Palisades Tahoe, CA 4/30/22

I was in short line for Wa She Shu (formerly Squaw One) chair a few minutes before it opened at 9. I was wearing two thin base layers and a tye-dyed Hawaiian shirt over them, preparing for Kirkwood’s closing the next day. Picture taken by Mamie Grump in mid-afternoon. King Grump in front. His son Andrew is behind his girlfriend (in yellow), then unpiste/Alfred and chickenmonkey/David, then me. I buried lunch with two beers and an extra water under dead tree between top of Wa She Shu and base of Siberia that I rode and skied a few times. I saw @unpiste from SkiTalk from chair and tried to catch up, but it seemed like I wasn’t gaining on them so I took longer way down and waited for him, Al, an Alpine instructor for many years, and @chickenmonkey from SkiTalk. I skied with the three of them from the morning into early PM when Al had to bail to prepare for Bora Bora.

We moved to Granite Chief for a few laps on main Backside groomer which was very good. We also took a couple of laps between Magoo’s and Shirley Chute where bumps were getting softs. We returned to Gold Coast lodge to use facilities and refill water. Then we rode Siberia and did the Reverse Traverse to get to top of Headwall.

After reporting 7’ of snow in April, Palisades Tahoe has extended to Memorial Day, but it's only Fri-Sun in May and some of the current terrain could soon be lost. See Operations Update: Season Extended Again Through May 30th, 2022 - Palisades Tahoe at Lake Tahoe for details. The usual race course run on middle Siberia and the three groomed runs to left of it in photo I borrowed from SkiTalk all skied well on Wed, and Sat, even after 3 PM. On Headwall, we skied North Bowl where snow was not as settled as expected to lookers left of rocks at top. Then we returned to Granite Chief to ski a few runs with the Grumps. We started with a groomer, then skied ungroomed High Voltage, then what I think is Magoo’s, then run that almost threw me, as even though bumps were soft it is steep and there were some tight spots and I skied it about 2 without enough to eat after starting at 9.I did another Reverse Traverse on way to pickup lunch I'd left under tree between top of Wa She Shu and bottom of Siberia. I barely was able to step over bare patch to get to Hogback which skied very well about 2:30. I rode Siberia a few more times after that, then skied Mountain Run with an alternate down steep face where Cornice II chair used to be located. to get close to my car that was parked near Red Wolf, quitting at 3:55 with 24K. I stopped for hot tub on way back to cabin. The lakefront one was still closed so I went to another one in same complex.

Looks mint. So they’ve had a big April but after the lean December/January how does the season shape up compared to average? @Tony Crocker

December was the big month, January-March the dry ones. Overall not a great season. Northwest of Lake Tahoe got the most snow, and Palisades was still 82%. That excludes October though Palisades was open the one weekend, as it melted out so fast that it could not reopen until December. Mammoth did stay open continuously, but it's at 75% including October.

Palisades did much better in April, 85 inches vs. 34.5 at Mammoth. Nonetheless this upcoming weekend will be the last for Siberia and Granite Chief, and Palisades in spring is not too interesting without those lifts. This late in the season Mammoth is nearly always superior as the highest skiable point at Palisades has similar elevation as Main Lodge at Mammoth and the primary exposure of Palisades' upper terrain is east vs. north at Mammoth.

From https://blog.palisadestahoe.com/operations/operations-update-info-for-the-weekend-of-may-6-8/

The big updates this week are that Wa She Shu and Mountain Run are now closed, so expect to download instead of skiing back to the base area.

WEATHER​

• It will be windy on Friday. Expect ridge lifts to be impacted. There is a very slight chance for snow showers. Today the wind gusts were in the high 80 miles-per-hour range, and we expect even higher gusts for tomorrow.
• Saturday will be sunny and clear with a high of 46 degrees F. Winds could persist throughout the day.
• On Sunday, expect sun for the morning, but by the afternoon there is a chance of snow with a possible accumulation of one inch.

LIFT, TERRAIN & CONDITIONS UPDATES​

• On Friday and possibly Saturday, lifts will likely be impacted by high winds in the forecast. If we think lifts will be delayed or impacted either morning, we will make the call early and post information on our Mountain Operations Twitter account.
• On the schedule for this weekend are the Funitel, the Aerial Tram, Siberia, Gold Coast, Shirley, Big Blue, Bailey’s Beach, Mountain Meadow, Granite Chief, and possibly Solitude. There is a chance that this could be the last weekend for Granite Chief, so get your turns in.

