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, Hollywood celebrities and average folks often mingled together on the slopes at Sugar Bowl.
The cozy resort, which is celebrating its 77th birthday this year, is located three miles off Interstate 80 near the Donner Summit and features steep chutes, open bowls and four striking peaks.
Sugar Bowl has one of the longest and most magical ski histories in California. Its beginning starts with Australian Hans Schroll, who was chosen to represent Austria in the 1935 U.S. National Downhill Championship. He won that event as well as the slalom and was awarded the Silver Skis Trophy. Schroll enjoyed America and began running the the ski school in Yosemite, where his reputation had spread as an excellent instructor.
An Austrian friend of Schroll’s – Bill Klein – invited him to the Lake Tahoe area in 1937 to look at a piece of property on the market, a location where the base was still solid white (with snow) in July! Steps were then put in motion for building a ski resort on the 700 acres of land and Schroll tapped into his ski school relationships looking for investors. One of them was Walt Disney.
Apparently, Disney’s wisdom wasn’t limited to children’s theme parks. He became an investor at the urging of 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. An interesting side note: Schroll was also known for yodeling and gave voice to Goofy’s mountain calls in The Art of Skiing, which takes place at Sugar Bowl.
Sugar Bowl appealed to investors because its location above Donner Pass was relatively close to San Francisco and Lake Tahoe. A little over a year after first viewing the property, the newly formed Sugar Bowl Corporation purchased the land and began construction on the Bavarian-style lodge. The Disney chairlift was the first chairlift in California when Sugar Bowl Resort opened on December 15, 1939. By January of that year, the resort was considered a success when skiers began arriving by the “trainload.”
The winter playground for many actors when it first opened, Sugar Bowl 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 his favorite pastime, but the rumor mill indicates the athletic, swashbuckling actor was a fairly gifted skier as well.
Walt Disney took a more wholesome approach to his Sugar Bowl visits. He often took ski vacations with his family. Legend has it that one evening Disney filled in as bartender for several hours on a busy night, pouring drinks in 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.
There’s so much history concerning Sugar Bowl that more than a decade 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.
For many years, Sugar Bowl was also home of the Silver Belt, a precursor to the World Cup. The annual race, which has returned thanks to Olympic skier Daron Rahlves, 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 not only erected California’s first chairlift in 1939, but 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, the former director of marketing and sales at Sugar Bowl. “Taking that gondola ride and experiencing the village literally stops people in their tracks.”
Although it has a wonderful history, Sugar Bowl has made considerable progress 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. The resort later built the all-purpose Jerome Creek Lodge, giving Sugar Bowl a modernized facility that includes condominiums for rent, which provides ski-in, ski-out lodging at the base of Mt. Judah.
More overnight stays are possible, but where Sugar Bowl gets much of its business is still the commuter skier/rider who simply arrives for the day. The closest resort on the I-80 corridor, Sugar Bowl features 13 lifts, one gondola, 103 trails, 1,650 skiable acres, 1,500 vertical feet on a summit that rises to 8,383 feet. And its fortunate location in the Sierra range annually gives Sugar Bowl among the highest snow totals in the Tahoe region.
“The classic charm is still here,” said former Sugar Bowl ski team foundation executive director Bill Hudson, who frequently skied Sugar Bowl in his youth. “I don’t think it’s lost that feeling. We’ve updated things, but Sugar Bowl still has that same style people have always loved.”
