OLYMPIC VALLEY, Calif. – Skiers are still savoring the adrenaline after the recent snow storm brought over nine feet for a bluebird powder day on Friday, Feb. 20, drawing thrill seekers to a longstanding tradition on one of Palisades Tahoe’s iconic features known as The Fingers.

The series of rock outcroppings become a medley of ski lines when powder buffers the jagged face for technical skiing, steep pitches, and thrilling drops.

But with each hero descent, snow quickly sheds from the steep features and sharp rocks once again become exposed—creating urgency to beat others to first tracks in what has been coined The Fingers Race.

It means skiers intent on getting a slice set brutally early alarms for an hour they divulge to no one in order to queue up in the KT-22 line first. They then hold their place for hours in the lift line, prospecting which finger they’ll descend as they wait for the hum, signaling their chariot to the top.

Once off the lift, it’s an immediate right and a mad dash for The Fingers.

In that dash, pro skier Noah Gaffney, son of the late Dr. Robb Gaffney, author of “Squallywood, A Guide to Squaw Valley’s (now Palisades Tahoe’s) Most Exposed Lines,” set off.

After emerging from KT-22, Gaffney says farewell to his friends and bombs for The Fingers as shown in his video capturing his descent. Despite not making the first chair, Gaffney recovers lost time and quickly passes other skiers.

As if foreshadowing the moment, his father, who died in 2023 from cancer, said in “Squallywood”: “On a sunny powder day, show up at the base of KT 22 really, really early armed with your fattest skis, a mental Polaroid of your run, a mindset that you are going to straightline the upper 2/3 of the mountain, and confidence of being on stage in front of everyone on the chair and in the liftline below…”

For his stage, young Gaffney picked the Middle Knuckle line of The Fingers, which, according to his father’s book, “the closer you are to the center, the harder your line.”

Gaffney made the challenging line look easy as he straight-lined from the top of the mountain, rocketed to The Fingers, and executed his line, showing no hesitation—just as his dad had said to do.

“I think I felt him most through this run by using what lessons he taught me about skiing,” Gaffney told the Sun, explaining how his dad taught him it was important to approach the sport in a safe manner and to only attempt such things when the conditions allowed.

“He liked to wait for that perfect moment and take full advantage of it,” he said. “I feel like that’s what I did here.”

It has been many years, Gaffney explains, since conditions looked this good on the Middle Knuckle. The conditions allowed him to ski it with such a high speeds.

In fact, Gaffney skied KT-22’s entire 1,800 vertical feet in less than two minutes. In the words of Powder Magazine, “That’s fast, in case you needed clarification.”

“This run meant a lot to me,” Gaffney says. “I’ve always tried to get better at skiing things fast and fluid. I think all my practice skiing like this on smaller and less consequential lines allowed me to be able to ski the Middle Knuckle the way I did. It felt like all my practice paid off for that moment.”

His masterful run evoked cheers from those on the lift, in the lines and others watching.

With The Fingers in direct sight the base surrounding the KT-22 chair, it isn’t just skiers who line up for the exhibition, but also spectators, though at a more reasonable hour.

In another video, shown from spectators’ perspective, Gaffney appears to be leading the charge as one of the first (if not the first) skier down The Fingers.

He is quickly followed by other skiers, carving up the freshly powdered face in a race sanctioned only by winter and the powder gifting storms it provides.