For Sugar Bowl Skiers & Riders
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!
I could remind you that the lines this weekend weren’t just tolerable, they were barely there. I could be stoked to tell you that there were more people out representing Team Leopard than I’ve ever seen before (woo!). I could mention that mid-week skiing has been empty, sunny and fun.
But we don’t have time for any of that, because it’s time for a new regular feature highlighting local businesses right here in Tahoe. Whether you’ve been here for decades or you’re just visiting, I hope to introduce local businesses you may not have heard of and should consider patronizing.
What does DIsco ski on when he’s dropping the sisters, breaking trail and touring up to Lunch Rock? Praxis, manufactured right here in North Lake. I’m rocking the MVP 109. For me personally it is the perfect one-quiver Tahoe ski. Groomer day? Check. Pow day? Check. Backcountry day? Check. Light enough to skin with, stable enough to charge groomers, fat enough underfoot for pow days and happy to be playful and surf-y instead of hard-charging when I’m in the mood for that. Folks also love the more big-mountain GPO as well, with its well-known octopus graphics.
We’re blessed here in Tahoe with multiple brands of skis and boards manufacturing locally. We’ll feature some others in future posts. Support local with your next gear purchase!
Dishonorable mention: RMU. Nice bar and patio in downtown Truckee, but their skis aren’t made in Tahoe, the Rockies, or even in North America. That’s not “underground.”
Disclaimer: Not a paid endorsement of any kind, I doubt Keith even knows who I am. Didn’t pay full MSRP for my Praxis pair (got them on sale), but I did pay the same price as any other Jerry off the street would have.
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.
Spring conditions this holiday weekend. Lots of great costumes out on the hill already, good job!
And then storms on the way for the rest of the year… yay!
Well there were tons of people everywhere compared to the early-season emptiness before the weekend, and a packed parking lot… but not a lift line to speak of. Crow’s and Summit opened for the first time this season. I don’t think I’ve ridden Summit in _years_. I thought they only ran it on blackout dates, haha.
One week of lift-served skiing left in 2022 for the slightly restricted crowd. Get out there and enjoy!
Super-special non-cave, non-mountaintop Disco Cat shows! Playing all vinyl sets in support of Tam’s vinyl swap. Come out, listen to some tunes and buy or swap some records.
Incline TODAY, Wednesday the 14th at Alibi Incline @ 4-6pm (possibly later)
and
Truckee SUNDAY the 18th at Alibi Truckee, noon-3pm