We Need Less Of This: RIP Palisades Tahoe App

Yes, I know. It was just six months ago that I wrote a piece on breaking up with the Palisades Tahoe app. There were a number of reasons given for that decision. In that article I noted that it seemed like those in charge of running the app on a day to day basis weren’t keeping up with things. Useful notifications regarding mountain operations became much less frequent; changes to the status of lift operations sometimes never appeared; and the Legendary Rewards that were promised as “Coming Soon” never materialized. I should have recognized those signs as meaning that the Palisades Tahoe app was about to be abandoned.

I first caught wind of this possibility a month ago on Xitter, in a post from someone in the mountain community that mentioned that the Ikon Pass app would be replacing local mountain apps. As is per normal, since it appeared on Xitter, I waited for some confirmation that this was indeed the case. Then I saw the announcement below in a tiny box on the PalisadesTahoe.com front page. Suddenly I wanted the Palisades Tahoe app more than ever.

The Chicken Or The Egg?

One wonders how this decision was made. Was this a top down decision from the overlords at Alterra Mountain Company, in an effort to standardize everything related to the Ikon Pass? Or was it a decision made by Palisades Tahoe, realizing that there was really no reason to continue developing and supporting the Palisades Tahoe app if similar capabilities were baked into the Ikon Pass app. The reality is that the Ikon Pass has had some overlap for some time. That said, I really have never even used the Ikon Pass app.

I have never identified myself as an “Ikon Pass” skier. I have never applied an Ikon sticker to my bumper, ski helmet or skis. Truth be told, since the Ikon pass became a thing in 2018, I have not visited another Ikon resort other than Mammoth Mountain. I was skiing at Mammoth Mountain several times a season 15 years before my SquAlpine pass became an Ikon pass. Given the opportunity to purchase a pass for just Alpine Meadows and the northern annex, I would do it if the cost was equal. Remember, I am the guy that kept the Alpine Meadows app on my phone for a decade after it stopped working, just so I could enjoy the Alpine Meadows logo on my screen. Sadly, with a recent update to iOS, it now just appears as the number 7 on my screen.

Maintaining The Individual Identities Of Mountains

Each of the local mountains that make up a part of the Alterra Mountain Company portfolio has a unique culture that has been developed over several decade, involving several generations of families. Our home mountain often becomes a part of our families culture, as we return day after day to ski, ride and see our posse of friends. We sport stickers, hoodies and tees that identify us as being a part of a tribe. For years, Alterra Mountain Company seemed to value this idea, with this statement often appearing when mountains were acquired:

At each destination, Alterra Mountain Company leaders are empowered to be decisive, creative, and bold in order to retain each mountain’s authentic character. Recognizing the innate value of the unique culture found at each of the mountain communities, Alterra Mountain Company’s goal is to preserve, sustain and support its two most important resources: the mountains and the people who live and play in them.

But that statement seems to have been watered down, now appearing as this on the AMC website:

The homogenization of the ski experience is not a good thing. We talk about it all of the time. Alpine Meadows and the place next door offer similar terrain and are only a few miles apart. But the cultures were always quite different, not in a bad way. Both provided a different experience that was the right thing for somebody. This is a good thing. Imagine if a McDonald’s hamburger were the only hamburger you could ever eat, people would stop eating hamburgers.

Functionally The Apps Are Mostly The Same

For the most part, the two apps work the same. They provide the same functions, including lift operations, weather, maps and dining options. But digging deeper, they are not equivalents, not at all. The Ikon Pass app nearly erases the division of Palisades Tahoe into two separate mountains. There’s just about no mention of the Alpine (Meadows) base area at all. Lifts are grouped by peaks, rather than locations. There’s only one weather report for the entire place. To a visitor planning their first trip to the area, it would be easy to assume that it is just one big mountain. We know that is not true, especially on one of the many days where the B2B shiny boxes are not in operation.

Badges?

