Top-to-bottom untracked powder laps at Palisades made today nothing but magical.
This blog was written by Ryan Williams.
Today delivered a classic sleeper pow day at Palisades Tahoe. From first tracks on Olympic Lady to untracked runs all morning across KT. The amazing conditions were a surprise. Heard a few people say “best day of the season”…it was magical.
Rain Turned To Snow Overnight
It was awesome to wake up to new snow this morning after going to bed with rain at the base. Walking over to the resort the new snow was just a bit at the base, around 3”-4”. It was wet, but the cold air was stirring and more snow was flying. The day was forecasted to bring another +9”. Approaching the KT line it became clear that today was going to be chill, with only 25 people in line at 8:40am. It was go time.
KT22
The lift opened shortly after 9am today and the stoke was on. Once we crested the Fingers the clouds socked in and visibility got tough. But not before noticing that it had dumped almost a foot of fresh at the top. It was howling wind at the top. We headed over to Olympic Lady for first tracks on our favorite zone. Dropping in the snow was amazing. Cold, blower, fast and rippable. It was on.
The snow was incredible on the top half: wintery pow conditions with the previous funky conditions starting to fill back in (i.e. created by the rain and wind events). The classic lines and drops are now going again, full send. The surprise was that the snow ripped well all the way down Olympic Lady. We didn’t hit sticky pow until launching the cat track at the bottom of KT. Getting back in line it was lap time. No lines and untracked all around KT.
Heidi’s
Traversing out from East Face to Red Dog Ridge today was cool. The track was fast and the cliffs and trees held some of the deeper snow of the day, protected from the wind. It was cool to see people ripping this to get all the way out to Red Dog. With that lift closed, the adventures open up. It’ll be nice to have the lift going later this season, but for now, it’s kinda cool to explore with fewer people. The snow in Heidi’s was awesome today. Pow day treat and quiet.
Upper Mountain
Wa She Shu got going later in the morning along with a few of the upper mountain lifts. With the immense amount of untracked spots still on KT, we decided to stay and shred our favorite place. It was too good to leave.
Rock Garden
After a bunch of amazing runs on Olympic Lady, we ventured out to check out Rock Garden and Dead Tree. And did we score. Top to bottom untracked…and at 10:40am. We spent the rest of the morning over here hitting the chutes, cliffs, and stashes. This zone is always incredible to explore. And today the snow was amazing all the way down to the cat track at the Headwall lift.
