If you have a way to choose a place last minute, you can stormchase and go wherever is getting snow. Western storms are not like New England ones; they are much more predictable 3-6 days ahead of time.
I realize this is probably not an option given plane tickets, etc., but maybe it is.
Hey All, I'm an East Coast skiier and I'm dreaming up a trip for March 2025 to try to find some real powder. It seems like there is a lot of combined experience on here so I'm wondering, any advice on where the best best is for finding untracked powder? I've been thinking of Alta but I'd love some other ideas. Bonus points if its in a fun area for my non-skiing wife...
Do you need to stay in North America? Hokkaido, Japan has some of the best and most consistent pow in the world. The equivalent #'s for this season if you plugged Niseko into GoJeff's table below would slot it right above Mammoth, at 338 feet / 86 snow days. Niseko also has a solid English speaking infrastructure, great food, hot springs, etc. Or if you went to central Hokkaido you'd get even better pristine powder but probably less to do for the wife.
Here is total snowfall and number of snow days for major resorts.
Of the areas listed, Alta has no town, while Palisades and Mammoth are not classic ski towns. Revelstoke and Big Sky are also pretty limited.
The data is reported by each mountain, so there is some bias there. For example, all the Canadian resorts list relatively more snow days, which I bet is because they measure in centimeters so more trace storms "count."
Do you need to stay in North America? Hokkaido, Japan has some of the best and most consistent pow in the world. The equivalent #'s for this season if you plugged Niseko into GoJeff's table below would slot it right above Mammoth, at 338 feet / 86 snow days. Niseko also has a solid English speaking infrastructure, great food, hot springs, etc. Or if you went to central Hokkaido you'd get even better pristine powder but probably less to do for the wife.
I can confirm. We went to Niseko for MLK weekend. The snow was fantastic and the town of Hirafu is really cool. Also, no need to speak Japanese. You can fly into Sapporo and it's about a 2 hour drive to Niseko.
Thanks for all these suggestions! The main objective is to get good snow (my wife would be happy to go XC skiing or chill in a hot tub...no need for night life or anything so maybe that was a bit of a red herring)
To be clear, if you want to maximize chances of pow and good pow, the Cottonwoods in Utah are pretty much beyond compare. But they can be hard to access and there isn't much else to do there as you're literally in a canyon. Perhaps you guys can stay in Park City and you can commute to the Cottonwoods from the East for ski days?
If you have a way to choose a place last minute, you can stormchase and go wherever is getting snow. Western storms are not like New England ones; they are much more predictable 3-6 days ahead of time.
I realize this is probably not an option given plane tickets, etc., but maybe it is.
Open snow is subscription but is great for resort-specific weather predictions.
Otherwise, you could bookmark weather pages for a few resorts that cover most of the places you could easily get to. I think for last minute travel your best bets are SLC (Alta/snowbird) Denver (Breckenridge/vail) and Reno (Tahoe resorts), maybe add Jackson and Whistler to cover most of the west.
Thanks for all these suggestions! The main objective is to get good snow (my wife would be happy to go XC skiing or chill in a hot tub...no need for night life or anything so maybe that was a bit of a red herring)
This is what I assumed but then so many people in here have talked about the resorts in BC that I thought I would ask about people's experiences
Does anyone have recommendations about the best way to track winter storms and expected snowfalls across different parts of the continent?
BC is obviously a lot farther and in another country. I haven't been there in like 20 years, so others will have more relevant stuff to say about it. The village is awesome, but it's a schlepp from the East Coast.
Open snow is subscription but is great for resort-specific weather predictions.
Otherwise, you could bookmark weather pages for a few resorts that cover most of the places you could easily get to. I think for last minute travel your best bets are SLC (Alta/snowbird) Denver (Breckenridge/vail) and Reno (Tahoe resorts), maybe add Jackson and Whistler to cover most of the west.
Open Snow is definitely the way to go. A couple of other quick comments about this:
1. Jackson is amazing, but it's also very volatile weather and wind can shut down the airport and certainly drivers from the West (Montana) and South (Denver/SLC).
