Palisades Tahoe USA is excited to announce a host of new shops, amenities and company leaders for the 2010-11 winter season. This year Palisades Tahoe has more to offer than ever before with a new mountaintop kids zone, expanded night skiing and renovated base lodge. In addition to the new additions, Palisades Tahoe is bringing back many popular programs such as the Women of Winter on Wednesdays (WOW) ski clinic and Ski-with-Jonny Days (powdered by Sprint) when skiers and riders can get a free mountain tour led by the one and only Jonny Moseley.

New CEO
The 2010/11 winter season welcomes Andy Wirth, Palisades Tahoe’s new Chief Executive Officer. Wirth succeeds Nancy Cushing, who will remain Chairman of the Board after retiring from the position of CEO. Cushing has advised the corporation since 1985 and served as its president since 1994. Wirth comes to Palisades Tahoe from Steamboat with extensive experience in both management and mountain operations.

“I’m looking forward to this opportunity as it’s a chance to work with a legendary mountain resort and a terrific management team. I will seek to further strengthen Squaw’s position as the premier ski destination for families and serious skiers alike, as well as creating the most fun, exciting consumer experience,” said Wirth.

New Mountaintop Kids Zone
Palisades Tahoe USA is the best place to be a kid and it’s only getting better for the 2010/11 winter season. Palisades Tahoe plans to transform the Belmont Park into a Kids’ fun zone complete with a snowfort and kid-friendly jumps, bumps and whoopty-doos.  Also new for the 2010-11 season, kids can discover Palisades Tahoe’s mountain secrets with a new kids map designed to lead them on a grand adventure around the mountain. Kids will follow the map through Palisades Tahoe’s kid-friendly terrain to find fun facts about the mountain’s animals, history and natural habitat.

Expanded Night Terrain Park
For the 2010-11 winter season, Palisades Tahoe is greatly expanding their night skiing with improved lighting in the Riviera terrain park and halfpipe. Free with any lift ticket, skiers and riders can hit the slopes from 9am to 9pm on weekends (9am to 7pm midweek) during night operations and enjoy other High Camp night activities such as ice skating at the Olympic Ice Pavilion or an amazing dining experience at one of the upper mountain restaurants.

The new lights will mean big things for skiers and riders looking to get their fill of park riding. Snowboarder Conor Toumarkine calls it a “rad decision by Squaw.” “It totally expands the terrain. Now people will be able to hit Squaw’s halfpipe and epic features well into the night—it’s going to be awesome.”

Gates To Skills – New Ski Clinic
This season, skiers can feel the excitement of running through the gates, coached by one of the best—Thomas Gardtman. The Gates To Skills Clinic is an all-day ski program using gate training as an effective means to enhance, strengthen and hone one’s all-around skiing skills. The clinic features coaching in technical free skiing, dryland exercises, slalom, and GS—including video analysis.
Thomas Gardtman has been coaching and instructing top level national and international skiers for more than forty years. Gardtman continues to ski the most challenging conditions and locations.

New Conference Center
Palisades Tahoe just completed an extensive remodel of the Olympic Village Inn Conference Center.  This facility will be available for meeting space, weddings and conferences.  The remodel included all new flooring, A/V updates and a redesign of the outdoor gardens. This storied building was the first and only facility in which Olympic athletes dined together under one roof, and the space now maintains its classic and romantic feeling but with modern functionality.

Base Lodge Renovations
The legendary Olympic house will be brilliantly remodeled for the start of the 2010-11 winter season.  The remodel includes opening up the building to better accommodate large indoor events.  The new layout and design embraces the rich history of the space and employs extensive use of natural materials and environmentally advanced materials and energy uses. The base lodge remodel will include the addition of delicious new menu items including Palisades Tahoe's new Food and Beverage Director, Dave Benge's very own signature burrito.

New Demo Center & Ski Shop
This winter, Palisades Tahoe is opening a high-performance demo center that allows guests to try out this season’s latest ski technology. Both Skiers and riders can rent brand new high-performance rental equipment and skiers can demo this season’s latest skis from all the top manufactures.  The new shop will work in conjunction with Palisades Tahoe’s mountaintop demo center, allowing guests to grab one set of demo skis at the bottom, and exchange them at the top of the mountain throughout the day until they finally meet their match—all for one flat rate. Located in the Village, the new shop will rent high-performance ski boots, skis, snowboards, snowboard boots, snowshoes and demo skis.
The new shop will also offer the best in tuning technology as Palisades Tahoe proudly boasts a revolutionary new Wintersteiger Tuning Machine. This incredible service provides the best ski and snowboard tuning on the planet and can bring equipment back to a factory-fresh condition.

