Palisades Tahoe, California

A unique view with Edie Thys Morgan

In today's show we go to Palisades Tahoe formerly known as Squaw Valley. Host of the 1960 Winter Olympics, soon to be host to the Mens World Cup races and home to some of Americas best skiers and a significant presence in US Skiing. with Edie Thys Morgan, a native of Olympic Valley, an Olympic skier, mother to two current racers. Edie writes articles, books and blogs as RacerEx.  She grew up in Olympic Valley, raced out of Squaw and brings her husband and kids back here almost every year.

Located in Olympic Valley smack in the middle of the Sierra Tahoe Range and only 2.5 Hrs from San Francisco and 8 miles from beautiful Lake Tahoe. Palisades is one of the US’s classics.

Palisades is known for its huge snow and for sun, its varied terrain and 6,000 acres of excellent skiing across 6 peaks –.  The official stats are 2850 of vertical -30% expert, 45% intermediate and 30% beginner all served by 36 lifts.

My Favs

• Best Restaurant - Gold Coast for the view

• Best Hotel - Squaw Valley Lodge

• Best Aprés - Le Chamois period Get the Buddy Pass

• Best Run - Anything off the Palisades

Episode Transcript

Hi, I'm John Morgan and welcome to the Where to Ski podcast. Today we're going to ski area with a bit of an identity problem, Palisades Tahoe, formerly known as Squaw Valley. Host of the 1960 Winter Olympics, soon to be host to the Men's World Cup races, and home to some of America's best skiers, and a significant presence in U.S. skiing.

Located in Olympic Valley, smack in the middle of the Sierra Tahoe range, and only two and a half hours from San Francisco, eight miles from beautiful Lake Tahoe, Palisades is one of the U.S.'s classic mountains. The mountain is known for its huge snow and for sun. Its varied terrain and 6,000 acres of excellent skiing span across six peaks.

The official stats are 2,850 are vertical, 30% of which is expert, 45% intermediate, and 30% beginner are all served by 36 lifts. Today we're keeping in the family, I'm talking with Edith Thys Morgan, my sister-in-law, a native of Olympic Valley, an Olympic skier, mother to two current racers. Edie writes articles, books, and blogs as Racer X. She grew up in Olympic Valley, raced out of Squaw, brings her husband and kids back here almost every year.

So Edie, let's talk Olympic Valley and Palisades, or Squaw, whatever suits. Just don't get us all in trouble here. Well let's call it the resort formerly known as Squaw.

I'm going to try, I'm going to try to use the proper Palisades Tahoe name throughout, but I'm just, it's a hard, it's tough. The old habits die hard. Well it's tough because you really have now that it's two areas really, so if you're calling it Palisades Tahoe, people still say, well do you mean Alpine or Squaw within Palisades? So I think something will work out, they'll shake it out at some point, but as of now it's kind of tough to not say Squaw, but I'm going to try.

It's always been known as one of the go-to's for West Coast skiers. What about, what is it about Palisades that makes it so special that many people choose going there over some large Rocky Mountain resort? So I think what it is, it's a few things. I think it's not a cookie cutter experience, and you know, I'm just going to, I'm just going to say what the cookie cutter experience is Vail, you know, and good for Vail, they figured it out.

That's a place where everyone can go and you're guaranteed that everyone will be happy and it's kind of just okay. Squaw and Tahoe, they're different. I mean it's a very local vibe because as much as they're going to try to be a destination resort, they're always going to be a day sort of weekend resort because they're so close to the Bay Area, which is another reason people go there.

It's very accessible. You can day trip it from the Bay Area, certainly from Sacramento, you can fly into Reno, you can fly into Sacramento. It's just easy to get to, and it just, and it feels different.

It feels very local, everything about it. Well that's the feeling I always got, and you could ski it for a half day and then do other things too. So you could ski until one or two, get some amazing skiing in, then go down to Tahoe, and you know, we used to go water skiing.

Yeah, in the spring. It was cold, but we'd go. The whole ski sail event, I don't know if they still have it, but that's a little brutal.

It's like 40 seconds of skiing and five hours of sailing. It's really cold. But yeah, it's, and I mean we'll get to this I think, but my favorite time of year is hands down is the spring there because there's so much snow, so much sun, and you've got these long days, and you can do, yeah, you can do a ton of stuff.

You can go, you know, biking if you want. I mean people, crazy people, but they'll go paddle boarding, you know, after skiing, all kinds of things in the same day. Well, you talked about it a little bit.

They're going to be open until like July this year because they've gotten so much snow. California's been whacked in general, but Squaw's gotten a ton. I've seen videos of them digging out chairlifts and stuff.

