Alterra Needs A Third Mountain In Northern California

Disclaimer: This post is probably going to generate some hate mail. Nobody wants their home mountain taken over by one of the two giant ski companies, Vail Resorts and Alterra Mountain Company. But a lot of factors have resulted in an increased demand for skiing and riding in Northern California: multi-mountain passes, better equipment, social media, short term rentals and remote work opportunities to name just a few. Alterra Mountain Company has a problem. Pass sales have outstripped the carrying capacity of the North Tahoe area. Something needs to change. There’s two ways to go here: limit people’s access to the mountain or acquire more mountain space that spreads your pass holders over a wider area of Northern California or Nevada. I did not create this problem, I’m just reporting on it. (Written Saturday 1/21/23 but still valid Sunday 1/22/23)

This was a frustrating day for many people. The traffic along the Highway 89 corridor was insane in the morning, as was the Highway 267 corridor to Northstar. The town of Truckee and much of the north shore of Lake Tahoe ended up in gridlock. Everyone seemed to know someone that took 2 plus hours to get to the mountain from Highway 80, only to find most of the lots full. Even as I left Alpine Meadows at 2pm to avoid traffic, the parking lot was jammed. It was not jammed with people trying to leave, it was jammed with people still looking for an empty space so they could squeeze in a couple of hours of skiing this afternoon, having missed the morning.

If you’re a skier, you can avoid that. I left my house at 7am and arrived at Alpine Meadows at 7:30, just as the traffic was really starting to surge. People that left ten minutes later than me reported taking twice as long, especially to get through the mouse hole. That gave me 90 minutes to stand in a huge line at Treats and sit around waiting for lifts to roll. That’s a better solution to me than sitting in traffic for hours.

Not everyone is a skier headed to the mountain. Some people are just trying to get to work or pick something up at the store and get back home. They also get to deal with that traffic….every weekend, every holiday and every powder day. It’s beyond ridiculous.

The experience on the mountain was somewhat okay today and yesterday. By being flexible about where you skied and when you skied, you could avoid long lift lines. Usually the Palisades app is reasonably good at helping make decisions (note that I specifically did not state that wait time estimates are correct).I do take issue with crowds in the base areas and runout areas to most of the lifts. They were really busy, something like Hwy 580 at rush hour in the Spaghetti Bowl. Alpine Bowl yesterday…yikes! Weasel and Sherwood runs today…avoid at all costs.

I know…a lot of factors came together this weekend: 30 feet of new snow, bluebird conditions, widespread TV coverage of said new snow and bluebird conditions, Silverado opening, and a big race event at Alpine Meadows. The thing is, there’s some blend of factors that bring people to the mountains every weekend and holiday. The list is endless…at least until Little League season starts and golf courses reopen. Can you imagine what it will be like the weekend of the Palisades Tahoe Cup in February?

This idea of Alterra needing another mountain in Northern California has been stewing in my crockpot for a year or two now. Alterra had not acquired a new ski mountain since 2018, when it purchased Solitude Mountain in Utah. (Nup, they purchased Sugarbush in VT in 2019) Then this week, they announced that they have closed on the purchase of Snow Valley ski area in Southern California. Alterra now owns 5 mountains in the Southern California market: Big Bear, Snow Summit, Snow Valley, Mammoth Mountain and June Mountain.

In Northern California, Alterra owns two mountains: Palisades Tahoe and Alpine Meadows. They want you to believe that it is really only one mountain. That allows them to call it the 3rd largest resort in North America. Apparently that is so we forget that Vail Resorts has three mountains in the Northern California market: Northstar, Heavenly and Kirkwood. At least those three resorts are spread over a wide area to spread the impact of the traffic they create…which is massive.

So what are the available solutions for Alterra when it comes to the Northern California market? One would assume that they have analysts working on this, but so far all we have heard is solutions that will only bring more people to Palisades and Alpine Meadows. This year we got the $65 million Base To Base gondola, which does nothing to take traffic off the road, nor did it expand terrain in any way. Thursday, the Placer County Planning Commission held their first hearing in the basically unrevised village expansion proposal over at Palisades Tahoe. Regardless of what you hear the developers say, this is not a project that will reduce traffic, nor will it expand ski terrain. It will only serve to bring more cars to the roads and more skiers and riders on the mountain. Adding amusement park features to the village will ensure that we can sit ensnarled in traffic throughout every month of the year. (I encourage you to email your comments on the project to cdraecs@placer.ca.gov before the January 30th deadline.)

