Palisades Tahoe, CA, Updates on Operations Plan for Monday, March 4

Palisades Tahoe, California, plans to open tomorrow, Monday, March 4. The resort aims to have a few lifts going at both mountains by 9:00 a.m., but cannot guarantee at this stage Mountain Operations will have to observe the situation and adapt at the last minute, so delays and changes to the operations plan may be possible.

Anticipated Operations Plan for Monday, March 4:

• At Alpine, the resort plans to open Roundhouse, Treeline Cirque, Meadow, Subway, and the Big Carpet. If conditions allow, it may add more chairs throughout the day.
• At Palisades, the resort plans to start the day with Resort Chair, First Venture, Far East, Red Dog, and KT-22. As usual, the resort plans to get the rest of the mountain open in waves:
  • If the clearance on Tower 4 of the Funitel is not an issue, it will then aim to add the Funitel for Mountain Run.
  • Following the Funitel, the next wave of chairlifts would be Big Blue, Shirley Lake, Bailey’s Beach, Mountain Meadow, Belmont, and the Aerial Tram.
  • The final wave would be Siberia and Gold Coast. Mountain Operations do not expect to have Headwall, Emigrant, or Granite Chief tomorrow.
• The base area snow removal teams have been putting in very long hours to try to get all of our parking lots clear. This has been very difficult with the constant snowfall. The resort would like to remind everyone to please be patient and kind while finding a parking spot tomorrow.

Though there were some doubts on Thursday whether or not the resort would get the storm of the season, the weather forecast proved to be accurate. Bryan Allegretto of OpenSnow called for 5-8 feet of snow on the upper mountains by Monday, and as of 5am, our 7-day storm total was resting at 6 feet. It has kept snowing since that last report.

“While we’re no strangers to big snowfall totals, especially after last season, what has been difficult for us throughout this cycle is the extremely high winds. Winds have been gusting above the 100mph range since Thursday on the upper mountain, and visibility has been VERY limited at all elevations.”