Palisades Tahoe, CA 4/26-28/23

[tseeb]

Wednesday 4/26/23
I left South Tahoe at 825, arrived Palisades Tahoe at 930, and parked near and loaded new high-speed 6-pack Red Dog about 945. I took a Resort run finding N-facing firm enough that when I skied back to Village, I took easiest route Champ d’Elysees to KT where I skied firm Saddle to Headwall. A lot of people were already skiing the E-facing Face, but at top I realized it was primetime for huge SE-facing Sun Bowl which I skied twice before moving to Siberia via Headwall Face and Nose. I skied Siberia 5x trying to connect with late arriving former co-worker who has a place in Truckee. I moved to Granite Chief for a couple of laps, finding main run very good and steep N-facing Magoo’s still a little too firm. Riding Shirley I spotted the Grumps and near_nyquist from SkiTalk skiing under chair and joined them. We the skied Shirely no. 4, then took three laps on Granite finding Magoo’s getting better, then did one more Granite lap.

On way to Gold Coast I picked up Stella I’d buried earlier, and after refilling my water, found former co-worker on deck outside where I drank it. His group included three strong skiers from Toronto visiting Northern CA on a very short trip. They had surfed and mountain-biked near Santa Cruz before their one day skiing and were flying home from SFO early the next morning. After a run on Siberia and one on Headwall, I led them into Women’s Downhill between KT and Olympic Lady. Then we did a lap on softened but in great shape on top half main Red Dog run. We returned to Headwall using KT and the Saddle. They wanted one more run so I led down Chicken Bowl to Siberia, with me taking a steep smooth early entrance and then cutting across Headwall to avoid worst of Mountain Run. I could have loaded another chair before closing, but quit at 4 with over 30K. I stayed at friends house a couple of miles N of Truckee. He was blowing snow off his lawn, then fed me before enjoying watching the Warriors road win over the Kings. Will have to add photos later as even though I don't need to be on hill early, I heard about construction traffic on 89 that I want to avoid.

 

[tseeb]

Thursday 4/27/2023
I loaded Red Dog about 925 and skipped the Resort run lap, skiing Champs d’Elysees to KT then skiing a more aggressive Saddle than previous day as it was already softer than later on previous day. I went up Headwall and skied wide groomed S facing area in Sun Bowl. It started out very smooth, but overlaps between groomer passes were uneven before halfway down and difficult to ski smoothly with as much speed as I had. Next time down I did better on the left side. After 2 laps on Siberia, I talked to patrol at the top about the Kitchen Wall, also signed as Upper Sun Bowl. I thought it looked better entering from the right side to avoid cornice and he said that exposes you to rocks below. A young couple arrived and asked about Main chute when they meant easier National. I led them up route on left side of tunnel as easier, much less steep road is snow-covered and roped off. Picture from previous day when a lot more people were going up and I saw a few skiing Kitchen 50+? degree Kitchen Wall.

After taking pictures of each other at the top of what used to be called Squaw Peak,

I saw what patroller meant about exposure to rocks below steep entry. Snow was already a little softer than I would have liked and at least twice I turned into and had to ski through shallow wet snow I had sluffed.

I survived then skied an aggressive line deep into much less steep Sun Bowl. I followed it with much wider than usual Classic chute in Cornice 2 area. At bottom I rode Base 2 Base gondola and had a beer, my 1/2 turkey sandwich and some snacks.

One guy in car got out at top of KT (5 min ride) and the other in my car apologized for ‘working from home’ as he made a couple of calls and was taking an online training during the ride. It’s 12 minutes from top of KT to Alpine where I rode Roundhouse and skied very good smooth soft snow on Sympathy Face. I rode Summit twice skiing mostly under lift looking from group I was trying to connect with on 1st lap, then already softer than I liked Peter’s Perils into some of Sympathy on 2nd.

At bottom I went into lodge where I found Rainbow Jenny who has been instructor at Alpine for 4-5 years and met four others with her who were there for certification. We rode Summit and skied good line before wiggle on skiers left in Wolverine Bowl, then went down steep Waterfall. Next lap we skied D-7 Chute, which with snow much snow is mostly connected to Wolverine and D-8, and Face Cliffs, where I’d been earlier. It was just Jenny, Miriam, who lives near and is an instructor at one of the Big Bear ski areas, and I on Peter’s Peril which we exited early enough to cut over top of Roundhouse and ski Sympathy Face. Jenny and I saw a couple of marmots disappear into hole in snow and this may be one of them that re-appeared 20-30 feet away. While it looks like a little bear, they are biggest member of squirrel family and will try to get into your pack and food if you put it down while hiking.

