The curtain will rise soon on the 2016-17 ski season. Like many Lake Tahoe ski resorts, Squaw Valley Alpine Meadows will unveil some new things.
Below are some of the new or improved services at both ski resorts.
2017 Audi FIS Ski World Cup at Squaw Valley: Alpine World Cup ski racing returns to Squaw Valley on March 9-12, on the legendary Red Dog run that hosted the 1969 World Cup and 1960 Olympics. The Audi FIS Ski World Cup at Squaw Valley should feature Olympic champions like Mikaela Shiffrin and Squaw Valley’s own Julia Mancuso, who will compete in the women’s giant slalom March 10 and the slalom March 11. The March 9-12 schedule of events also includes concerts, fireworks and parties.
Snow Making, Surface and Trail Improvements: Squaw Valley Alpine Meadows invested $1.4 million in snow surface enhancements for the upcoming season. Alpine Meadows improves the snowmaking infrastructure on Kangaroo Run, frequently used by ski racers for training. Squaw Valley investments include three new SMI fan guns, 12 HKD low energy guns, replacement of air and water pipelines and upgrades to 102 automatic snowmaking hydrants, allowing the system to go online at high speeds.
These enhancements reduce the communication time from the hydrant to the snowmaking pump house from minutes to seconds, increasing the ability to operate more snow guns simultaneously.
Squaw Valley Alpine Meadows perfects trail surfaces with two new PistenBully 600 Winch Cats designed for grooming steep slopes. These powerhouse machines allow for maximum ground coverage and high angle grooming while providing fuel savings over current machines. A PistenBully 100 and a PistenBully ParkPro also join the fleet at Alpine Meadows, with the ParkPro dedicated to precision shaping in the terrain parks.
An additional $1.5 million in snow removal equipment at both Squaw Valley and Alpine Meadows improves ease and timeliness to lift access on big snow days.
Expanded Ticketing Services: A new permanent ticket center in the Aerial Tram lobby opens with eight fixed locations to increase ease and convenience of the purchase process. In addition, two portable ticket stations are now at The Mountain Stream ticketing location next to Uncorked Wine Bar, open on peak days and weekends, offering a total of seven ticketing stations conveniently located for guests arriving through the eastern end of The Village at Squaw Valley®.
New Squaw Valley I Alpine Meadows App: The new Squaw Valley Alpine Meadows app offers real-time lift, trail and snow data for iPhone and Android along with unique new features including real-time group tracking, compiling individual season data such as total vertical climb and lifts skied, chairlift wait
