Granite Chief Peak + Palisades + High Winds: Squaw Conditions Update

With Granite Chief added to the lineup of chairs today, the skiing was ripping and the crowds were conspicuously absent.  Not only was Granite Chief added to the quiver, but Patrol also opened up Granite Chief Peak and Palisades (despite some very high winds on the hike up the Palisades).  Granite was skiing great all the way from Split Tree out to VIPs with everything from chalky powder to some nice smooth corn turns and National Chute was skiing some sweet silky wind buff.  The winds were whippin’ today, but Squaw was able to keep all their upper mountain lifts running, and the wind simply made for some free refills in places (such as the Palisades).

Highlights

• Granite Chief opened for first time of the year
• Granite Chief Peak open for hiking
• Palisades open for hiking (only National has enough snow to be open at the moment)
• No crowds to battle
• Tower 16 harboring some sweet corn turns

Tower 16 was first opened yesterday, and it too has been fostering some superb spring corn turns the past two days.  Even with the high winds today, by noon corn farming was in high season off Tower 16, as well as Sun Chutes further down the ridge (which next to no one was skiing!).

Over at Alpine, things weren’t skiing quite as well, however Scott Chair was holding some pretty sweet and smooth turns that were corning up nicely in the afternoon.  Scott Chair was closed briefly mid day due to wind, but by 2:30 they had her back up and running.

The next couple of days look to hold some more wet weather for us, but by the weekend the upper mountain is slated to get a little more snow, followed by another system next week.  Tahoe is finally starting to turn on, so stay tuned!