We were high enough to ski Lady’s Slalom to Scott chair where we went past the Broccoli tree (I took pictures of them in front of it, but they are on Jenny’s phone), really a stunted, probably by lightening Juniper. We skied very good Gentiam Gully and cut over too low to make it back to base so we skied to and rode slow double beginner’s double Subway. They quit about 2 and returned to main lodge while I avoided short hike to lift by riding Treeline Cirque.

Sherwood, Alpine’s backside was down and they made you unload at mid-station where I followed signs to Lakeview chair before realizing it was flat slow road that left you a little below base of chair. Then I did more hiking both times at top of chair; first to get to Outer Limits which was OK but past its prime, then to get onto Leisure Lane which gets back to nearly the top of Scott. I found path off cliffs that got me to skiers right of Scotts Chute, where W-facing smooth steep was way past its prime and I set off a few small wet slides. I next rode Roundhouse and repeated Sympathy also catching another vey good steep N-facing face above Dance Floor.

My bigger Alpine mistake was trying to get a high entrance to Sisters. I traversed across Wolverine and Idiot’s Delight to find STOP - Closed signs in every gate in ropeline which made for a much worse ‘run’ than Wolverine or other choices would have been. I took the first legal traverse into Sisters. The steep part was OK, but return to Alpine base was not as it was too baked at almost 3. After re-filling my water in lodge, I rode gondola to top of KT, passing a little cabin in meadow with chair outside and snowcat road to nowhere on Troy Caldwell’s White Wolf.

I skied Chute 75 which had some of the biggest and steepest bumps I’ve recently seen guarding entrance and in many places on run. It does not look that bad looking up, but next picture most of the way down shows more.

I avoided most of the worst of them and cut off the soft top of some others before finding a steep smooth route on left to Mountain Run. I rode KT and skied Women’s Downhill, steep and N-facing enough to still be good late on a day when Truckee was over 70. On lower half I skied smoothly groomed for top 2/3 Julia’s Gold next to not running Exhibition chair. Lower 1/3 was bumped that I mostly avoided to the left. Finally, I rode Red Dog and skied Dog Leg spotting and catching up to the Grumps and near_nyquist before quitting at almost 4. SkiTracks, which almost ate my battery on this long day after leaving it over 60% on previous day, counted 30.5K. I recorded 29.4K after removing downhill in gondola from top of KT to Alpine. My four day total is 108K.

Lake to past Siberia panorama from top of Headwall taken Wednesday. Kitchen Wall is backside of chute in center.

 

[tseeb]

Friday 4/28/23 This was an unplanned extra day I realized I could get after first telling roommate who I shared great 4 bedroom log house in Sunnyside on the W shore of Tahoe with in 1976-77 that I was only skiing Wed/Thu. He could only come on Friday so after getting OK from friend's wife where I was staying (and taking them out for dinner) and OK from my wife, I had a third day in a row at Palisades, which was also my third Ikon pass day in California.

I met him at Red Dog at 9. It was our first time skiing together since 1980s. We started with firm in places Resort run, then after riding slow chair took Upper Dog Leg, then mostly easy way to KT. We skied still firm Saddle to Headwall where we did more smoothly groomed than yesterday but not perfect Sun Bowl twice. Next we skied Headwall to Siberia which we skied once on either side of chair. We moved to Granite Chief for a lap down Magoo's then one down excellent Rock Pile.

On our way down mountain, we skied excellent snow between North Bowl and Nose after riding Headwall, then finished with Red Dog Ridge from KT. My friend is 'only' 65 and had one knee that was injured on SJSU ski club trip to Sun Valley in 1982 replaced. He was a great athlete in high school, holding section pole vault record and still rips on skis, even though he only gets about 10 days a year split between day trips and a 5-day midweek at Palisades. When we lived at Tahoe, he used to throw backflips off the Kangaroo jump under Siberia chair where race course now starts.

Photos are him on our last run down Red Dog Ridge just after 1215. We quit at 1230 with 19.3K. After a parking lot beer and more catching up, I was on road before 1 and home in San Jose at 5.

 

[tseeb]

Instagram post by Palisades Tahoe with Donny Pelletier and Wendy Fisher showing how not to ski Chute 75.

And photo showing Kitchen Wall and Sun Bowl taken Friday from top of KT Saddle.