Weather indicated we should do something other than ski on Friday and Saturday April 25-26. So we visited:
Lake Shasta Caverns
Redding's Kool April Nites classic car cruise
Empire Mine State Historic Park
We stayed in Emigrant Gap Saturday night, half an hour west of Sugar Bowl at 5,100 feet. It rained most of Saturday but there were 4 inches of sludgy snow on our car Sunday morning.
Sugar Bowl was almost automatic on our driving itinerary once we found out it was reopening for the April 25-27 weekend because Liz had never been there. But Sugar Bowl also had 11 inches new snow, the most from the weekend storm. After figuring out parking and riding the old transport gondola, we got on the hill about 10AM.
It snowed intermittently during the day and there was a fog patch in the middle of Disney Ridge. We dropped off it twice on each side.
The snow was dense but it buried the prior spring subsurface over most of the mountain. Liz in the powder below Donald Duck:
The Nancy’s Couloir sector probably had the deepest snow.
We moved to the Mt. Judah side, where only the Jerome Hill lift was running. We skied a couple of mellow groomers.
Ungroomed here was shallow so more skiing was on the subsurface.
We finally skied Mt. Lincoln, which had thick fog on its top third of vertical. So most runs started with groomed Lakeview at the top. We ventured into the Roller Pass trees but cut back into Bill Klein’s before the trees closed out.
We returned to Mt. Disney and Nancy’s Couloir which still had some soft turns. Liz called it a day while I battled the Mt. Lincoln fog for 3 more runs. I had to check out the steep Sisters under the lift.
I went through the gate under the lift, then to the chute farthest skier’s left. With the weather cutting down skier traffic, I could make my turns in the new snow and avoid the old surface. Looking back up:
The run continued down Steilhang Gully, followed by some low angle powder.
On my final run I went farther into the Roller Pass trees, had to slog uphill a few times for ultimately a quite short fall line of fresh snow.
But overall this was quite a day for April 27. I skied 17,300 vertical, about 5K of powder. Liz was able to get a good overview and was impressed with the terrain quality. For logistical reasons over the years, this was only my third day at Sugar Bowl.
Lake Shasta Caverns
Redding's Kool April Nites classic car cruise
Empire Mine State Historic Park
We stayed in Emigrant Gap Saturday night, half an hour west of Sugar Bowl at 5,100 feet. It rained most of Saturday but there were 4 inches of sludgy snow on our car Sunday morning.
Sugar Bowl was almost automatic on our driving itinerary once we found out it was reopening for the April 25-27 weekend because Liz had never been there. But Sugar Bowl also had 11 inches new snow, the most from the weekend storm. After figuring out parking and riding the old transport gondola, we got on the hill about 10AM.
It snowed intermittently during the day and there was a fog patch in the middle of Disney Ridge. We dropped off it twice on each side.
The snow was dense but it buried the prior spring subsurface over most of the mountain. Liz in the powder below Donald Duck:
The Nancy’s Couloir sector probably had the deepest snow.
We moved to the Mt. Judah side, where only the Jerome Hill lift was running. We skied a couple of mellow groomers.
Ungroomed here was shallow so more skiing was on the subsurface.
We finally skied Mt. Lincoln, which had thick fog on its top third of vertical. So most runs started with groomed Lakeview at the top. We ventured into the Roller Pass trees but cut back into Bill Klein’s before the trees closed out.
We returned to Mt. Disney and Nancy’s Couloir which still had some soft turns. Liz called it a day while I battled the Mt. Lincoln fog for 3 more runs. I had to check out the steep Sisters under the lift.
I went through the gate under the lift, then to the chute farthest skier’s left. With the weather cutting down skier traffic, I could make my turns in the new snow and avoid the old surface. Looking back up:
The run continued down Steilhang Gully, followed by some low angle powder.
On my final run I went farther into the Roller Pass trees, had to slog uphill a few times for ultimately a quite short fall line of fresh snow.
But overall this was quite a day for April 27. I skied 17,300 vertical, about 5K of powder. Liz was able to get a good overview and was impressed with the terrain quality. For logistical reasons over the years, this was only my third day at Sugar Bowl.