A gondola flyby…

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?!

Remembering Reese Dawg, 2011-2026

The most adorable black lab

He was the best.  Love you forever Reese.

Memorial events:

  • Musical celebration (dogs welcome!), Wednesday July 8th, Truckee Regional Park – Lower River BBQ, 6:30pm
  • Vegetarian Shiva, Thursday July 9th, Pour House Truckee, 5pm
  • Mountaintop ashes scattering and full moon party (dogs welcome!), Saturday August 1st, contact for location

T-86 days..?!

Oops, I got a little over-stoked.

Aaaanyway… if last year’s opening day is the new normal, we’ll be back at the Bowl in less than three months!  It’s been a fun summer, but I’m ready to be back on snow for sure.

Welcome home

It’s been a minute since Sugar opened with just a thin white road or two off Jerome.  Someone on the chair said 2017.. sounds right?  In any case, I was super happy to make any turns at all.  Reese met some friends to play with, the sun came out in the afternoon, it’s great to be back on snow.

Hoping for something in the forecast soon…

Bonus Season!

In which the Unofficial Sugar Bowl Ski Team visits those Other Mountains, sporting our helmet ears and rocking beats.

I’m pretty sure we ran into the other team Unoff at Sherwood last week, we definitely made turns and traded stickers with Team Tie Dye, and I was super thrilled to run into all you Sugar peeps out there too!

Shop (like a) local: Donner Summit Avalanche Dogs

Should we talk about Disco running into our new CEO at the Belt Room? Last pow day of the year? The corn harvest?

Nope, not today! Today we’re going to remind you to support our patrol’s Avy Dogs!  Get your merch from patrol at the top of Disney.

Avy Dog merch for sale!
T-shirts and more!

In addition to a bunch of T-shirt designs (my favorite is the black one with the dynamite!), there’s also goggle covers, hats, and buffs with each of our adorable patrol dogs.  Are you on Team Buster, Team Nova or Team Graupel?

Mondays

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

Picture of Second Sister at Sugar Bowl, California
View from Second Sister Cave!

Last day of Juneuary!

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 train incoming! And, how to watch the weather

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.