April 22: Wiggling Worms and Spring Sun

This report was written by Rene Jerez.

Conditions today were totally what Palisades Tahoe is all about!

The parking lot temperature was in the mid-60s, with a nice breeze blowing through the base to help cool things off. The sun was out in full force, so I had to apply tons of mineral sunblock, but it was nice enough that I could ride just in shorts and my jacket. I also prepped my board for this trip by applying a ton of spring wax over the weekend to ensure I’d be riding efficiently.

That is one deep wiggle on Siberia.

I kicked the day off with a ride up the Funitel and then rode down to the Siberia chair for a warm-up lap down Siberia Bowl. I’ve usually avoided the bowl this season due to crowds and sometimes icy conditions, but today, the spring snow was in full effect, and combined with the usual lack of crowds for a Monday, it made for some awesome bowl riding. Even though spring skiing is in full effect with snow melt, coverage down Siberia Bowl was in great shape.

Looking Down Siberia Bowl.

After sufficiently warming up, I headed over to Granite Chief Peak, which has lately been my favorite area to ride in Palisades. I rode the Gold Coast Chair up and down Shirley Bowl, which has two seriously huge and fresh worms worn into the snowpack right now. I kept both of them in mind for later as I dropped in to get over to the Granite Chief chair. Both Crook’s Gulch and Lower Backside were in top form today, and, just like Siberia Bowl, they had some amazingly soft spring snow that was pure nirvana to ride down. One aspect of Granite Chief I adore is how much vert one can rack up in that part of the resort, and I did about four laps before riding Shirley Lake to try to ride one of the Shirley Bowl worms for the first time.

Even though I got ejected out pretty fast, the worm was fun to ride. I wasn’t too sure of my ability last season to try to ride one, but it was crazy how much speed you can pick up in them, and I can see how skiers love them so much. After returning to the Shirley Lake Chair, I rode back up and out and back down to the base for a quick KT-22 run down through Saddle, which was also full of spring snow goodness. After returning to the base, I took a quick break at the parking lot.

One of the two Shirley Bowl worms.

After my break, I switched things up and walked over to the Red Dog chair for a lap down Champs Elysee with a quick shortcut down Red Dog Face. The Face was full of huge but soft moguls that were fun to snowboard on and cut my return to the funitel by a few minutes. I then rode the Funitel up for repeated laps down Siberia Bowl to compensate for my lack of riding down that trail this season. There are also some serious side hits and jumps you can hit around Yellow Tail, and I got in some great jumps over there! On my last run down Morning Side, before calling it for the day, I was astounded at how well the snow was keeping at the base despite it starting to melt off.

One of the ski patrol doggies hard at work.

Today was the picture-perfect day for spring skiing at Palisades, and it’s so awesome we have about another month or so before Memorial Day and the season ends for good. This week is also the last week to get your turns over at Alpine before that side closes this Sunday, but the Palisades side will continue rocking through Memorial Day weekend. Don’t forget to use your spring wax to get the most out of your spring days and put on tons of sunblock to help ward off UV rays. Come up to Tahoe and get those turns in!