Today was another warm one at the Palisades side of the resort! In spite of the temperatures getting warmer with May coming, the snow at Palisades is holding up extremely well.
This blog was written by Rene Jerez.
The sun once again was out in full force and working its magic on making the snow nice and soft. There was a nice breeze going on this morning all over the mountain that just felt great and perfect for such a sunny bluebird day. I started my day off with a ride up the Funitel and then rode down to the Siberia chair to get some laps in at Siberia Bowl.
It being a Wednesday there were few guests crowding the trails and it was amazing to go down through the bowl and make wide, sweeping turns down. I did about four laps up and down. Unfortunately, those awesome bumps I found by Tower 9 had been smoothed over by the grooming crew but the fresh cuord to rip on more than made up for it!
I was feeling a run down Headwall, so after my fourth lap down from the bowl I rode down on Mountain Run and Spring Bowl to get to the return lift. Corn snow was in full effect at Spring Bowl and it was enjoyable to partake in my own corn snow harvest.
I unfortunately bit off more than I could chew at the top of Headwall and GS Bowl was filled with tons of giant boulder-sized moguls, so I had to ride down sideways through most of it. It leveled out when you hit the Washeshu chair though, and from there on the trail was also completely covered in fresh corn for the taking. If you’re an all-mountain skier who loves steeps and moguls, Headwall Face is a run totally worth checking out right now with the current conditions.
Looking down at the base coming down from Mountain Run
After my Headwall run I wanted to get in some KT laps down Saddle Run & Saddle Bowl. The snow up on the top KT was fast and soft, and I got in some great laps in the Bowl section of Saddle. My third lap was the best, and I feel like I was shredding down faster than I did this past Monday.
After getting my fill of KT I rode the Funitel back up to Gold Coast and then rode Gold Coast Express up so I could access the Shirley Lake side of the resort which I hadn’t gone to yet this trip. Shirley Lake was awesome, and although there wasn’t much corn snow there (yet), the snow still felt like it had more of a winter quality than the rest of the resort due to the geography and the position of the sun at the time, protecting the snow from melting.
Shirley Bowl was nice and ungroomed, with lots of little moguls that were fun to hit. After Shirley Lake I took a water and rest break at Gold Coast, and traversing through the High Camp beginner’s area I was pleased to see that even there it was filled with tons of corn. If you’re a beginner it’s totally worth coming up to the mountain to get those laps in and partake in the corn harvest.
Riding the Shirley Lake chair
I finished the afternoon off with a ton of park laps down Emigrant Gully. The groomers had smoothed out some of the bumps near the end of the trail but it was still awesome to get in a ton of laps while also seeing the more advanced skiers and snowboarders ripping it up in the Gold Coast park while riding the lift-up.
The parks were seriously on fire today and were a magnet attracting all of the crowds today. I loved that vibe as well as talking to everyone who I shared a chairlift with. The park crew today was totally on top of things and did an amazing job of maintaining the features to keep them in tip-top shape. I feel like during the last three days I’ve done more jumps and grinds than I ever did in my previous three seasons of snowboarding.
Ripping it up on the S rail
Today was another awesome one at Palisades and I can’t wait to come back up to get more spring shredding in. Come on up to the resort and get those spring turns in and partake in the corn harvest!
