Palisades Tahoe, CA Review: Better with the Gondola?

An in-depth video review of Palisades Tahoe (formerly Squaw Valley | Alpine Meadows), a destination ski resort located in California's Lake Tahoe region. Filmed on multiple occasions between May 2019 and January 2024.

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0:00 Intro
0:53 Size
1:17 Resort Sides and Base-to-Base Gondola
2:28 Beginner Terrain
3:28 Intermediate Terrain
4:13 Terrain Parks
4:40 Advanced Terrain
5:14 Expert and Extreme Terrain
5:43 Hike-To and Traverse-Accessed Terrain
6:08 Snow Quality and Resiliency
7:47 Ease of Navigation
8:21 Crowd Flow
8:50 Lifts
9:23 On-Mountain Facilities
9:59 Getting There
10:27 Parking
11:24 Access Road Traffic
11:43 Lodging
12:05 Aprés-Ski
12:41 Verdict
13:12 Pricing
13:41 Score Breakdown and Rank

Overall Mountain Score: 72/100 — #2 in California
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Snow: 7/10
Resiliency: 5/10
Size: 9/10
Terrain Diversity: 8/10
Challenge: 10/10
Lifts: 7/10
Crowd Flow: 5/10
Facilities: 6/10
Navigation: 6/10
Mountain Aesthetic: 9/10

[herkatron]

I just skied here from 2/12-2/17 consecutively. It was my first time skiing outside the eastern United States, and damn was it awesome!!

[johnb]

I learned to ski at Alpine Meadows 50 years ago next month. AM will always have a soft place in my heart.

[stevenluethje]

Skied both Squaw (Palisades) and Alpine for decades - every terrain, then fell in love with Sugar Bowl and the small crowds and never went back.

[BoschVoyage]

Something feels off with Palisades only ranked 20th. Some minor score adjustments:

Mountain aesthetics should be a 10/10 (it’s one of the most recognizable mountains and has lake views) and terrain diversity with Alpine is a place for everyone and should be a 9/10, giving the mountain an overall score of 74, ranking the mountain 12th overall!

[josephstratemeier]

It's worth noting that I-80 can be a pretty difficult drive, especially when it's snowing or at night. Lots of semis, narrow, and not much lighting. Driving from Reno is much easier.

[livelikeitslegal]

I'm an outlier and actually enjoy palisades mountain run. Top to bottom it is one of the longest without really any cat tracking and some sollid 45- 90 degree turns that are really fun with the throttle to the floor. All the other stuff still stokes the stoke but I really only got to palisades for full throttle top to bottom laps.

[LFGLife]

Going to Palisades on Sunday to hit up the slopes on Monday-Wed. Dropped everything for this super storm and spent all my airline miles to make it happen. Stoked af!

[rogerkoppert]

Size discrepancy of 6000 to 4000 acres addressed at 14:12

[kingjulian]

4:37 Is that really a slowzone directly after a jump?

[comesatime]

Well done, just one addition, both the funitel and tram can download skiers from palisades upper mountain beginner terrain.

[VictorCaoCA]

If you're flying into a major airport on the west side, you should really fly into Sacramento; not San Francisco. SF is always under construction. SMF has port of entry status as an international airport. It's a destination airport from a business perspective, so there should be several flights that fly direct or connect in.

[JohnShields-xxyk]

Skiing's all about conditions, some days are just perfect but many can be icy or other tough conditions. A place like this has more better days than the northeast where I skied

[random_stuff_channel]

I'd like to point out that Palisades Tahoe is over 6000 acres in size, since the gondola. Not 4000 acres.

[grizzkid]

I mapped the resort out and was quite lenient with the boundaries and came up with 4500 acres, but I think your 4000 acre footprint is more accurate. And like you said, much of the terrain, especially at Alpine requires hiking. Also, some terrain such as Silverado and Alpine's hike to bowls are closed a majority of the season due to either lack of snow, avalanche, ice, corn preservation, wind, visibility, or who knows what.

[bite-]

although i will say ironically once you get even slightly past beginner alpine becomes infinitely better, much more scenic too

[christopherseverett]

Squaw Valley is a great resort no matter what your skiing level or style is. Moutain Run is crowded at times but not worse than most CO resorts. Lifts are good and gondola is waaay better than riding the buses.

[bayareagooner]

Love the B2B but crowds seem to gravitate heavily to Olympic Valley side more now which works as someone who skis Alpine 75% of the time and KT 25%

[mbtravel]

Just got back after a 26 inch dump May 4... Amazing 🙂❄️❄️❄️❄️

[Cleetus]

I wish I could go there, meanwhile I have to ski on dirt in Minnesota rn😭😭

[tylerdinner]

Love these videos. but this one seems to really downplay the blues on Palisades side. They're some of the best on any mountain I've been to. Incredible terrain diversity for intermediate runs.