2. For the reasons above, if you want to plan ahead I'd stay with a resort within driving of DIA, SLC, and RNO. N.B. that SLC will have the shortest commute between airport and resort, as you're 2-3 hours away from any resort at DIA. OTOH w/r/t Colorado, they have pretty great regional airports, and you can fly into Eagle (super close to Vail/Beaver Creek), Hayden (Steamboat), Aspen (Aspen resorts), or Montrose (Telluride, Silverton, maybe others?). RNO is pretty close to the Tahoe resorts (about an hour I believe).
3. I'd also suggest picking between SLC and DIA personally (although reasonable minds may disagree). The West Coast resorts go through longer periods of dry/snow dump cycles, and if the storm is too strong it can shut down roads and/or the resorts. This is what happened a couple of weeks ago out West (and me last summer in Chile). The storm was legendary, but the resorts couldn't operate their lifts and access to the resorts was also limited. By the time many people made it up to the resorts, the wind had blown a lot of the fresh snow away. So with any ski travel, I always say you're playing the odds and personally, I do everything in my power to get the best odds. YMMV. All that said, and I'll be at Palisades in April lol (TBF, it's for a conference).
Took advantage of an inland storm that dropped about a foot of fresh snow in the San Bernardino Mountains east of LA. Just spectacular skiing from top to bottom.
Hey All, I'm an East Coast skiier and I'm dreaming up a trip for March 2025 to try to find some real powder. It seems like there is a lot of combined experience on here so I'm wondering, any advice on where the best best is for finding untracked powder? I've been thinking of Alta but I'd love some other ideas. Bonus points if its in a fun area for my non-skiing wife...
A couple of years ago, when my family was planning its first big ski trip out west, we chose Park City because of proximity to airport and the fact that to make it affordable, we had to plan in advance.
Having just got back from CO on a last-minute ski trip, I think this advice holds. I just learned that CO gets its biggest snowstorms in March and the one that just hit closed I-70 for about 36 hours. Friends of ours had to drive back to the airport through places that received 40" of snow. While they made it out, they said that trip (which probably took them four hours) was "difficult".
There would be nothing worse to me to plan a once-in-a-lifetime vacation and not being able to get to the slopes.
Took advantage of an inland storm that dropped about a foot of fresh snow in the San Bernardino Mountains east of LA. Just spectacular skiing from top to bottom.
Tried to kill myself on Saturday. Just got out of the Ortho's, MRI sometime next week. Went for the wildest ride of my life and for the life of me, I have no idea how I did it.
Just rippin and vibing all day in perfect spring condition snow. Dropped into Detonator and blew my day to shit. Not sure if I caught my tail on the sidewall, or if a snow snake grabbed me, but I got spun. Kept my feet but realized I had f*cked up bigly at that point. Should have just let the fall take me. Next thing I know, I'm riding switch down a 45 degree slope. Hit a knoll and that's when the backflip / tomahawking took over. The clarity of the incident blew my mind. The entire time, as I was ping ponging off trees, flying, daggering my skis on impact to pop them was unreal. I had my HRM on, never got above 100 bpm, which is pretty standard skiing. I do remember thinking how grateful I was for my helmet. And as I daggered by bionic wrist into the snow, a prayer of thanks for the good work my surgeon did repairing that bitch.
Somewhere, in the 750' slide I was able to stop the flying and self arrest. Ski Patrol miraculously had dropped 2 minutes behind me and was able to ski down, with another innocent bystander, with all my shit. I skied out and back to the truck, but currently waiting for MRI. ACL tested ok on manual manipulation. Concern is tears and meniscus. Some emulsion behind the knee. X-Rays showed nothing broken or crazy misalignment, so that's pretty great.
Lower X is where I started my ride. upper x is where I finished flailing.
Lots of cuts and scrapes. Hamstring is tight as hell. PA did say big quads and glutes probably saved my knee.
The scariest part of the whole thing was I was just cruising. Nothing out of my comfort/ability. Speed was minimal (30 ish mph), legs felt good. Just a standard run. Totally understandable if things were wild, or I was skiing hard, but literally just having a great low key day while the kids were in lessons.
Honestly, it was my first comment to ski patrol. I am so grateful for the culture shift in skiing. When I was a young lad, helmets were for goobers and no one wore them. Then all the ski racers who had either washed out or couldn't make it started doing big air, big mountain, etc. and kept their ski helmets on. Now I can't imagine skiing without one. My kids have never skied without a helmet and don't even understand how people would chose to not wear one.
