Palisades Tahoe, CA April 27-28, 2025

[tseeb]

Alpine Meadows, Sunday April 27
Don't really have time to write this up or add photos before heading out again, but I skied closing day for the Alpine side of Palisades from 9 to a little before 3, skiing 24K. I started with Summit which had no line, but I did not like the visibility at the top (and it never improved much). I skied across top of Alpine Bowl to Alpine Bowl chair where I came down in steep trees. They claimed 8" new, but it skied better on less steep and new snow was not as deep at the bottom. Next time I went up Roundhouse and skied steep powder on Sympathy then untracked into Yellow chair and returned to Summit for a few laps. The highest road into Wolverine Bowl was closed but I was able to ski powder in trees on edge of it, then found traverse below ropeline blocking top of steep Sisters that I skied a few times. Eventually I rode Treeline Cirque to S-facing Sherwood that I skied 6x mostly on the South Face with a couple of earlier drops into gullies including one where I had to remove skis for about 10' to get past. Not much after noon Sherwood closes as it does in Spring and slow triple Scott chair eventually opened with the biggest line I saw all day.

Adding more photos via edit. It was not a good day for them. Besides my before 8 AM Donner Summit

and Scott chair line taken at 1215 (see first photo above), the first photo of Promised Land that I skied from Scott chair was taken a little before 1. New snow was deeper at top than at this W-facing slope near bottom.

Looking down from same place.

Lower on Promised Land

Scott Chute under Scott chair

Chute that Seldom Slides could have been good for a slide for life

I took a different route in Promised Land my last run and skied/side-slipped a little of chute on left in next photo. Not sure if it had slid or snow had been scraped off but it was firm enough that I could have used stiffer skis.

Looking down from same place. Because two lower beginner chairs were not running, you had to cut left to avoid walk to Base or where I'd parked.

 

[EMSC]

I feel like that looks a bit thin in some areas for Tahoe in April. Maybe I just recall wrong as it's been so long since I lived there.

 

[tseeb]

Photos above taken lower on W-facing runs off Scott chair were snow was thinner than the N and E-facing, especially higher up. Some of what I skied on Scott and Sherwood, or at least crossed, may have been bare before the new snow.

I skied Olympic Valley side of Palisades on Monday, April 29 with @Tony Crocker, his wife Liz and Pat and Bob from Reno. I started not much after 9 with two laps on Gold Coast after very warm Funitel ride. I was overdressed as I thought clouds were going to stick around but they disappeared on my walk to lift. I skied many Siberia laps, mostly groomers although I did find some day-old powder shots along edge of steep groomed track off Siberia Ridge and on edges of Siberia Bowl that were fun. I didn't understand the "Closed for Race Course" under the chair and along some of ridge as there was no race course. The first skiers in National Chute hit some great snow.

The bottom of Shirley got slow around noon and the gully at bottom of Granite Chief along with the alternative going to Shirley were both slow not much later. Tony Crocker and I went past Main Backside from Granite twice. First, we skied Carnell's which was not as good as it looked from chair. Hard layer was still there so you had to make your turns end on soft snow to avoid sliding on frozen layer. Next time we went further and came down Corkscrew which was also challenging, not frozen, just big steep soft bumps.

We skied Mountain Run about one and there were some slow places and some places that must have been salted that were better. Liz quit and Tony and I skied Saddle on KT before he quit. Sun Bowl to left. Closed for season Headwall is only way to get there without a hike.

I went up KT again and had to remove skis to get to Olympic Lady where led a snowboarder to Tamara’s who didn’t like look of Women’s Downhill. I wanted to get to Heidi's on another run off Red Dog Ridge but there were closed signs on route there. This may be Dick's Drop on left.

N-facing and steep Tamara's (next photo is looking up Tamara's, snowboarder to left of center - last photo is looking down from same spot)

and Red Dog Face, which got me to within 50 steps of where I had parked, were not sticky at 2 pm. But Lower Champs Elysees (upper right) connecting the two was very slow. Easy Street (left edge) looked worse. I had just over 20K and made it home in under 4 hours.

 

[Tony Crocker]

I feel like that looks a bit thin in some areas for Tahoe in April.

There's an abnormal difference by elevation this season. As of end of March the upper number at Palisades is close to average, but the base elevation snowfall is only 35% of the upper number while the long term average ratio is 61%.