Sugar Bowl Resort
Donner Summit (Norden) · near Truckee / Norden · Sierra Nevada / Yosemite
Skiing & Snowboarding
At a glance
- Pass
- independent
- Vertical
- 1500
- Size
- 1,650 acres
- Season
- Mid-November–late April · Donner Summit position catches heaviest Sierra Nevada storms
What is here
- Best for
- Bay Area Day Trips · Storm Skiing · Old-School Character · Independent Resort
Worth knowing
- Good for a first timer
- No
Skiing & Snowboarding detail
- Summit
- 8383
- Lifts
- 13
- Avg snowfall
- 500+ inches
- Night skiing
- No
- Terrain park
- Yes
- Ski school
- Yes
- On mountain lodging
- Yes
- Signature runs
- Disney (North Bowl) · Mt. Lincoln Chutes · Jerome Hill
- Intl tip
- Donner Memorial State Park and the Donner Lake area (where the infamous Donner Party wintered in 1846-47) are immediately adjacent to Sugar Bowl's access road. The historic tragedy is marked by the state park, and the Donner Summit's position as the critical mountain crossing of Interstate 80 (and before it, the transcontinental railroad) gives the skiing backdrop genuine historical weight. Truckee (15 minutes east) is the après destination.
The guide
Walt Disney was one of Sugar Bowl's founding investors in 1939 — and the mountain has maintained its character through eight de…
In the Guidebook
Everything above is yours for free. The written guide to Sugar Bowl Resort — what it is actually like, and what we would tell a friend before they went — comes with the Guidebook.
Getting there
- Coordinates
- 39.3073, -120.344