Backcountry
Conditions Report
Report from March 17, 2025
“Best day of the year at Palisades (for me).” – Cody Townsend, 3/18/25
I think Cody is right.
It was the best day of the year at Palisades for me so far for sure.
The day started cold, windy, and snowy.
KT-22 skied well right off the bat but you could still hit bottom and feel moguls in spots.
I cruised and took it easy and enjoyed the complete lack of lines and friends for the first 2 hours.
At 11 am we went up top hungry for bottomless powder.
Siberia opened first and it was truly bottomless but you couldn’t see anything…
Which was too bad because the Kangaroo Kicker was back in action and looking great.
Craddock hit it blind and did a gorgeous backflip.
Kids…
Suddenly, around noon, Gold Coast opened and that was the gateway to Granite Chief.
Granite was open by the time I arrived and I went straight for the legendary “Triple Goat” line after watching local legend Andrew Hays backslap Glory Rock right under the chair.
All 3 airs were great but Goat 2 (Rainbow Rock/Lower Divingboard) didn’t have the steep landing on the crosscourt air I’m used to.
With my 46.76-year-old body, I barely absorbed it.
I got to the third goat and was happy to go down to the chair.
My second lap was on the ‘Corkscrew” spine and it was good but I hesitated in the middle.
On my 3rd lap, I just skied pow and bounced out towards Broken Arrow.
I had a look at V-Rock but the snow was firm so I skied happy powder down to Headwall.
Headwall was good.
I went for “Broken Back Rock” and it was big and flat as hell.
I headbanged my noggin between my knees but pulled it off.
I came back and hit “Pyramid Rock” in CII before realizing I was completely out of gnar sauce.
I skied a Chute 75 on KT-22 and it confirmed I was too tired to ski more and I went home.
It was 2:30 pm.
A truly glorious powder day at Palisades.
The sweet spot was noon to 2 pm when the light was good, the sun occasionally came out, and lift lines were short up top.
At about 2 pm the storm rolled back in and started snowing hard again creating a whiteout.
What a day!
Thanks, California!
Snow Numbers
Forecast
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