We showed in the afternoon today to ski a few fun-in-the-sun laps on the Alpine side of Palisades Tahoe. The weather was nice and sunny with a little breeze. All 12 lifts were open!
We started with the Treeline Cirque chair, which zips you to the top of the backside. The backside of the mountain faces south and gets great sun. The warmer the day, the earlier the snow will get soft back there during the melt-freeze cycles we’ve been experiencing. During these spring-like conditions, it’s the place to be to find great corn snow! Just don’t wait too long before checking it as it may become mashed potatoes.
The snow on Sherwood (a backside chair that receives a lot of sun) was pretty good overall, minus a few sticky spots down by the bottom of the chair.
After a few Sherwood runs we headed back to the front side and hopped on Summit Six chair.
From Summit Six we cruised over to Wolverine bowl. The snow there is great, faces north, and stays cold even on warm days. You can actually find some cold, wintery snow in there right now. Just be prepared: With skiers & riders sliding through all day, the steeper sections can be quite firm and icy in the afternoon.
At the top of the face, there were some pretty icy and intimidating bumps right at the top. The snow, however, gets much better after you have powered through the first 5 turns.
We also checked Alpine Bowl and the snow was perfect there – it wasn’t icy, it had good grip and some corn on top – highly recommended!
One more tip if you’re still skiing until the last chair – the left part of the Dance Floor is perfect and it feels like powder.
Saturday will likely have the same weather with low 20 and high 40s during the day.