Detonator is a pretty sustained 45ish degrees. There are pockets in there approaching 50 degrees (purple is 46-50, Red being 40-45). It's some of the steepest, sustained, in-bounds terrain in the western US. On a powder day it's like being in a ski movie if you can hit it when the gate drops (Any of those chutes). They are all north facing; when I was young they were closed and would generally kill a dude or two every year (ducking rope). In 2004/2005 the resort got a permit from the USFS to "manage" the terrain. They blow the shit out of it with hand bombs. It's pretty fun to see. The main chair goes over some of them and if you're lucky, you will see the bomb go off and then watch avalanches. Just a few weeks ago I watched one propagate about 500' across 5 different chutes. Was super cool and very much a "not opening today" moment.
Coverage was super sketchy until we got that 100" a few weeks back so it's pretty different in there now.
Like I said, it was a blue bird day, working on my raccoon eyes, just having a blast. And that's what made it so surreal. I was keyed in, on terrain I've skied in way sketchier conditions, and a very manageable pace. Not like I had a partner I was worried about, or trying to push it. If I had to guess, I must have caught a branch just under the snow. My bases were fine, I had thought rock, but no damage there. Snow Snake just bit me. Or maybe that sidewall of the chute caught my tail.
Steep 16 is supposed to be next weekend, but it looks like we are getting one more shot at winter, so they will be shut down. Hoping I'm healthy enough to go back in there at the postponed date...
Yeah, just edited my above. Holy. Shit. Dead right? I mean, that cat gets funneled to looker right and what would then appear to be fully pegged against that outcrop. Solo or not, that's a huge ride and the skier probably died on the way down.
Man, that's scary shit.
Edit: I've watched this thing like 10 times now. It's absolutely wild how it developed. Staying close to tracks, and it starts on what looks like a pretty mild slope. First viewings I thought maybe some hangfire from the uphill rollover but no, looks like it breaks at the toe of that adjoining slope. So wild.
Yeah, just edited my above. Holy. Shit. Dead right? I mean, that cat gets funneled to looker right and what would then appear to be fully pegged against that outcrop. Solo or not, that's a huge ride and the skier probably died on the way down.
I saw that. And if the skier didn't get pinned on the outcrop for sure swept over that cliff. Waiting for the report to hit the internets. Be very interesting to see the after action on it. What were the conditions leading up, etc. I do see there have been some Serac falls this month, but that clearly wasn't the case there. That looks like stupid dumb luck. First skier just put enough stress onto the slope that skier 2 let it ride. Thank you for sharing. It's terribly tragic but an important reminder and visual of shit going sideways. Hope your friend isn't too shell shocked from it.
I saw that. And if the skier didn't get pinned on the outcrop for sure swept over that cliff. Waiting for the report to hit the internets. Be very interesting to see the after action on it. What were the conditions leading up, etc. I do see there have been some Serac falls this month, but that clearly wasn't the case there. That looks like stupid dumb luck. First skier just put enough stress onto the slope that skier 2 let it ride. Thank you for sharing. It's terribly tragic but an important reminder and visual of shit going sideways. Hope your friend isn't too shell shocked from it.
Talking with my buddy over there, they did 8k' today, but lots of rockfall and avalanches all around them. He said yesterday was pretty hairy as well. Looks like they got snow on the 16th?
MRI and doc came back. Pretty stoked. LCL torn, probable tear in ACL. BUT, if one were to tear their ACL, based on MRI, this is the way to do it. Doc thinks 50/50 on surgery. Felt confident that PT for 5 weeks will answer the question. Not allowed to run on the beach (good, who does that anyways?), but other than that, cleared to try and go full beast mode (in PT at least). Where the tear is is very hard to confirm without scoping.
