Palisades Tahoe Base-to-Base Gondola: Hotly Anticipated, Imperfectly Executed

Palisades Tahoe’s new Base-to-Base Gondola opened for the 2022-23 season. This massive lift had been in the planning stages since at least 2012.

Background

The Palisades Tahoe Base-to-Base Gondola has perhaps been one of the most hotly anticipated ski resort lift projects ever. This $65 million lift, which finally connects the Palisades and Alpine Meadows sides as one fully lift-served resort, had been in the planning stages for more than a decade before it was finally installed across the past two winters. The massive new lift has four stations: two termini at the respective base areas of both mountains, one functional mid-station on the Palisades side at the top of KT-22, and an additional mid-station on the Alpine side but with no loading or unloading access. But after all the hype, does the Base-to-Base Gondola actually make the two formerly separate resorts better as one continuous area?

The Base-to-Base Gondola crosses over the KT-22 chair and serves the same terrain via the Palisades mid-station.

The Experience

Let’s start with the positives—and the obvious one is the direct lift connection between the two resort sides. Instead of leaving the resort and timing a shuttle bus, guests can now get on the gondola and just ride from one resort section to the other without even thinking about it. This is especially helpful if the roads are backed up due to traffic or adverse weather conditions. The gondola also provides a second uphill option to access KT-22 terrain, which trivially helps with capacity on busy days.

The Base-to-Base Gondola ride is incredibly long, taking at least 16 minutes to ride in full.

However, a number of circumstances make this gondola installation either impractical or undependable as a connector between Palisades and Alpine. First of all, the gondola ride is very long—at 16 minutes between the two resort bases, it’s a long journey to get from one side to the other. In fact, this ride time is actually longer than the shuttle bus if you time the bus schedule right and the roads are clear.

In addition, when going from Palisades to Alpine, there’s no directly skiable terrain once you get off the lift, meaning you have to take at least one additional chairlift before you can even get a run in. This can mean a combined ride time of up to 25 minutes to get in your first run if you start at the Palisades base. At least if you’re going from Alpine to Palisades, you can get off at the top of KT-22 and do a lap down this iconic area; however, this area isn’t designed for beginners and intermediates, so lower-ability visitors will face a full ride time in both directions.

In addition, the Base-to-Base Gondola just falls victim to what seems to be poor design. This lift is incredibly wind susceptible, and unlike Palisades Tahoe’s other enclosed lifts, including the Funitel and Tram, it doesn’t have special design reinforcements to make it resilient against wind. As a result, the gondola is regularly forced to run at slow speeds, making the already-lengthy ride time as long as 21 minutes in one direction.

To complicate matters even further, wind holds are fairly common as well, even when other lifts have no issues operating (including the KT-22 chair that neighbors it for much of the Palisades-side lift line portion). It’s not out of the ordinary for the gondola to go on wind hold midway through the day, so if you decide to go from one side to the other, you might not be able to get back to where you started, and might be stuck waiting in extensive lines for a shuttle ride back. And finally, the lift’s ski baskets are too narrow to reliably fit skis, meaning all guests must take their gear into the gondola cabin whenever they ride—this can be annoying to maintain for the protracted ride time.

Winds often force the Base-to-Base Gondola to close, even when other nearby lifts run with no issues.

When all is said and done, the Palisades Tahoe Base-to-Base Gondola feels like more of a transportation option between two separate resorts than a sensible glue linking all of Palisades Tahoe’s terrain as one continuous area. Maybe first-time guests will take it once for the novelty, but the lift is just too long and wind-hold-prone to make visitors actually want to split their days across the Palisades and Alpine sides. The return trip is even more brutal—if you just drive from one side to the other in the afternoon, you’ll save half the time. And while the gondola is theoretically a better bet to get between the two resort sides when the roads are bad, it’s so susceptible to weather it probably won’t be open under those circumstances.

The Base-to-Base Gondola is still a significant convenience improvement for those staying at the Palisades base and wanting to visit Alpine Meadows. But for everyone else who’s visiting, there isn’t much of a practical difference versus previous seasons.

Considering a ski trip to Palisades Tahoe this year? Check out our full Lake Tahoe ski resort rankings, as well as our comprehensive Palisades Tahoe and Alpine Meadows reviews from the 2021-22 season (a refreshed 2022-23 review will be out shortly). You can also check out our thoughts on North America’s major 2021-22 ski resort lift and terrain upgrades in video form below.