Today’s weather was sunny with a few clouds, temperatures in the 40s, and no wind, which meant it was the perfect spring skiing day to be up in Tahoe. It was definitely a blackout goggle day, and sunblock was obligatory.
This report was written by Rene Jerez.
Today was my first day back at Palisades after making a three-week road trip to Utah and Oregon to hit up all of the Ikon Pass resorts (I had an absolute blast and got tons and tons of fresh pow in both states!) Returning to my home mountain after being away for so long felt so great! After experiencing so many powder days (I know it’s a weird thing to be complaining about), it was a nice change of pace for once to not have to gaiter up and wear many layers.
The snow today was a bit hard and fast in the morning, especially in the upper mountains, so I was happy to have my board freshly sharpened and waxed. Because I was out of state for so long, I missed out on many of the recent-ish snow dumps, and it blew my mind how much the terrain has changed in such a short period. I started the day off with a ride up the Funitel and then did some laps down from Siberia Ridge back down to the Siberia chair return to ensure everything on my board was in top shape. At the bottom of the ridge, there were tons of fresh pow that I left my tracks in. I was shocked to see how much Siberia Bowl had filled out, and although it was a bit mogul heavy, it was fantastic to be shredding down the bowl again.
After a few laps down Siberian Bowl getting my hard-pack legs back, I decided to try riding the Headwall lift, as I hadn’t been up to that part of the resort yet. Unfortunately, from the lift line, it looked like a lot of the trails down that part of the mountain were really firm and looked too windblown for my tastes, so I ended up going down the easy way down on the skier’s right side of Siberia Bowl. It was a fun variation, and I’ll need to retake it. After my Headwall run, I rode down to the base via Home Run and had a blast as the snow softened. I may try the more challenging Headwall trails tomorrow as it’s projected to be much warmer, so that should help soften the snow, especially in the afternoon.
At the base, I figured it was time to get in my KT-22 fix and rode that chair up. Out of all the resorts I’ve been to, nothing beats how awesome and stoke-filled the guests and staff of the Mothership are! The ride up was insane, looking at how hard the snow hit the resort. I didn’t even recognize most of it from earlier this year. The videos I’ve seen on social media didn’t do justice to seeing it with my own eyes. I thought about riding down the face of KT via GS Bowl, but I figured doing laps down Saddle would be a safer bet, and I could always try tackling that route another day. Saddle was absolutely amazing, and Saddle Bowl was way less steep than I remembered earlier in the year and had filled out nicely with tons of snow.
After a nice lunch and break back at my car, I figured I’d check out Shirley Bowl to see what had changed when I was gone. As I discovered earlier this year, the snow at Shirley Lake was in pristine condition and super soft, while the Shirley Bowl had a much less severe pitch than before from all the snowstorms last month. I did a lot of laps down to the return chair but felt like riding up Granite Chief. I did my usual run down to Main Backside, which was fun but full of moguls. I alternated between that run and laps down Shirley Bowl for the rest of the afternoon, which was a lot of fun until it was time to wrap up and head down to the base. By about 3:45 pm, the snow on Mountain Run and Sunny Side had softened up and made me eager for the coming of corn snow when the temps started warming up more.
Bring on more spring skiing! Today was a fantastic day full of spring skiing and snowboarding, and I’m looking forward to shredding it up tomorrow on Easter, especially with the increased temperatures for Sunday. The snow should be super soft and fun, and it’s crazy to think we can enjoy Palisades up to the 4th of July this year.
