Squaw Valley’s iconic KT-22 chair opened for the season yesterday and boy was it good. The lift was scheduled to pop at 1pm, but patrol and the ops team managed to have it ready for an early start and we were riding the chair shortly after 11:30am. My heart goes out to the few people who booked 1pm private lessons to cut lines. Ouch. By 1pm, most of KT was skied out, but still had amazingly soft snow.

At the peak, the line barely went past the corral, and by 1:30, we were skiing right up to the ticket scanners for each lap. Coverage is amazing in West Face, Chute 75, East Face, and Red Dog Ridge. Rock Garden was holding some great snow, with a couple of land sharks here and there. The Fingers are still a bit spotty, although there are a few tracks coming through.

Aside from KT-22, Squaw has some phenomenal skiing at the moment. I’ve been skiing zones this week that I haven’t skied in 3 or 4 years. Tower 16 is open from the top (Broken Arrow open for hiking), Poulsen’s Gulley is now packed down ready for the next dump, and the trees under Squaw Creek chair have been good since last week.

Katy, how's the snow in Rock Garden? — Katy, how’s the snow in Rock Garden?

After a major KT-22 legs day yesterday, Headwall is scheduled to go at 9am today. If my legs fall off by the end of the day, there’s always sit skiing, right?