Bluebird Friday, a stormy weekend and an empty bluebird Tuesday

Wow. What a start to the season!

Friday brought us the season’s first pow day, and what a glorious day it was! Dry, blower pow and sunshine.

Storms over the weekend, and Disney opened on Sunday offering a nice change from Lincoln laps.

Tuesday was once again sunny and bluebird!  Patrol worked their asses off and we were treated to tons of new terrain. Sugar Bowl, the Sisters and Silver Belt all opened for the first time this season. So exciting to see all those gates open!

And… 5 (?!) feet on the way this weekend. Saturday looks like positively brutal blizzard conditions, not sure even this die-hard storm skier will brave that.  Sugar is top-notch when it comes to operating in storm conditions but I don’t know what lifts they’ll be able to run Saturday.  I wouldn’t be surprised if it was just Jerome, Tree and Nob.

A sunny and empty opening weekend

Sunshine, mild temps and barely anyone at the mountain for opening weekend.  What more could you ask for?

Lincoln was spinning and coverage was surprisingly good all things considered.  A little dicey up top after some traffic, but not bad at all.

And a decent storm on the way for Thursday dropping a foot and a half, maybe two.  Friday is going to be bluebird!

Big off-season news at our little Bowl

Wow, big news for our little mountain in the off season!

First off, Sugar is now on the Mountain Collective pass, as the sole Tahoe resort, replacing Palisades and Mammoth.  Woah.  While that’s not the apocalypse of crowds that joining the Epic or Ikon ridiculousness would bring to our uncrowded haven, it for sure puts the Bowl on the radar of traveling tourists and pow chasers with a much bigger spotlight than before.  I don’t think we’re going to see a drastic increase in crowds this season because from MC passes, but I’d guess Sugar is going to start getting more attention and press.

Secondly, apparently we have a new CEO, Bridget Legnavsky, imported from New Zealand.  Quoting the Sierra Sun article, her achievements at previous mountains include things like “impressive growth in skier visits by shifting focus to terrain parks”.  Ugh.  I sure hope that’s not in our future.   Our summit spies tell me that Judah side overflow parking next to Donner Pass road has been paved, that’s not a good sign.  🙁

And to end on a high note…  it felt like summer went on forever this year, but here we are looking at six+ feet in the forecast.  Will we really get that much?  Will Sugar open?  Winter is here for sure.   I’m going to have some hot soup and watch the mountain cams.  See you soon!

Spring Pow!

Of course this weird season is ending with a final week of storms.  It wasn’t bottomless, but it was a legit, super-fun pow day out there for sure!

More on the way this week..

Spring Uphilling and farewell to J side

Team Unofficial out at the Uphiller, hell yeah!  Had lots of fun skinning and heckling the rando racers without costumes.  Next year we should make anyone costume-less wear a penalty tutu on lap 2.

And we bid goodbye to J side for the season… not too many days left to get out there and get after it.  See you there!

Opening day

I’m sorry, was your weekday, passholder-only powder day not amazeballs enough yet?  Storm is quickly picking up?  Lots of people already left for the day?

Lincoln.  1:30.

Best patrol in Tahoe.  *drops mic*

Opening day is Friday, December 17th

No official announcement yet, but our super secret sources tell us the 17th is the day.  😉

The wait has been tough after October’s freak storm teased us early, but it’s finally about to be over.  6+ feet are on the way next week to set things up.  Wow.  I’d imagine Sugar will open the whole mountain except Crow’s, assuming they have enough staff.

Count ’em, that’s nine days of lift-served skiing this year for those of us on the slightly restricted bus.  Get out there, get your send on and make them count!

– Disco Cat

Springtime sun

Well, official spring brought springtime weather for sure!  Hope you’ve been enjoying the sunshine as much as I have!  Only two weeks of lift service left, make the most of it!

Trivia:

Goofy starred in the “Art of Skiing”, made by Disney in 1941.  The movie was about Goofy learning how to ski at Sugar Bowl.  This was the first time that a cartoon used a Goofy “Holler”, which was a stock sound effect that Goofy bade.  The holler was originally recorded by yodeler and Sugar Bowl founder, Hannes Schroll.

Next question:

What was the name of the crazy, Polynesian-themed race that took place during the 60s and 70s at Sugar Bowl?