Looking forward to this weekend.

@Patrick, you land at which airport for Mammoth, Reno?

I just did a quick search; it appears that Alaska Airlines never reinstated the LAX to MMH direct flights after nixing them four years ago?

I think is Patrick doing an extended trip to CA, probably flying in and out of LAX. Flights servicing Mammoth have been moved to Eastern Sierra Regional airport which is just East of Bishop and almost an hour from Mammoth Ski Area.

I hope wind at top of Palisades stays below 50 mph or there could be nothing open today. Wind was over 60 yesterday PM with gusts as high at 95. See https://www.wrh.noaa.gov/rev/remotedata/screst.php
Sunday sounds like cold temps and maybe some snow.

To James’ question, for this trip I flew into LAX even if I’m in Truckee now.

I flew into Reno in 2005.
Las Vegas in 2006.
LAX in 2010, 17, 19 & 22.

Patrick said:

To James’ question, for this trip I flew into LAX even if I’m in Truckee now.

I flew into Reno in 2005.
Las Vegas in 2006.
LAX in 2010, 17, 19 & 22.

Click to expand...

I find LAX international less than optimal. Both Vegas and Reno domestic have been good experiences for me. How does LAX rate on the domestic front?

Sbooker said:

Both Vegas and Reno domestic have been good experiences for me. How does LAX rate on the domestic front?

Click to expand...

LAX was already really bad 20 years ago experience wise, which was the last time I ever used it. I avoid it even for connecting itineraries. Much better to use various alternate airports. John Wayne in Irvine is my current go-to airport for domestic trips to the LA area. Though it helps that I need to go to the southern side of LA anyway in recent years (the last 10 years at least).

We live 10 minutes from Burbank airport. It would be nice to use it more, but it's usually more expensive than LAX and has few direct flights to our ultimate destinations and none at all for international. Still, if price is similar I'll prefer Burbank with a connection to LAX nonstop.

LAX is becoming more of a PITA these days. Uber/Lyft used to cost $40-$50, now $70-$80. Since 2019 when you arrive at LAX you have to take a bus shuttle to an exterior lot for Uber/Lyft. Last Friday we did not get home until 3 hours after we landed thanks to those logistics plus traffic. There was an independent driver we used to use with a van when were were loaded with ski gear for $80; now he wants $140. The Canada trip was only a week this year so we used the QuikPark garage, left a car there for $120 or so. But that's not viable for the long trips.

The upside of LAX is that there are few monopoly routes so prices tend to be competitive. Liz and James can tell you that is similar flying out of the NYC area.

Nice to see Patrick come out of the woodwork. I've known he was coming for quite a while, but Lonnie is still trying to coordinate sharing Mammoth lodging with him for the first part of next week. Liz and I will be driving to Mammoth tomorrow to ski with them and Garry, who is in his RV at McGee Creek. It does not look that great for weather, but unfortunately this is the time that fits all of our schedules.

tseeb said:

Flights servicing Mammoth have been moved to Eastern Sierra Regional airport which is just East of Bishop and almost an hour from Mammoth Ski Area.

Click to expand...

Which is what us SoCal skiers could have told them to do back in the 1990's. Mammoth's winds don't stop at the top of the mountain. Driving up 395 we pass the Mammoth airport and there are consistent crosswinds. Bishop is a similar drive from Mammoth (~45 minutes) as a lot of destination ski area airports: Eagle, Jackson, Gunnison, Kalispell, etc.

Didn’t really have another option than flying to LA as this trip isn’t only ski related as I’ll be going to a music festival next Saturday in Pasedena.
A couple of factors:
I’m flying on points from Ottawa.
Flying to LAX is the simplest and most direct. There are numerous direct flight daily from Toronto and Montreal. So I had only a short stop in Toronto on my Ottawa to LA. Basically leaving at 4pm in Ottawa and landing at 9pm in LA.
When I flew to Reno from Ottawa, it turned out to be a Ottawa-Toronto-Denver-Reno flight.