It’s now been 45 days since Alpine Meadows threw in the towel, and nearly a month since the other Tahoe resorts called it quits. But Palisades Tahoe has kept chugging along, thanks to some intensive snow management by the mountain ops team. The skiing has been really quite good for a few hours each morning, yet the place is like a ghost town. I am not complaining, as it is the crowds and lift lines that generally keep me on the Alpine Meadows side. Without any major events or fanfare last weekend, even the weekend was pretty chill.
Every single lift ride today was waiting for one chair at the most. Riding the Shirley chair, there were moments where you saw no skiers coming down the runs. We took our first lap on Killy’s around 10am today and there were just a few tracks and mostly corduroy, two hours after the mountain opened. It is the emptiest I have ever seen this mountain.
The mountain is slowly getting smaller. Access to the Reverse Traverse was cut off a few days ago. Today was the final day for Sibo. Sure, the coverage is still pretty good at the top of the mountain, but once you get down to about 8500 feet, things are getting very thin. There’s really no place left to farm snow near the base of Siberia. So starting tomorrow, it’s down to just the Gold Coast and Shirley Lakes lifts.
The announcement was also made today that May 24th is the targeted closing day for the mountain, meaning that they are technically not making it to Memorial Day on the 25th. But then again, who is complaining. The powers that be have said that they are hoping to keep Shirley open until mid next week. The official blog today pins that down to the 18th to the 21st. The coverage on Shirley is still pretty good. The sticky wicket is getting guests back to the Funitel. Ramp Run was about burnt out today, leaving Coin Op as the only route. It’s already thin and the direct souther exposure does not help.
Heading into the final week and weekend, it’s going to be just the Gold Coast lift. Terrain is limited there to Emigrant Gully, Gold Coast Face (aka Mini Sunspot), Killy’s and the terrain park. It’s likely that sacrifices will likely be made to keep things going until the 24th. The gully and face might make it, but probably not. Keeping access to the lift will likely require a lot of farming. My guess is they will strip some snow from Killy’s, Yellow Trail or the park to keep things going. I haven’t spent enough time at the northern annex to see their standard operating procedure.
I will say that just like we saw at Alpine Meadows, it’s nice to see them run it into the ground. I guess they could continue to spin lifts and tell people they have to walk part way. I think people are willing to do that on the 4th of July, but probably not in May. The fact that the mountain has been so empty over the last week is an indication that people have either given up on skiing or riding, or moved on to Mammoth.
It’s been really hot the last couple of days, but I think we are past the worst of it. A cutoff low spinning off the coast of Oregon will add to the wind tomorrow and drop temperatures by 10 degrees. No new snow is expected and they have taken the chance of rain out of the forecast. Another similar system will cool things a bit during the weekend.
I’ve been saying all week that I plan to ski every day until closing day. But I think I am in agreement with most of my ski buddies that have said they are done when Shirley is done. It’s been a weird season for sure, but I sure am happy to still be skiing in Tahoe. Skiing is fun.
So quiet. Too quiet. But I like it too.
So good today!
Skiing is the funnest.