I’ve gotten out way more than I thought this year and had the whole family up at Sugarbush last weekend which worked out wonderfully. Went to the J skis shop in Burlington and they had the Bob Ross masterblasters on sale in store only so now I own a pair of skis with fucking Bob Ross on them and an Ikon pass so I’m ready to rip for a while
MRI and doc came back. Pretty stoked. LCL torn, probable tear in ACL. BUT, if one were to tear their ACL, based on MRI, this is the way to do it. Doc thinks 50/50 on surgery. Felt confident that PT for 5 weeks will answer the question. Not allowed to run on the beach (good, who does that anyways?), but other than that, cleared to try and go full beast mode (in PT at least). Where the tear is is very hard to confirm without scoping.
It fixes itself...allegedly! It's a grade 2, so anywhere from 10-90% torn, not a big range or anything...Doc said it was fine. 3 months it would be strong like ox.
Flying back to Japan tomorrow. It’s the last week Niseko is open. Lift tickets are down to $40 per person. The plan is to do 4 days of skiing to finish out the season. We’re all packed. I’m just trying to figure out what skis to take. I know it’s raining there today but the snow report says at least some snow the next 4 days or so. We have some colleagues at a nearby resort on Hokkaido and they say the snow is great. Fingers crossed it stays relatively cold at least.
Flying back to Japan tomorrow. It’s the last week Niseko is open. Lift tickets are down to $40 per person. The plan is to do 4 days of skiing to finish out the season. We’re all packed. I’m just trying to figure out what skis to take. I know it’s raining there today but the snow report says at least some snow the next 4 days or so. We have some colleagues at a nearby resort on Hokkaido and they say the snow is great. Fingers crossed it stays relatively cold at least.
Looking over my pre-season hit list, it looks like I’m not going to get Alyeska, Mammoth, Crystal, Sun Valley or Big Sky in. It was an optimistic plan. I bought Mt Bachelor’s “365” pass for next year (full summer bike park, winter ski and includes an Ikon Base), so I’ll have the chance to hit these next year!
Just booked 5 days for Tahoe later this month as a final trip. Pretty excited first timer.
Well, Niseko didn’t disappoint. The snow wasn’t like it was back in January but it was still pretty good. There was some packed powder to be found off piste. My wife really loved skiing through the trees and it was some of the easiest tree skiing you could imagine. It was fairly packed with like 3-4 inches of powder on top. End of the season for us unless we do something crazy like New Zealand. We only did 9 days of skiing this season.
I started skiing when I was like 6 or so. I skied every season from then up through high school. Then I lived in a lot of places where skiing was not available. I met my wife in Alabama and she’s from Indianapolis. Not a skier. I dabbled back in the sport back in 2016-2017 when my wife was living in Kuwait. The next year, we moved to Italy and I taught my wife to ski in the alps. She really loves it now and it has really changed how we live. So many trips are for skiing now. We’ve skied in Italy, Austria, Germany, Switzerland, Slovenia, USA, Canada, South Korea, and Japan. It’s been a ton of fun.
16" Wednesday-Friday yielded the nicest two days I've seen in years at Mount Snow, tons of fluffy beautiful snow Saturday and Sunday that only got better as the grooming got cut up. The only closed trails on the main face were due to a bear and her cubs occasionally popping out of their den. Didn't wait more than a couple of minutes for a lift either day.
Flying to Denver tomorrow for a couple of days at Copper and Arapahoe Basin. I don't see much snow in the forecast but it looks like both have plenty of coverage. Just noticed that Arapahoe's summit is 13,050 ft which is among the highest in-bounds skiable terrain in North America. Should be fun.
Flying to Denver tomorrow for a couple of days at Copper and Arapahoe Basin. I don't see much snow in the forecast but it looks like both have plenty of coverage. Just noticed that Arapahoe's summit is 13,050 ft which is among the highest in-bounds skiable terrain in North America. Should be fun.
Copper was awesome. Feels like a place that has something for everyone. It was also nearly deserted which was great.
A Basin was a lot of fun. A bunch of massive wide open bowls above the tree line and lots of good runs through the trees at lower elevation. I could see how it would be an amazing place to be on a powder day. There was a pretty good crowd there for late in the season but never had any significant lift lines. I guess being closer to Denver makes it more accessible. Portions of the upper terrain were frozen nearly solid which made for a couple of jarring early runs. With full sun things loosened up in the afternoon.
It was my first time skiing the Colorado Rockies and I was impressed. Definitely would go back.
