Squaw/Alpine unification cut off

[legalskier]

Interesting story on today's Marketplace about Troy Caldwell, who'd rather create his own ski area in between Squaw Valley and Alpine Meadows, and their 6,000 acres of terrain, rather than sell out:

http://www.marketplace.org/topics/business/ski-resort-unification-cut-landowner

 

[thetrailboss]

They had a segment on Squaw and Tahoe yesterday. Interesting. And FWIW in the Squaw thread I posted an article from Unofficial talking about how Squaw and AM were doing an interconnect and it's opening this week.

 

[thetrailboss]

That was an interesting segment and very interesting that it came on the heels of the Marketplace segment on Colorado companies invading Tahoe and buying Squaw and Kirkwood.

So it sounds like Troy is not going anywhere. This seemed to run counter to what I had been hearing KSL saying. As I mentioned, they were supposed to open an experimental interconnect trail this week over, presumably, Troy's land. I find it interesting that he has literally given up everything to build his ski area and that he is working for KSL parking cars in their lot, but refuses to sell the land to them, even for $45 million :lol:

The one thing that they did not get into is that he has gotten into fights with Squaw before, especially after it was discovered that he owned much of KT-22 and Squaw owed him money in order to use it. Maybe that is no longer the case.

 

[kickstand]

So it sounds like Troy is not going anywhere. This seemed to run counter to what I had been hearing KSL saying. As I mentioned, they were supposed to open an experimental interconnect trail this week over, presumably, Troy's land. I find it interesting that he has literally given up everything to build his ski area and that he is working for KSL parking cars in their lot, but refuses to sell the land to them, even for $45 million :lol:

http://www.squaw.com/kt-backcountry-gate

I'm guessing the land to the east is Mr. Caldwell's...

 

[thetrailboss]

http://www.squaw.com/kt-backcountry-gate

I'm guessing the land to the east is Mr. Caldwell's...

Yeah, me too. Thanks for providing that link. That is the first time I have seen the route, and it looks like it swings outside of Troy's land.

 

[jerryg]

Yeah, me too. Thanks for providing that link. That is the first time I have seen the route, and it looks like it swings outside of Troy's land.

Yep, totally beyond Caldwell's land. He doesn't really own much and it's sort of triangular, but unfortunately for KSL, it does include the peak and lift terminal area of KT. The fights about that piece of property go back a ways and there was a time when he threatened to make Squaw pay to use it and even said he'd put a restauran up top. I would think that part of that had to do with him having trouble getting the desired permits for his unfinished chairlift. My understanding is that there is some grandfathering in place regarding the top of KT that goes back prior to Caldwell's ownership 'cause if not, I would think he would be charging top dollar rent.

 

[SIKSKIER]

I'm trying to understand what the appeal is for this connection if there is no or very limited downhill skiing.Just backcountry touring it would seem?

 

[thetrailboss]

I'm trying to understand what the appeal is for this connection if there is no or very limited downhill skiing.Just backcountry touring it would seem?

= they can then claim that the areas are connected = they can then claim the largest ski area in the U.S.

 

[jaytrem]

Here's a slightly older article that sheds some light on a few things...

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/03/07/CMVLV0C1D.DTL

 

[thetrailboss]

Here's a slightly older article that sheds some light on a few things...

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/03/07/CMVLV0C1D.DTL

Thanks for that article. This is quite interesting:

I own KT-22. It is my mountain. I own about 70 acres of Squaw. I bought it from Southern Pacific Land Co. in 1990. I still lease that property to Squaw. We've continued to lease it since we started this agreement in 1990. I could shut them down if we wanted to go to a courtroom brawl.

Yep, that confirms what I had heard, which is quite funny actually.

This, however, is even more interesting:

If my dream were totally brought to fruition, White Wolf Mountain would become an inter-connect between Alpine and Squaw. A skier could ski from the Squaw side all the way to the Alpine Meadows ski area.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/03/07/CMVLV0C1D.DTL#ixzz1sWMo6KHb​

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