The snow finally arrived in time for Christmas for powder-staved Tahoe skiers, but with that snow came some very treacherous driving conditions, and an avalanche that hospitalized two Mammoth Mountain ski patrollers.
We’ve mentioned that there has been very little snow at Tahoe ski resorts this year, so little that the ski resort Sugar Bowl did not even open until today, December 26, the day after Christmas. But after this week’s Christmas storms that rollicked northern California, the Chronicle reports that Tahoe ski resorts got three to five feet of fresh snow powder over this week's holiday, and the resorts are readying for a huge after-Christmas weekend.
One week. That’s all it took.@palisadestahoe has picked up 12+ inches of precipitation and 60+ inches of snow on the upper mountain.
— Colin McCarthy (@US_Stormwatch) December 26, 2025
The greater Tahoe Basin's snowpack has jumped from 18% to 81% of normal in just 8 days.
And total precipitation is now 141% of normal! pic.twitter.com/5jXwDFgDIv
But there is a flip side to this badly needed snow arriving all at once. SFGate reports that driving conditions on I-80 near Donner Pass are incredibly dangerous, while KRON4 notes that two ski patrollers at Mammoth Mountain were hospitalized after being caught in an avalanche Friday morning.
“At approximately 7:30AM (prior to Ski Area operations) on Friday, December 26, Mammoth Mountain Ski Patrol was performing avalanche mitigation work when an avalanche occurred on Lincoln Mountain,” that Mono County resort wrote in a Friday Instagram post. “Two Patrollers were caught in the slide and were immediately transported to Mammoth Hospital. One patroller sustained serious injuries and is being transported out of the area for further care, the second patroller is being evaluated with possible broken bones.”
The resort was closed for the remainder of Friday, though anticipates reopening Saturday morning.
Meanwhile, the weather conditions were so bad on Donner’s Pass that on Christmas Eve, drivers were being turned away. Drivers can now drive through Donner Pass, though as of 3:50 pm Friday afternoon, the California Department of Transportation says that “Chains are required on all vehicles except 4-wheel-drive vehicles with snow tires on all 4 wheels from Kingvale (Placer County) to Truckee (Nevada County).”
Image: Sugar Bowl Resort via Facebook
