I arrived at Palisades late this morning under sunny skies with temperatures climbing up to about 60º F. A slight breeze could be felt down in the parking lot, but it wasn’t until our first chair up KT-22 near the summit that we realized there were actually some pretty blustery winds, keeping the snow (and us) cool despite the sunshine and warm temps.
The snow on KT-22 was a welcome change from this past week—although still slushy, it wasn’t nearly as slow and grabby as it has been recently. We found this to be the case just about everywhere else on the mountain today, even into the late afternoon.
As the snow melts out in these early days of Spring, side hits have been surfacing all over the mountain. Each run provided ample opportunities to find creative new lines, making the whole mountain feel like a giant skatepark. We found some fantastic hits off the KT Saddle before taking it to Chicken Bowl off of Headwall Express.
Chicken Bowl off of Headwall 
Gold Coast Terrain Park with a view of KT-22 and Lake Tahoe 
Gold Coast Terrain Park
The soft and forgiving snow inspired us to take a few laps through the Gold Coast Terrain Park, which was riding nicely. The faster snow (at least compared to this past week) made for a much more enjoyable park session as you could easily get enough speed to hit anything in the park without pumping through the features above.
We later cruised over to Shirley, where the snow was really no different than the rest of the mountain—wet, heavy, and slushy. The beginnings of a few wiggles could be seen from Shirley Express, signifying the unofficial beginning of Spring at Palisades Tahoe.
Following a couple runs down Shirley, we passed through the Belmont Terrain Park en route to the base area. The Belmont jump line was nicely shaped and once again, the snow conditions allowed us to get plenty of speed for each hit. We continued on down Mountain Run for a fun, long final run of the day.
Temperatures will stay well above freezing tonight before another warm, sunny day tomorrow. Even though the daily high will reach into the upper 50’s, a light jacket or hoodie should be plenty comfortable for what’s shaping up to be another breezy day. The weather pattern shifts on Sunday as a storm moves in off the coast. We might see some rain Sunday evening before turning to snow overnight and into Monday.
