On Saturday, December 17 2022, Palisades Tahoe officially opened the Base to Base Gondola, which connects Palisades Olympic Valley with Alpine Meadows. The new combined area makes Palisades Tahoe the largest resort in California, and the third largest in North America.  You can read about the gondola’s opening in the Tahoe Daily Tribune’s article.

SE Group is proud to have led the mountain planning and NEPA environmental analysis for this groundbreaking project, alongside Leitner-Poma Of America (lift design and engineering), Ascent Environmental (CEQA environmental analysis), Psomas (civil engineering), DOA Architecture (structure design), and RRC Associates (market research). During the course of this nearly decade-long project, SE Group analyzed more than 40 scenarios to connect the two valleys, ensuring a solution that was both environmentally sensitive and economically viable.

The benefits of the Base to Base Gondola are many, but crucially 1) it takes cars off of the chronically congested Highway 89; 2) it improves accessibility to the excellent beginner terrain at Alpine Meadows; and 3) it links the Alpine Meadows terrain to the robust accommodation options at Palisades Olympic Valley.

SE Group President, Kent Sharp participated in the Region 5 (Pacific Southwest) Roundtable, while Travis Beck, Director of Environmental Services, participated in the Roundtables held in Region 2 (Rocky Mountain), Region 3 (Southwestern), and Region 4 (Intermountain).

Roundtable topics included:

*   Forest Service introspective assessment of how the agency conducts NEPA, what is working and what is not
*   Getting back to the basics
*   NEPA process timelines
*   Opportunities for improvement
*   Agency culture and leadership

Summary reports, along with more on this discussion, are currently available online for Regions 1, 2, 3, 6, 8, 9, 10 and Washington, and can be found at: https://www.nationalforests.org/collaboration-resources/environmental-analysis-and-decision-making-roundtables.

Please contact Travis should you wish to explore how we can apply our expertise to your project.

SE Group has been working with Mount Spokane since 2006 to develop an action plan to expand their operations. This project exemplifies the power of collaboration and teamwork to identify solutions when navigating a variety of interests and stakeholders. In the following clip Brad McQuarrie, General Manager of Mount Spokane Ski & Snowboard Park, speaks about exciting improvements to the ski area and how SE Group’s long-term collaboration was instrumental in developing the vision, framework, and plan to bring these objectives to fruition.