Palisades Tahoe Debuts $12,000 Club With Priority Lines and Private Lounges

This winter, for $12,000, skiers and snowboarders at Palisades Tahoe, California, can join the exclusive Apex Club, gaining access to priority chairlift lines and private lounges.

While word of the Apex Club has already gotten out, the ski resort officially introduced the club in a press release on Wednesday, sharing the details of what membership includes. 

There are two lounges to choose from for members: the Apex Lounge and the Mid-Mountain Lounge at Gold Coast.

The Apex Lounge “is the heart of the Apex Club experience,” Palisades Tahoe wrote in the release. It offers complimentary continental breakfast, a premium full bar, and “an elevated bites & flights menu throughout the day.” Concierge will be on hand to help members with reservations, gear needs, and on-mountain planning. 

Located at 8,000 feet, the Mid-Mountain Lounge is billed by the resort as a place to warm up between laps or settle in for a relaxed mid-day break. It’s accessible by lift and, like the Apex Lounge, boasts concierge support. 

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Alongside lounge access, priority chairlift lines will be available at 12 lifts: Funitel (First Public Cabin), Red Dog, Gold Coast, Big Blue, Siberia, Shirley Lake, Granite Chief, Summit, Roundhouse, Treeline Cirque, Sherwood, and the Base to Base Gondola. On high-wind days, the Resort Chair and Far East lifts will also have priority Apex lanes.

Membership begins at $12,000 for purchases made by December 11, 2025, and stays valid until April 12, 2026. Palisades Tahoe is also selling an $800 Apex Club ticket for daily access. 

“The Apex Club is the peak of what we offer,” said Amy Ohran, president and COO of Palisades Tahoe, in the release. “It’s about sport at the highest level and the best experience on this mountain—simple as that.”  

Part of the club’s proceeds will go towards the non-profit Palisades Tahoe Community Foundation, which funds youth outdoor access, environmental stewardship, and community programs.

Exclusive passes that let skiers skip the line aren’t new—POWDR Corp., which owns several ski resorts in North America, already has the Fast Tracks program—but they have sometimes proven contentious. 

When Crystal Mountain, Washington, introduced the $1,499 Reserve Pass with line-skipping privileges, a petition emerged opposing it. 

Crystal and Palisades are both owned by the resort group Alterra Mountain Company, which has also debuted Reserve Passes at other mountains it operates.

“Implementing such a system threatens the community atmosphere and will pit skiers and boarders against each other,” the petition about Crystal, which garnered almost 5,000 signatures, read. “By allowing priority access through additional charges, Alterra Mountain Company risks alienating the average ski enthusiast who makes up the core of the skiing community.”

When asked what prompted the start of the Apex Club, Patrick Lacey, Palisade Tahoe’s public relations manager, told POWDER in an email that it was to include “an elevated experience for guests seeking premium amenities.”

“Offering a variety of products that address guest needs and desires allows us to appeal to a variety of guests” and “remain responsive to a changing market,” he continued.

For those outside the Apex Club, one possible concern is that members could gum up the lines, making the wait longer for people who can’t spend thousands of dollars on membership. But the club, Lacey noted, is limited to 200 members, and no more than 33 one-off tickets will be sold each day. 

Because of that, the effect of the Apex Club on lift lines will be “very minimal,” Lacey wrote. “Our goal is to protect the core ski experience that Palisades Tahoe is known for while offering added convenience to a small group of guests,” he added, noting the resort is investing in more line-control staff for the lifts with priority lanes. 

Two of Palisades Tahoe’s most famous and popular lifts, the KT-22 Express and the Headwall Express, also won’t have priority lines.

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