USFS Gives Their Final Stamp Of Approval To The Gondola Project, Lawsuit Settled

Honestly, the skiing was just not that great today. There is also not much weather to talk about, besides frostbite inducing temperatures. So we are offering an update on the proposed gondola. 

The United States Forest Service has given their final stamp of approval to the “Base To Base Gondola”, that will likely eventually connect Alpine Meadows and Squaw Valley. This should not come as a surprise to anyone, as they have long demonstrated their enthusiasm for the project. Final approval of the project by Placer County is likely a slam dunk.

Fortunately, they took their role seriously enough to insist that Squaw Valley Alpine Meadows use the “Alternative 4” alignment. This keeps it outside of the boundary of the GraniteChief Wilderness by about 1100 feet. It also somewhat reduces the visual impact along Alpine Meadows Road and most homes in Alpine Meadows. Theoretically, it will also reduce impacts to the endangered Sierra Nevada Yellow Legged Frog. It will certainly be a visual blight for visitors arriving at Alpine Meadows, as the proposed alignment will cross right in front of the lodge.

Certainly one of the largest concerns to those of us that enjoy skiing at Alpine Meadows is the potential to bring even more skiers to the slopes at Alpine Meadows. Over the last 20 years, since I became an Alpine Meadows passholder, there has been a good balance between available parking spaces and skier traffic on the slopes. That sentiment was echoed in the last revision of the Alpine Meadows master plan.

After the “merger” of Squaw and Alpine, joint passes and shuttle buses from the other side have added more skiers than the mountain can handle. Cheap Ikon passes make those “overcrowded” days much more frequent. It’s hard to imagine what things might look like if another 1300 skiers could come this direction every hour.

Supporters of the gondola will tell you that it was the dream of John Reily, or other Alpine Meadows founding families, to connect the two mountains. While that may be true, it’s more important to note that many of us came to enjoy Alpine Meadows as an alternative to Squaw Valley. Ground was broken for the first version of the village at Squaw Valley somewhere around the year 2000, and many of us decided  at that time that we would rather be over the hill at Alpine Meadows. The powers that be have had no problem collecting signatures in support of the gondola, mostly from Bill and Nancy from Hoboken NJ, visiting Squaw Valley for their once every 10 years Tahoe trip. Local support for the gondola is not nearly as strong.

Supporters of the gondola will also tell you that since Squaw Valley Alpine Meadows owns the property, that they can do whatever they want to do with it. The same logic is used in support of the proposed White Wolf project next door to Alpine Meadows. But the facts are that private property ownership does not give us the absolute right to do whatever we want with our property. State laws, local zoning laws and home owner’s associations direct what I can do on my property. So much for my plans to build a tiny house subdivision, MOD Pizza and miniature golf course on my cul-de-sac!

A recent article loosely quoted SVAM COO Ron Cohen as stating that just because a huge village project with its associated water park and other “features” has been approved by Placer County, that does not mean they have to build it as such. We hope they have second thoughts about building the Base To Base Gondola. It seems like both mountains are now operating at close to capacity during most weekends, even in this low snow year. It seems improbable that the gondola will do that much to bring in more mid-week traffic to the mountain or the village. It also wouldn’t do much to affect summer traffic in the village, as the approval specifically prohibits public gondola operations outside of ski season. It just seems like a huge waste of money for SVAM. The last estimated cost we saw for the project was $30 million dollars, back when the project was first proposed, and it is most likely going to be more than that now.

What are some things we think are more important?

• Replace the Scott chair

• Replace the Lakeview chair

• Replace the Subway/Meadow chair

• Replace Alpine Bowl chair

• Expand the Chalet

• Build something Chalet-like at Sherwood (maintaining the “snow beach”)

• Invest in traffic reduction on Highway 89 from Truckee to Tahoe City

• Build employee housing/transportation

Certainly the list of potential projects over the hill at Squaw Valley is just as long, if not longer. The upshot is, it would be great to see SVAM invest in keeping both mountains the best they can be, rather than let upgrades slide all in the name of marketing “we’re one huge resort”.

So yeah, we stated an opinion here. We’re happy to have you politely share you’re thoughts too. But don’t expect us to become ground zero in any battles…

Complete details on the proposed gondola project are available here.

Granite Chief Protection League Settles Lawsuit Against Gondola

Also in the news one day later, the Granite Chief Protection League settled their lawsuit against the gondola project. The three biggest take-aways are:

• SVAM will set aside 27 acres of habitat for the Sierra Nevada Yellow Legged Frog and provide funding for study of the population.

• SVAM will set aside funds to allow the Truckee Donner Land Trust to purchase land that is currently under private land that is inside of the congressionally designated boundary of the Granite Chief Wilderness. It is unclear if this would be the part of the White Wold property that has been a large source of contention for the gondola project.

• SVAM accepted limitations on operation of the gondola only during ski season

Complete details on the settlement are in the press release from SVAM