Two Sierra Nevada ski resorts detail plans for gondola link.

The owners of Squaw Valley and Alpine Meadows, two of California’s best-known ski resorts, detailed their plans Wednesday to link the two areas with a 13,000-foot gondola that would transport customers through the Sierra Nevada.

The gondola, if approved by state and federal authorities, would be named the California Express. The resorts hope to have it up and running by the 2019-2020 season.

Linking the two areas, jointly owned and operated by Squaw Valley Ski Holdings and its parent company KSL Capital Partners, would create the largest ski area in California, and arguably the largest in North America.

But there are plenty of hurdles to overcome before the gondola becomes reality. The U.S. Forest Service and Placer County planning officials are conducting their own assessment of the Squaw-Alpine proposal. The two government groups, which are

working together and hired a third-party contractor, SE Group of Denver, to conduct an environmental impact report, have even come back with a request to study multiple possible routes.

And as with most any business proposal in the Sierra, there are environmental groups opposed to further construction or development.

But Squaw Valley CEO Andy Wirth remains confident that the California Express could become a reality, sooner than later.

“You have Alpine, with its own legacy and vibe, linked with the steeps and terrain of Squaw Valley,” said Wirth. “We think they complement each other.”

“If you come from Marin County, or you come from New York City, you’ll be able to ski both mountains quickly and easily.”

That’s what has some environmentalists worried.

Tom Mooers, executive director for Sierra Watch, a nonprofit that opposes overdevelopment in North Lake Tahoe, says the plan to link Squaw and Alpine “runs roughshod” over land once promised a wilderness designation.

Because the proposed gondola route traverses private land, the Forest Service has no jurisdiction over it. But Mooers said the planned construction ignores the intent of congressional action in 1984 protecting the Granite Chief Wilderness, which abuts the private tract. The proposed route would cross over the popular Five Lakes Trail, heightening concern among environmentalists.

“The responsible thing for KSL to do would be to pull the project and come up with a gondola route that doesn’t threaten our wilderness values,” Mooers said.

Wirth, who has been working on this project for years and has recently traded barbs with Sierra Watch on the editorial pages of Placer County newspapers, took exception to that criticism.

“It’s unfortunate. We’ve heard quite a few things come out of that group that are frankly baseless,” said Wirth. “But we’ve had productive conversation with other, legitimate environmental groups and have made great progress. When people say something that is not true, it’s hard to respond.

“They’ve submitted a position that the contemplated routes go through wilderness areas. That’s factually not true.”

However, a map provided by Sierra Watch, which it said was shared by the Forest Service, indicates that the land does fall within the Granite Chief Wilderness.

One thing is clear: The land upon which the gondola would rest is owned by Troy Caldwell, who purchased a parcel of land between the two resorts in 1989 for $400,000.

While there has been talk of joining the two resorts going back to the 1960s, Caldwell almost made it reality when he started building a lift on the land he called “White Wolf.” But his dream of creating a small, private resort that linked Squaw and Alpine never came to fruition, mired in legal and economic problems for years.

After Squaw’s longtime owners, the Cushing family, sold the resort to KSL in 2010, Caldwell and his valuable property reemerged as a solution to joining what locals like to call “Squawlpine.”

Now, it’s up to the Forest Service and Placer County to make their recommendations.

“We’re in the middle of preparing our draft of the environmental impact statement, which we anticipate coming out late winter or early spring,” said Eli Ilano, forest supervisor for the Tahoe National Forest. “Depending on comments and appeals, we have the potential to make a decision at some point during 2018 or 2019. Once we have a decision, and if that’s an approval, how long it takes them to actually build the gondola is up in the air.”

So, is the California Express going to happen?

“I think it’s certainly possible that we can find a project that works for everybody,” said Ilano. “I really think that there’s a solution here.”