Alpine Meadows Ski Resort

The Alpine Meadows Ski Resort is ideal for skiers who love powder and simplicity. No one needs frills or trimmings at Alpine Meadows CA because it’s all about the thrills and skiing. Whilst snorkels on a powder day at Alpine Meadows are mandatory, you’ll potentially prefer to be on skis rather than a board.

Alpine Meadows Ski Resort is a place of contradictions – it finds the balance between being low-key yet tough. Some of the terrain is for the seriously adventurous, yet it has a relaxed culture (generally!) and a family friendly environment. Facilities are few, but perfectly adequate.

Pros and Cons of Alpine Meadows

Pros

• The low profile of Alpine Meadows is advantageous to those who want a pure skiing experience without the pretence.
• On non-powder days, it’s a friendly locals’ mountain.
• The Alpine ski resort has excellent terrain for advanced and expert riders.
• The views of Lake Tahoe from the top are great, but when it’s draped in 3 feet of powder, most will be happy to forego the vistas and gleefully accept the faceshots!
• Like various other Lake Tahoe ski resorts, Alpine Meadows generally scores plenty of snowfall.

Cons

• Sharpen your elbows for a powder day as every 2nd local will turn up to compete with you for freshies.
• Now that it’s associated with Palisades, high lift ticket prices apply.
• Sadly for boarders in particular, Alpine Meadows has too many long traverses and flat run outs when there’s powder. And considering the lift layout, you often have to return to the base to do laps of the decent terrain which gives you a nasty sense of déjà vu.

Pro or Con Depending On Your Perspective

• There’s no slope-side Alpine Meadows lodging or a village with restaurants and bars.
• There are negligible activities other than skiing and snowboarding at the resort.
• Alpine Meadows in on the Ikon Pass making it potentially more affordable, but it's likely to serve to make the ski resort even busier.

Alpine Meadows Ski and Snowboard Terrain

The Alpine Ski Resort has 100+ trails and 2,400 acres (971 hectares) of terrain, which is the average size of the major Lake Tahoe ski resorts. The vertical drop is relatively small at 1,800 feet (549 metres).

Alpine Meadows skiing is renowned for its advanced and expert terrain, with seven bowls, steep chutes, cornices, and trees. Officially 35% of the trails are rated as black, and of course there’s so much more off-piste and backcountry terrain to challenge. And like some other gnarly US ski resort counterparts, the Alpine Meadows ski resort doesn’t differentiate between advanced, expert and extreme terrain, so you’ll have to figure it out for yourself.

Even though the Alpine Meadows Resort is best known for the expert skiing, there are also plenty of cruisers for intermediates (40% of trails) and mellow runs for beginners (25%).

Alpine Meadows Snow

If you love big dumps then you might score one at the Alpine Ski Resort. On average the resort scores 450 inches of typical Lake Tahoe powder, so it generally falls a little heavy which sticks to the steeps nicely. There is also snowmaking on trails on 9 out of 11 of the lifts.

Where is Alpine Meadows CA?

The Alpine Meadows Ski Resort is right next door to the high profile Palisades Tahoe Ski Resort (formerly Squaw Valley). The two ski areas are on the same lift ticket but they aren’t connected via the slopes (yet!), unless you head into the backcountry. There are frequent shuttles that connect the two ski resorts.

Alpine Meadows is located in the Tahoe National Forest near the north shore of Lake Tahoe in California. It is 6 miles (9.5km) northwest of Tahoe City, and 13 miles (21km) south of Truckee. Nearest major airports are Reno/Tahoe (1 hour drive, 72km, 45 miles), Sacramento (90 minutes drive, 177km, 100 miles) and San Francisco (3 hours drive).

Alpine Meadows Lodging

There is no slope-side Alpine Meadows lodging with most options are situated about 0.5 to 1.5 miles down the road from the ski resort, and include vacation rentals, cabins, and some condos.

Palisades Tahoe village area is located just 6 miles away and has several accommodation options however most do come with a premium price tag, especially those that are ski-in/ski-out.

Squaw Creek is even closer (to the east of the main village). There is basically one large hotel resort & spa complex that provides access to the ski slopes via its own dedicated lifts and ski runs.

Nearby Tahoe City has hotels, inns and condos, or alternatively you can stay in Truckee lodging.

See more information about Alpine Meadows Lodging here>>

Facilities

The finest amenity at Alpine Meadows CA continues to be the mountain itself. There are a few daytime dining and après options, ski school and equipment rentals, but no other extra-curricular activities.