Probably my last days of skiing for the season.
May try to do a Taos trip next winter with a couple of friends and I hope I can fit in a trip to Vancouver as well.
Copper was awesome. Feels like a place that has something for everyone. It was also nearly deserted which was great.
A Basin was a lot of fun. A bunch of massive wide open bowls above the tree line and lots of good runs through the trees at lower elevation. I could see how it would be an amazing place to be on a powder day. There was a pretty good crowd there for late in the season but never had any significant lift lines. I guess being closer to Denver makes it more accessible. Portions of the upper terrain were frozen nearly solid which made for a couple of jarring early runs. With full sun things loosened up in the afternoon.
It was my first time skiing the Colorado Rockies and I was impressed. Definitely would go back.
Probably my last days of skiing for the season.
May try to do a Taos trip next winter with a couple of friends and I hope I can fit in a trip to Vancouver as well.
Aw dang, sorry I wasn't checking this thread last week - A Basin is my home mountain, I could have met up with you for a few runs probably. Ah well, you've got the size of it from the sounds of it, just plan on coming back
Glad you had a good time. My skiing has largely dried up for family and work related reasons the last month or two but we've ended up with a solid snow year and the spring skiing has been pretty on point so far. I'll be up to the basin on thursday, with the snow coming in the next couple days and cooler temps it should be back to feeling like winter for a bit.
Aw dang, sorry I wasn't checking this thread last week - A Basin is my home mountain, I could have met up with you for a few runs probably. Ah well, you've got the size of it from the sounds of it, just plan on coming back
Glad you had a good time. My skiing has largely dried up for family and work related reasons the last month or two but we've ended up with a solid snow year and the spring skiing has been pretty on point so far. I'll be up to the basin on thursday, with the snow coming in the next couple days and cooler temps it should be back to feeling like winter for a bit.
I will almost certainly be back. So many great mountains in the area to explore. Loveland looked pretty fantastic from the road and I would like to check out Breckenridge as well. A snowcat trip out of Breckenridge is on my wish list.
Today was my last day of the season, got 44 days in which is awesome. Despite a slow start to the season and a bunch of terrible weather it was a really good year. @graffam198 so sorry the crash ended with a knee issue. I blew my ACL a while back and have bounced back a bit, but its tough for sure. Embrace the physical therapy like its your job and you'll get right back out there.
As alluded above PLC is a concern for my dueling surgeon's. One is sure it's toast, the other thinks it's fine. Nothing a second MRI can tell you, just have to get scoped. (Surgery sometime in May, I would have done it sooner, but soccer, Bat Mitzvah for my oldest, timed just right I can ride pain pills for most of June which will make year end better).
So, what did the Doc prescribe? Go ski it you beautiful bastard and tell me what you feel. Hold an edge, get low, do the things.
With much trepidation I slapped on the softest skis I own and ventured up on Thursday. I rode the lower lift. I skied 5 glorious runs, ramping up difficulty each one. 4 blues and a pretty mild black. Snow was a bit hardpacked but edgeable. Held the edge just fine. Cranked it up to 30mph with some quick-ish turns and only felt the ACL bark at me on some bumps. I quit b/c the snow was getting grabby and the crowds were starting to show up. Physically not bad. Mentally I was sure every middle aged man was going to barrel into me and wreck my life.
Sent the report out to Surgeon 1. Having heard anything back yet. Surgeon 2 was...confused to say the least. "No Brace?" "No". "Do you want one to ski for the rest of the season?!" "No, I think mentally I am too scared". "Good, I don't think I would have recommended that..."
I would be lying though if I wasn't grinning ear to ear the whole time. Something about just cruising on a gorgeous day with no one around.
Not out of the woods yet. I could still have PLC damage that just didn't present and will require a rebuild when they get in there. Little bummed about the ACL. It's only 1 bundle, but they will take the whole thing out. And I agree w/that. While it is functional, it's only a matter of time, given the weak state, before I have a catastrophic failure. Or the shreds of the one bundle start causing a lot of discomfort. Either way, rehab is the same and I'll be skiing next winter!
