30 mins, couldn’t get aux started peeps freezing in east wind. Big Blue out of coolant, aux wouldn’t start, kids had to hike back up to gold coast, “The project further secures Squaw Valley | Alpine Meadows’ position as a leading destination ski resort at a national level.” really?
      Mr. Warm Regards letter in response to xmas = not an epic pass but an
      EPIC FAIL
      Poor product delivery, poor guest experience and even poorer management decisions

  10. Wouldn’t we be more stoked to hear about the plans for upgrading existing lifts that skiers and riders use to actually ski?? There was talk about Red Dog, Siberia, and Hot Wheels getting upgrades, where this this topic go? Maybe fixing and upgrading lifts would be more of celebration for skiers and riders rather than base to base bull$%!t……………

  11. Pingback: Breaking Down the Proposed Squaw / Alpine Meadows Gondola - PowFix

  12. The day Squaw bought Alpine and raised lift prices to ridiculous heights was the end of my lifetime of skiing at Alpine. Still grieving, but Sugar Bowl and Homewood help fill the void.

  13. I remember Comments ages ago that indicated a village and a hi rise carpark would go right about where the gondola ends at AM. But the AM residents didn’t want to join IOV. So when will UA start up a Horrorscope coz you’re freaking psychic!!!!

  14. Quite surprised at lack of discussion here re: lift announcements as marketing hype. I think Death of the Press put forward a highly plausible scenario wherein this big idea is just a splashy neon piece of candy that titillates media but could really never be completed. Private equity is looking to increase the value of their holdings for a quick resale or to load the entities with debt and then collect management fees before they split as the business goes down the drain. With this in mind, I approve of the comments supporting incorporation of the Alpine Meadows community.

  15. The Baby is on fire!

    I have a hard time understanding how anyone is seriously proposing any type of growth anywhere in California. We cannot begin to sustain what we have already built, be it ski resort, golf coarse or shopping mall.

  16. Screw KSL – fix the damn existing infrastructure ya dead beats – the Gondola announcement was nothing but a marketing ploy pipe dream that will not be completed in my lifetime – and I am not that old – Screw KSL –
    hey KSL Marketing – do you like me now ???

  17. Pingback: The Gondola Squawble Continues | UnofficialAlpine.com

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