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Palisades Tahoe - Alpine Meadows

Home / Ski Resorts / Palisades Tahoe - Alpine Meadows Ski Resort

Warning: This page shows metrics for a ski resort that is either a part of a larger resort, or is a combination of metrics for a set of resorts that are related.

Palisades Tahoe actually encompasses two resorts: Alpine Meadows and the Palisades Mountain (or Olympic Valley) side. You can view the combined metrics of both resorts here.

We recently ranked all of California's ski resorts, so you can see where Palisades Tahoe - Alpine Meadows stacks up against all its nearby ski hills!

Season Passes

Palisades Tahoe - Alpine Meadows is a part of the Ikon Ski Pass network. This allows you to buy one lift pass, and ski at all or most of the Ikon-sponsored slopes with it throughout the year, depending on the type of pass you bought.

Lodging Options

There are numerous options to stay at Palisades Tahoe - Alpine Meadows around the resort. Check out the available options with the form below.

Palisades Tahoe - Alpine Meadows Mountain Resort Terrain Overview

Palisades Tahoe - Alpine Meadows has a total of 100 ski trails, which are serviced by 13 ski lifts, gondolas and/or trams. The amount of skiable area in this park is huge, with a maximum of 2,400 acres available to skiers. This area is equivalent to 971 hectares, 3.8 square miles, or 9.7 square kilometers.

Palisades Tahoe - Alpine Meadows's slopes see on average 400 inches (10.2 meters) of snowfall a year. That is almost 33 feet every year!

Trails
Total Runs
100
Ski Lift
Lifts
13
Skier
Skiable Acres
2,400(10 km2)
Snow
Annual Snowfall
400"(1,016 cm)

Palisades Tahoe - Alpine Meadows Ski Resort Elevation

Palisades Tahoe - Alpine Meadows Ski Resort has a summit elevation of 8,637 feet, or 2,632 meters. However, not all of that elevation is able to be skied. The base of the ski slope sits at 6,835 feet above sea level, creating a ski hill that is 1,802 feet (549 meters) high. This is referred to as the slope's vertical drop - or a measure of how high the skiable hill is.

The summit of 8,637 feet makes this ski resort one of the highest in the country. The average ski slope summit is around 4,000 feet, so this is extremely high compared to its peers.

Mountain Summit
Summit Elevation
8,637'(2,632 m)
Vertical Drop
Vertical Drop
1,802'(549 m)
Mountain base
Base Elevation
6,835'(2,083 m)

Palisades Tahoe - Alpine Meadows Ski Resort Difficulty Level

Score
Difficulty Score™
52.8out of 100
←  EasyHard  →
Palisades Tahoe - Alpine Meadows can be beginner-friendly, but it depends on the ski trails you ride. While it ranks in the lower half of all North American ski areas in terms of overall difficulty, it still has 75% of its trails rated at or above intermediate ski level.
 DID YOU KNOW?

At Parks & Trips, we've created a proprietary Difficulty Score that attempts to show how difficult a particular ski slope is. We get to this number by combining a number of metrics for each resort and comparing them to its peers. Most of the score is based off the amount of easy-intermediate-expert slopes by acreage and the maximum vertical drop of the overall resort, but also includes a few lesser-used metrics as well.

Our algorithm compares each resort’s metrics with all others in North America, then assigns each a Difficulty Score, which we use to rank them accordingly. Resorts with a lower score are easier to ski than those with a higher one. However, a high score does not mean that the resort does not have any easy slopes, or vice versa. This is just an overall score given to the resort based on all its metrics grouped together.

Skiable Terrain by Difficulty Level

Palisades Tahoe - Alpine Meadows has 2,400 total skiable acres, which can be broken down into the three main groups of difficulty: Beginner, Intermediate, and Expert.

Palisades Tahoe - Alpine Meadows is a beginner-friendly ski area, with about 25% of its trails as easy. However, it also has a fair share of more difficult runs - which account for the remaining 75%.
Green Circle
Beginner
25%(600 acres)

Beginner trails (identified by a green circle) are the easiest trails on the hill with a gradual 25% or less gradient, and are usually wide to accommodate beginner skiers.

