What a difference a day can make!

Day 96! A spectacular day to be on the slopes. Great conditions, warm & sunny and no crowds! The abundant snowfall has made Sugarbowl a much bigger mountain.















Today was a personal victory as I skied the palisades for the first time! Getting this monkey off my todo list was quite welcomed as it has been calling all season. By far the most technical, steep & unforgiving area at Sugarbowl. Typically skiing this area means a drop of 40' or more but given all the recent snow it's possible to navigate the palisades without psycho drop. There is however a nice 10' cornice drop and some of the steepest chutes you will ever see that are required to make the descent. There are sections of the descent that require you to ski down a very steep 75' -100' that are narrower than the length of your skis. This only adds to the quality of the victory lane celebration!

















Avalanche has been a constant threat given the huge amounts of snow we have been getting and the route home has been awfully tempting. I have been monitoring the local avalanche safety site http://www.sierraavalanchecenter.org/today.html and have been heeding their advice. Pictured is an avalanche that occurred today above Hwy 40 near the Lake run home. You can see in the picture where the fracture occurred above the slide and to put things into scale the RxR snow shed is about 20' tall located mid-slope.