What's it like skiing Squaw after that much snow? Well, it's, you know, that's one thing that can happen. It can really, it can get blown down, and I do think earlier this year when there was so much snow, it just takes a lot to open that mountain, and it's in a real, Squaw and Alpiner in Palisades, the entire place is a real avalanche zone, so they've got great ski patrol, and to keep the mountain safe, it takes a while. They also get some high winds, but, you know, once the area is open, you can find places that are sheltered, either on the lower mountain, you can go on the resort run over kind of by Red Dog.

If the upper mountain, if you can get to the upper mountain, the Shirley Lake is always sheltered, so there's, once the lifts are spinning, there's places to go, but certain times of year, the Sierra storms come in, and you just got to kind of hunker in until they blow on by. Yeah, that's not unusual. Almost every ski area that gets a lot of snow gets, they have to shut down big chunks of the mountain so they can clear it and get it ready, and then when it opens, it's awesome.

Yeah, and I think that's another thing we'll, maybe we'll touch on, but on a powder day, then it's so big, there are places to go. You don't have to sit in the line from 7 30 on or seven o'clock on like some people do to get on KT first, because it's sort of a recipe for heartbreak because, you know, you'll wait hours in that line and go up and watch as it gets completely skied out. So, you know, I, in those situations, I typically just head to the upper mountain, get some, find some powder up there, and then, you know, get back to KT when the frenzy dies down.

Yeah, there's some pretty aggressive stuff at the top of the mountain. I got thrown off the headwall a few times. It was fun.

You sort of put your tips over the edge and look down and well, let's see. Yeah, headwall's a good one. The north face, north bowl of headwall is, that's steep.

That's, that's as steep in bounds as you're going to find anywhere. That's awesome, and then the other side of it is the sun bowl, which is, you know, what you want to hit in the spring. It's awesome.

You have to hit the palisades if you're an expert skier and you're at Squaw, so there's a, there's sort of a checklist you have to go through, but it all starts with KT because, I mean, KT's got more in one lift than most resorts have in the whole resort. It's a fabulous, fabulous spot, so you've talked about KT, so that sounds sort of like where you'd start as an expert skier, and, you know, I, whenever I've been to Squaw, it's always been with the crazies, and there's some really, really good skiers at Squaw. There's a whole history of really good skiers, yourself being among them, who've come out of Squaw.

Then there's some of the real crazies that will do pretty much anything. What type of runs do they end up on? Do they end up on the, like, on the headwad on KT and sort of back and forth between the two? I think they're pretty concentrated on KT because the other thing, when they call it Squallywood, people go there and they're nuts and they want to be seen because, you know, why do something completely nuts if everyone doesn't see it? And the beauty of KT is that, you know, the lift goes right over all the, sort of, not all of the hairiest stuff, but a lot of the really signature stuff, the fingers and the eagle's nest and all the stuff, so that's where really the showboating is concentrated, and it makes a good show. I'm sure there's some big on that hill.

Oh, huge, huge, but then what you, you know, you really, what you can't see from the lift is sort of that whole west side of KT, so west face, 75 chute, and there's a bunch of chutes in there, so that's where definitely people end up there as well, and, you know, they just have to do it with only their GoPro or their buddies to see it, I guess that's the downside of that, but that's where the, sort of, longest sustained steeps are, and they're amazing. And so we've been talking a little bit about some of the crazy stuff, which there's plenty of there, but what about families, people that aren't really trying to throw themselves off the side of a cliff and do massive, massive steeps? How's Squaw for that? You know, that's, I think, one of the nicest things about Squaw is most mountains, the beginner area is down on the bottom of the mountain, and that can be really cold and shady, and, you know, you're beginning or you're a kid or a beginner or a kid, and you're kind of stuck down at the bottom of the mountain, and the beginning and beginner intermediate stuff at Squaw is all up at Palisades, it's all at the top of the mountain, so you get on the Funitel or on the tram, you know, as long as you can walk, you can, you don't have to know how to ski, you get up there, and then the slopes are gentle, they're sunny, they're warmer, and you feel like beginners and intermediates feel like there's part of the, you know, part of the scene instead of kind of getting stuck at the bottom. Yeah, does it make sense for a family like that to get an instructor as a guide for the first day, to be able to show them what the mountain's like and take them around, or? You know, I think instructors are always great, as far as, you know, when you say guide, you know, you'd want to guide at Jackson, you'd want to guide in Europe, not so much in Squaw, because really you can see everything, other than, like I said, that west side of KT, you can be on a lift and see where you want to ski and see other people skiing it and think, oh, that looks fun, that looks horrible, whatever.

I think the value of a guide or, you know, instructor, other than if you're actually getting a ski lesson, is for the lines, because it gets really crowded, and so if you've got someone in the ski school that can help you cut lines, that's a huge, that's a huge plus, because especially on weekends, holidays, it can get jammed. Well, it is close, as you said, it's close to San Francisco, close to Sacramento, close to Reno, so it draws from a few big markets. Yeah, it does, and that's the other thing, I mean, if I had one recommendation, it's just, you know, if you're going there, stay, try to stay in the valley, that's a huge advantage to not be part of the Red River, leaving the valley, because it is a, it's a box canyon, there's one way in and out.

