Palisades Tahoe, CA Review: Better with the Gondola?

[@herkatron]

I just skied here from 2/12-2/17 consecutively. It was my first time skiing outside the eastern United States, and damn was it awesome!!

[@johnb5482]

I learned to ski at Alpine Meadows 50 years ago next month. AM will always have a soft place in my heart.

[@charlieharper4975]

Learned to powder ski on Kangaroo during a big storm.

[@josephstratemeier8619]

It's worth noting that I-80 can be a pretty difficult drive, especially when it's snowing or at night. Lots of semis, narrow, and not much lighting. Driving from Reno is much easier.

[@BoschVoyage]

Something feels off with Palisades only ranked 20th. Some minor score adjustments: Mountain aesthetics should be a 10/10 (it’s one of the most recognizable mountains and has lake views) and terrain diversity with Alpine is a place for everyone and should be a 9/10, giving the mountain an overall score of 74, ranking the mountain 12th overall!

[@PeakRankings]

Thanks for your feedback! While it’s certainly stunning, our take is it doesn’t have the same one-of-kind feel or lake views as some other competing mountains, hence our score of 9. On terrain diversity, we arrived at a score of 8 due to the lack of longer runs and limited lower-level terrain on the Palisades side. Hope this helps!

[@livelikeitslegal]

I'm an outlier and actually enjoy palisades mountain run. Top to bottom it is one of the longest without really any cat tracking and some sollid 45- 90 degree turns that are really fun with the throttle to the floor. All the other stuff still stokes the stoke but I really only got to palisades for full throttle top to bottom laps.

[@herkatron]

Right? Also there are several fun bowls with rocks and moguls off of Mountain Run. Quite fun.

[@stevenluethje1356]

Skied both Squaw (Palisades) and Alpine for decades - every terrain, then fell in love with Sugar Bowl and the small crowds and never went back.

[@henrykullberg8091]

Be quiet, we are gatekeeping this

[@nick7462]

I had some of my best days at Sugar Bowl. Couple easy hikes and you can access some amazing 'hidden' terrain too

[@ryno7437]

Went to sugar bowl for the first time ever this season on a powder day during the week and had a blast in the trees over in the crows nest

[@Diesel0807]

Too bad they tamed red dog that was a guaranteed short lift line ..

[@fb39ca4]

"no serious traffic" 😂

[@comesatime123]

Well done, just one addition, both the funitel and tram can download skiers from palisades upper mountain beginner terrain.

[@mbtravel7294]

Just got back after a 26 inch dump May 4... Amazing 🙂❄️❄️❄️❄️

[@grizzkid795]

I mapped the resort out and was quite lenient with the boundaries and came up with 4500 acres, but I think your 4000 acre footprint is more accurate. And like you said, much of the terrain, especially at Alpine requires hiking. Also, some terrain such as Silverado and Alpine's hike to bowls are closed a majority of the season due to either lack of snow, avalanche, ice, corn preservation, wind, visibility, or who knows what.

[@VictorCaoCA]

If you're flying into a major airport on the west side, you should really fly into Sacramento; not San Francisco. SF is always under construction. SMF has port of entry status as an international airport. It's a destination airport from a business perspective, so there should be several flights that fly direct or connect in.

[@LFGLife]

Going to Palisades on Sunday to hit up the slopes on Monday-Wed. Dropped everything for this super storm and spent all my airline miles to make it happen. Stoked af!

[@rogerkoppert3597]

Size discrepancy of 6000 to 4000 acres addressed at 14:12

[@tylerdinner6673]

Love these videos. but this one seems to really downplay the blues on Palisades side. They're some of the best on any mountain I've been to. Incredible terrain diversity for intermediate runs.

[@ytpete2]

Also Palisades is pretty awesome for green runs too because beginners can actually get onto the upper mountain where there are great views, better snow, and it's easier to meet up for lunch with friends who are more advanced.

