The Push Into The Final Week Of The Palisades Tahoe Season

As Palisades Tahoe pushes into its final week of operations for the 25/26 ski season, the phrase “the push” comes to mind. The primary reason that skiing and riding is still available this week is that snow has been pushed all around the mountain. Most of that snow is being utilized to make sure you can make it back to the Gold Coast and Shirley lifts. The rest is being used to make sure you can get over to the Shirley zone and then back again to the Funitel.

In my last post, I noted that sacrifices would need to be made in order to keep skiing alive. I wondered whether they would farm snow from the Yellow zone, Killy’s, Emigrant Gully or the terrain park to keep things covered. As it turns out, all of the above was the correct answer. It’s sad to see some of your favorite terrain get stripped to fill in the gaps, but it’s a necessary measure.

Overall, the foot print of skiable terrain continues to shrink. While Killy’s was flat out closed due to farming (and those sink holes lower down), other areas seemed to get more fun. Stripping one of the three big jumps and a few features out of the terrain park actually improved the flow through the park terrain. This was a bonus for those skipping the terrain features, especially heading into the last week.

As snow was stripped out of Emigrant Gully, it became a super fun adventure zone over the last few days, looking for those last skiable lines. Alas, ski patrol closed it today, deeming it unskiable – probably for the better.

Off of Gold Coast, it’s Gold Coast Face or the terrain park, and it can be busy. Then again, there’s not many people that want to head straight to Shirley in the morning.

The Shirley zone has always been the champion of late season skiing at Palisades. It’s really starting to get thin there too. I’ll go with the main numbered runs, as few people really know the names. They go skiers left to skiers right:

• Zero (or –1): This is skiers left of the chair line. It’s been partially groomed sometimes. There’s some rockfall issues. The lower section past the flats is burning out quickly.
• One: Coverage here is the best when it comes to Shirley, It’s best to keep right at the flats.
• Two: The mogul courses still go, but the public section is burnt out at the bottom.
• Three: Second best for coverage but small rock sections are popping out.
• Four: Many obstacles and a log most of the way across the bottom. That said, I’ll agree with the guy that shouted “best skiing on the mountain” as he went by today. May be good for another day or two.
• Five: It’s now about half as wide as normal and getting very spicy. It’s also probably the busiest of the five runs.

Also of note, the transfer from 3 and 4 to the bottom of 5 is just about burnt out. The runout to the lift probably would not have made it this far without a big push project over the last few nights. Shirley Bowl (the wiggle zone) has been fun before it gets too soft. I especially liked the non-wiggle portions way left by Little Rock Pile. Again, there is a lot of rockfall in this zone.

It did not look like Shirley was going to make it past the weekend, but exceptionally chilly weather the last two days has given it a reprieve. As of now, it is on the schedule for tomorrow. I hope it makes it longer than that as I may not get out tomorrow.

The skiing has been super fun. The Palisades Tahoe mountain ops team has been really crushing it when it comes to keeping this season alive. It’s much appreciated. Tomorrow will still be cold and windy as this low passes to the north. A warming trend returns on Tuesday, likely through the final weekend.