More Snow Making Improvements At Alpine Meadows

We’ve probably been remiss in our failure to mention that the Siberia chair lift replacement project is underway over ay Squaw. The marketing team at SquAlpine did a pretty good job of letting people know it was finally happening. If you have spent much time riding Siberia in the last decade, you know it’s long overdue.

Yes, we know that the “Chair To Nowhere” is also overdue for replacement. We first reported about the replacement plan for Hot Wheels back in July of 2012. Survey markers were in place back in the summer of 2013. But we’ll still be enjoying those 13+ minute rides next season. I find it’s a good time to check email and make Instagram posts, unless it’s one of those days where Hot Wheels is the only game in town and you’re on a hunt for any pow you can get. As you huddle in the high winds and cold temps for that ultra slow ride, you’re finally struck by the irony of the name “Hot Wheels.”

So what do we get for next season at Alpine Meadows? A regular reader found updated snowmaking guns installed along Tiegel Flats (aka the Trail of Tears). It’s a great call by the mountain to improve this area as it never really had great coverage through the entire season last year. It’s already one of the most unpleasant aspects of Alpine Meadows, made even worse when the coverage is thin and the snow pack is 50% gravel. Just maybe, if the mountain keeps investing in snowmaking, Mother Nature will reward us with a snow filled season where the snowmaking capacity becomes irrelevant.

Another reader also alerted us to the latest SquAlpine survey. It’s the same sort of survey we have seen before. Rather than using a survey to find out what customers actually want, the survey is being used to justify decisions that have already been made. The current survey is intended to justify the Squaw-Alpine gondola connection.

It’s somewhat akin to walking into a classroom and asking kids “Who wants candy?” Surely many guests will show their enthusiasm for the project, without really thinking about the associated consequences. The survey actually highlights one of our biggest concerns – that the gondola will provide access to powder hounds arriving from Squaw Valley faster than Alpine Meadows road can be opened. That’s just one of many issues we have reported on in the last few months. It’s no doubt that there are thousands of Squaw Valley passholders that skied and rode 3 days last season that will mark all of the boxes that say “I am super stoked.” Whatever.