[@Cleetus1397]

I wish I could go there, meanwhile I have to ski on dirt in Minnesota rn😭😭

[@Niklasgosoutside]

Imagine world without snowmaking

[@Brosef336]

Same down here in NC😭

[@llljb.l]

at least you have ice, in texas we dont even got water

[@random_stuff_channel]

I'd like to point out that Palisades Tahoe is over 6000 acres in size, since the gondola. Not 4000 acres.

[@grizzkid795]

Peak Rankings measures acreage with a mapping program. Palisades lies about their acreage. I measured it and came up with a bit over 4000, but I was lenient with the boundaries. The gondola didn't add any new terrain.

[@tatum8659]

I love both Alpine and Palisades, and I cant wait to go in a month!! Love the vid!! What camera do you guys use?!?

[@herkatron]

It’s gonna be great!!

[@PeakRankings]

Thanks! This was mostly filmed with a GoPro Hero 7.

[@kingjulian420]

4:37 Is that really a slowzone directly after a jump?

[@PeakRankings]

Good eye!

[@christopherseverett]

Squaw Valley is a great resort no matter what your skiing level or style is. Moutain Run is crowded at times but not worse than most CO resorts. Lifts are good and gondola is waaay better than riding the buses.

[@randomsockpuppet]

are you guys still gonna make that “preparing for double blacks” video mentioned in a community post a couple weeks ago? Would love to see it

[@PeakRankings]

We will definitely have it at some point, but are juggling its priority against some other really exciting topics!

[@Bluebottlenose]

I just like it because it’s an engineering marvel

[@bayareagooner]

Love the B2B but crowds seem to gravitate heavily to Olympic Valley side more now which works as someone who skis Alpine 75% of the time and KT 25%

[@charlieharper4975]

As someone who has lived in NorCal for 70 years (including Tahoe) and skied every resort on your list I would say your rankings and critiques are pretty accurate. However, your ranking of Squaw at #20 overall I strongly disagree with. Squaw should be in the top five. Otherwise, good job.

[@archstanton_live]

Don't come here. If you are coming from SoCal, go to Mammoth, it is a most excellent mountain and resort and is easier to get to. If you are coming from central CA check out Kirkwood, it has excellent terrain and an intimate atmosphere. If mom wants to take the kids skiing and dad wants to drink and gamble: Heavenly is your perfect combination. If you live in Reno, you already know that Mt Rose is the place to be. Palisades is expensive, if you have a family it will cost you your first-born male child to ski here. I'll see you on the Mothership.

[@thelamma6670]

Please do Sun Peaks

[@garygech]

Red Dog Trees tops it over as the best Resort in California, despite my love of Heavenly and Kirkwood and Sugar Bowl. The biggest limitation is that there is very little intermediate skiing. Having said that KT is the best single lift in the nation, one lift from the base, boom, tremendous terrain. Chute 75 and Rock Garden are fantastic along with the Alternates. And the terrain in the backsides of Alpine is very expansive. Key upgrades needed to be #1 in the nation are the lift access, Granite Chief and Scotts Chair needs modernization, along with Silverado. The snow quality is excellent if you consider March and April, when everyone is closing, the first two weeks of April at Squaw are warm and fantastic. For younger skiers there is no nightlife, but for families, lots of kids, so it is great.

[@patrickvoosen4797]

How is Palisades second when it has the same score as Mammoth? Seems like a two-way tie for first.

[@PeakRankings]

We broke the tie based on Mammoth’s higher quality snow.

[@rainmaker3700]

It's awesome!

[@acecharlie229]

just planned a trip that involved keystone so i went to see if you had a video on it and there wasnt one, is this one in the plans?

[@PaulSanz63]

Got Epic pass and really considering the difference between Northstar and Pallisades. Can you give your input on terrain for snowboarding considered moguls suck for us?

