Watch Noah Gaffney Stomp a 60-Foot Double Backflip at Palisades Tahoe

We were already pretty sure there was something in the water at Palisades Tahoe that made every skier from there capable of sending insane lines.

With a little Gaffney DNA added in, you’ve got a recipe for some of the best skiing you can watch, which Noah Gaffney just proved again.

Two years ago, Gaffney sent one of the biggest hits in Palisades history when he landed a double backflip off Goodwill’s on Granite Chief. His Uncle Scott, aka ski film legend Scott Gaffney, was there to capture Noah’s flips from the base of the cliff and has just now released the footage in a short edit.

True to Noah’s down-to-Earth personality, the edit isn’t just a couple of angles of him stomping the hit, but rather an in-depth look at the process of landing such a trick.

According to Noah, Goodwill’s is a 50-60 ft. cliff that “doesn’t have the steepest landing.” He straight-aired it previously and knew how it felt. He also had a few other massive backflips on other features at Palisades under his belt at that point, not to mention he’d landed a triple backflip on a jump the year before.

Over the summer, Gaffney had been spending a lot of time cliff jumping into water, and was pretty comfortable double backflipping off a cliff, but had never done it on skis. With good light and “stompy” snow, not to mention it being the 15th anniversary of another Palisades legend, Shane McConkey‘s passing, March 26, 2024, was the day for Noah to try it.

You can watch the full edit below and keep reading for more.

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While a feat like this is still pretty darn superhuman, Gaffney isn’t above saying that he was scared to flip Goodwill’s. The audio from his POV cam lets viewers hear not just the nerves he had, but the pep talk he gave himself before his first try.

It’s not very often that we get to hear athletes talk about fear when doing things like this, so to hear it firsthand from Noah is pretty cool.

It took Noah three tries to stomp the double, but all things considered, that might make it even more impressive. When he finally lands it on the third attempt, you can see he’s just inches to the left of his original bomb hole, exactly what he said he needed to do. In other words, the execution is f*cking flawless.

Natural Selection Ski’s Super Sessions just went down in the same zone, which ultimately sent Jonah Williams, Elisabeth Gerritzen, and Hannah Epsteyn to Alaska to compete in NST Ski. It’s safe to say, the Granite Chief sees a lot of cool stuff go down, but Gaffney’s hit is no doubt one that will stand out for years to come.

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