Palisades Tahoe - Alpine Meadows
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!
Total Runs
100
Lifts
13
Skiable Acres
2,400(10 km2)
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.
Summit Elevation
8,637'(2,632 m)
Vertical Drop
1,802'(549 m)
Base Elevation
6,835'(2,083 m)
Palisades Tahoe - Alpine Meadows Ski Resort Difficulty Level
Difficulty Score™
52.8out of 100
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%.
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.
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%.
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.
| Name | Code | City | Distance |
|---|---|---|---|
| Reno–Tahoe International Airport | RNO | Reno, NV | 34 mi |
| Sacramento International Airport | SMF | Sacramento, CA | 80 mi |
| Oakland International Airport | OAK | Oakland, CA | 147 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.
| Name | Code | City | Distance |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sacramento Mather Airport | MHR | Sacramento, CA | 71 mi |
| Redding Municipal Airport | RDD | Redding, CA | 143 mi |
| Charles M. Schulz Sonoma County Airport | STS | Santa Rosa, CA | 146 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.
| Name | Location | Summit | Difficulty Score™ | Distance |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Palisades Tahoe - Palisades Mountain | Olympic Valley, CA | 9,050 ft | 62% | 1 mi |
| Palisades Tahoe | Olympic Valley, CA | 9,050 ft | 62% | 1 mi |
| Granlibakken Tahoe | Tahoe City, CA | 6,350 ft | 15% | 4 mi |
| Homewood | Homewood, CA | 7,880 ft | 58% | 7 mi |
| Sugar Bowl | Truckee, CA | 8,383 ft | 53% | 8 mi |
| Northstar | Truckee, CA | 8,610 ft | 58% | 10 mi |
| Donner Ski Ranch | Norden, CA | 7,781 ft | 38% | 11 mi |
| Boreal | Soda Springs, CA | 7,700 ft | 30% | 13 mi |
| Tahoe Donner | Truckee, CA | 7,350 ft | 26% | 13 mi |
| Soda Springs | Soda Springs, CA | 7,300 ft | 31% | 13 mi |
| Mount Rose | Reno, NV | 9,700 ft | 60% | 21 mi |
| Heavenly | South Lake Tahoe, CA | 10,067 ft | 73% | 23 mi |
| Sierra-at-Tahoe | South Lake Tahoe, CA | 8,852 ft | 53% | 26 mi |
| Kirkwood | Kirkwood, CA | 9,800 ft | 68% | 35 mi |
| Dodge Ridge | Pinecrest, CA | 8,200 ft | 54% | 70 mi |
Palisades Tahoe - Alpine Meadows Ski Resort Mountain Stats
| Name | Statistic |
|---|---|
| Summit Elevation | 8,637 ft |
| Base Elevation | 6,835 ft |
| Vertical Drop | 1,802 ft |
| Trails | 100 (25% Beginner, 40% Intermediate, 35% Expert) |
| Lifts | 13 |
| Skiable Acres | 2,400 |
| Avg. Annual Snowfall | 400 inches |