Well, and that's sort of what some of the lure of Olympic Valley has been, is that it was a tiny, tiny little town. I think now there's, what, 900 people that live there full-time, and you grew up there. What's that like, as a town and as a place to be able to live and ski? It's still small, as far, I mean, it's very limited, as far as who can live in there, it's just not that big, but it's definitely changed, just the sheer volume of people all the time, and a lot of the, you know, a lot of the skiers really live in Truckee and sort of that direction now, because there's a lot more capacity, and that's not so far at all, and super convenient, it's just, again, on those, you know, during the weekends, high traffic days, you've got to be mindful of that, and not be stuck trying to get anywhere at, you know, from three o'clock on, the end of the day.

Might as well just hunker in, because you're not going anywhere fast. Hunker in, go to a restaurant, go to a bar. You got to go to the Chamois, the chamois, that's kind of the apres place, or, you know, it's sort of a love the one you're with deal, just wherever you are there, you know, if you end up at the bottom of KT, go to the KT deck, and if you're up at Gold Coast, and it's a sunny day, have lunch and a beer at Gold Coast.

I mean, there's a lot of spots that are just really nice to hang out. Now, since I've been there, they put in a lot of lodging at the bottom of the Squaw side. It used to be, you know, a lot of things that were skating rinks, that were like town recreational facilities, things like that.

I think a lot of those are gone, and a lot of that's been turned into lodging for guests. Yeah, they had, there was the Olympic Training Center was there for a long time. Blythe Arena, the Olympic skating rink was there, that's gone.

The ski jumps were there, so a lot of that stuff is gone. What they do have is a big parking lot, and free parking, which is, you know, not many places have that anymore. So, they do, yeah, they have a lot more hotel rooms right in the village.

Also, what used to be the Squaw Valley Lodge, I think it's called Palisades Lodge. That's the very closest, like, right on site, like, right stone's throw from the cookie shop, which we need to talk about, Wildflower. And then they've also got the resort at Squaw Creek, which is across the meadow from where all the houses are.

And that is great, because it has its own lift, the resort lift that comes down to it. The only problem with that, if you're going in the spring, sometimes they shut down that lift, and then you have to take the shuttle bus around. So, but other than that, the resort at Squaw Creek is a really nice place to stay, too.

There's a lot of options in the valley. So, when you go up there, what's your perfect day? You know, every area sort of is different in terms of how the sun progresses and where it looks like it's going to be good skiing. And if it's not a big dump, and it's just a normal ski day, and everything's groomed, that is usually groomed, where would you start and where would you go? Yeah, I would, for that, I would probably head up to the sun right away.

Go to Siberia, maybe Shirley Lake, skiing up there, sort of then work my way back. I guess it would be south, so start at the top, and then work around to sort of end on KT later in the day, because then it would, you know, it softens up, and it's a little more user-friendly. So, once you're getting into a firmer snow cycle, yeah, I would just, I don't know, I think that's the way I would start.

So, if you could sort of go up, go up the Funitel maybe, head over to Shirley Lake, take some warm-up runs there, then Granite Chief, then just kind of work around Siberia, head well back to, down to KT, and there, and maybe with, at the, on the Red Dog with some runs on the, on the Red Dog resort run, which is nice cruising. Yeah, that would be, that would be a darn good day, and then you'd end up at the KT Sun Deck, and, or the Chamois, and have a little bevy. So, the Chamois is the spot to go, huh? For sure, in the spring.

I mean, really, all the time, it's very, again, totally, that's the local place. I mean, when they were, throughout all the master plans, there were various times where it involved tearing down the Chamois, and there were actual campaigns and stickers, like it's Palisades, well, no, it's Squaw. I don't know what Palisades says, but at Squaw, the Squaw culture was always to, to make a sticker, if you have a problem, make a sticker.

So, you know, when they tried to rename Red Dog Snow King Mountain, it's Red Dog Forever, and when they tried to rename West Face Moseley's run, it was West Face Forever, and when they tried to tear down the Chamois, when they've made stickers, Save the Chamois, Save the Chamois, Chamois, and it was a little public service campaign, and it worked. They redid the whole master plan, so the Chamois stayed. Yeah, it's, and it's, you know, it's a pizza place with a great deck, and, but, but local owners and people love them, and it's, it's just an institution.

So, we've talked a lot about Squaw, but it's really two mountains. There's Alpine, what was, I guess, Alpine Meadows next door, that they bought, well, 10 years ago now. What's that like? Is that a different crowd? Is it a different feel, different vibe? It definitely has more of the, the family vibe, a little more low-key, you know, Squaw is very show-off-ish.