Blue Square
Intermediate
40%(960 acres)

Intermediate trails (identified by a blue square) are usually the most popular and crowded runs, which have a slope of anywhere between 25-40%.

Black Diamond
Expert
35%(840 acres)

Expert trails (identified by a black diamond... or two) are the hardest slopes on the mountain, and have very steep gradients over 40%.

Is Palisades Tahoe - Alpine Meadows Ski Resort good for beginners?

Palisades Tahoe - Alpine Meadows can be beginner-friendly, depending on the runs you take. While it ranks in the lower half of all North American ski areas in terms of overall difficulty, it still has 75% of its trails rated at or above intermediate.

Palisades Tahoe - Alpine Meadows Ski Resort Location

Palisades Tahoe - Alpine Meadows Ski Resort is located in the state of California, USA. This ski area is nearest the town of Alpine Meadows, CA.

Address:
Alpine Meadows, CA 96146 USA
View on Google Maps

Website:
palisadestahoe.com

GPS Coordinates:
39.16700, -120.23700

Getting to Palisades Tahoe - Alpine Meadows Mountain Resort

By Car: If you are driving, you would set your GPS to either the ski resort's name (Palisades Tahoe - Alpine Meadows Ski Resort), its coordinates of 39.16700, -120.23700 (latitude, longitude), or simply drive towards the town of Alpine Meadows, CA to get close.

By Air: If you are coming in from across the country, then you may need to board an airplane to get here.

A large airport has scheduled major airline service with millions of passengers per year. This type of airport always accepts international flights. Here are the closest large airport(s) to Palisades Tahoe - Alpine Meadows Ski Resort.

NameCodeCityDistance
Reno–Tahoe International AirportRNOReno, NV34 mi
Sacramento International AirportSMFSacramento, CA80 mi
Oakland International AirportOAKOakland, CA147 mi

A medium-sized airport has scheduled regional airline service. This type of airport may or may not accept international flights. Here are the closest medium-sized airport(s) to Palisades Tahoe - Alpine Meadows.

NameCodeCityDistance
Sacramento Mather AirportMHRSacramento, CA71 mi
Redding Municipal AirportRDDRedding, CA143 mi
Charles M. Schulz Sonoma County AirportSTSSanta Rosa, CA146 mi

There may also be much smaller regional airports next to Palisades Tahoe - Alpine Meadows Ski Resort, but we didn't list them here due to the fact that no major airlines go through them.

Other Nearby Ski Resorts

Skiers will - especially if coming from far away - try and visit a couple different slopes all in the same trip. Here are the closest other ski slopes within 100 miles of Palisades Tahoe - Alpine Meadows Ski Resort.

NameLocationSummitDifficulty Score™Distance
Palisades Tahoe - Palisades MountainOlympic Valley, CA9,050 ft62%1 mi
Palisades TahoeOlympic Valley, CA9,050 ft62%1 mi
Granlibakken TahoeTahoe City, CA6,350 ft15%4 mi
HomewoodHomewood, CA7,880 ft58%7 mi
Sugar BowlTruckee, CA8,383 ft53%8 mi
NorthstarTruckee, CA8,610 ft58%10 mi
Donner Ski RanchNorden, CA7,781 ft38%11 mi
BorealSoda Springs, CA7,700 ft30%13 mi
Tahoe DonnerTruckee, CA7,350 ft26%13 mi
Soda SpringsSoda Springs, CA7,300 ft31%13 mi
Mount RoseReno, NV9,700 ft60%21 mi
HeavenlySouth Lake Tahoe, CA10,067 ft73%23 mi
Sierra-at-TahoeSouth Lake Tahoe, CA8,852 ft53%26 mi
KirkwoodKirkwood, CA9,800 ft68%35 mi
Dodge RidgePinecrest, CA8,200 ft54%70 mi

Palisades Tahoe - Alpine Meadows Ski Resort Mountain Stats

NameStatistic
Summit Elevation8,637 ft
Base Elevation6,835 ft
Vertical Drop1,802 ft
Trails100
(25% Beginner,  40% Intermediate,  35% Expert)
Lifts13
Skiable Acres2,400
Avg. Annual Snowfall400 inches
Palisades Tahoe - Alpine Meadows Ski Resort Mountain Stats
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