As alluded above PLC is a concern for my dueling surgeon's. One is sure it's toast, the other thinks it's fine. Nothing a second MRI can tell you, just have to get scoped. (Surgery sometime in May, I would have done it sooner, but soccer, Bat Mitzvah for my oldest, timed just right I can ride pain pills for most of June which will make year end better).
So, what did the Doc prescribe? Go ski it you beautiful bastard and tell me what you feel. Hold an edge, get low, do the things.
With much trepidation I slapped on the softest skis I own and ventured up on Thursday. I rode the lower lift. I skied 5 glorious runs, ramping up difficulty each one. 4 blues and a pretty mild black. Snow was a bit hardpacked but edgeable. Held the edge just fine. Cranked it up to 30mph with some quick-ish turns and only felt the ACL bark at me on some bumps. I quit b/c the snow was getting grabby and the crowds were starting to show up. Physically not bad. Mentally I was sure every middle aged man was going to barrel into me and wreck my life.
Sent the report out to Surgeon 1. Having heard anything back yet. Surgeon 2 was...confused to say the least. "No Brace?" "No". "Do you want one to ski for the rest of the season?!" "No, I think mentally I am too scared". "Good, I don't think I would have recommended that..."
I would be lying though if I wasn't grinning ear to ear the whole time. Something about just cruising on a gorgeous day with no one around.
Not out of the woods yet. I could still have PLC damage that just didn't present and will require a rebuild when they get in there. Little bummed about the ACL. It's only 1 bundle, but they will take the whole thing out. And I agree w/that. While it is functional, it's only a matter of time, given the weak state, before I have a catastrophic failure. Or the shreds of the one bundle start causing a lot of discomfort. Either way, rehab is the same and I'll be skiing next winter!
As alluded above PLC is a concern for my dueling surgeon's. One is sure it's toast, the other thinks it's fine. Nothing a second MRI can tell you, just have to get scoped. (Surgery sometime in May, I would have done it sooner, but soccer, Bat Mitzvah for my oldest, timed just right I can ride pain pills for most of June which will make year end better).
So, what did the Doc prescribe? Go ski it you beautiful bastard and tell me what you feel. Hold an edge, get low, do the things.
With much trepidation I slapped on the softest skis I own and ventured up on Thursday. I rode the lower lift. I skied 5 glorious runs, ramping up difficulty each one. 4 blues and a pretty mild black. Snow was a bit hardpacked but edgeable. Held the edge just fine. Cranked it up to 30mph with some quick-ish turns and only felt the ACL bark at me on some bumps. I quit b/c the snow was getting grabby and the crowds were starting to show up. Physically not bad. Mentally I was sure every middle aged man was going to barrel into me and wreck my life.
Sent the report out to Surgeon 1. Having heard anything back yet. Surgeon 2 was...confused to say the least. "No Brace?" "No". "Do you want one to ski for the rest of the season?!" "No, I think mentally I am too scared". "Good, I don't think I would have recommended that..."
I would be lying though if I wasn't grinning ear to ear the whole time. Something about just cruising on a gorgeous day with no one around.
Not out of the woods yet. I could still have PLC damage that just didn't present and will require a rebuild when they get in there. Little bummed about the ACL. It's only 1 bundle, but they will take the whole thing out. And I agree w/that. While it is functional, it's only a matter of time, given the weak state, before I have a catastrophic failure. Or the shreds of the one bundle start causing a lot of discomfort. Either way, rehab is the same and I'll be skiing next winter!
Damn dude - it must have been terrifying at first. Excellent news though and I'm sure being relegated back to poser status with a mere ACL tear was pretty sweet (hopefully that is what they confirm with the scope). Can confirm that I had my ACL re-done in May (six years ago) and was fine for the following season.
Yeah, it's been a wild ride. Obviously nothing is certain until they get in there, but I'll take the win? I had dinner last night w/my adventure buddies, they are heading down to Rock Creek today to go do a multi-day tour down there. We have some thunderstorms forecast; hopefully they get snow and not clear powder. They were kind enough to downplay the quality of corn on yesterdays summit; video doesn't lie though.
