I thought yesterday was going to be hard to beat, but that may have just happened today, and the lines weren’t even an issue.
This report was written by James Yim.
Maybe the lines were longer in the morning, but I was happy to be on the late train again today, and it couldn’t have worked out better.
With 9” of new snow in the last 24 hours and OVER 12 FEET of snow in January, the mountain is skiing like a dream right now. That said, make sure not to let your guard down with this recent snowfall. It’s always a good idea to ski with a friend, wear a beacon, and stay away from tree wells in these conditions. We also had to deal with delays leaving Alpine today due to avalanche activity on Highway 89.
I was bummed that I missed the opening of Scott chair this morning, which I heard from multiple sources had some amazing pow turns. One thing that did go my way was the opening of Summit Chair a little after noon. The line never got longer than the lift corral; it was just lap after lap of pow turns. The winds were also blowing hard, which made for whiteout conditions at the top of Summit, but that also meant that the wind was blowing into certain aspects and providing free refills. Palisades was one of those areas that kept refilling, and we got some smooth pow laps in there toward the end of the day. By 2:30pm, we were just skiing right onto Summit chair as the crowds had vanished.
I mixed in a few laps down Scott Chute, and the snow was still holding very well in that zone. I love skiing down the skier’s left of Scott Chute on a storm day, as you have trees all down the side, which provides some excellent visibility.
I’m looking forward to a break in the storms (and shoveling) tomorrow to see what kind of upper mountain terrain we might get to ski over at Palisades!
