Sending Squaw Valley: Palisades & Mainline Pocket

Powder skiing Squaw is supposed to work like this:  

Day 1 = Storm powder skiing with upper mountain closed, ski alpine if Summit open

Day 2 = Upper mountain opens after winds die down, ski pow all over the mountain

Day 3 = Sun comes out, hikes (Palisades, Mainline Pocket, Granite Chief) open up, hike up and huck meat

Day 4 = Go find pow in the backcountry

This storm work almost exactly according to the old Squaw powder skiing plan.  We got a fun storm day skiing Summit at Alpine, then an upper mountain powder day, right into hiking and hucking Mainline and the Palisades yesterday.  I’m too lazy to go backcountry today as I suspect most everything is cooked, but you certainly could get out in the backcountry today and find some soft snow.

Squaw opened the Mainline and later on the Palisades yesterday and the boys were ready to huck.  Banana and Far Right Rock and the Splitter saw tracks on Mainline and even the Box was dropped on the Palisades.

There was some good skiing to be had on Headwall face and a few other spots.  There was a moderate east wind in the morning that kept things cool up high in the morning but it backed off by noon and it got very hot.  The high temp at the base of Squaw yesterday was 57ºF and the top of Squaw hit 42ºF.  Anything in the sun got very sticky after about noon.

It’s forecast to be very hot again today.  Today will most likely be a groomer day with a short window between when the off-piste softens up then gets sticky.

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