You may be one of those people that have never discovered the achievements in the Palisades Tahoe app. Then again you might be one of those like myself that have some built-in draw toward completing the challenges, even it it only results in a virtual badge that only you can see in the app. I know it’s not just me. The achievement challenges that have been a part of the Palisades Tahoe app were actually well thought out, being playful, as well as honoring the mountain culture at both Alpine Meadows and the other place. Here’s a partial list:

• 8 Peak Connoisseur – Visit all of the peaks at PT in one season
• Lift Legend – Ride all 12 legendary lifts at PT
• Ride Around The World – Ride all lifts at PT in one season
• From First Turns To First Tracks – Discover the best beginner terrain at OT & AM
• Easy Rider – 10 Green trails in a day
• High Camp Hero – Ride all three lifts at High Camp in one day
• Hot Laps – Lap Gold Coast 20 times in one day
• Mothership Master – Lap KT-22 22 times in one day
• Tahoe Torchbearer – Ride all three trails named for olympic champions
• Shirley Five – Ride all 5 treelined runs off of the Shirley chair
• Furthest Corner – Ride Sherwood and Granite Chief in the same day
• Lakeview Lover – Ride the 4 main trails off of Lakeview in one day
• Summit 60 – Ride the Summit lift 60 times in one season
• Base to Base Warrior – Ride B2B four times in one day

By contrast, the achievements presented in the Ikon Pass app are boring, likely written to cover all mountains rather than individual mountains.

• Vert Crush – Achieve different levels by vertical feet
• Lifted Laps – Achieve different levels by number of laps skied
• Days Stacked – Achieve different levels by number of days skied
• Adventure Seeker – Achieve different levels by number of resorts skied

Even the somewhat neurodivergent me is not interested. Yes I do track those stats within the app, but I don’t need badges for that. I do enjoy comparing what I am doing from season to season. For those of you that have also been tracking your stats in the Palisades Tahoe app, no, that information does not carry over to the Ikon Pass app. Fortunately I had already screenshot that data as I had already committed to using the Slopes app from here on out.

Update: The final update to the Palisades Tahoe app had one function and that is to export your data to the Ikon Pass app. That process was simple with a caveat. The export part happened lickety split and once that it done – you no longer have any access to the Palisades Tahoe app. The weirdness started when I checked for the stats in the Ikon Pass app. They were not there. Yikes!! The fix was to delete the Ikon Pass app, then download it again. This caused a refresh to all of the data and it now appears correctly in the Ikon Pass app.

Where Will It End?

Where will this erosion of individual mountain identities end? I fear it won’t. How long will it be before mountains are renamed homogeneously to something like “Ikon Tahoe”? When will some bean counter decide that it’s cheaper to use the same yellow and blue employee uniforms at every mountain? When will Estelle Sports start selling only the same “Ikon Pass” schwag as every other mountain? We will eventually get to a place where a lunch at Alpine Meadows will look identical to a lunch at Winter Park, thanks to the standardization provided by food giant Sysco.

Okay…end of that rant. Moving on…

We Need Less Of This: Storms That Get Weaker At The Last Minute

We are now just about 24 hours out from the next winter-like storm of the pre-season moving into Tahoe. Like the storms before it, it’s looking weaker than what was shown in the models just five days ago. It looks better than nothing, as a Winter Storm Watch has been issued:

Wednesday Morning Update: Ugh!!! Once again the models have pulled back on snowfall amounts. The low stays a bit farther off shore, keeping snow levels above 8500 feet. The Winter Storm Warning has been downgraded to a Winter Weather Advisory. As the title says…we need less of this!

This is nice to see and I hope this pans out. It’s just may not be enough to convince Mount Rose to spin their Lakeview lift as soon as I might like. It also may not lay down enough natural snow to get snow making operations into gear at other Tahoe mountains. The GIF below tells the story:

You can see how that first low looks to dive down the coast, rather than continuing on to the east with all of its energy. This leads to a thing called “negative tilt”, which I will explain some other time, as this post is getting very long. You can see in the GIF that successive storms next week look stronger and follow a more traditional path.

So this is the latest GFS ensemble run for total snowfall. The ensemble runs are better than the individual operational runs, as much more data gets taken into consideration. Seeing an ensemble this strong is encouraging, looking like several feet of snow falling. The wider band also indicates that snow will fall to lover snow levels over the next 16 days. I will believe it when I ski it.

The new stickers arrived and should be available shortly. The poplar die cut holographic stickers have been replaced with a squarish model, as the tops of the chairlift on the old versions were easily damaged. I also added the “Always Alpine Meadows” tagline as that is what we are about. Think snow peeps!