donner pass Archives

Nordic Rescue Team Gets Caught in Avalanche on Rescue Mission in Nevada County, CA

A Nordic rescue team was dispatched from the Donner Pass rest area in California to rescue a backcountry skier who was lost in the high country of Nevada County, northeast of Castle Peak, last Saturday, April 4. According to the Nevada County Sherrif’s Search and Rescue office, the skier had cell signal and placed an emergency call in the afternoon […]

Avalanche

AvyBrains | April 6, 2020

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VIDEO: Some Of Tahoe’s Best Skiers Get Extremely Sendy Over Donner Pass Road

Chris Wallner | April 25, 2017

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All Your Base Are Belong to Us @ Sugar Bowl

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.

Conditions Report

Casey Cane | February 10, 2017

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Tahoe Backcountry Breakdown: 2.5 Feet of Fresh to Heat

Well, we haven’t gotten the big dump that we need yet this year, but the few small storms that have broken through the RRR (ridiculously resilient ridge) have made for some great powder skiing. Last week we finally got a cold storm that dropped up to 2.5 feet of snow in areas and made for awesome conditions in our local backcountry zones. We took advantage of the prime conditions and checked out some of Tahoe’s classic terrain north of the lake. After a patchy approach full of bush whacking, creek crossing, and boulder hopping we were rewarded with some of the best […]

Conditions Report

Keegan Kliman | March 8, 2015

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Slashin’ into the 75th Season @ Sugar Bowl – 12/06/14

The time is finally here…off-trail skiing and celebrating the opening day for Sugar Bowl’s 75th season. Opening day access was through the village via the awesome old school gondola. However, the meat of the skiing was on Mt. Lincoln. With light rain and a thick cloud layer it definitely was not the most ideal day in the weather department but fun prevailed. The terrain included anything from the Rahlve’s Run to Lake View for about halfway down the chair, and at that point, the groomer was the call as the off-trail snow was a wee bit sticky. The top half of Mt. Lincoln was smooth and fast yielding[…]

Conditions Report

Casey Cane | December 9, 2014

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Racing Over the Sierras by Car After the Record Winter of 1911

Our friends at the Sierra Sun has just published a terrific two part article entitled: Conquering Donner Pass by Car. The article highlights a “race” over Donner Summit, CA in 1911 during extremely high snow depths. In the early 1900s, automobiles were new and taking them to the limit was all the rage. A cross-country car race craze had […]