Mar 26: Blue Skies and Tons of Pow at Palisades

Winter has returned to Palisades!

This report was written by Rene Jerez

Today was by far one of the best days for me this season at Palisades Tahoe! Temps in the parking lot this morning were in the mid-40s with tons of sunshine and no wind. I’ve been in Utah for the past two weeks enjoying the other resorts on the IKON pass and with both sides of the resort getting over 3.5 feet of snow in the last week or so I was shocked at how filled out Tahoe is this well into spring. Miracle March has definitely blessed Palisades Tahoe and it’s so mind-blowing there’s even more snow on the way to kick off April.

I started my day off with a quick warm-up lap down Mountain Run and to gauge how mountain conditions would be. The snow was fast, packed powder with amazing coverage almost everywhere and barely a rock or branch to be seen. Second winter was in full effect today! After feeling that I had sufficiently warmed up I rode KT-22 for some fun down Saddle Run which was amazing. Conditions at the top of KT were in peak form and the snow was so fun to ride on. Saddle Face was steep and there was enough it felt almost like the legendary conditions of last winter. I had such a good time riding down I did about two more laps, with my final run down through the Enchanted Forest trail which had some huge but soft moguls. When I got down back to the base I immediately got right back onto the funitel for some fun in Granite Bowl.

Headwall today as seen from the top of KT

Granite Bowl was awesome! I entered in via Shirley Bowl, which also had a ton of soft but huge moguls but were easy to navigate on my board. I was picking up some serious speed where the bowl starts to flatten out and was loving every minute of it. Even though it’s an old fixed grip I love riding the Granite chair up. There were tons of people today ripping it up and leaving fresh lines all over Granite Chief Peak which I’d love to hit someday in the future. I mostly focused my attention though on the Main Backside trail which was total ungroomed, steep goodness. I came back up for two more laps and didn’t regret it. The snow all over Shirley Bowl and Granite was so perfect with no ice and ideal coverage. After my last lap down Granite, I exited out via the Shirley Lake Chair and rode down to the Emigrant Chair.

Riding up Granite today

People earning their turns at Granite Chief Peak

Emigrant Face was pretty moguled up but the wind had done a really amazing job of blowing wind buff around and there was tons of fresh, wind-blown snow that resembled ocean waves that was fun to ride on. I only did one lap though, and immediately headed over for some tree runs down towards the Solitude chair. Solitude today was a huge magnet for fresh pow and I got in so many fresh lies in the trees there. One aspect about that area of the resort that I love is how open and peaceful it is, and how it never gets crowded. I did a follow-up lap again down Teenage Wasteland into Solitude before heading back up for a ride down Siberia Ridge, which also had tons of fresh pow that was still untouched by other skiers and boarders. After my Siberia Ridge run, I finished the day off with a really fun run down Packers Downhill and some follow-up laps down Mountain Run.

Today’s Lake View

It felt so great to be back at Palisades after being away for so long and I definitely returned to some peak Tahoe conditions! With the resort set to get slammed by up to 3 feet of freshies in the next few days the party at Palisades Tahoe is likely going to continue into the summer like it did last year! Even though spring is definitely here winter conditions definitely still apply to those driving up here, especially for those going through the Donner Pass. Here’s to another great week at Palisades Tahoe!