Unofficial Sugar Bowl

Again, 10 days since the previous picture of the highway-side building.

First update: Jan 15th is the most recent opening date soft-announced by Sugar.  That’s the Friday before MLK weekend. I don’t know how aspirational vs. realistic that date is.  These things don’t tend to slip backwards, and weather happens, and that building for sure doesn’t look 60ish-days out from being ready… so I’m a little skeptical of “January or February” now becoming a firm mid-January date.

Second update: The gondola parking lots will be used for overflow parking, with buses to Judah side. I’m guessing this will be on busy weekends/holidays, probably no need otherwise.

Oh, and one more thing: The same day as our last post,  Sugar removed “Completion Target: Nov. 2026” from their gondola page, with no updated target posted publicly.   Coincidence?  Someone at Official Sugar Bowl HQ reading lil’ ol’ us?  We report, you decide.

T minus 20 days…

Exactly 10 days since the previous pictures, the crane is gone, the bones of the building are in place.

Sugar’s site still has the “completion target” as November 2026, and the last communication from them said “late 2026” as I recall.  They’ll probably delay saying anything to the contrary as long as possible to keep selling passes/tickets/lockers.  Seems it will be a bit  harder to keep the charade going after opening day, once everyone from points west drives past the very much incomplete highway-side building.

Okay, onto the hot goss: Sugar’s been telling select folks that the gondola won’t actually operate until “January or February”.  That’s right, that means it won’t be running for Xmas and probably not for MLK weekend either.  If it gets delayed further by, say, a storm or three, it seems likely to miss President’s and ski/skate week too.  After that point, will it even operate this season?

There is no “Plan B” to run the gondola without completing the building.  Village services will cat in homeowners and hotel guests, otherwise all parking and mountain access will be from Judah side.

Seems like it’s going to be a big mess when things get busy.  It’s already been more crowded the last few years, and I doubt Sugar lowered the pass or ticket caps in line with the reduced parking and ingress capacity.  Le sigh.   So, arrive even earlier on busy days and skate over to the Village side, I guess.

T minus 23 days…

The new gondola itself looks mostly complete (other than hanging the cabins).  The building… sure looks like there’s a lot of work left, and about two months out from Xmas.  I wonder if there’s a plan B?

I was just chatting with some of the team the other day, wondering if the new gondola would be ready on time.  As luck would have it, the Donner Summit Historical Society posted a beautiful flyby about a week ago!

Good news, looks like the gondola is complete or nearly there.  Both terminals and all the towers are done, cable’s on but no cabins are hung yet.  Bad news, sure looks like there’s a lot of work remaining on the highway-side building. :/

See you in… 57 days?!

Come out and support the patrol dogs!

Dog Ball 2026 — Sunday August 30th, 1-5pm

Click here for tickets

I’ll have some extra drinks and veggie snacks for those weirdos who don’t like beer and meat 😉

It’s been… a season.  Let’s send it off in style.

In celebration of this season’s 290 319 inches, please join the Unofficial Sugar Bowl Ski Team for the eleventh year of  our annual closing day cave party!

Disco Cat, DJ Foxy, G-Love Gordyceps and DJ Maximus Prime are scheduled to spin tunes for your earballs! Wear a costume, bring some nosh & drink or just your fine-ass self.

When:  Closing day, Sunday, April 5th, 2026

Where:  Disney cave

Directions: Disney cave is located between Eagle and Avalanche.  With minimal coverage this year, the recommended route is to take Donald Duck about halfway down and then do a hard traverse to skier’s right, aiming for the downhill (left) side of the giant rock.

Here I was, going to write a relaxing article about what’s new this season, when our little mountain was suddenly all over the news.

Seems like there was a fire at at the mid-mountain ,lodge Tuesday evening after closing.  No one was inside.  I’m guessing that it will be closed for the season until repairs can be done over the summer?

A restricted re-opening, a power outage yesterday… I’ve sure been waiting to get back on the mountain.

Can’t wait to see you all out there and do something besides Pine laps, haha!