White Wolf Ski Resort Between Squaw Valley & Alpine Meadows, CA Goes Public

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base-2-base, squaw alpine, california
Unofficial representation of the White Wolf, CA proposed development.  Alpine Meadows on the left, Squaw Valley on the right.  Yellow is the 38 proposed residential lots.

As far as we know, today is the first day that the public has had access to the proposed plans for White Wolf ski area between Squaw Valley & Alpine Meadows in Lake Tahoe, California.

The plans have yet to go through a public review and approval processes.

White Wolf hopes to be made up of 38 residential lots, 1 gondola mid-station (Placer County approved gondola that goes from Squaw to Alpine), a ski lift, a clubhouse, an ice rink, a bunkhouse, a parking structure, and more.

White Wolf Proposed Development:

  • 38 Residential Lots (33.4 acres)
  • 1 Ski Lift
  • 1 Clubhouse (10,000-square-foot)
  • 1 Ice-Rink (16,000-square-foot)
  • 1 California Express Gondola Mid-Station
  • Bunkhouse
  • Maintenance Building
  • Parking Structure (8,570-square-feet)
  • Horse Stables
  • Guest Warming Hut
base-to-base, Squaw Valley, alpine meadows, California, gondola
Base-to-base gondola plans.

The 38 single-family residential lots will vary in size from 0.5-1.5 acres in size with the average size being 0.9-acres.

152 parking spaces will be on this proposed development.

Five Lake Trail will remain open to the public and a new 1,000′ connector trail will be built.

Troy Caldwell and his lift base-station at White Wolf. photo: snowbrains 2013

Since Squaw Valley, CA bought its next-door neighbor Alpine Meadows, CA in 2011, we’ve all been wondering what will happen to the small piece of land between the two ski resorts named White Wolf.

Troy Caldwell is the owner of White Wolf and when we interviewed him in 2013 & 2014 he said that he wanted a private ski resort, a public ski resort, 3 ski lifts, a gondola, a mid-mountain hotel, an ice rink,  private homes, and a village with shops, rooms, and condos. 

He knew he wouldn’t get all that, but that was his dream.

Proposed White Wolf Development.

The White Wolf property is 460-square-acres.

Troy already put up lift towers for his proposed lift way back in 2006 but never strung them with a haul line.

Image showing where the Base-to-Base Gondola would travel. It would travel directly over the Rock Garden and Dead Tree areas of KT-22 and there would be an unloading station at the Saddle of KT-22. image: squaw magazine

Full Details on White Wolf Proposal:

White Wolf proposal details

Troy Caldwell Interviews:

White Wolf and its old, unstrung life towers from the top of KT-22 at Squaw Valley on March 9th, 2016. photo: snowbrains

History of White Wolf:

  • Troy Caldwell bought the 460-acre White Wolf in 1989 for only $450,000.
  • Troy owns the top of KT-22 and about 70-acres of Squaw Valley Ski Resort.
  • White Wolf is currently permitted as a private ski resort that allows only 25 skiers per day via snowcat, but this never happens.
  • Troy installed lift towers for a ski lift in 2006 but never installed the cable nor chairs.
White Wolf proposal.

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6 thoughts on “White Wolf Ski Resort Between Squaw Valley & Alpine Meadows, CA Goes Public

  1. Does the gondola actually traverse over dead tree and rock garden or follow the nose along the ridge? The path looks to be farther east than rock garden.

  2. Right, cuz Alpine road needs the added traffic of 38 additional homes, and another resort…?! WTF is wrong with you Troy?! You already have it all (a private resort all to yourself and getting paid for the top of KT22) yet you just want more?! Dang that really sucks for the people who frequent the valley that you want to clutter it more, to fatten your pockets. Don’t get me wrong, adding access to that terrain via SQ/AM would be great! Putting those lift towers to use would be way better than hiking back to the pkg lot, but putting anything else in there, especially residential lots and trying to add another resort, is just lame. The infrastructure is already in place to add it in, but making it it’s own thing is the most convoluted way to do it. Just let it get annexed as new terrain, people get to it via the already in place parking lots, and shuttle system, and you negotiate a % to get paid for… Or just sell it for some inflated price and move along. Seems like a “cake and eat it too” thing, which as you explain to a child, i called “being greedy”.

    yes it’s amurika and you can “do whatever you want”… blah blah blah… cuz, uh.. capitalism, etc.

    But still. Just cause ya can, doesn’t mean you should. Didn’t your elders teach you anything?

    1. Troy is acting as a Capitalist which is the foundation of being an American. Almost no one who is any good at skiing cares about that fickle terrain, so it’s for the tourists and marketers to hype. At least Troy is an individual who can choose to act morally as opposed to a board who’s legally required to put profit over morality. We all know crowds have changed the ski experience to something different than it used to be. Much like Disneyland, the crowded resorts of the Rockies and Sierras are now for a different type of clientele than it was last decade. Many of Last decades die hards have moved on to quieter, more soulful ski places and left places like Squaw to the rich who will keep bringing pieces of their city life into these areas and slowly turning them into micro environments that resemble where they came from. Build the water park ! Does it really matter? Not to many , not anymore.

      1. Boy Howdy, the basin has changed dramatically in the four-plus decades that I’ve lived here. And in the past forty years “capitalism” has morphed into an inequitable consolidation of income and wealth such that it’s no longer conforms to the purest definition of capitalism. Population growth and globalization are inevitable and they’re driving these changes (just like you said, Chad). Still, the thought of a ten-story water slide in Squaw meadow makes me very sad.

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