Sugar Bowl Academy, Executive Director & Head of School

Built by Pioneers. Still Pioneering. Innovation has shaped Sugar Bowl from the beginning. Founded in 1939 by Austrian ski champion Hannes Schroll—with Walt Disney among its original investors—Sugar Bowl helped establish skiing in the American West. The resort installed California's first chairlift in its opening season, introduced the West Coast's first aerial gondola in 1953, and remains one of California's original, proudly independent ski resorts.

Built by Pioneers. Still Pioneering. Innovation has shaped Sugar Bowl from the beginning. Founded in 1939 by Austrian ski champion Hannes Schroll—with Walt Disney among its original investors—Sugar Bowl helped establish skiing in the American West. The resort installed California's first chairlift in its opening season, introduced the West Coast's first aerial gondola in 1953, and remains one of California's original, proudly independent ski resorts.

Today, Sugar Bowl encompasses four peaks of storied Sierra terrain above Donner Summit, in a region with one of the richest ski histories in America. That pioneering tradition continues with a new eight-passenger Village Gondola, the centerpiece of a $100 million resort revitalization and the largest investment in Sugar Bowl's history, targeted to open in December 2026.

The organization now known as Sugar Bowl Academy and Sugar Bowl Ski Team was incorporated as the Sugar Bowl Ski Team Foundation in 1992 by Sugar Bowl Village resident Sheldon Ramsey.

In 1999, Board Chair and former U.S. Ski Team member Dr. Patricia Hellman Gibbs founded Sugar Bowl Academy as a program of the Foundation, working alongside key staff members including former U.S. Ski Team member Jim Hudson and Academic Program Director Barbara Sorba. Inspired in part by her own experience at Stratton Mountain School—co-founded by her father, Warren Hellman—Dr. Gibbs envisioned a place in the West where young people could pursue their love of skiing without sacrificing a high-quality education.

More than 25 years later, that vision remains at the heart of Sugar Bowl Academy: a place built for young people ready to pursue excellence, develop character, and grow through the demands and rewards of mountain life.

• 10 Alumni named to Olympic teams across the past three Winter Games
• 8 Alumni representing four countries named to the 2022 Beijing Olympic teams—an Academy record
• 5 Alumni competing at the 2026 Milano Cortina Winter Games:
  Troy Chang (Chinese Taipei), JC Schoonmaker (USA), Alice Robinson (New Zealand), Gustav Legnavsky (New Zealand), and Nikhil Alleyne, (Trinidad and Tobago)
• 1964 Sugar Bowl's Olympic lineage takes root as Starr Walton, granddaughter of Sugar Bowl developer Jerome Hill, competes in downhill at the Innsbruck Winter Games
• 2030 Freeride makes its Olympic debut at the French Alps Winter Games and Sugar Bowl Academy already counts 2020 Freeride World Tour Champion Isaac Freeland among its alumni
• FWT A steady line of Academy alumni has competed on the Freeride World Tour, including Board member Xander Guldman

Behind every result is an exceptional coaching staff that includes former U.S. Ski & Snowboard Team athletes, World Cup competitors, national-team coaches, and X Games athletes.

At Sugar Bowl Academy, student-athletes never have to choose between pursuing ambitious goals on snow and receiving an exceptional education.

Set atop Donner Summit in California's Sierra Nevada, Sugar Bowl Academy is one of North America's premier mountain academies. Here, an accredited college-preparatory education and elite snow sport development advance together, every day.

Our graduates compete on Olympic and professional stages, attend leading…