Feb 22: A Beautiful Bluebird Day at Alpine

This report was written by Rene Jerez.

A beautiful bluebird spring-like day with soft snow and no crowds.

The weather today on the Alpine side of Palisades Tahoe was incredibly gorgeous. It was a total bluebird day with temps in the low 40s and little to no wind. The entire resort has reserved parking this week due to the Stifel Cup and ski week for Lake Tahoe and Bay Area schools, but Alpine didn’t feel crowded. The Alpine Base has received an astonishing 22 inches of fresh snow the previous week, and plenty of snow is still available to enjoy all over the base and upper mountain.

I started my day with a warm-up run down the Roundhouse Chair via Rock Garden. Even though the snow Tahoe received this week was wet and heavy, it certainly didn’t feel like that at all, and on the groomed trails, it felt really dry and somewhat powdery. It got really nice down the Lady’s Slalom trail, and on my subsequent warm-up lap, I went down Charity and East Runout to end up at the Summit chair.

Today’s view from Summit looking at the lake and the Lakeview chair

The top of Summit was utterly fantastic, and there were tons of skiers up there doing the bootpack to get to the top of Alpine Bowl and get in on some black and double diamond freshies. I took it easy and rode down Alpine Bowl near the top of the chairlift. Alpine Bowl had no ice or hard pack and was 100% packed powder from this week’s storms, making it the perfect environment for riding/skiing bowls. I did three laps down Alpine before heading to the Scott Chair via Rock Garden and Upper Weasel One. For my first Scott Chair run of the year, I headed down Scott Ridge but found the snow in variable conditions, so I decided to head over to the backside via Treeline Cirque.

Looking up from the Sherwood Chair.

The backside was on fire today! The snow was soft and spring-like, but it was far from turning into mashed potatoes. Higher-up coverage was also excellent, except for the steeper parts of the backside, and the upper mountain was completely ice-free. I did a lot of lapping down to the Sherwood Chair, but on one of my laps back up, I did a run down via the South Park trail, which is immediate skier’s left of the top of the Sherwood Chair. This is an easy, flat traverse for skiers, but it’s more of a brisk, flat hike for snowboarders. There was a ton of fresh and chopped-up pow all over the upper parts of Sherwood Bowl, and I rode back down a bit cautiously to avoid ending up near exposed rocks. After another Sherwood Bowl lap, I headed over to the Lakeview Chair.

The vistas in the Alpine backside were amazing today.

The groomed trails off Lakeview were at the top of their game, and there was so much fresh, unchopped pow to ride on in Scott Valley. Even though it may not be the most technically difficult trail and is 100% all blues, I love riding down the Mountain View run from Lakeview and making a hard left once I enter Scott Valley to shred the pow there. It’s virtually an all-you-can-eat powder buffet after it snows, and it’s a shame more guests don’t ski/ride there more often since it’s so easy to get in and get out. Outer Limits and Twilight Zone were particularly enjoyable today, and so many guests were at the top of the chair taking photos and selfies of the lake. After doing my part in Scott Valley to free it of freshies, I finished my day off with a run-down Wolverine Bowl over at Summit. With how much shade that area of the mountain gets, the snow stays perfect all afternoon long and is excellent for your finishing lap.

With the Stifel Cup starting tomorrow and lasting all through the weekend (and up to 16 inches of fresh pow forecast through Monday), Palisades Tahoe is the place to be in the Tahoe Basin this weekend. If you’re coming up, please be aware of possible traffic issues with the Stifel Cup and have your parking reservations all in order. Go have a great weekend in the mountains.