Perfect weather, amazing snow, and no crowds made the last day of January one to remember.
Reported by Rene Jerez.
Today was an amazing day to go to Palisades with temps in the morning being a crisp 15 degrees (It definitely felt warmer!), dry snow, no wind, and lots of leftover pow from Sunday’s refresher storm. With how crazy this month has been for snow it felt appropriate that the last day of the month would be such a perfect bluebird day. And even better being Tuesday meant no crowds!
I started off my morning with my usual warm up lap down Mountain Run from the funitel, and everything checked out great. The groomers did an amazing job getting the snow ready early this morning, and it felt like such a shame to tear up their beautiful corduroy. After my lap I decided to hit the day harder, and went down to the Siberia lift right after I got off from the Funitel. Siberia Bowl and Siberia Ridge were almost completely empty of guests, and I shredded down the ridge a few times. The snow was still really good and free of ice patches, with a few stashes of untouched powder!
After a few laps down the ridge I was in the mood to ride Gold Coast, and had a blast shredding the blue trails back to its base. Killy’s was my favorite trail off of that lift today, and the snow getting compacted and turning into hard and fast packed powder which are some of my favorite conditions to ride in! After a few laps I did my first of two riding sessions to Shirley Lake and the backside. The conditions on the backside were my favorite of the day and the snow was in impeccable shape with no ice or exposed patches at all. I could spend all day in this part of Palisades if given the chance!
After getting my fill going down Standteiner’s and Shirley Bowl (This run had the best conditions out of the backside trails today), I did a quick park lap through Belmont Park before breaking for lunch. Belmont Park is looking better than ever now that the park crew have had time to dig out and make new awesome features!
After lunch I decided to come back to the backside and got in even more laps down to the return of the Shirley Lake chair. By about 2:00 PM – 2:30 PM the snow down Shirley Bowl was even better than before lunch, and I love so much how wind sheltered and sun protected the whole backside area of Palisades is. By about 3 PM I spent the rest of my day ripping it up in the park. I have a new Bent Metal binding setup on my board and it’s definitely improved my park riding ability.
Today was an absolute stellar bluebird day with perfect conditions and it was fantastic to kick-off the first day of my trip. I’m looking forward to more awesome bluebird days until we get our refresher snow this weekend!