My local ski bump (Pats Peak) is partially opening up on Friday. I made an executive decision to take the day off to try to get on first chair (more likely first 100 chairs). Pretty excited. Last year I got in 16 days but didn't get the first trip in until mid-January. If they are able to stay open for the season, I might make a run at doubling that number. It's hard for me to get many days in December as I only have a mid-week pass and they don't open for night skiing until 12/25ish, and of course that week is blocked. Stupid job gets in the way of daytime skiing.
A couple weeks ago I picked up a new jacket, new pants (non-bib variety), and got myself a helmet (skied all last year with no helmet). Another 500 bucks down the drain.
So that didn't go as planned.
Was a pretty shitty season in my area, with a lot of warm ups and rain events. Pats did a great job with what they had, and were making snow right up till the end (they closed on March 31). Had a couple disappointing days due to mushy conditions, but all in all it was pretty good. Ended up with 13 trips to Pats. Oddly enough, my last night there (March 22) was close to the best of the season. Never got anywhere else. One of my ski buddies had to take the season off due to shoulder surgery, and the other one started a new job on Jan 2, so he had no available time off.
Already bought next years pass, and I don't need any new equipment, so it should be a much "cheaper" season for me.
I got 4 days in last week at Palisades and was blown away by the place. First of all, it's ginorhumongous. Not just terrain, but the amount of lifts is staggering. I looked it up and only a handful of resorts in the US have more lifts (PCMR, Big Sky, Breck, and Vail), and while PCMR, Big Sky, and Vail all have significantly more skiable terrain, Breck has less. Just interesting to me I guess, but I digress.
I took the earliest flight I could on Sunday morning from Florida, and actually got in a solid halfday the same day. Flying and skiing the same day is always a cool feeling, and I could tell from the forecast that Sunday afternoon was going to be some of the better conditions I'd get during the week. We mostly stayed under the lifts near Olympic Village, since we hadn't even checked into the Everline Resort yet and I had events in the early evening, and we did get to Tower 16!
We got a nice dusting on Sunday night, and Monday was an awesome day on the mountain. The warm weather held off and the morning was good. Once it got to mid-morning and the snow warmed up just a bit, it was outstanding. We headed straight to Alpine Meadows and that side of the resort is sweet. The views of Tahoe from there are top notch. My ski buddy wasn't keen on dipping into the trees much to my chagrin, but it was a long day of skiing corn that was juuuust cold enough not to catch until late in the day. So we lapped the back of alpine, then did most of the front too, before heading back to Palisades.
Tuesday morning was cool enough to keep conditions strong, and we tackled most of Palisades that day. We did a couple of early morning runs off KT-22 while the legs were freshest, then spent the late morning bouncing around the lifts between Headwall Express and Big Blue Express. Those runs are a little too short for me and the bottoming out where all the lifts meet were a PITA for spring conditions (on a board no less!), but it was great. We skiied to the bottom and took the tram up for an afternoon beer. Tuesday afternoon is when the temps really started to get up there, and of course that's when we decided to tackle Granite Chief and Silverado. I got stuck on traverses multiple times on that side and was dead by the end. Still, that terrain is sick and I'd love to see the locals go Squallywood in high season sometime.
I had conference commitments for Wednesday, and by Thursday conditions were challenging and I was finishing off a 4-night bender. So when we got under KT-22 again, the snow was hard as a rock and Palisades was eating pretty much everyone alive, myself included. After a handful of runs, the snow softened up and we had a couple of hours of outstanding spring season before it was a slow soupy mess again. We went back to Alpine and I was able to get some tree runs in, and we stopped at the Chalet for a refreshing spring beer break. I had spent all morning trying to coordinate with another conference attendee and she finally made it to the back of Alpine, so I skied with her and her beginner friend for a bit, before pushing it and getting a couple of last runs on Palisades before calling it a day.
I must've read a review about Squaw back in the day, pre-Alpine acquisition, as that formed the basis for my expectations, which ended up being way off. Palisades is a really cool mountain and I can see why people rave about it. It's not worth skipping past the continental resorts if you're coming from the Eastern seaboard, but still a great place to ski and I'm jazzed I got to check it out.
I got 4 days in last week at Palisades and was blown away by the place. First of all, it's ginorhumongous. Not just terrain, but the amount of lifts is staggering. I looked it up and only a handful of resorts in the US have more lifts (PCMR, Big Sky, Breck, and Vail), and while PCMR, Big Sky, and Vail all have significantly more skiable terrain, Breck has less. Just interesting to me I guess, but I digress.
