By Ellen Garrison, Sacramento Bee

Sitting around tables in a science classroom, wrestling with chemistry equations, Sugar Bowl Academy students look like your typical high school students – except for the distinctive goggle tans on their faces.

Skiing every day, snow or shine, will do that to you. The private high school, nestled in the Sugar Bowl Village at the base of Donner Summit outside of Truckee, caters to competitive skiers in grades eight through 12, aiming to give them a complete education while they do what they love to do – ski.

Classes, in all the traditional high school subjects such as physics and American literature, are arranged around a rigorous practice schedule on Sugar Bowl’s slopes – for alpine, Nordic and freeride skiers – and a grueling travel schedule to competitions nationally and abroad.

Sugar Bowl Academy is the only school in California to focus its sports program entirely on skiing, though other schools, like North Tahoe High School, offer flexible class schedules to make competing easier for high school athletes. There are about 20 similar ski academies across the U.S. in Colorado, Idaho, Utah and on the East Coast.

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