I started the 2024-25 ski season yesterday with a lovely tour to a new area, the backcountry just out of bounds near Sugar Bowl resort. After parking at the Donner Summit information area around 9am, I began my climb up the ridge towards Mt Judah. Nice views of the resort and Castle peak back across 90 along the way.
After an hour or so of travel I attained the main ridge and took stock of the area. A skier I met on the way up said that the east facing aspects had good snow, so I traveled a bit further and found the obvious bowls on the East side of the Judah ridge. He was right - it was perfect 4-6 inches of soft sugary dry snow.
Transitioned at the bottom of the bowl and headed back up to the ridge for another run. I traveled a bit further to the Judah summit, but ended up skiing the same face.
From the bottom I started my journey back to the car, skinning up to the Judah shoulder before transitioning. A bit of a route finding mistake here as I ended up too far North and had to put skins on to climb back up before descending back to my start point. 3 hours and 2,000 feet or so of vert, a great start to the season!