Conditions Report
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Sugar Ski Resort located on the summit of Donner Pass, CA has measured 536″ of snowfall on the upper mountain for the season. Yes, that is over 46 FEET (13 meters) of snow!
On Monday, February 6th, 2017 Bevan Waite and I braved some stormy conditions to see all the snow with our own eyes. Given that most of the resorts around Lake Tahoe were closed for the day, Sugar Bowl ended up being the right call in order to make some turns. Unfortunately, extremely high winds shut down the chairs to the summit but we definitely were able to make the best of it.
We began our day lapping the Christmas Tree lift waiting for a report on the opening of Lincoln Express but by 10am, the resort decided to shut it for the day. Our last hope of ridgeline skiing was left to opening of Mt. Disney but at around 11am, the lift closed for the day. However, we ended up skiing Jerome Express and had tons of fun lapping the terrain around Central Pacific & Steamers. The wind was blowing into these areas and provided a windbuff reset on each and every lap. After a brief break to dry out our gear, we finished the day taking some photos in the woods and then headed straight to the bar…for a hot cocoa and a low calorie beer.
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After a few days of rain, 2 feet of snow fell by the morning February 10th, 2017…
The forecast shows some sunny weather and for a chance to dry out…
Sugar Bowl – one of the snowiest places on Earth at the moment…
Report: February 6th, 2017
Driving through Norden, it was readily apparent that it has been snowy…
Sometimes buildings are engulfed by snowfall…
The road to the gondola was a bit narrow due to the massive snowbanks…
At the Village of Sugar Bowl, the snow was falling pretty consistently…
The wind was howling and the upper lifts were not running…
Bevan was so incredibly stoked to ski it was sickening…
Matt from Grass Valley makes a turn for the Snowbrains crew…
We lapped the opposite side of the ridge and scored perfect windbuff on each and every lap…
Bevan drops a knee and lets the skis do all the work…
Did I mention that only a few people braved the weather to ski?
An insane tech-nerd from San Francisco even made an appearance…
Being in no rush, we traversed out from Jerome Express to score a few untracked turns…
The snow wasn’t Utah light, but it was smooth nonetheless…
Looking uphill was a bit eerie during the storm…
Yep, I’m claiming the best turn of the day…
After drying out the gear during lunch, we still continued to ski until 2:30pm…
We took a few laps exploring a few pitches in the Graydon Glades…
Sugar Bowl – Where there is just an insane amount of snow…and its only early February.
Bevan was satisfied on the day of riding, but probably because I was there to keep him company…
The snow continued to fall on the drive out…
And of course…the infamous video of the best video game meme of all time:
