Today was excellent for spring riding, and it’s crazy to think Palisades will be open for another two months. Give your board or sticks a good spring waxing and come up and get those turns in!
This report was written by Rene Jerez.
Today was pretty warm and extremely sunny at Palisades. The temperature at the parking lot, when I arrived at about 9:30, was a solid 65 degrees, with a nice cool breeze helping to keep that in check. I recently ‘summerized’ my board with a fresh coat of spring wax, and I was eager to see how that would work out with the snow, so I started things off with a warmup lap riding up the Funitel and rode down Mountain Run; the snow was super soft and not grabby at all! I was zooming down faster than my last time up to the resort. The spring wax was making a difference, and the spring snow was easy to turn in. As incredible as it was to have powder day after powder day this winter, it’s really nice to be hitting the spring snow finally.
After my warmup lap, I spent a lot of time riding The Mothership up KT. I started with a run down Saddle Run, and my recent board tune-up paid some handsome dividends, especially as I hit Saddle Bowl. I was carving hard in the bowl, making super aggressive turns before the trail merges into Mountain Run. After my Saddle run, I felt like pushing myself harder and thought, why not try to shred down the face of KT-22 via GS Bowl. GS Bowl had massive, boulder-sized moguls everywhere, and I, unfortunately, had to ride down most of it sideways. If you’re a skier who loves huge moguls, this is where you want to be hitting for laps. After my ride down, I did about three more laps down KT via Saddle. I felt like today on KT at Saddle, I’ve never ridden this fast or aggressively, and it feels incredible to notice that with so much riding this season.
After getting my KT fix in for the day and with the nice weather, I felt like hitting the new terrain park set up down Emigrant Gully. It was completely awesome, and since the Gully is rated as blue, the pitch was perfect for picking up speed. The park crew has done a fantastic job of setting up new features, and I especially loved how many jumps they’ve built. I probably spent two hours working on my park skills, especially grinding boxes and jumps. Gold Coast Express was super fast to return up to the top for more laps. Due to our plethora of powder days this season, I haven’t had a dedicated park day, so it felt great to dedicate most of my day just to that. At the Gully’s end, I especially loved how there were big bumps to practice getting more air in. This was easily my best park session yet riding ever, and best of all, I had zero serious falls.
After taking a quick late lunch back at my car, I rode the Funitel back up for a few runs down Siberia Bowl. The bowl was a lot better today than two weeks ago, and although some baby moguls were being formed, the snow had softened up even more than earlier in the day, and best of all, it wasn’t crowded with other guests at all so I didn’t have to worry about catching my edge and sliding down on my butt. Of all my ski runs, I think Siberia Bowl is the one I’ve slipped down the most. I found a really good bump that looked like it was formed from a cat track in front of tower 9 on the Siberia lift line that was an absolute blast to hit and get jumps off for repeated laps. After getting my fill of bowl riding, I rode down to Gold Coast to get in about three more park laps in Emigrant Gully before calling it a day.
