For Tahoe TV's complete video coverage of the Lake Cushing Crossing, click on the video player at Tahoetopia.com.

On Saturday, May 19th, as it has for the last 19 years, the Lake Cushing Crossing ushered in the last days of the winter season at Palisades Tahoe USA.

The '50/60 Season Pass' will be available for a limited time, with prices starting at $369.

The new program is a major break from the mold for Palisades Tahoe. In the past, Palisades Tahoe has stayed away from the discounted pricing offered in major resort regions. Squaw's pass prices have increased annually, and have been some of the most expensive in the nation. Until now.

It took 15 workers 4 days (in storm conditions) to construct the latest addition to the fun in the High Sierra. The bar was opened officially in the last few days just in time to celebrate eight feet of fresh, delicious, new snow.



Chain saws, chisels, Japanese carving saws, and nail board grinders were used to create the site, which serves up drinks and barbecue items, as well as DJ music on weekends. Skiers and snowboarders now have a new spot to enjoy.

"The atmosphere at Palisades Tahoe has always equaled a penchant for risk. It is matter of fact," explained the late Norm Simmons, who became known in the sixties for his epic leaps off KT's Eagle's Nest.

Here is the balance of the seven events that helped propagate the Palisades Tahoe legend.

Strapping on their stiff wooden boards, they descended down a narrow rock-walled needle of snow, over forty degrees of slope. It was beyond rational thought, but in one afternoon the two alpinists redefined the limits of skiing.

It was only fitting, therefore, that ten years later Allais would travel to the Sierra Nevada and become Palisades Tahoe’s first ski school director. For no other ski resort in North America has become as synonymous for being a wildlife sanctuary for adventure as the former Olympic site.

Following the deaths that warm, rainy, August afternoon long ago, the Qua people at Carnelian Bay went into deep mourning. The happiness they had long known drained from them, and life became somber in all respects.

In September the Quas packed up their tents, children, and possessions and quietly returned over the Sierra Crest to their winter home in the foothills near Auburn. They were without a chief and without hope.

Many years ago after the lake was formed the Qua people had spread throughout the High Sierra and beyond, as described in Lost Legend #3. One large group of Quas lived winters in the foothills near Auburn, CA and summers on tranquil Carnelian Bay near the center of the North Shore of the great lake in the sky. The Quas fished the lake; and they hunted the forested lands running north towards today’s Mt. Pluto and northwestward to what they called the Big Gorge, today’s Truckee Canyon.

One of my favorite legends, although not a prediction tool, is the Snow Tree, a large cottonwood tree located between the road and the bike path along the Truckee River, just north of the "Cal Gas" turn (now home to EZ Mail, and Big Bear Automotive). The legend, as I heard it at the Dam Cafe a few years back, says that it will start snowing real only when the majority of the leaves on the Snow Tree have fallen to the ground. I've watched closely over the years, and for the most part, it holds true.