Catching Up With News

Boy, a guy leaves the country for nine days and suddenly there is a whole bunch of news and various tid-bits about Alpine Meadows and that other nearby mountain. Of course, the first of those stories broke while I was at the airport at IAD on the way to Europe for a cruise on the Rhine River. That resulted in a hurried piece last week, typed 100% on my phone. After that, we pretty much turned off the news, other than getting alerts for the Bear Fire, twenty-ish miles north of Truckee. Surprisingly, my jet lag management has been somewhat successful, allowing me to take a look at things this morning after 24 hour travel day and a midnight arrival in Reno.

Since we were on a boat for much of our travel, I am not yet inspired to ski in the Alps. The one ski area I saw was the tiny Hinterzarten in the Black Forest with its three T-bars. It’s on my list of places to go to some day. I love those tiny places.

A Bunch Of Minor Updates, Which Is Not Surprising

Over that last couple of seasons, there’s been a whole lot of investment at Alpine Meadows and NAW Valley, with probably 90% of that being the shiny boxes that connect the two mountains. There’s plenty of discussion on whether or not that was a worthwhile investment. Frequent readers here know that we think the value is dubious compared to the many other investments that could have been made to lift infrastructure. But ultimately, that means that Alpine Meadows and the place next door are pretty much at the back of the line for a while when it comes to Alterra making big investments in either mountain. So set your sights low.

• $1.4 million dollars invested in new snowmaking equiment. Oddly, this was the same amount announced last season, and me wonders if this is the same expenditure announced last fall. At Alpine Meadows, that got us new lines and equipment in the area of Ladies Slalom. This year, specific additions were mentioned next door, with a focus on the Gold Coast area to allow for quicker opening of that terrain and on the race course zone at Julia’s Gold.
• New snowcats? Again, I wonder if the three new snowcats announced for this year are the same three new snowcats announced from PistenBully last season. Also “renewable” diesel is the new norm. Wouldn’t it be cool if they could just run fry grease right out the back wall of the kitchen into the snow cats?
• New loading ramp built out at that bottom of the Scott Chair. If you have ever taken a close look at the base of Scott Chair early in the season, it’s not flat where the normal queueing area is located. Each season, it takes a lot of snow making or snow farming to build this area up. Hopefully this means some dirt work happened that will lessen that process. One would assume that they also may have built a more permanent load ramp as has been done at Roundhouse and Hotter Wheels.
• The rental and demo shop have been gutted and completely redone. I have not seen the final results, but I did see “in progress” photos. They took out everything and started from scratch. It needed it. While there have been a few upgrades over the years, much of it has looked the same as the first time I rented equipment at 12 years old. There will be entirely new furniture, lighting, equipment dryers and equipment racks. I imagine that they may have done some work to improve the flow through the rental and return process.

• The press release notes the purchase of a new Wintersteiger Jupiter tuning machine, which is really a cool piece of equipment. I’ve seen it in action at a few very large ski shops. It’s a huge piece of equipment and one would assume it will end up on the other side. Otherwise they would have to dedicate a lot more space to the tuning shop at Alpine Meadows.
• Minor updates have been made at The Chalet. The outer deck rails are sporting that trendy charcoal colored paint look. Inside some of the wood work was refinished. I would hope they would bring back the old furniture and menu, but likely not.
• A new version of the “Stoked Oak” will finally return to the Alpine Meadows sun deck. The old one was literally tacked onto the front of the lodge on the west side of the deck. The new one will be located near the B2B on the other side of the deck. The menu reportedly will include brisket, chicken and house made bacon. I would love to see a return of tri-tip to that menu. Additionally, it would be nice to return to a small and simple (read cheap) BBQ burger or hot dog offering. The memo says the BBQ items should be available both inside of the lodge and outdoors. Hopefully there will be more commitment to the Stoked Oak than the short lived taco truck.
• The Mountaineer shuttle service also will offer some expansions for the season. An additional van will be available on the Alpine Meadows side for weekends and holidays, which should help response times when it gets busy. Some additional hours have been added, with the press release stating that service will be available Thursday through Monday from 7am to 11pm.
• The Palisades Tahoe express shuttle is also slated to operate earlier this season, allowing for easier transit between the two ski areas before the shiny boxes start moving. Exact details are not available.
• Update: A buddy that works at AM gives a more complete list: Painted lodge interior and breezeway, painted all green railings, stained and repainted the Achieve building, stained portions of the lodge; new epoxy floor in several bathrooms, painted the Chalet deck railings and stained the deck and wraparound bar, new paint at the Chalet, new carpet at the Chalet, new gutters and heat tape on the Chalet roof, asphalt repairs in the parking lot, scheduled painting of the race building at the Roo. To say they have been busy is an understatement. The Alpine Meadows team shows their love for the area.

Palisades Tahoe Announces Amy Ohran As New COO

Parking Reservations Return For ’24-’25

Parking reservations will return for the ’24-’25 ski season at Alpine Meadows and the other place over there. According to the press releases, the reservation system did fix all of the woes with Tahoe traffic. Real time frequent users know that most of the improvements in traffic last season understand that the reduction in traffic last season likely had far more to do with the lackluster snowfall.

As of now there are no changes announced for this season as to how the program works. Reservations will be required on both sides for all weekends and major holiday periods from December into April. Parking will remain reservation free during the midweek, except for holidays. For now it looks like the reservation process will remain exactly the same as last season. It was not ideal last season, but once you got accustomed to the process, it was not insurmountable. While there were people that had issues, I managed to get a free reservation every weekend of the season and was never ticketed. Hopefully the people at Honk have beefed up their servers and bandwidth to deal with simultaneous reservation requests each Tuesday. If there are changes to the system, we will report on any updates.

A Third Mountain In The NorCal Market

As my last post indicated, we now have some limited access to a new mountain in the Northern California market with our Ikon passes. An agreement has been struck with Sierra At Tahoe that allows for Ikon pass holders to access the slopes at SAT. Users with the standard Ikon pass get 7 days, while base pass users will get 5 days. This will not be a major game changer in the same way it might have been if Alterra purchased the mountain fully.

It’s not a situation where a family of frequent skiers will be able to choose to go to Sierra most of the time as an alternative to the more crowded mountains to the north. As an example, Google maps reports that it’s a 90 minute drive in good weather from Truckee. Add in icy roads, ski resort traffic and a closure at Emerald Bay and it’s a non-starter if you’re already in North Tahoe. But if you are the average family in NorCal that uses your Ikon pass a dozen days a year, it is absolutely easier to get to Sierra At Tahoe from any point in the central valley or bay area. Odds are good you might choose Sierra as an alternative on busy weekends. That will relive some pressure on Alpine Meadows and NAW Valley.

Looking at different perspectives this is a win for your average Ikon pass holder that is not committed to North Tahoe by teams or owning or having a ski lease in North Tahoe. It’s also a win for the economy in the Sierra At Tahoe, which has struggled to recover from the Caldor fire.

Obviously, it’s a blow to anyone that has enjoyed a quiet ski day at Sierra away from the crowds. They will be overrun by Ikon pass holders in the same way we have been at Alpine Meadows and that is unfortunate. But if it means the ski area will survive to spin the lifts, rather than becoming another lost ski area. That’s a win.