Chimney laps in mid-May?

Skiing KT-22 through Memorial Day (end of May)?

Father’s Day (mid-June) shred weekend?

Open until July 15th???

SAY WHAT?

THIS SHOULD BE ARCHIVED!!!

MAY 10TH, 2017

After watching the Squaw boys throwing down laps on The Chimney in the Palisades via social media on the days of May 8th and 9th, I knew I had to get up there before the steep lines melted away. Therefore, I decided to day trip from San Francisco and arrived after an easy 2 hr 35 min summer-like drive. With nervous anticipation, I found myself entering the 2nd Funitel of the day en route to The Chimney…using a flannel as a ski coat.

The day was warm…ridiculously warm. How long will the Chimney remain open? Will the snow be sticky? Will the run-out be smooth? After one lap, the answer was clear. Conditions were perfect.

I was greeted by the usual Snowbrains crew of Miles Clark, Andy Hayes, Bevan Waite, Aaron Fox, Alex Knuuttunen, Josh Anderson, Ethan Kizzia, and Nate Kushlan. Every line was tagged from The Chimney Sweep on far skier’s left to Schmidiots on the far skier’s right. Hell, even party train laps were performed as we went one after each other. Its been a long while since I’ve had so much fun skiing on May 10th.

On my 6th lap, I was met by patrol who said that would be my final Chimney line for the day. Naturally, I had to do Schmidiots. Both Alex and Nate both made it down earlier in one piece, so I had the proper beta to do the same. After a speed check turn off the top, I was able to hold it together and ollie the exit with ease…stoked!

The rest of the day was spent lapping KT-22 until 2:15pm. From West Face to Chute 75 to the Nose to the Alternates to under Olympic Lady…the corn snow was smooth and fast. Once my legs gave out, I knew it was time to jump back in the car and head home….grinning from ear to ear.

I spy KT-22 looking rather white for May…

KT-22 – May 10th, 2017

This will be our first turn of the day…

Chimney Sweep – Palisades, Squaw Valley

It was party for steep skiing nerds…

Chimney Train Sessions

The Sweep skied like a dream…

Squaw Valley, California

Hard to believe its almost the middle of May…

Casey sending it – photo: Jay Tierney

Bevan does what he does best…

No tele-turn here…

Alex follows the protocol for speed…

Alex K dropping in…

Josh gets funky off the mighty large cornice…

Josh A is a certified skier…

Lap after lap, the boys continued as long as patrol kept it open…

California ski lemmings…

Alex K shows us why the Chimney Sweep is so fun…

Alex K dropping in…

Party in the Palisades…

Extreme skiers getting extreme…

Well, it was my turn to finally descend Schmidiots…

Skier above Schmidiots..

So the plan was to stay to the left and go fast…

Oh boy!

Time to scrub some speed in order to stay in control…

Hey Mom, watch this!

The crucial turn and thankfully it was perfect corn snow…

Just one turn here…

Ok, its now time to let them run…

Skier gets aggressive in the Palisades…

Time to ollie that bergschrund…

Isn’t skiing fun?

Nate and I celebrated our Schmidiots laps with a Red Bull and a Gatorade…BALLER!

You guys just ski Schmidiots?

With the stress laps over, we finally made some turns…

Nate laying down some late Spring carves…

Over at KT-22 you got an incredible view of the amount of snow on the upper mountain…

May 10th, 2017 – Squaw Valley USA

Time for some Chute-75…

Chute 75 – Squaw Valley – May 10th, 2017

Mandatory stop to the Eagle…

Eagle’s Nest/McConkey’s – Squaw

Oh, hey there Alpine Meadows. You sure have a lot of snow!

Alpine Meadows – May 10th, 2017

Olympic Lady was skiing quite nicely in the afternoon…

Oly Lady chutes…

But then again, the corn snow in The Alternates was silky smooth…

The Alternates – Squaw Valley

KT-22 was ultimately skiing quite well on May 10th…but my legs told me to stop…and I always listen to my legs.

KT-22 – May 10th, 2017

But on May 24th, 2017, Ethan Kizzia decided to lay down the last Chimney Sweep tracks of the season…

Getting a bit thin in there mate!

Chimney Sweep – May 24th, 2017

And he goes for it…

Ethan Kizzia dropping in…photo: Aaron Fox

There’s enough snow right?

Threading the needle – Squaw Valley

By golly, I think he’s slaying it!

May 24th, 2017 – Chimney Sweep – photo: Aaron Fox

SUCCESS!

Aggressive alpine skiing – photo: Aaron Fox

MAY 27TH, 2017!

After ‘closing’ the infamous KT-22 chairlift (The Mothership) on Saturday May 20th, ski patrol decided there was enough snow to keep it open a bit longer. Well, the chair finally shutdown for the season on May 28th at 7pm but not before I could sneak a few laps into some of my favorite zones.

Areas of Olympic Lady, The Nose, Chute 75, West Face to The Alternates were skiing fantastically smooth in the warm Spring temperatures. Basically, if you decided to ski anything lookers left or under the chair-line, you’d end up walking down a bit of dry mother earth. Otherwise, from Chute 75 to the Saddle, an easy transition to the Mountain Run gave you access all the way to the base of KT. Ultimately, given the date, I was beyond stoked that Squaw kept the legendary chair open for my visit.

