March 2023 Snow Recap

We received 191 inches of snow in March, bringing our season total to 692 inches. That’s 173% of our annual season average of 400 inches!

This is the 3rd largest March snowfall we’ve seen in the last 22 years. The biggest March was the 2016-17 season, when snow totals reached 237 inches. And the second-place March was in 2010-11 with 215 inches. Compared to the minimal 20″ of snow we received last March, we are very excited to have “Miracle March” live up to its name again.

Digging out again…and again…and again

Every department on- and off-mountain was impacted by the enormous snowfall. Our entire team pitched in to dig out parking lots, plazas, staircases, entryways, and corridors in the base areas. Our on-mountain crews woke up extra early to dig out structures that had been buried in snow. This included patrol shacks, chairlifts and even sometimes mid-mountain chairs! We sure used all of our shoveling muscles to get the mountain up and running.

The Patrol shack near the top of the Funitel was completely buried. Photo by Blake Kessler, March 29, 2023.

These mid-mountain KT-22 Chairs were buried! Photo from March 15, 2023 by Blake Kessler.

All of our crews pitched in to keep the lifts open and dig us out after each storm. Here’s a team working to dig out the KT-22 lift. Photo from March 15, 2023 by Blake Kessler.

KT-22 wasn’t the only lift buried in March! Crews had to dig out chairs on Red Dog, and the bottom stations of Shirley Lake, Granite Chief, and Kangaroo at Alpine, among others. It’s an unusual season when we have to repeatedly dig out our chairs before running the lifts.

The bottom of the Kangaroo lift terminal buried in powder. Photo taken March 30, 2023 by Blake Kessler.

It snowed so much that we started running out of places to put the snow! Here’s the huge snow mountain in the Village at Palisades Tahoe parking lot. Yes, that’s a giant pile of just snow!

Photo of the Palisades lot snow storage area taken March 9, 2023 by Kate Abraham.

A look ahead

Our massive snowpack has set us up for a long season of skiing and riding. On March 23rd we announced our plans to stay open for skiing through the 4th of July this year! The last two times the snowpack was large enough for 4th of July skiing were in 2018-19 and 2016-17.

From groomers to powder, there’s something for everyone to ski and ride at Palisades Tahoe. And the deep snowfall this season will ensure several more months of skiing. Photo taken March 30, 2023 by Blake Kessler.

As far as operations go: we plan to have both sides of the mountain open every day in April. Then in May, we’ll move to a modified schedule with Alpine open Wednesday-Sunday and Palisades open Friday-Tuesday. In June, skiing operations move to Friday-Sunday only on the Alpine side. We’ll mark the end of the 2022-23 winter season July 1st through 4th with skiing and snowboarding at Alpine only. Please note, this schedule is subject to change, pending weather and conditions.

Please see this operations blog for full details on our planned operations schedule for April-July.

Skiing on the 4th of July, 2023…at Alpine!

This year, skiing and riding on the 4th of July will look a little different because it will happen on the Alpine side! On the Palisades side we have a long-scheduled Funitel project on the books for this summer, so we’re moving the festivities over to Alpine. We’re excited to bring you the same great 4th of July skiing experience in a new location.