March 2, 1015 Sugar Bowl, Lake Tahoe, California

Saw that 27" hit Sugar Bowl between Friday and Saturday and decided to take skis along on a short family visit. Monday another 3" came down up top so I was stoked for the refresh. Got up to the area at 9am on Tuesday and paid $35 each for a two ride lift ticket. We started by skiing into a nice little bowl south of 8300' Mount Lincoln. There was about a foot of light fluff on top of grass and rocks but if you did it just right you didn't hit anything. As we got further down the coverage was fine. Ridge lines were off limits for skiing, but were fine for skinning back up. I didn't have much time so a humped it up Mount Judah in hopes of skiing the back side towards Donner Lake. It looked really good, but it would have taken too long, so I decided to ski the sunny side back into the ski area. The top was extremely shallow coverage but by just wiggling a flat ski I only hit bottom once. By the time  I got down the ridge a short ways, it got really nice and continued all the way to the flats. I made it down by 1pm and hightailed to see relatives again. I used to ski Sugar Bowl as a teenager when I was growing up in Sacramento. It was great to see it again. The new Judah and Summit Chairs were not open or my ridge would have been skied out. I'm still pretty surprised I got fresh tracks on it. I think a lot of those Californians must have given up.....It was a nice thousand feet of fresh turns!

The avy report called for pockets of Moderate Danger but where we were skiing it was below threshold. The east face of Judah could have been a danger. Long distance travel and skiing would have been difficult as sun exposed slopes and ridge lines were very shallow. Just like us - they need more snow.