Category: Sugar Bowl

Winds were howling when I made it up to Sugar for the first time post-blizzard.

On Wednesday,  an attempt was made to operate Dis, but the wind didn’t cooperate.  Consolation prize instead was Jerome.  With barely anyone at the mountain, there were lots of fresh tracks to be had.

Thursday morning had some of the longest lines of the season on Disney.  Snow conditions were mostly wind-affected and questionable.  Lots of folks left eventually.  Heard someone doubting whether Lincoln would open.  Ha!  You must be thinking of some other mountain, my friend.  Of COURSE Lincoln opened in the afternoon, and all the gates as well (except Lincoln East Face?).  Somehow, a night and day difference from Disney’s conditions, much better snow!

Aand… more feet on the way this weekend!  Because 539″ isn’t enough, haha.

Overheard outside Village lodge as I was warming up after my first few laps.  🙂

It was a great day and a challenging day.  Definitely found some great deep stashes of light, blower pow pow.  Not our usual Tahoe cement today for sure!  But also wind, blowing snow, tough visibility, scoured-off aspects, not yet unlimited depth (maybe later in the afternoon), and cold and windy AF, yow!

Wow, we’re so incredibly blessed with an amazing Patrol and Ops team here at Sugar.  I loaded Dis a few minutes after 9.  Was on Lincoln and at the top of the mountain before midday.   Other unmentioned unofficial folks struggled to get a little bit up their lower mountains.

Hopefully I-80 is open and I can get there Friday.  Saturday is going to be prime.  All the lollipops should flip to green!

Get after it!

DC

All the sastrugi blanketing the off-piste has been erased.  Sunday storm skiing for the win!

Sastrugi?  What were those?  New vocabulary word for me this year too.  The weird wind-scallops that have been everywhere off-piste the last couple weeks.  The storm has fixed all that and left us with a normal ol’ pow blanketing everywhere.

See you Monday for some sunny Silver Belt, Sisters and J-Bowl action!

Yay!  A legit bluebird day Thursday before the winds came and moved it all over the place.  Note to the official SB reporters, “bluebird” isn’t just every beautiful sunny day, it requires both sun AND fresh pow.  😉

And wow, I was not prepared for the crowds this weekend.  Rolled in at a leisurely 10am and the lots were full, had to park on the Judah access road.  Still, it was a short walk, and while there was a zoo of people everywhere, the lines were never more than a few minutes.  I heard at some point they were turning people away, which seemed strange since the Judah overflow lot wasn’t used.  When I came back to play with Reese early afternoon , it was easy to move to a closer spot in the upper Judah lot.  Props to Sugar for for not overselling like some Other Mountains.  Heard horror stories of closed lots, gridlocked traffic and huge lines.

Speaking of the busy weekend,  I have a couple posts brewing soon that are a little bit of a departure from just telling y’all how much of a blast I’m having getting after it.

And, looking ahead, for a hot minute there were ten suns in the forecast, but there’s already some snow headed our way.  Nothing huge yet, but it’s nice to see the things are staying active and not setting up for an extended Juneuary like last year.

We’ve been getting some great, empty storm-skiing days for sure.  I was blacked out for the weekend and back for great conditions Monday.  Got super lucky with my timing and hit South Dis and Crow’s when the gates flipped and laid down some fresh tracks top to bottom.  Yum.

Big change to the weather pattern starting today.  Time to get to work on your goggle tan.

Today felt more like a “normal” wind-affected pow day than earlier in the week.  Weird wind lips and ice?  All gone.  Just some normal wind-packed pow contoured in the places you expect.  Nicer in the sheltered aspects where you could find it.  Great fresh laps in Crow’s today for me.  Had Mistake Meadow all to myself!

It keeps snowing and the forecast keeps sending more our way.  What a great early season!

Woah.  Let’s be honest, that was one of the weirdest, most variable pow days I’ve ridden in the decade plus I’ve had the honor of riding here at Sugar.

Weird wind-scalloped, wind affected snow?  Check.  Scoured-off, icy aspects with no warning?  Check.  Giant wind lips and cornices in places you’ve never seen them before?  Check.  Avy chowder of all sizes?  Oh yeah.  Actual pow turns?  Yup, check, but it took a few runs to find some nice, sheltered turns in the trees halfway down the mountain.

I’m a life-long, confident skier and Sugar definitely kicked my ass and threw me a bit today.  Saw more than my fair share of egos hurt and bruises, myself included.

Wouldn’t be anywhere else though, of course.  See you tomorrow.  🙂

Happy new year!  New Year’s Day looked to be a beautiful bluebird day for sure.  I came THIS close to buying a day ticket, especially since this season you can use your half-off tickets on yourself.  Brings this price down from ridiculous to merely expensive.  But in the end I decided to let the tourists enjoy it, dig out leisurely and take Reese Dawg out to play in the snow with his friends.  Looks like despite some crazy operational challenges (flooding?!  holy s***!), Sugar still managed to open Disney by mid-day.  Hope it was great all!

Instead I’ll be returning today with the rest of the Slightly Insane Restricted locals.  So great to be back!  See you out there friends!

P.S. The forecast is looking pretty big as well, wow.