Ski Area To Change Its Name

[MarzNC]

My impression is that the associations in terms of terrain between Alpine Meadows and the Palisades area over on the Olympic Village side are very different to people who have skied or seen both. In general Alpine doesn't have the same sort of terrain. There is a reason that the filming done by Warren Miller includes pretty amazing stuff off Palisades.

My problem is all I can think of is the Palisades along the Hudson in NJ. And the Palisades Parkway going to Bear Mountain.

 

[Brownski]

My problem is all I can think of is the Palisades along the Hudson in NJ. And the Palisades Parkway going to Bear Mountain.

Maybe that’s what bothers me. I drive that road every day.

 

[raisingarizona]

My impression is that the associations in terms of terrain between Alpine Meadows and the Palisades area over on the Olympic Village side are very different to people who have skied or seen both. In general Alpine doesn't have the same sort of terrain. There is a reason that the filming done by Warren Miller includes pretty amazing stuff off Palisades.

My problem is all I can think of is the Palisades along the Hudson in NJ. And the Palisades Parkway going to Bear Mountain.

I dunno, I’m pretty sure Alpine has its fair share of steep and rowdy.

 

[raisingarizona]

Tele freeskiing comp held at Alpine Meadows from years back…

 

[JTG]

I dunno, I’m pretty sure Alpine has its fair share of steep and rowdy.

Listen, I’m no expert on the resort formerly known as SquawAlpine (but I have skied there), nor on terms that came to be commonly used and associated with Indigenous Peoples of North America, or the history of Squaw Valley CA for that matter. That said….

While Alpine Meadows certainly has (had) it’s steep and rowdy, I’m not sure it has (had) it’s fair share, relative to the (formerly) Squaw side of the resort. If they had to make a name change…I agree with not adopting the Alpine Meadows moniker for the whole resort. Alpine is (was) small in relation to the whole resort, and the connotation, to me, just isn’t representative of what the greater Squaw Valley has to offer, skiing-wise.

Is Palisades any better? Maybe. The fortress/wall of granite that has been the Palisades (terrain) IS iconic. However, (thanks Jersey)….it just sounds like a mall to me.

Was a name change necessary? At first blush it reeks of cancel culture to me. I guess if there’s truth to that valley having been called the Squaw Valley because that’s where white men went to get (buy) kidnapped and raped Washoe women….well that would be bad. Or did they name it Squaw Valley because it’s the valley thru which runs Squaw Creek? Chicken, eggs…I don’t, honestly, know. Notwithstanding what may have happened to Washoe women in that valley, I don’t like the general thinking that Squaw, a word most likely derived from the Algonquin word for woman, should now be considered a racial and sexual slur because of its use by white people. That’s not how I ever considered the use of the word, but maybe I just ain’t woke enough….

 

[Ripitz]

McConkey Mountain

 

[MarzNC]

I dunno, I’m pretty sure Alpine has its fair share of steep and rowdy.

Yeah, but for people who don't know north Tahoe skiing, would they think of Alpine Meadows as a bucket list destination resort like Jackson Hole or Snowbird? I get the sense that Squaw Valley was thought of in that category, not Alpine. So something would've been lost had the entire place just shifted to being called "Alpine Valley" or something like that.

My first truly off-piste exploration out west back in 2010 was at Alpine Meadows. Only a couple of days there but it was more than enough given that I wasn't that good a skier back then.

 

[MarzNC]

There is a story about how I ended up skiing down to where I took the first picture but I won't tell it here. My friends took another route that was much steeper. Back then just dropping in at the top was a totally new experience. I haven't been back to Alpine Meadows since 2010. At the time, I liked it better than the other resort because it was smaller and less intimidating. Even though the day we skied on the Olympic Valley side later that week was a deep powder day.

 

[Brownski]

If they had named it “badass experts only ski resort”, that would be one thing but they chose a milquetoast offend-nobody plain vanilla name. Alpine Meadows at least had a history. This is like Killington renamed itself and Pico Snowden Ski Resort. That would be a shitty name.

 

[Harvey]

I skied Squaw Valley years ago, twice, when I was an intermediate, and found plenty to do. The place is big and has a lot to offer.

Some scary trail signs to keep the timid off the gnar.