By Jeffrey Weidel
This aging ski resort oozes with charm and history, serving as a museum of sorts. Long before the arrival of quad chairs, shaped skis and terrain parks for snowboarders, Hollywood celebrities and average folks often mingled together on the slopes at Sugar Bowl ski resort near Lake Tahoe.
The cozy resort, which celebrates its 75th birthday this year, is located three miles off Interstate 80 near the Donner Summit and features steep chutes, open bowls and four striking peaks.
The winter playground for many actors when it first opened, Sugar Bowl ski resort frequently welcomed Errol Flynn, who liked to sit on the porch of the popular lodge. He reportedly soaked up the sun while also keeping a close eye on the ladies.
Women often walked by in amazement, finding it difficult to believe the famed Hollywood playboy was in their midst. Girl-watching might have been Flynn’s favorite pastime, but the rumor mill indicates the swashbuckling actor was a fairly gifted skier as well.
Walt Disney took a more wholesome approach to his Sugar Bowl visits. An original investor when the resort opened in 1939, Disney often arrived on a ski vacation with his family.
Legend has it that one evening Walt Disney filled in as bartender for several hours on a busy night, pouring drinks in somewhat anonymity at The Lodge at Sugar Bowl. The amiable Disney was so well liked around Sugar Bowl that the resort named its first lift in his honor.
Apparently Disney’s wisdom wasn’t limited to children’s theme parks. He became an investor at the urging of Austrian Hannes Schroll, a friend who wanted to tailor Sugar Bowl after the famed resorts in Europe. Disney and some of San Francisco’s most affluent people placed their trust in Schroll’s vision.
The Hollywood crowd would often load onto the “Snowball Special” trains for skiing at Mt. Disney and socializing in the newly built Bavarian lodge at its base, where sometimes the guest bartender would be Walt Disney.
The Sugar Bowl Corporation got its start on Oct. 13, 1938, and the ski resort officially opened for skiing on Dec. 15, 1939.
There’s so much history concerning Sugar Bowl that more than 15 years ago local Tahoe ski writer Robert Frohlich produced a book – “Skiing with Style.” It makes for interesting reading, detailing much of the resort’s colorful past.
Frohlich recalls that story telling at the lodge was a favorite evening pastime. So was dancing on the resort’s spacious deck, done in the crisp night air. If a hardy dinner was on the agenda, men had to show up in a suit jacket and women were required to wear a dress. A colorful Italian, named Mariano, enforced the rules during the dinner hour.
Sugar Bowl’s early years were interrupted by World War II as many ski instructors left to join the 87th Infantry Division and subsequently the 10th Mountain Division and the railroad was busy with military transports.
For many years Sugar Bowl was also home of the Silver Belt, a precursor to the World Cup. The annual race would often attract the top European and American skiers, who would vie for the title while San Francisco and Hollywood high-rollers watched and often bet on the event.
Few people probably realize that Sugar Bowl erected California’s first chairlift in 1939 and in 1953 Jerome Hill built the first gondola in the United States. Rebuilt 30 years later, the gondola still incorporates its original wooden building and provides a pleasant, scenic passage into a European-type village that features the friendly ambiance of The Lodge at Sugar Bowl, an historic building that has 27 rooms.
“When people are on the gondola I think they really get a sense of the history here, it’s a definite slice of the past, a 1940-style entry into the village,” said John Monson, Sugar Bowl’s director for marketing and sales. “Taking that gondola ride and experiencing the village literally stops people in their tracks.”
But progress has arrived at Sugar Bowl as well. In 1998, a 20,000 square-foot main lodge at the base of Mt. Judah was added, an addition that came with much-needed slopeside parking. In recent years the all-purpose Jerome Creek Lodge was built, giving Sugar Bowl a modernized facility that includes condominiums for rent, which provides ski-in, ski-out lodging at the base of Mt. Judah.
In 2012, Sugar Bowl ski resort took over management of Royal Gorge, North America’s largest cross-country ski resort, and began updating the resort’s lodge, grooming equipment and operations. The Royal Gorge deal was made possible through a conservation purchase spearheaded by the Truckee Donner Land Trust that protected the property from large-scale real estate development.
Last year Sugar Bowl ski resort unveiled $20 million in improvements to the mountain, including a new ski-in, ski-out Sugar Bowl Academy campus, and a fitness, spa and ski training facility called the Sporthaus.
To celebrate Sugar Bowl ski resort’s 75 years of operation, the resort will be holding a series of events,
For more information on Sugar Bowl, visit www.sugarbowl.com.