Could Alterra build an entirely new ski area from scratch in Northern California? Just about every expert says there is no way that will happen given current environmental restrictions and regulations. The last two efforts to build new resorts failed early in the process. A ski area was proposed near Independence Lake north of Truckee in 1965 by Walt Disney, and the Dyer Mountain Resort was proposed near Westwood in 2000. Neither came to fruition. The last ski area to open in Northern California was Northstar in 1972.

Even if Alterra chose to build a brand new ski area, estimates are that the environmental review and planning process could take more than 10 years, and then an additional 5 to 10 years to build facilities. They need something now. Again this gets sticky, as very few people are interested in seeing Alterra, or Vail Resorts, purchase their home mountain, nor are they interested in having their mountain join the Ikon pass.

But here’s the thoughts on the different ski areas in Northern California and Nevada that are not already a part of Vail Resorts or Alterra.

These Ski Areas Are Not Likely To Be Part Of A Solution

Homewood is often mentioned as the next possible acquisition for Alterra. Homewood has been owned by JMA Ventures since 2006. They are currently exploring the concept of becoming a private ski resort, open only to people that buy into their proposed development or live in that neighborhood. Will that concept fly? Maybe. Maybe not. That would be a whole different article. Homewood suffers from a low elevation and aging lifts. In some people’s mind, they are thrilled by the thought of a lift connecting Alpine Meadows to Homewood. But otherwise, Homewood is even farther away from Highway 80 and sits on the same traffic corridor as Palisades and Alpine Meadows. It would do nothing to improve the situation.

Sugar Bowl is also often mentioned as a possibility. Sugar Bowl is privately owned and people are as possessive of Sugar Bowl as we are at Alpine Meadows. The mountains do share some similarities. Although Sugar Bowl is a great mountain, it is also accessed primarily via Highway 80, which is a large part of the North Tahoe problem. That get’s compounded by the last 5 miles on Highway 40, a two lane road. Traffic there can be nightmarish just with the current pass holders. Lodging and other amenities are limited on the Summit, putting many of those people into Truckee.

Mount Rose is another option that is often mentioned as a prime acquisition candidate. It’s a fantastic mountain for sure, having also been a pass holder there too. The current management has been diligent about modernizing lifts and expanding terrain to meet the ever growing demand from the Reno area. Mount Rose is pretty inconvenient for the Sacramento Valley and Bay Area weekend crowd, but there is plenty of housing in Reno for visitors. This could be a boon for Ikon pass holders in the Reno-Carson area. They may not admit it, but a lot of my friends that ski Mount Rose also like to come ski Alpine Meadows and Palisades.

Diamond Peak is a lovely little mountain. (Sssshhhh Mark!) It’s owned by a government agency, the Incline Village General Improvement District. There is absolutely no way they are selling or entering into any agreements. If Incline Village residents had their way, you would not be able to buy a day ticket or season pass without being a resident.

These Ski Areas Could Possibly Help Alterra In Meeting The Demand For Skiing and Riding

Sierra At Tahoe is recovering from the 2021 Caldor Fire, which burned over most of the resort. This is their first season being open again after a year of rebuilding last season. Like Alpine Meadows, people that love Sierra At Tahoe are very protective of their home mountain. That said, some have moved on as it’s a different mountain now, having lost much of its glades terrain. One huge benefit of Sierra At Tahoe is that it is far removed from Palisades and Alpine Meadows and offers a great opportunity in particular for day trippers.

Bear Valley is slightly farther south, along Highway 4. It is completely removed from the hubbub of Lake Tahoe. There’s not much available for long term stays at Bear Valley, so it currently makes more sense as a day or weekend destination. The mountain has been owned by a couple of different real estate developers over the last couple of decades. Neither of them has been great at managing the mountain. Maybe the current owners might be receptive to a buyout. Drawing a number of skiers and riders away from the North Tahoe region would be a good thing. My guess is that skiers and riders might appreciate an option that keeps them out of the turmoil.

Dodge Ridge is even farther south along Highway 108 near Pinecrest. It’s definitely a great daytripper resort for the Sacramento Valley and Bay area market. Other than that, it’s one of the only California ski areas that I have never been to in my lifetime. They were begging for skiers to “come on down” on KCRA last night.

The next two would best work as a pair of acquisitions. That would be the combination of Boreal Resort and Donner Ski Ranch. They sit back to back on Donner Summit, each having had lifts that run right to the boundary line. Around the 99-00 season, they even had an interconnect ticket available.  Connecting them into one resort would be a fairly easy task. Chair #5 at DSR still runs right up to Boreal’s ridgeline. Boreal stopped using it’s Quicksilver chair in 2009, so it would need replacement. Both resorts could use some updates. Both offer excellent beginner to intermediate terrain. Access to Boreal from Highway 80 couldn’t get any easier, and there is a lot of parking lot space already in place at Boreal. If you really wanted to get crazy, you could include Soda Springs in the deal and build a gondola between the two.

