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- Sugar Bowl is undergoing a multiyear $100 million renovation to modernize facilities.
- Phase II replaces the 1983 Emerald Gondola with an eight-passenger Doppelmayr gondola.
- Upgrades include redesigned beginner terrain, expanded snowmaking, and an Athlete Zone.
Sugar Bowl, one of California’s oldest ski resorts, is in the middle of what it calls the most transformative makeover in its 87-year history — a multiyear, $100 million capital improvement.
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Resort leaders say the goal is to modernize arrival, learning and training infrastructure — the parts of a ski day that can make or break whether visitors return — while preserving the secluded, time-capsule feel of Sugar Bowl’s snowbound village near Donner Summit off Interstate 80 in the Sierra.
“We’ve completed phase one and have started breaking ground on phase two — and we’ll work hard all summer to deliver uninterrupted service for the 2026-’27 ski season,” the resort said on its resort development overview page.
The signature project in Phase II is the replacement of Sugar Bowl’s Village Gondola, a lift the resort says has defined its front door for decades.
“In 1953, Sugar Bowl’s original Magic Carpet became the first gondola in the western United States and only the second in North America,” the resort said in a construction update posted July 28.
More than 70 years later, the resort is replacing the 1983 Emerald Gondola — a four-passenger system it said had reached the end of its operational life. The new eight-passenger Doppelmayr gondola is slated for a late 2026 opening.
Construction began “the morning after Closing Day on April 6,” the resort said. By late July, four of seven new towers were already standing; the machinery for the highway-side terminal was complete; the village terminal foundations were poured; and the new cabins had arrived.
“Once the concrete footings are complete, tower installation moves remarkably fast,” Erik Shellman, Sugar Bowl’s director of lifts, said in the construction update. “Large tower sections are preassembled onsite then lifted into place by crane using carefully choreographed procedures.”
Doppelmayr site superintendent Hamish Dewar said the work on the highway side remained on schedule.
“We’re on schedule over on the highway side,” Dewar said on Sugar Bowl’s website. “We just finished craning with the 300-ton crane, putting up the bulk of the structural steel, the drive machinery and the enclosure. We’ve now mobilized over to the Village side and are beginning to set the structural steel there.”
Dewar said larger cabins require larger terminals and a wider system.
“To account for the larger gondola cabins, the line gauge has gotten wider,” he said. “We’ll need much bigger terminals, and a bigger building over at the parking lot to accommodate that.”
The new system is intended to keep the sense of adventure intact while expanding access, according to Sugar Bowl CEO Bridget Legnavsky.
“One of the things that makes Sugar Bowl so special is that arriving here has always felt like part of the adventure,” Legnavsky said in the July 28 update. “We wanted to preserve that feeling while making the experience better for everyone. The new gondola stays true to our history, but it’s also fully ADA accessible and built to serve generations of guests well into the future.”
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Phase II also includes a broader main lodge transformation and a rebuilt beginner learning environment — a move resort leaders cast as an investment in future skiers and riders.
“This summer, Sugar Bowl is making one of the biggest investments in that first-day experience in the resort’s history,” the resort said in a July 1 article about its revamped snowsports school.
The plan includes redesigned learning terrain, a relocated beginner magic carpet and a new “snow beach,” aimed at reducing congestion and making arrival and instruction more intuitive for families.
“The whole thing is about making it a better experience,” said Henry Ryerson, Sugar Bowl’s snowsports director. “Not just for learning, but for navigating, for families, for all ability levels. We want to make it easy for you to learn right from the start.”
Ryerson said the terrain itself can be as critical as instruction in helping beginners progress.
“First, it’s confidence,” he said. “Providing the right terrain allows guests to feel safe and progress without unnecessary challenges.”
Elsewhere, Sugar Bowl has been building what it calls the Athlete Zone, combining race venues and terrain parks served by high-speed lifts for quick laps.
A key upgrade this summer is expanded snowmaking. The resort said crews are installing the latest TechnoAlpin TT10 fan guns across parts of the Athlete Zone.
For Sugar Bowl, the projects are being framed as modernization with continuity — making the resort easier to access and navigate, while keeping the place that regulars recognize.
“Every generation has cared for this gondola so the next generation could experience arriving at Sugar Bowl the same way they did,” Legnavsky said. “That’s exactly what we’re doing now.”
Sugar Bowl Resort in Norden operates with a rare local ownership model. About 170 homeowners in the Sugar Bowl Village collectively own the resort and village. The structure traces back to the resort’s early days, and supporters say it helps keep decisions tied to the people who live, ski and invest in the place year after year.
The Sugar Bowl community was a driving force behind financing the project, Legnavsky told the Sacramento Business Journal. The San Francisco-based corporation governing the resort contributed some funding, but most of the $100 million came from the village community.
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