For 50 years, Lake Tahoe’s Alpine Meadows has been the Alta to Squaw Valley’s Snowbird, the lesser known, down-home, and just as core alternative to the flashy kid next door. Odds are, that’s going to change: Squaw and Alpine are merging, and, while company officials say both resorts will keep their identities, the new parent corporation, Squaw Valley Ski Holdings, will be majority owned by Squaw owner KSL Capital Partners. The merger will bring 6,000 skiable acres under one pass, but you still won’t be able to ski from one to the other because the ridge connecting the two is privately owned.

The immediate benefit for skiers: A season pass covering both resorts goes on sale today for $439.

The move is a bid to strengthen Tahoe’s pursuit of the 2022 Winter Olympics. Squaw hosted the 1960 games, the first Olympics to be televised, which put the resort on the international map. The resort was built in 1949 by Alex Cushing, who died in 2006, and was purchased by KSL less than a year ago. Terms of the deal were not announced.

Squaw has about 4,000 skiable acres, Alpine 2,000. By comparison, Vail is roughly 5,000, Mammoth 3,500, and Whistler-Blackcomb 8,100.

For more, watch the video press release by Squaw CEO Andy Wirth.

Tagged as: skiing