I think that covers the possibilities in Northern California for existing ski areas. There’s really only a few choices and maybe Alterra should be exploring more than one of them.

What’s The Alternative?

I’m not super excited about any of the alternatives. Some I think are just pipe dreams, and others will likely cramp my style as an every day ski bum, or those people that like to ski or ride a lot. The skiing life is one that many of us have built our lives around. We’ve made sacrifices and investments in our future to make a life in Tahoe, where skiing is the focus of everything for at least 6 months of the year.

Investment In Public Transportation:  Many people are quick to jump on the public transportation bandwagon. Most of those ideas involve building remote parking lots somewhere around the Martis Valley and asking people to jump on a bus to take them to their ski resort. Those buses could maybe run in a third lane on the Highway 89 corridor. Ultimately, there are few people who are going to wake up the family at 4:30am in Los Altos to pile into the Tesla with all of their ski gear, to park in a remote lot and transfer everything to a bus for the ride to Alpine Meadows. Ski all day and reverse the process? Not happening. Maybe locals with equipment in a seasonal locker might consider it, but likely not. Looking at the current bus schedule I have to find away to the bus depot, ride 27 minutes to Olympic Valley, then ride the shuttle or B2b to Alpine Meadows after the lifts open. Public transportation works better when the ski area is right in town.

Charging For Parking: This is a solution which many overbooked ski areas are turning to over the last couple of years. We make skiing inclusive by selling cheap passes, then make it exclusive by charging big parking fees. Sure this will probably encourage more people to carpool, but it’s really just a new cash grab for ski areas. Those same ski areas could take the tactic of rewarding those that carpool. Currently there is some carpool parking at Palisades and at one point, lot 2 at Alpine. The only reward is slightly closer parking. Also enforcement of the carpool lot is basically none. What if carpoolers were instead given a coupon for $5 off lunch. How much is the ski area losing if you give $5 off a $25 jumbo pretzel?

Requiring Reservations For Skiing: And that naturally becomes limiting how frequently we can ski. I don’t have a current stats on the average number of days people ski, as most of my friends are ski bums. But the number I have heard at other times is 10-12 days per season is around an average for Tahoe skiers. Those people can probably deal with a reservations or limits on how frequently they can ski, as they would never hit that limit. But those of us that built their life around becoming a ski bum, reservations and limitations would be tough to swallow.

Increase Pass Prices and Sell Fewer Passes: That’s essentially what corporate America learned during the pandemic. All you have to do is make less stuff or provide fewer services, then raise the price you charge to insane levels. Over the last few years it has worked for the automobile industry, the gas companies, and most recently, the large corporate egg producers. Sure, that does fly in the face of the National Ski Area Associations diversity and inclusivity goals, but it is a possible solution. I know I could never afford a season pass growing up. I have no idea how my mother, a single mom, could even afford to take us skiing.

Be A Backcountry Skier!: I hear this drumbeat often as well. “Just stop going to the resorts and go backcountry skiing.” There’s just not enough backcountry for all of us. If you drive the Highway 89 corridor, you know how crowded the two primary entry points, Pole Creek and Deep Creek, have gotten over the last few years. The story is the same at Little Truckee Summit, the Yuba Pass, Coldstream Canyon, Donner Peak, Jakes, Tahoe Meadows and everywhere else around Tahoe.

A Tough Solution

Back in 2014, I wrote a pair of articles (Part 1 and Part 2) about the disappearance of small ski areas and the importance they have as “breeder and feeder” areas. At that time, participation in skiing was declining. The Epic pass was just beginning to really grow, and Alterra’s Ikon Pass was not even a thing yet. The times have changed, as nearly every ski area is now a part of some multi-area pass. Passes are overall cheaper and skiing and riding is once again a popular thing. The pandemic really pushed that into high gear.

The moral of the story is that we have fewer ski areas in California than ever, and more people that want to go skiing. What’s happening now around Lake Tahoe is just not sustainable with so many skiers and riders converging on just a few areas. We certainly cannot stand any further large scale growth, such as the proposed Village at Palisades development. We need to look at better utilizing all currently existing ski areas, and ensuring that no more ski areas close due to lack of investment by owners.

There’s no reason some of these smaller areas can’t still be breeder/feeder ski areas, even under corporate ownership. Vail Resorts has gotten very creative about offering limited passes to just certain areas or resorts. There’s  no reason Alterra couldn’t get creative as well. Let’s hope for the best.