Parking: More Questions Than Answers In Latest Announcement

Palisades Tahoe finally made an announcement today regarding their plans for paid reservation parking at Alpine Meadows and Palisades Tahoe. It’s an announcement that many have been waiting for weeks, as the rumors have been flying. Today’s announcement, via email and on the official blog, offered few answers, and instead opens up even more in the way of questions. It also does a fair share of gaslighting on the issue. Palisades Tahoe is stuck between a rock and a hard place here, so they are trying not to make the masses angry. I’m just going to remind you, they played a huge role in creating this parking and traffic nightmare in the North Tahoe region.

What The Announcement Did Say

• A paid reservation only parking plan will be in place for the ’23-’24 ski season at both Palisades Tahoe and Alpine Meadows. Parking reservations will be required on Saturdays and Sundays and holiday blackout periods from mid-December through March (and possibly April).

• All lots at Palisades and Alpine Meadows will be a part of the paid reservation system. Previous discussion of parking assumed that the Deer Park and Hidden Valley lots would not require reservations.

• There will be some exceptions to the reservations requirement. Mentioned specifically in this announcement were: Achieve Tahoe, Palisades Tahoe employees, ski team families, village commercial tenants and their employees.

• Parking fees will be collected from day break until midday, with all parking becoming free in the afternoon periods

• The cost for parking at this time is unknown. The numbers I have heard bandied about are between $35 to $50 per day. According to the news release the revenue collected from parking fees is to  “reinvest the funds generated for buses and transportation initiatives.”

• Options to include carpool incentives are still under consideration

• Palisades Tahoe is working to expand local shuttle operations such as the Mountaineer, Sherwood Shuttle, etc.

What The Announcement Did Not Say

• As stated above, the pricing for a parking reservation has yet to be announced.

• No details have been announced about what carpooling incentives might look like.

• Odds are pretty good that more exceptions will be allowed for paid reservations. The initial ones that come to mind are: Guests with a reserved lesson, guests staying in a rental property in the Palisades village, guests that arrived the resort as a visiting team for ski races or other competitions. I’ve heard some pretty solid arguments this week that having a seasonal locker lease should also give you an exemption.

• No details have been released regarding how reservations are placed, how many reservations a guest can hold at one time, when blocks of reservations will be released, or how each reservation will be tracked each day without creating a massive traffic jam at parking lot entrances.

• There are absolutely no specifics given for what is meant by “reinvest the funds generated for buses and transportation initiatives”. In studying up on what’s happening at other areas, much of the revenue collected goes into the pockets of the private companies hired to administer the program.

Yeah, I Have Been Thinking About This A Lot

There’s no doubt that something needs to change when it comes to traffic on the Highway 89 corridor and overloaded parking lots. While Palisades Tahoe does deserve a big chunk of the blame for creating the mess, they are only part of the problem, even though it’s easy to just point fingers in their direction. The huge increase in the availability of bed spaces due to entire neighborhoods being turned into hotels via short term rental properties means that more people can be in Tahoe than ever. Remote work became a thing, pushed into overdrive by the pandemic, allowing people more time to come to Tahoe, or live in Tahoe permanently. Subarus and Jeeps used to the only AWD cars on the road; now you can get a Prius, or a Cadillac with AWD. Fatter skis made powder skiing more accessible to the masses and high speed lifts shortened lift lines. All of these are factors that have something to do with increased traffic and parking issues at every large ski area in Tahoe.

Naturally ski areas have turned to paid parking throughout the west as a way to “disincentivize” casual skiers and riders from showing up at the resort. In some areas, it might work. In fact, the managers that I have talked to all bring this point up: “It worked for Mountain X, so it should work here too.” I’m not sure that I buy that argument. The Tahoe area is not the same as any other area when it comes to the Ikon pass. Honestly, we have some things that make our situation rather unique.

The most important of these is that there are only two Ikon resorts in the Tahoe area, masquerading as one. They also share the same highway as a key access point. Only a very small percentage of guests live, or stay, within Olympic Valley or the Alpine Meadows community. A huge number of guests travel to Alpine Meadows and Palisades along the Highway 89 and Highway 80 corridors each day to go skiing and riding.

The current public transportation system is woefully inadequate to meet the need. Not only are there not enough busses, or traffic lanes, there are no “transit centers” in Truckee, like the one at 64 Acres in Tahoe City (which nobody uses except for rafting and stealth camping). It’s not a solution to just have busses and not have an established remote parking lot that just doesn’t move traffic and parking issues to a new area. Just as an example, it was impossible to park at Raley’s in Truckee during peak season this winter due to Northstar visitors using it as a park and ride or carpool lot.

