Legendary Filmmaker Scott Gaffney Pioneers Iconic Line After First Major Tahoe Storm
Scott Gaffney's name is almost synonymous with Palisades Tahoe (previously Squ*w Valley), from his work filming with Shane McConkey, his brother Dr. Robb Gaffney, and countless other legends.
At 54, he's still ripping the same lines most people dream of skiing in their 20s.
The latest storm dumped 17 inches on Palisades, opening up routes that previously weren't accessible due to the low tide conditions.
As many people have been throwing down on Mainline Pocket (the cliffs right above the top of Gold Coast), the Palisades were open recently, and those brave enough to drop early season took on the challenge.
The storm came with benefits and drawbacks as the season kicked into gear. Benefits? The snow and expanded terrain. The drawbacks? A cool hour sitting in traffic on the way to the mountain, and absolute mayhem parking, even with the reservations (they were booked up for the first time this season, apparently)!
But Scott Gaffney saw the opportunity and wasted no time getting to the good stuff: the powder that "hadn't yet blown to Sacramento."
The upper mountain was closed on Saturday due to wind holds and storm conditions.
Roundhouse at Alpine proved to be the best bet, but even there the conditions were difficult without the right lenses. Almost a complete whiteout in certain spots that were not protected by ridgelines, and stomping cliffs (even small ones!) in flat light and snow coming down is quite the challenge.
Sunday was by far the best day of the weekend, being bluebird and the resort getting those sweet refills all day Saturday.
Gaffney posted POV footage to Instagram of him sending it straight down the Palisades.
Now that Siberia is open, people have been hiking up and delighting onlookers below with chute runs and cliff drops, and Gaffney was no exception.
Related: Legendary Filmmaker Still Rips On Skis At 54-Years-Old
Gaffney has been a partner of Colorado ski film production company Matchstick Productions (MSP) since 1996, and has helped to produce, shoot and edit over 100 TV episodes and nearly 20 feature-length movies.
He's quite the skier himself, as shown in this clip (and many others from before)!
However, the attitude Gaffney brought to the mountain on Sunday was the best of all: we can all take some positive vibes from his book!
"It might have been a bunch of cold, blower pow out there today, but despite that we still managed to sneak in a few fun lines."
Runs only get tracked out if a lot of people are willing to ski them!
Related: Tahoe Pro Connery Lundin Just Backslapped Harder Than Any Skier In History
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