Started the day in South Lake Tahoe with a nice view of Mt. Tallac…

Mt. Tallac – May 27th, 2017

Emerald Bay looking as still as ever…shot from a moving vehicle…

Emerald Bay, Tahoe South

And then straight up to Siberia to get a solid look of the open terrain…

Squaw Valley – May 27th, 2017

Siberia was LOADED so we ended up doing some high speed laps…

Siberia Express – May 27th, 2017

The Chimney still showing some life…as well as Ethan’s Chimney Sweep tracks from a few days earlier…

Chimney, Palisades – Squaw Valley

Today was a day with the groms…and naturally, lots of candy!

Headed to Gold Coast on skis…

Of course, we had to check out the ‘Shirley Wiggle’…

Shirley Lake – May 27th, 2017

And then it was time for some pre-lunch KT-22 laps…

Bit thin at the bottom – KT-22 – May 27th, 2017

However, as you gained altitude, things looked much better…

Olympic Lady and Lake Tahoe…

Chute 75 was still holding the mega slush bumps…

Slush bumps with the groms – Chute 75

Reese met up with us to ski some of the steeper open terrain…

Reese laying one down – Chute 75

I always enjoy the middle knuckle off the top…

Chute 75 – May 27th, 2017

Perfect weather and soft moguls…HELLO!!!

Fun is happening – Squaw Valley

When your 8 year old attempts to race you…

Skiing to the base on May 27th, 2017

Upper KT-22 still looking quite buried for the end of May…

KT-22 – May 27th, 2017

High speed straight-lining under Olympic Lady helped with the seasonal depression…

Time to let them run…

The Mountain Run will not last long but really, should it? It’s almost June!

Mountain Run – May 27th, 2017

KT-22 will close tomorrow and this time FOR GOOD!

One more day of KT-22

Time for one last run down the Alternates…

Alternates – Squaw Valley – May 27th, 2017

Can’t think of a more appropriate beverage…

Why not drink the beer that matches my skis???

JUNE 17-18TH, 2017!

The monstrous 2017 snowpack of California continues to deliver snow sliding fun to winter enthusiasts. On Father’s Day weekend, I enjoyed utter fabulous days in the sun skiing Siberia, Gold Coast and Shirley Lake with the wife and kids. Saturday ended up being a cruiser day to get tan, take some laps, and enjoy lunch at High Camp before hitting the pool back at the hotel.

Sunday began with some high speed piste laps down Siberia Run with traversing out to Hogsback under the Headwall chair to gain some steeper aspects down to the bottom of the chair. After Siberia, we ventured over to Shirley Lake to check out The Wiggle, rail some north-facing groomers, and tag some off piste just beyond the Shirley Chutes. Off-trail terrain was still pretty smooth with minimal suncups which made higher speed turns quite enjoyable.

Pretty sure Red Dog is done for the season…

Summer morning at Squaw Valley

Yup, my 6 year old daughter is ready to slay some slush…

Young grom eye’s her line…

The family that skis together…skis on Father’s Day down Siberia!

Siberia Express – June 17th, 2017

The snow was a bit faster and more consistent on Shirley Lake…

Parker performs a mid-June carve…

I guess the kids are fans of The Warriors…

Summer Shirley carves…

A rare sighting of the Mrs making turns for the camera…

Shirley Lake – June 17th, 2017

A couple more laps and it was time to hit High Camp…

Grom on Shirley Lake – June 17th, 2017

No complaints here…

High Camp in blue skies and snow covered slopes…

Post skiing lounging with the addition of the third kid…

Hammocks are stressful…trust me!

Lakeside dining on the West Shore for the win…

Boating season – Lake Tahoe…

Made a visit to the bros at The Slot Bar…

Slot Bar ceiling ski mag porn…

The third kid maybe young, but he still mandated a visit to The Mothership…

First visit to KT-22…

On the next day, my oldest son and I got into the Funitel line early and headed straight to Siberia…

Siberia Express – June 18th, 2017

We found traversing to Hogsback provided some quality corn with a steeper aspect…

Hogsback – June 18th, 2017

Young Steph Curry makes a turn under the Palisades…

After some time on Siberia, we migrated over to Shirley Lake to explore as much as possible…

Traversing to Shirley Chutes…

The Shirley Wiggle has been increasing in depth on a weekly basis…

Dave Metres shows us how its done – June 18th, 2017

POV from INSIDE THE WIGGLE!!!!

Welcome to technology of 2017…

Palisades (especially National Chute) still holding snow but my son didn’t want to hike…I guess I was nice on Father’s Day

Palisades – Squaw Valley – June 18th, 2017

And with one last look at Chute 75, our last trip to Squaw for the ‘ski season’ was complete…

Last Funitel ride of the season…

And then as my family’s summer travels led us to Telluride until Mid-July, Squaw stayed open until Saturday, July 15th, 2017…not too shabby Tahoe, not too shabby.

To see what it looked like on the last day of the season (JULY 15th!!!!) click here:

Squaw Valley, CA Saturday July 15th Conditions Report: Last Day of the Epic 2016/17 Season?

WHAT WILL NEXT SEASON BRING?

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