Sugar Bowl
Saturday 31 March 2007

Weather

Conditions

Story of the Day

We debated whether to ski on the last day of our trip and in the end decided to go back to Sugar Bowl on our way back to San Francisco.

This was not the best day of skiing we had all week, but was a reasonable way to finish. We enjoyed most of the runs we did but were not sorry to be on our way home when we finished.

We left our hotel at 6:30am aiming to get to Sugar Bowl at around 8am in time to get breakfast. We expected the resort to be almost deserted when we arrived, but were very wrong. We had a long walk from the car and the lodge was full of youngsters who had arrived from all around for racing. So, there was a queue for breakfast and it was difficult to find a table to sit at.

It did mean that the lifts opened a little early, so we were skiing by 8:45am.

We had to rent skis, so our plan was to take one run from Jerome Hill back to the base to test out Chris' boots before crossing to areas which had better early morning sun. Part way down Broken Axle my hat flew off. I stopped and decided that the hat was not worth hiking uphill for. We did the run again and it seemed that everyone else shared my opinion of the hat - it was still sitting in the middle of the trail.

08:44 Mt. Lincoln from the top of Jerome Hill	08:44 Pioneer Trail
08:45 View across towards Soda Springs	08:45 Chris at the top of Jerome Hill

Finally, we were able to take Sidewinder through the trees and ski down to the bottom of Mt. Lincoln chair. Last week we started on Mt. Disney. Today we decided to start on Mt. Lincoln, the highest point on the resort, with great views in all directions.

In all we did four runs from Mt. Disney, starting with Crowley's Run along the ridge skiing towards Donner Lake, then taking Hellman's Chute, the most direct way down the mountain and then turning right from the top of the lift and taking Rahlve's Run.

By the time we repeated Crowley's Run the snow was already cutting up and softening and the Barricades of Boarders was beginning to form.

09:01 Looking down Sidewinder	09:11 Crowley's Run
09:11 Chris at the top of Crowley's Run	09:33 The top of Rahlve's Run
09:33 Judah lodge from the top of Mt. Lincoln	09:33 Looking down Rahlve's Run
09:46 Barricade of boarders at the top of Crowley's Run

Moving across to Mt. Disney was not a good move. As we got to the bottom of the lift we had to get round lots of the racing kids, who didn't seem to know whether they were getting on the lift or not, and who left skis lying all over the place on the approach to the lift. There was a sign at the bottom saying "No Easy Way Down".

At the top we realised why. Most of the runs on Mt. Disney were closed for the racing, leaving 2 "groomed" trails and the face of moguls on the other side of the mountain. We started with what should have been the easier of the two groomed trails, Pony Express.

This was an extremely unpleasant run, which had been groomed the previous afternoon and then left to freeze with large ruts running down the slope to catch the skis of the unwary as they tried to turn.

Donald Duck was a little better, but the run out was still heavily rutted. One more run and we had seen enough and decided to stop for coffee (actually a cold drink because of the hot weather) and then return to Mt. Lincoln.

09:59 Rock solid runs on the groomed Pony Express	10:16 Racing on Christmas Tree
10:16 Looking towards Mt. Lincoln from Disney Express	10:39 The view from the Lodge at the Village

We headed back to Mt. Lincoln, via Nob Hill, and two pretty good runs, one down Crowley's Run on the ridge and the second down Hellman's Chute. The bottom of the run was getting very sticky, so we decided to stop while we were still enjoying it. First attempt to cross towards Judah Base, I missed the run, so we had to take one further ride on Christmas Tree to try again.

For my final run of the week I took Donner's Way the short face of moguls avoiding the long roundabout cat-track (which Chris took). We both survived the run and finished around 11:30 and headed down towards San Francisco, stopping at a MacDonalds in Auburn for lunch and to get changed.

10:47 Racing on Christmas Tree	10:47 Racing on Christmas Tree
10:47 Racing on Christmas Tree	10:58 Donner Lake
10:58 Chris starting down Crowley's Run	11:06 The Palisades from Mt. Lincoln lift
11:06 Mr. Disney from Mt. Lincoln lift	11:06 The Palisades from Mt. Lincoln lift
11:07 Moguls on Silver Bell	11:08 Upper Silver Bell
11:09 Rock face under Mt. Lincoln lift	11:09 Rock face under Mt. Lincoln lift
11:18 Racing under Christmas Tree	11:20 Racing under Christmas Tree

We had quite a long time before out flight. After lunch we stopped at Fry's in Sacramento and then diverted through the wine country to avoid a major accident on I-80 in Berkeley. We still had time to spend an hour walking around Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco.

17:00 Sealions at Pier 39 San Francisco	17:00 Sealions at Pier 39
17:04 Sealions at Pier 39	17:04 Sealions at Pier 39
17:05 Seagulls	17:07 Alcatraz
17:07 Alameda/Oakland Ferry	17:07 Golden Gate Bridge
17:08 Sealions at Pier 39	17:09 San Francisco Bay Bridge
17:16 Forbes Island	17:16 Chris on Pier 39
17:39 Fisherman's Wharf	17:39 Coit Tower
17:39 San Francisco Financial district

Runs

Last updated: 2nd April 2007