Category: Sugar Bowl

On a sleeper Thursday morning,  for the first time since 2019, the Palisades opened!!

A couple weeks back I recall a stranger on the chair wondering if the Palisades could open “without Darren Rahlves leading the charge”.  Haha!  OF COURSE our patrol can open the Palisades!

Not too many folks on the mountain but Team Unoff was representing!   I’ve dropped Middle Palisade and West Palisade before, but First Palisade was new for me.

And just like that, the next storm moved in Thursday afternoon, visibility went in the toilet and the magical morning was over.   I don’t know what the state of things will be post-cement, but I’d bet this wasn’t a one-and-done situation.  The Palisades will hopefully be open again this amazing season…

Managed to arrive just as Dis opened.  What do you know, we can get snow without insane wind transport.. who knew?!  Every line in Dis was lovely, gates opened early, lapped freshies in South Dis while too many people waited in line at Lincoln… wow!

Ran into a highly branded Mr. OpenSnow on skis at Hard Drinkin’ Lincoln just as it opened.   Guessing it was CEO Joel Gratz, as our local homey BA is a boarder.   😉

Also managed to run into most of the Unofficial Ski Team during the rest of the epic afternoon.. Finn definitely launched it big in Steielhang!  I got freshies down  Carl’s Nose & Coinslot (formerly cliff) rollover, hell yeah!  ’58s with Will & A, Fourth Sister with Christa & Mean Dean.  F**** yeah!

Rare pic from second sister cave 1.45ish as it started to dump again

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

Or, as BA over at Opensnow put it, “The Mid-Winter Lull is Over”.  Time to bundle up and crush some pow!

Today was beautiful and sunny with spring-like conditions. A classic Tahoe Juneuary day, and our last one of the year. Next time we have a nice sunny day it’ll be real spring!  I thought things would be over-the-top busy but it was way emptier than I thought.  No road/tubing/overflow parking even.

I was lucky enough to find some friends and explore a new (to me) backcountry zone off the back of Crow’s.  I’m pleased to report the corn harvest was successful! Creamy and perfect. Thanks Mean Dean, Christa, Kern and posse!

And I found some bonus spelunkers in Dis cave.  😉

Hype is in full effect, storms are coming in next week!

Let’s have a quick talk about the best sites where you can obsess about the weather.

Number one these days is of course our good friend KCASODAS9, the Soda Springs point forecast.  In addition to counting the feet I also like to check on the daily graphs for temperature and wind to help me plan my layers and whether Reese needs his coat, hehe.

The good ol’ Tahoe Daily Snow is also worth a read if you’re willing to pony up a few bucks for a subscription.   Unfortunately, these days you can’t even read the daily snow without subscribing.  I enjoy BA’s prose and how stoked he gets about storms, though I admit the super geeky weather model discussion is mostly beyond me.

And last but not least, shout out to the Sierra Avalanche Center!  Always check their daily advisory before heading out the boundary.

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!