Day 100

I was going to be exceedingly stoked with 90+ days on the slopes for the season… But when Sugar Bowl closed early last Sunday it happened to be day 99 for me, and I couldn’t resist the opportunity to make it to 100. It hadn’t been a great year for the snowpack (red line below shows this season compared to the last 50+ years), but even with below average precipitation we had some ripper pow days and I was pretty impressed the resort managed to stay open into April. The north-facing aspect of the Sugar Bowl steeps helped keep what snow we had out of the sun… Day 100 for me was actually spent at Squaw Valley: with the funitel able to take skiers from the (dirt covered) base to mid-mountain, Squaw is typically able to stay open later into the season than mountains like Sugar Bowl (which needs snow at 6800 feet instead of Squaw’s mid-mountain elevation of 8000). It was bittersweet not spending my last day on skis at Sugar Bowl, but beggars can’t be choosers!

It was fun lapping the groomers off Siberia and Shirley Lake to round out the season at Squaw, some quintessential spring snow as the sun softened things up throughout the morning. Also pretty cool to look across and find I was sharing a chairlift with local olympian Lila Lapanja. I chatted with her about how much we loved visiting Slovenia back in 2021 (she competes for Slovenia in international races even though she’s born and bred at Diamond Peak), and she was noting how much respect she has for the program at Sugar Bowl Academy (she trained at the academy just like Maxie). She competes as a slalom skier but on Monday she had her GS kit with her, pretty awesome to see her absolutely scorching the morning corduroy at mach 10 before it softened. Some serious power in those legs.

The atmosphere at Sugar Bowl was pure party to close things out this last weekend, with a Sunday easter egg hunt, keg hunt, live music and a lot of costumes on the slopes. I saw a everything from a bottle of ketchup to a gopher, a turtle, a mouse… I even saw a Jolly Rancher boost a cliff underneath Lincoln chairlift! The resort also put on a show on Saturday: beanie drops, apparel giveaways, more live music, and champagne and cocktails to celebrate the last weekend of running the gondola (which had been operating since 1953 and was the first gondola installed on the US west coast).

Maxie approved me hanging with him and his weekend squad for an hour or two to close out his last day on the slopes on Sunday. It was a hoot lapping the steeps of Silver Belt with Alex, Max and Coach Tori for the afternoon and attempting some of the kickers the Silver Belt competitors had left in place from the comp the day prior. Speaking of which: watching the pros and some of the local Academy athletes compete on Saturday was really quite memorable, their ability to nail amazing aerial maneuvers off all the natural features just boggles the mind. Recent Olympic bronze medalist Luca Harrington’s winning run was really a sight to behold (although local SBA athlete Anders Leckie deserves a special mention for two of the biggest laid out backflips I’d ever seen in a freeride comp). Max, Alex and Coach Tori really did form a special bond this season so it was a bit of an emotional rollercoaster on Sunday for Wild Man as things wound up, but that didn’t prevent us from making our last Sunday pilgrimage to RMU for burgers with a crew of eight (Coach Tori and Baby Tilly included!).

Much to Max’s chagrin, his last week of winter quarter at Sugar Bowl Academy was without any skiing. Long days at the office – 8:00 until 4:45 – but it did incorporate a lot of athletic training to break up time in the classroom. The head alpine coaches Branko and Chris put them through hours of both strength and stamina workouts each day, by the end of the week Maxie was hobbling around like an old man. Yesterday morning it took him almost a full minute to make his way down the stairs before school and he couldn’t lift his arms above his shoulders from all the weight workouts. I think it gave Wild Man a new appreciation of the physical form required to compete at an elite level, fingers crossed this new appreciation will mean a little less resistance to prepping his body for next season come autumn!

Spending all winter at Powder Haus was such a memorable experience for the two of us, although we did have to tackle a few days without power during the Christmas storm, and then a week without water at the end of February. My big concern going into the season was that we’d run out of wood for heat, but we actually only ended up burning through a third of our stash. Our gear also held up well, I think my favorite addition to my kit was a set of three quarter merino baselayer pants from Flylow (where had they been all my life?!). And I’m pretty sure Max’s favorite addition to his gear closet was his Flylow gloves (amazing how much ski fashion has infiltrated our household now that he’s skiing with all the freeride cool kids…).

And that’s about all she wrote for the 2025/2026 season… What an experience! To be honest, I’m impressed at how my old bones held up with 100 days on skis. I do have a bit of an aggravated Achilles on my right heel that’s due for a rest, but otherwise I scraped through without any major mishaps. Maxie missed five days on the slopes: three as a result of a knee hyperextension while he was practicing threes in the park, and two to rest his knees after three weeks on hard pack in late January. Given the risks he takes on the slopes I’m glad we made it through with only minor injuries and a single concussion (April 4). So many good memories of the season, and so many new friends from our four months up here this winter. One of Lisa’s and my hopes for the season was that Maxie would find “his people” up here: buddies who can keep up with him on skis and mountain bikes, and who enjoy the same things he digs in his spare time. It was a huge success on that front, we’re definitely looking forward to connecting with quite a few of them this summer.

For our last night I opened it up to Wild Man, anything his heart desired. His response: a walk down to For Real Dough Pizza for dinner followed by a drive back up to the top of the pass for a slice of Janet Tuttle’s famous pies at Donner Ski Ranch. I was happy to oblige…