Conditions Report
Report from December 19, 2022
There was only one goal today at Palisades Tahoe:
- Land a backflip off a natural feature
My buddy Aaron Fox was on board with the plan – he’s kinda the Palisades backflip guru.
He got out there before me and got his legendary A Fox Jump up on Mainline Pocket stomped out and ready to rock.
After scrambling up Mainline and cresting the ridge just enough to see him I gave out a hoot.
He hardly looked back before sending a monstrous backflip off his jump.
He went too big, crashed, and was hiking back up by the time I rolled up to the inrun.
Scott Gaffney was there with his phone out.
I haven’t thrown a backy off a natural feature since the 2020/21 season due to the knee injury I’ve been struggling with.
“Scott, could you film me?
“Yep! You gonna check it first?”
“Nope, I’m just gonna hit it”
I was in a mood…
A bit too hellbent likely…
I hadn’t even made a turn yet.
I’d ridden the Funitel to Emigrant and hiked up – no skiing.
I sent it too big and just like Fox, crashed and booted back up.
Fox sent it again with less speed and stomped.
My turn.
I overrotated just a bit, almost pulled it off, and crashed again.
2 hard crashes and my knee was fine…
Around on the life and back up.
It was time to stomp.
“There’s no way you can underrotate it,” Fox said as I was about to drop for the my 3rd attempt.
I took the same amount of speed but set the flip slooooowww.
It worked, I came around and saw that I had taken it just a touch deeper than I wanted too but my rotation was just slow enough to pull it off.
I stomped this 3rd one, skied for a sec, did an ollie, caught a tip in the funky snow, did a quick front roll, and came right back out on my feet.
I counted it as a stomp and was beyond fired up at the bottom!
It always feels great to set a goal and pull it off.
Although, I had lost my Insta360 helmet camera in the front roll…
Fox used his video of my to triangulate its position and we found it!
There are few feelings better than finding a lost helmet cam 🙂
Noah “The Boss” Gaffney showed up with his buddy Kaz and they both stomped backflips off the jump on their first tries.
We all cruised down to KT and Headwall for a few more laps.
Headwall Face was chalky but with the high overcast blocking the sun, you couldn’t see in there…
Off KT Rock Garden has some light when we hit it but the snow was firm.
Chute 75 was good but so dark I couldn’t see.
After 75, we were good and skied straight to Wildflour for cookies, banter, and video recaps.
Another amazing day at Palisades Tahoe.
We have one more day to ride here before we zip up to British Columbia for a 7-day hut trip with no electricity for Christmas 🙂
Thanks, Tahoe!
Another Backflip, so awesome.