Report from March 18, 2025

When you’re old, you need a plan.

And a friend.

Or, better yet, a friend with a plan.

I had local legend Aaron Fox guiding me yesterday and he had a plan.

There are so many options on a sunny powder day at Palisades…

You can get overwhelmed.

You can easily make the wrong call.

It’s stressful…

Yesterday morning we had 4 fresh snow zones that were all gonna be superb:

• Palisades (including the rarely open Chimney)
• Silverado
• Granite Chief Peak
• Mainline Pocket

The questions were:

• Where do you go first?
• Which lift do you take first?
• Which lift do you take second?
• Which line do you go for first?
• Which line do you go for second?

It’s intense.

Add to that the fact that many of these lines are at or near the top of your ability level and you’ve got some nerves firing.

I certainly did as we waited for the tram.

Fox chose:

• Tram
• Silverado
• Backflip off tram building

That’s how we would start our day.

I fell in line.

He made the right call.

2 guys hit the tram building before we did.

One crash, one stomp.

We watched them go, learned from what they did, and let the crowd slowly fade away.

The tram drops 100 people off every 15 minutes so once they’re gone, things get real quiet.

Us old guys needed that.

We worked on the takeoff, scoped the line, stomped in the inrun, and took a couple of speed checks.

Fox flew first and greased a backflip to 4-point stomp.

I was up next.

The tram was approaching with another gaggle of powder-starved maniacs.

I knew I had to get airborne before they were released into the wild.

As the tram slowed for docking, I launched.

I had to angle more right than everyone else to avoid their bomb holes and that slowed me down a hair.

I popped as hard as I could and set the backflip with my hips.

I held on and the rest played out beautifully.

The landing was a spongey delight then the outrun was frozen avalanche debris hell.

I barely held on and screamed my lungs out.

We’d broken through the anxiety and now felt locked in.

We hugged and laughed and high fived again and again.

I slowly gravitated towards “The Drifter.”

My favorite air at Palisades because it was Robb Gaffney’s favorite air at Palisades.

“…one of the gentlest 30+ foot airs on the mountain,” Robb Gaffney, Squallywood

One person had already drifted and I could tell from the funky-looking snow and their heavy hand prints that the landing was rough and the impact was significant.

I decided to go a little left and uphill of them to get a slightly steeper landing.

Fox asked me how it looked.

All I could say was “good.”

Mostly I was willing to send because there was only 1 track.

I assumed there were going to be 5 bomb holes which would have led me to pass on it.

In the starting gate, my mind suddenly shut off.

It was all very clear.

I glided down the inrun, popped, just cleared the rocks, and perfectly snipped the steep, left landing.

It wasn’t soft and the compression put my butt to my tails.

I think all those F45 classes paid off…

I was able to ride the rough snow on my tails for an instant then stand up tall.

I started screaming like a banshee!

Fox was next and he went right of the tracks landing on a hard spot that sent him tumbling.

I watched him like a hawk looking for hard impacts or twisting legs.

I thankfully saw neither.

As Fox came to a stop after 4 tumbles I heard someone gently holler “Miles!”

I looked right and saw someone under “Gotts,” a big air at the end of “Kima’s Paw” which terrifies me.

It was a young friend of mine.

He looked to be in a pile with his skis sticking out in unnatural directions.

I asked if he was OK and he shook his head no.

I yelled at a passerby to stop.

They did and I hollared that we needed ski patrol under Kima’s Paw at Gotts.

He skied away message in tow.

I side-stepped to my buddy and reached him just as a ski patroller ripped in from above.

This injury reminded me how delicate we all are, how dangerous this sport is, and just how grateful I truly am.

The injury was severe enough to shut down the lift, draw in a helicopter, and require a rapid flight to a Reno, NV, hospital.

This was yet another case of freeskiing feeling like the military.

You see a friend go through a potentially life-changing injury, get helicoptered away, and you go right back to jumping and flipping cliffs and doing precisely what sent that friend onto a direct flight to a hospital just minutes before.

Crazy…

We rode up the Silverado chair and onto Granite Chief.

Views of the Coast Range showed it covered in snow – always a good sign.

We hiked up Granite Chief Peak and watched Ryan Faye throw an enormous backflip off “Goodwills.”

Something he does regularly somehow.

It’s a huge air with a pretty flat landing.

You have to be strong and Ryan is exactly that.

He crashed one and stomped one.

Impressive.

I elected for “Smooth Air.”

Another of Dr. Robb Gaffney’s favorite airs at Palisades due to its implied smoothness yet healthy size.

I was #4 off this thing after our buddy Eric Brocious laced the next-to-the-tree landing.

I really only had one choice and it was the far skier’s right landing which is a bit more air, and a lot more rock to clear.

You gotta pop for your life on this one and I’d never done it before.

After analyzing it for a few minutes, something clicked in my brain and I sent it.

My pop over the rocks was just enough and I landed in steep, soft, forgiving, happy snow.

The impact was minimal considering the size of the air.

Smooth Air indeed.

We now hoped there might be something left in The Chimney on The Palisades.

Upon reaching the top of Siberia we saw the Palisades completely closed.

We bumped over to Mainline Pocket for some powder turns.

Fox had other ideas.

He immediately started stomping out a takeoff for a backflip.

I hadn’t backflipped over Mainline since 2006…

I didn’t love the looks of it but Fox persisted and I’m glad he did.

The jump had just enough speed.

Fox went first and crushed a perfect backie.

I gathered my courage and threw one myself.

He was right, again.

It was an excellent jump.

Alex G threw 2 backflips off the Mystery Double.

Insane…

With gnar sauce running low, we went back up to look at the Palisades but the Chimney was still closed.

It was about noon o’clock, we called it, and that felt right.

Directly down to Wildflour for cookies and an in-depth debrief.

One of the best days at Palisades I’ve ever had.

Thanks, California!

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