When it comes to carpooling, I have to cry BS on this being a great solution. On the surface it seems like a practical solution, and maybe it is for some people. Looking at my situation, one of my ski buddies lives 1 mile away in my neighborhood and another lives in Donner Lake, and another lives near the top of Tahoe Donner. So to create my “carpool” we’re supposed to drive around the neighborhoods picking up friends? Keep in mind, in midwinter, these streets are a lane and a half wide and sometime a foot deep in snow. I’ll be leaving at 4am each powder day to make it work! Maybe instead we could all just meet at the SaveMart parking lot and leave three cars there. I am sure that is not a problem at all.

I don’t believe that there is another ski area within Alterra’s holdings that is the only option for an estimated 100,000 pass holders within a 4 hour drive time (day tripping distance). I’ve mentioned it before, Alterra desperately needs another ski area in the Northern California market to serve its passholders. They have oversold their product. Unfortunately, they announced yesterday that they are moving forward on a purchase of Schweitzer ski resort in the middle of nowhere in Idaho. How many people will that draw away from Palisades Tahoe? My guess is 11.

Maybe they have another resort acquisition up their sleeve. But I fear they may not. If that is the case, Alterra needs to be taking a hard look at the real issue, which is overselling their product to keep investors happy. There’s two things that could happen in the interim, until they can offer more skier and rider capacity:

• Reduce the number of days offered to Ikon passholders. Some resorts are limited to only 5 days for Base passholders and some other number for the standard Ikon pass. Unlimited access should require a resort specific pass. That resort specific pass does not have to be more expensive, it just would not come with privileges to ski other resorts. I would happily trade access to other resorts for a better guest experience. The only other place I want to go to on the Ikon pass is Mammoth, and that is pretty infrequently. I could give it up. Obviously it’s too late to make that sort of change for ’23-’24, as pass sales have already started for the season. Word on the street is that this option is under exploration for ’24-’25. This is the better answer for overcrowding at Alpine Meadows and Palisades, and the resultant traffic and parking issues.

• For the immediate future and next season, Palisades Tahoe should pull the plug on marketing. Here we are in June, and on a Friday, the upper lots at Alpine Meadows were full except for Subway. That is insane. The passes are sold, the people are here, and every weekend is a four day weekend. Okay, they shouldn’t entirely pull the plug. People like to know what’s happening and they like a little buzz. We don’t need a constant barrage of “powder alerts”, self proclamations of the being the spring skiing capital, and endless video of the beautiful people jumping off stuff. Okay, so yes, in a way, we at Unofficial Alpine might be small part of the problem. I get it. At least we tell you when the skiing is not great too. Today…it was $%#@ing crowded.

So Here We Are

Palisades Tahoe is jumping on to the “paid parking” bandwagon, as it’s one thing they can do to stop some people from going skiing and riding. They have to at least give an impression that they are working on the problem.

I’m hoping that somehow I will fall into the 1001 “exceptions” that will be created between now and and the beginning of next ski season. If you have known me, I have been plotting since I was about 18 years old about how I could move to Tahoe and become a ski bum. I worked a large part of my life making that happen, moving to Tahoe when I turned 40 and finally becoming a ski bum at age 55. I don’t want that to end now.

I’ve been a passholder at Alpine Meadows for over 25 seasons now. I have had a season locker lease for more than 20 years. We put our our son through 5 years of ski team at Alpine Meadows. I have easily spent more than $1000 a year on food and beverages at Alpine Meadows over the last 20 seasons. My friends accuse me of only owning Alpine Meadows logo emblazoned tees, hoodies and hats (I would estimate the current number at 40). Since 2008, I’ve written about 2000 daily ski reports for Alpine Meadows, with no compensation from the mountain. (Last month I earned $1.86 in sticker sales).  I have driven an EV to Alpine Meadows nearly every day over the past three seasons. I am not going to claim to be Alpine Meadows biggest fan, because I know there are people out there that love it just as much, or more, than I do. I am pretty certain that one of the things above, or all together should qualify as an “exception” to parking reservations.

Besides just being a pain in the ass, paid reservation parking for next season will cost dedicated skiers and riders like myself between $1500 and $2200. I am basing that on about 45 days of paid reservations times $35 to $50. While I do have a fairly good pension after 30+ years of teaching, that is still a huge number for those of us that live on fixed incomes. It’s a drop in the bucket for the tech crowd that remotely works in Tahoe and brings in $250k+ a year. A lot of my friends are talking about skiing other mountains, or just not skiing weekends any more. The tech bros are just asking for another raise. That makes me sad. Weekends are the only time I can ski with my extended family, or friends that still work traditional jobs.

I look forward to your commentary.