Woo! The best park at Sugar is now open!
Beacon park is located at the bottom of Overland. You need a beacon to play. 😉
Beacon park is open!
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!
Eighth annual closing day cave party!
In celebration of this season’s historic 792 inches, please join the Unofficial Sugar Bowl Ski Team for our eighth annual closing day cave party!
Disco Cat, DJ Mister Will and DJ Foxy 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 30th
Where: Disney cave
Directions: Disney cave is located between Eagle and Avalanche. Take the spine toward Disney Nose… there will be a sign for Eagle dropping to skier’s left, take it. Then ski underneath (downhill side) the giant rock on skier’s right. Alternately, you can take Donald Duck about halfway down and then do a traverse to skier’s right, aiming for the downhill (left) side of the giant rock.
Safety third: Please do not drop cave line (from the top), go around the side.
Happy Birthday Reese Dawg!
Those of you who park in the upper Judah lot almost certainly have met this sweet black guy. Well, if you seem him today, give him extra pets, because this handsome man turns 12 today!
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.
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?
So here we are…
(Today’s song pairing: Nightmares on Wax – So here we are)
False spring, sleeper pow days, Palisades reopening (and staying open!), Peak Snow, real spring, Team Unoff representing at the Uphiller & Banked Slalom (Disco on the same gear for both, hehe)… just wow.
Oh! And Old 40 reopened yesterday. I missed you, Old 40!
View from the top of West Palisade on reopening day:
Just starting to see the top of the trail maps peek out again at Dis and Tree… hard to believe there’s less than two weeks of lift-served skiing left. Corn harvest is a go!
Closing day cave party will be on Sunday the 30th!
Palisades
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…
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
In like a Leopard
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.