I took the earliest flight I could on Sunday morning from Florida, and actually got in a solid halfday the same day. Flying and skiing the same day is always a cool feeling, and I could tell from the forecast that Sunday afternoon was going to be some of the better conditions I'd get during the week. We mostly stayed under the lifts near Olympic Village, since we hadn't even checked into the Everline Resort yet and I had events in the early evening, and we did get to Tower 16!
We got a nice dusting on Sunday night, and Monday was an awesome day on the mountain. The warm weather held off and the morning was good. Once it got to mid-morning and the snow warmed up just a bit, it was outstanding. We headed straight to Alpine Meadows and that side of the resort is sweet. The views of Tahoe from there are top notch. My ski buddy wasn't keen on dipping into the trees much to my chagrin, but it was a long day of skiing corn that was juuuust cold enough not to catch until late in the day. So we lapped the back of alpine, then did most of the front too, before heading back to Palisades.
Tuesday morning was cool enough to keep conditions strong, and we tackled most of Palisades that day. We did a couple of early morning runs off KT-22 while the legs were freshest, then spent the late morning bouncing around the lifts between Headwall Express and Big Blue Express. Those runs are a little too short for me and the bottoming out where all the lifts meet were a PITA for spring conditions (on a board no less!), but it was great. We skiied to the bottom and took the tram up for an afternoon beer. Tuesday afternoon is when the temps really started to get up there, and of course that's when we decided to tackle Granite Chief and Silverado. I got stuck on traverses multiple times on that side and was dead by the end. Still, that terrain is sick and I'd love to see the locals go Squallywood in high season sometime.
I had conference commitments for Wednesday, and by Thursday conditions were challenging and I was finishing off a 4-night bender. So when we got under KT-22 again, the snow was hard as a rock and Palisades was eating pretty much everyone alive, myself included. After a handful of runs, the snow softened up and we had a couple of hours of outstanding spring season before it was a slow soupy mess again. We went back to Alpine and I was able to get some tree runs in, and we stopped at the Chalet for a refreshing spring beer break. I had spent all morning trying to coordinate with another conference attendee and she finally made it to the back of Alpine, so I skied with her and her beginner friend for a bit, before pushing it and getting a couple of last runs on Palisades before calling it a day.
I must've read a review about Squaw back in the day, pre-Alpine acquisition, as that formed the basis for my expectations, which ended up being way off. Palisades is a really cool mountain and I can see why people rave about it. It's not worth skipping past the continental resorts if you're coming from the Eastern seaboard, but still a great place to ski and I'm jazzed I got to check it out.
I forgot to DM you (my dad has gone to the ER a couple times in the past couple weeks and I’ve been distracted)! I was there Thursday through yesterday.
Pretty wicked resort (unless you’re a beginner or intermediate, then I think it would be meh). Got to ride Silverado on its last day open of the season, including Mr Toads chute which is probably the first overlap run I’ve had with a Miles Clark video. Pretty pumped on that. This terrain off this lift is amazing.
Loved the skiers right mini chutes off Headwall. Spent almost a whole day there. Couldn’t really understand Granite Chief. I did get to do the Smoothie traverse run, which I guess is pretty rare to be open, but the rest of that area maybe is better with proper coverage? Sounds like you found some stuff over here I didn’t. I don’t know.
KT-22 was a bit disappointing because those runs were just so skied out (and the GS bowls are kind of lame runs anyway). The doubles on the backside though were really fun (except Mosley’s, I don’t LOVE moguls).
The Olympic Lady lift line from top to bottom was one of my favorites of the trip, though. Tom’s Tumble was pretty good because it was steep and mostly untracked, corn top to bottom.
I’m not a cliff drop guy, but man does this place put you in that mindset. We’ll see next winter how I feel at 47 lol.
The stickiness in the flats was beyond difficult. I got my skis waxed literally every day I was there and was carrying a pocket wax and it was still brutal.
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Thanks!
(my dad has gone to the ER a couple times in the past couple weeks and I’ve been distracted)! I was there Thursday through yesterday.