[@borpus9716]

I haven’t rode Squaw/Alpine but from what I’ve heard they have much gnarlier stuff than Northstar and generally steeper pitches, more akin to Kirkwood but twice the size with longer runs and probably more offerings for different level riders.

[@charlieharper4975]

If you are intermediate : Northstar. Expert : Squaw/Alpine

[@envisitu]

What skis do you use to film these videos?

[@joshphillips3738]

Squaw valley.

[@robruf]

Love your content, one little thing that always kind of irks me, is at the end of the videos when you put up the final score on the comparison chart, the numbers for the resorts are not centered underneath the column titles. They are off to the left of the titles. Would look better if they were centered.

[@MachoTaco24]

How long until you guys get to New Hampshire mountains?

[@PeakRankings]

Some of our written reviews are up on the site now! Loon: www.peakrankings.com/content/loon Cannon: www.peakrankings.com/content/cannon

[@JustinUrban1]

Is it worth going there in early April?

[@charlieharper4975]

Yes.

[@counterfit5]

Bicable gondolas might be unique in North America, but they're not uncommon in Europe

[@alamedasims]

Oh it’s definitely better with the gondola, you can just jump on with no wait and no walk out to the parking lot.

[@justing7953]

High camp >>>>>>>>>> snow ventures. Avoid snow ventures

[@RCPhotosVideos]

You are sleeping on the Idaho resorts.

[@Patski428]

Yeah gondola sucks. Who wants to be able to go kt to summit chair and no parking required. no fun. Shuttle was better. Yeah it sucks that there is limited green. But I guess that’s why we see kids lapping kt and headwall instead.

[@pistepickers]

I'm so sorry but something about the way he says "funitel" just has me cackling

[@feigbuneogmlwefger9402]

Here we go here we go, Andy hays sighting in the intro. Haven’t watched the video but the base to base is pointless imo. There was already a shuttle between the two mountains, really just a marketing gimmick

[@Bluebottlenose]

No, gondolas are much cooler than buses, also better for the environment.

[@alexandrlarson7252]

Yea having to walk to through the village then wait for the shuttle does not compare to hoping on a gondola, on the rare days the gondola is actually running…

[@KT-22_run]

The gondola is much better than the shuttle. No ifs and buts about it.

[@dhowe5180]

I like the B2B. Very scenic trip up and over KT22 and no schlepping to the shuttle stops. I think it’s also quicker since you don’t have to wait for the shuttle. Also, I think the plan is to add terrain on the backside of KT

[@herkatron]

Heck no. The Gondola is awesome, feels like just another lift in some ways.

[@verdantj.brennan4900]

6000 acres not 4000. Took me 2 seconds to check that. How is there such a big difference in your measurement?

[@ebrbrbrbrbr]

He literally addressed it in the video lol

[@PeakRankings]

The extra 2,000 acres that Palisades Tahoe claims is not skiable. We manually measured the acreage ourselves, and found the Olympic Valley side to have 2,450 skiable acres, while the Alpine Meadows side has 1,580 skiable acres. See our work for yourself: tinyurl.com/palisades-tahoe-area-map

[@correctopinionhaver]

@@PeakRankingsnot skiable as in legally not skiable or not worth it

[@PeakRankings]

@@correctopinionhaver not actually within the bounds of the ski resort. While we haven't been able to officially confirm the source of the 6,000-acre metric, resorts often include all the "acres" that are within their Special Use Permit (SUP) to pump up their size claim. So places like the massive, unskiable rocks next to the Funitel are probably included.

[@garygech]

You are still very generous in your assessments. Sun bowl areas are not that skiable below the trail cut off, and the area of Beaver Bowl and the Area off Ward Peak is only skiable by high level experts. Silverado is great, rarely open. The RedDog Trees, only for high level experts.@@PeakRankings

[@YoutubeModsSuck]

Squaw

[@YoutubeModsSuck]

Squaw and alpine fuq the woke rebrand