Squaw Valley, CA Report: Big Air Fun On A Mid-Winter Powder Day In Late May!

Miles Clark | | Post Tag for Conditions ReportConditions Report

Report from May 19th, 2019

Squaw Valley, CA was absolutely firing today after 5″ of new snow overnight and 21″ of new snow in the past 4 days.

We started the day on KT-22 and the snow was excellent.

Our confidence in the snow was high enough to warrant skiing at full speed, jumping, and charging around as if it was a mid-winter powder day.

Ryan Faye spinning off of Tombstone. image: Nate Kushlan

After 3 KTs, we zipped up to Granite Chief and it was full on winter up there:  cold air and deep, cold snow.

Corkscrew was 

Miles in a tight spot. photo: Jason Dobbs

I’d been eyeing a line called Chamber Cliff all season and hadn’t found the right day to hit it.

Today, May 19th, most certainly wasn’t the “right day” but I thought I’d give it a go anyway.

A sort of sayonara to winter.

Red Dog today. image: snowbrains

I went for it and it was a terrific rush and on helluva respectable impact.

I came out with a smile and we headed back to the front side for a quick backflip off the Siberia Ridge before heading down to Granite for a couple more cliff hucks before heading home at about 1pm.

Today was…  it was stunning.

Miles slipping off Tombstone. image: Connery Lundin

Stunning in that it was impossible to believe it wasn’t a February or March powder day on a weekend with no one around.

I had two longtime Squaw Valley Pro Patrollers tell me that they thought this was the best season in Squaw ever.

I may have enticed them to say it, but I’ll take it just the same.

I personally think this is the best season in Squaw ever.

Alex K ripping in Headwall. image: Jason Dobbs

SNOW NUMBERS:

image: squaw, 5/20/10

FORECAST:

image: noaa, 5/20/19

PHOTOS:

Lower mountain trees buried in snow. image: snowbrains
Tram Rock. image: snowbrains
Granite Chief. image: snowbrains
Miles slipping off Tombstone. image: Nate Kushlan
KT-22 & The Fingers. image: snowbrains

Granite Chief trees. image: snowbrains

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