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  • Operations

Operations Update: Palisades Tahoe Will Be Closed Tuesday, March 14th

  • Mar 13, 2023
  • 4:19 pm
A snowcat completely buried in snow during a storm.

Tonight, another wet storm moves into the Tahoe area. Winds are projected to be over 100 miles per hour on our ridgelines. Normally, this would not be cause for a full closure, but the compounded effect of the incessant wet or snowy weather we have had over the past few weeks puts us in a different situation. We expect high avalanche danger and flooding effects over the next 24 hours and we need to continue to prioritize the safety of our guests and our employees. We will still be using this day to get ahead where we can, continuing to dig out and prepare for re-opening. Once the storm clears (on Wednesday), we will focus on getting terrain back as quickly and efficiently as we can.

Photo above: Nick McMahon, Palisades Grooming

Weather Outlook

Tonight, the final band of this wet storm cycle moves in with moderate to heavy precipitation at times. Ridgetop winds will gust over 100mph. Snow levels continue to be unpredictable; they will likely fluctuate between 6,500 (the Palisades base area) and up to 8,300 feet (above Gold Coast area). Tuesday evening, a colder front will hopefully turn the remaining precipitation to snow. These are the current predicted snow totals for Wednesday morning from Bryan Allegretto of OpenSnow, who writes our Weather Blog, but we could see these decrease depending on temperature:

  • 3-7 inches at the base.
  • 7-26 inches at mid-mountain elevations.
  • 26-33 inches on the upper mountain above 8,000 feet.

Behind The Scenes of This Storm

While we’ve been seeing mostly rain in the base areas through mid-mountain, the upper mountains have been seeing snowfall. It is still wet and heavy snow, but it continues to pile up and bury our lifts and facilities up there. Let’s take a look:

  • High Camp completely buried in snow.
    High Camp totally buried this weekend. Photo: Jimmy King, Palisades Mountain Manager
  • A patrol shack buried in snow.
    Buried Patrol Shack. Photo: Will Paden, Palisades Ski Patrol Director

We have so much snow below KT-22 that we are having to manually dig out this lift line with shovels every day after snowfall. Big shoutout to our Lift Operators & Ski Patrollers who have been doing this backbreaking work. Seriously — the snow that has fallen recently is so heavy.

Photo: Ben Leech, Palisades Ski Patrol

  • The Gold Coast Ski Patrol shack totally buried in snow.
    Photo: Bandit, Palisades Grooming Supervisor
  • A Ski Patroller at the buried Gold Coast Shack
    Photo: Will Paden, Palisades Ski Patrol Director

The Patrol Shack by the top of the Funitel.

With all of this moisture, rime ice continues to be an issue as well. Rime ice builds up on our chairlifts after wet weather events, and is created when droplets of water freeze instantly when they meet a surface. Our Lift Maintenance teams have to break all of this ice off manually before the chair is safe to run again. Here are some examples:

Rime ice on the upper mountain on Friday, March 10th. Photo: Jimmy King, Palisades Mountain Manager
Rime ice on Solitude on March 12th, after an additional 2 days of rain. Photo: Jimmy King, Palisades Mountain Manager

WANT THIS BLOG TO COME TO YOUR EMAIL INBOX?

Sign up for our Mountain Operations email list, and we’ll send this blog directly to you every time we have an update. We’ll share another update soon. Sign up here.

HOW ELSE CAN I STAY UP-TO-DATE THIS SEASON?

We’ll arm you with all the information you need to plan the perfect ski day any day this winter. Bookmark these pages:

  • Lift + Grooming Status
  • Snow & Weather
  • Operations Blog
  • Conditions Blog
  • Weather Blog

Not wanting to check the website constantly? Try these other methods:

  • Follow our Mountain Operations Twitter account
  • Sign up for the Palisades Tahoe Ski & Ride Report (Weather Blogs + Conditions Blogs are included here)
  • Download the Palisades Tahoe App

Do you have any requests for this season’s Operations Blogs? Topics you’d like to see covered or information you think is missing? Send us an email at chatter@palisadestahoe.com with your feedback. We have received a lot of messages lately, and we are getting back to you one by one. Thanks for being patient!

Operations
Liz Worgan
Liz Worgan

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