Today was the Red Bull Raid event at Palisades Tahoe. If you aren’t familiar, here is how they describe the event on the website:
Red Bull Raid is the truest test of a mountain athlete. The only event in the world that combines uphill skill with downhill mastery, Red Bull Raid is part hike-your-line sufferfest, part big-mountain freeriding. The event is split into two evenly weighted sections, the ascent and the descent. There are 200 points up for grabs per section based on speed and style, with competitors racing to see who can climb to the summit quickest while still having enough left in the tank to truly send it on the downhill. The end result? The most complete snowsports competition in the Sierra.
I started my day at Palisades and saw the start of the competition where the skiers skinned up the Cornice Bowl. I saw the first round of male and female skiers and did not envy them for their first runs. The ski women skied first in some very challenging firm and chundery conditions with lots of firm slide debris in most of the runouts. When I left Palisades around 11 am, the Slot started to corn up. I also caught an earlier lap on Tower 16 and got some nice corn turns.
I spent the rest of the afternoon skiing at Alpine, and it was springy as expected. Summit was skiing very well with some choice runs down D8, Wolverine Bowl, and Sun Spot. By 1 pm, we shifted over to ski Lakeview and Scott. Lakeview had some nice soft groomers, but by 3 pm, they were getting too soft. We tried a Scott Chute, which was quite soft by that point. It’s great to have those opposing aspects at Alpine, which get you sunny slopes all day in the spring.
We finished the day with a couple more Summit Laps and had what I would call ‘Money Corn’ down Sun Spot for the day’s last run.
It was a super fun day overall, and I’m looking forward to a return to winter this weekend.