Alpine's a little, you know, more reserved. It's actually when, you know, if you're in the, if you're going to the area when it hasn't snowed for a long time, Alpine has longer groomers, so that's kind of a nice thing, and now they put in this gondolas, base-to-base gondola from Squaw to Alpine that takes, I think, 16 minutes, and I haven't even ridden it yet. It opened, I think, it opened in December, but it didn't open all the way to Alpine until, until January, but that's, that's up and running.

It sounds really great, so you can, you can ski them both easily in one day, and also, as my sister was saying, she's like, sometimes if I just kind of don't know what to do, I'll take that ride, because it's super scenic, and then you get over there, and you get a different mountain to ski. It's, yeah, and, and there's really good spring skiing over there, too. I think it's a little bit higher, the base elevation at Alpine, so the high traverse into the Sherwood Forest area of Alpine is, is, like, awesome spring skiing.

I do remember some time in the spring over at Alpine where it was just, just get cooked in the sun. It was just spectacularly beautiful over there. It is, and then you, you're just that much closer to, like, Tahoe, and the views, I mean, everywhere you look, the views are just stunning.

It's really nice. So, back to Olympic Village. Growing up there must have been pretty special.

Anything you'd like to share about growing up in that part of the world, and what it did to your skiing, and to your outlook on skiing? Yeah, it, you just, it was all about the people. I mean, so many people, so many great skiers came in for the Olympics and got there, and it was just such an amazing place. They never, they never left.

So, I grew up in this environment where there was this international cadre of incredible skiers, Olympic-level skiers from Austria, from France, from Argentina, Switzerland, and they all, a lot of them became coaches in the winter and contractors in the summer, and they just loved, they loved skiing, and they, you know, they just worked together really well. So, it always just had this sort of best of all worlds feel, and then there was such a tradition of, of people from, you know, the Jimmy Hyuga to the Poulsons, Tamron McKinney, and, you know, in ski racing alone, and also then in extreme skiing when that came up, and then freestyle. So, as a kid, you could kind of see the role model for any dream you had, and somebody had already done it there, and so it was just really neat to grow up that way and sort of think the sky's the limit, and it, and it still goes on there.

You, you know, you see, you know, currently there's quite a few athletes from Palisades on the U.S. ski team, and I think there just always will be, because then, you know, now Marco Sullivan, who was a kid when I was growing up, when I was on the ski team, he was a little kid, and, and his uncle coached me, and now he's coaching the next generation, and, and it's just this cycle that keeps going on. Isn't Bryce Bennett from there, and I think... Bryce Bennett, A.J. Hurt, Keely Cashman, who else, Eric Arvidson, and then there's current ones, and then also, you know, through history, Darren Rolves, just Bill Hudson. Bill Hudson was an Olympian, he, I grew up with, and now he runs the ski team, so I mean, oh, Julia Mancuso, you just can't, I... That's quite a list.

It's an incredible list, and that's just scratching the surface. They used to have a tree that was a Mighty Might tree, and they had a plaque of all the U.S. ski team members that had been Mighty Mights coming, coming through SQUA, that had made it to the U.S. ski team. I think, I don't know, that might have gotten torn down with all the lifts going in, who knows.

What about, what did growing up in SQUA teach you about skiing and coaching, and your philosophy around skiing, and the coaching? Well, I guess it was really more my dad than, it started out with my dad, whose philosophy was, all snow is good snow, and that has been the enduring philosophy in our family, and it's, and I think that's kind of what everyone embraces there. It's not about the perfect powder, it's not about the, you know, the perfect grooming, or the perfect anything there. It's about being with good people, and you know, skiing hard, and having fun, and just enjoying everything about skiing.

You know, not, and I think that's, you won't see private lunch clubs at SQUA, because that's not what it's about. It's about skiing, and I think that's, it's just a really, I don't know, it's something that lives on at the area. It's just, I've got a really good spirit for all of, loving skiing for all the right reasons.

Well, it sounds like a lot where I grew up, a lot like where I grew up in Vermont, and it was about the people, it was about the experience you had growing up there, and the feeling you got from doing that, not trying to be seen at a place, things like that. So it's interesting how that shapes your view on skiing, and it's not always about going fast. No, it's true.

It's very, I mean, as much as a, you know, SQUA is kind of a poser place, but it's also very accepting. I mean, if you're out there, and you just love the sport, I mean, there's all kinds of characters, and they, everyone fits in, as long as you're out there, you know, digging it. Well, I want to thank you for spending some time, and sharing your thoughts around both the mountains, and growing up there.

That's a, it's really good. I hope this works for a lot of our people. If you'd like to find out more about Edie, go to racerx.com, and if you like our podcasts, please share them, and listen to perspectives on other areas past Palisades.

We've got a whole list of them. Thanks for joining.