Go north or south on Highway 89 from Tahoe City or Truckee to Alpine Meadows Road. Proceed up the road two miles toward the ski area to the west. There is roadside parking at the trail head. And trail signage is good.

Unlike the many V-shaped valleys, the bottom of Palisades Tahoe holds a broad, fertile meadow that has helped make Squaw the “gem of the mountains” for over 150 years.

Instead of conquering the top, one of America's most famed skier adventurers wound up in a solo descent off the mountain as he was suffering with cerebral edema.

High-altitude cerebral edema is a spontaneous, often fatal, filling of the brain cavity with fluid. Dorworth was stricken at 20,000 feet. A sure treatment is rapid descent. Dorworth's case was advancing quickly. He had become so weak and uncoordinated that he was unable to tie his bootlaces.

Six hundred people were there, most all mountain lifers, most all still living the dream. Among those present were world-class skiers and snowboarders like Scot Schmidt, Tom Day, Shane McConkey, and Tom Burt to dole out accolades and love to the primary guy who made them famous.

Hall published his first novel in 1949. In 1963 Scribner Co. published his ski novel that Hall loosely based on the career of Olympian Dick Buek. His narrative provided much more than apt descriptions of downhill racing and the resulting intellectual explanations. In a deep sense, the real theme of the novel was not racing but initiation, ritual behavior, and accomplishment that was increasingly unavailable in the confining, limiting careerism of the current times.

Twenty-five years later, Jigback was retired with a record of dogged reliability for carrying skiers to some of Squaw's most challenging terrain in even the worst of weather conditions.

The Route

In January 2008 there were huge storms that created avalanches in numerous places. On February 7, XC skiers in the rugged Sierra backcountry north of Palisades Tahoe encountered an object partially buried in the snow.

Apparently it had been dislodged by the shifting snow pack. One of the skiers, a forensic anthropologist from the University of California at Colfax, immediately recognized the possible significance of the find.

So begins the opening narration of the ski film Daydreams. Shot and edited during the winter and spring of 1974-75 by Tahoe native, Craig Beck, the epic film remains the last un-forked pea on the plate of American ski film making. Highlight's include Greg Beck's (Craig's younger brother) 100-foot-plus jump off the Palisades and Dave Burnham's monstrous 80-foot flip into the wild blue yonder.

During and immediately after winter storms, deep accumulations of fresh snow, wind driven snow deposition, and dramatic temperature changes can make the slopes unstable and extremely hazardous.

An important early challenge to ski development in Palisades Tahoe, for one example, was to reduce the risk of destructive and potentially fatal snow slides. In the mid 1900's the mountain had 35 known areas that would often slide during or after major storms.

Born August 3, 1918 in Buffalo, New York, the daughter of a textile industrialist, the young debutante grew up in the penthouse of the Sherry Netherlands Hotel in New York City. In 1941 on the ski slopes of Sun Valley, Idaho, Sandy first met her future husband and heard about Palisades Tahoe.

She was attending Smith College when she happened to watch the movie, "Sun Valley Serenade." Enthralled by the film's depiction and its romantic ambiance she bought a train ticket to Idaho and, unescorted, made reservations at the Sun Valley Lodge for a lengthy stay.