Renovated Squaw Kids Children’s Center
The Squaw Kids Children’s Center, a frontrunner of environmental building, will be renovated for the 2010/11 winter season to improve the flow of registration traffic in the building and to better accommodate kids. The Squaw Kids program, known for their encouraging and skilled staff, imparts a life-long love of winter spots on kids of all ages. The renovation includes an expanded second floor, larger lunch room and more space in the rental room to accommodate a greater helmet selection.

3 New State-of-The-Art Grooming Machines
Palisades Tahoe’s grooming is getting even better for the 2010/11 winter season with the addition of 3 new state-of-the-art grooming machines.Palisades Tahoe’s grooming department features the most winch cats in the Tahoe region and an esteemed grooming team with experience on legendary terrain across the world including New Zealand, Australia, Japan and multiple World Cups. Palisades Tahoe’s three new piston bully 400s are capable of grooming more terrain per hour while using less significantly fuel, therefore improving both the quality of grooming and the environmental sustainability of the fleet.

Improved Snowmaking
Palisades Tahoe continues its multi-year effort of upgrading the mountain’s snowmaking equipment to greener and more efficient models. Now in its ninth year, Squaw has successfully upgraded 145 guns, including 39 new snowguns for the 2010-11 season. Further, Palisades Tahoe is demoing 8 new Saphyr snow-towers in the upcoming season. The Saphyr guns are nearly 30% more energy efficient than the most up-to-date B3 guns, requiring significantly less running time and less air to create the same amount of snow. Finally, Palisades Tahoe will be expanding snowmaking to halfpipe for the 2010-11 season, improving Palisades Tahoe’s terrain park offerings throughout the season.

Transformation of entire ground floor of Gold Coast Lodge
The 2010-11 winter season brings the completion of the final stage of the $3 million remodel of the mid-mountain restaurants at Gold Coast. Beginning with The ARC for the 2009/10 winter season and now with 39° North on the ground floor of the complex, the 14,000 squaw foot space has been transformed into an inspiring atmosphere with new food and an entirely new aesthetic. Located at the top terminal of the Funitel (Squaw’s 28-person gondola), The ARC and 39° North are constructed using an abundance of recycled and sustainable building materials including:

·         80% reclaimed and recycled wood products
·         Water-based and low VOC paints and finishes
·         Sustainable bamboo flooring and wall paneling
·         Rubber floors made from 100% recycled rubber tires
·         Natural slate and granite countertops and counter fronts
·         LED and compact florescent lighting (CFLs) fixtures, and 20% low voltage halogen lights

The final renovations to 39° North are the icing on the cake for two years of incredible improvements to Palisades Tahoe’s food and beverage program. Palisades Tahoe has received rave reviews on the completely redesigned menus and facilities, and it is only going to get better. The 2010-11 winter season welcomes Dave Benge as Palisades Tahoe’s new Director of Food and Beverage. Benge comes to Palisades Tahoe with over eighteen years of executive food and beverage experience at Lake Tahoe resorts.

One of Squaw Valley's Food and Beverage Reviews (Winter 2009-10)
"The Arc at Palisades Tahoe makes one of the best ski resort burgers out there.”  
     – Brad Japhe of SeriousEats.com

New Shops in the Village
This season, Squaw welcomes a host of new shops to the European-style base village. Guests can stroll the village streets and peruse Squaw’s specialty wine shop, fine art gallery and unique clothing boutiques—not to mention stores filled with the latest ski gear and accessories.

This season, Palisades Tahoe welcomes the addition of three new retail stores: Squaw Dogs, Marmot and Squaw One Logo Company. Geared towards active dogs and their people, Squaw Dogs features a wide offering of food and supplements to keep dogs healthy, as well as all the gear they need for great adventures. Meanwhile, Marmot features name-brand Marmot gear and outdoor clothing while Squaw One Logo Company has all the essential Palisades Tahoe logowear.