This is going to be my first ski season here in the Bay Area (Monterey) and I was planning on making a trip up to the Tahoe area next weekend during the MLK Holidays. I have a choice of discounted tickets to the following places through my local rec center. Alpine Meadows, Bear Valley, Boreal, Heavenly, Kirkwood, Mt. Rose, North Star, Sierra at Tahoe, Squaw Valley, Sugar Bowl, and Mammoth Mountain. I plan on staying in the South Lake Tahoe area.

I have been snowboarding for the past decade or so in the Park City, UT area, and by far my favorite mountain there is Brighton, then The Canyons, and then Solitude. Brighton is a smaller resort full of natural terrain along with access to long, wide boulevard runs off of high speed quads. Line wait time is always under 10 minutes, great snow, great staff, blah blah blah. The Canyons definately has a more corporate feel to it, but it is so huge that you can easily get away from crowds of people with their little kids. Solitude is just like Brighton, only lower in elevation and a little bit steeper overall. It's a great powder day resort. Anyways, here are the links to the trail maps.

Brighton: http://www.skibrighton.com/img/brmap_big.jpg

The Canyons: http://www.thecanyons.com/images2/trailmap_med.jpg

Solitude: http://www.skisolitude.com/trailmap.cfm

So I guess my question would be, which resort out here is most like those that I have been skiing? I have been looking at Kirkwood, but unfortunately I am going to have someone with me that has only skied twice in their life. So I think I am leaning towards uncrowded, long wide boulevard runs off of relatively fast lifts (high speed quads) that mainly serve intermediate runs. I am at a total loss for where to go, because everything out here looks interesting....but I have read some bad stories about crowds here. I could always make the 12 hour drive back to Utah, but I would really rather try out California skiing.

Thanks for the help!

 

kirkwood is the best resort in the tahoe area

 

If you are staying in South Shore and you want: then Heavenly will be your most convenient, but it may be crowded. It is large so depending on where you go on the hill you should be ok. MLK is a busy weekend as many state workers have the day off

If it were me...Kirkwood would be a no brainer. It's a bit further to drive but it worth it. They do have some runs that your friend may be able to enjoy but not the long wide boulevard runs and super fast lifts that you are looking for.

Also, depending the weather it can be harder to get to Squaw, Alpine, and Northstar (north shore resorts) due to the road that goes around the lake (88 i think). Sometimes it's closed due to avalanche or just white out conditions (not a lot, just sometimes). So Heavenly, Kirkwood, Sierra at Tahoe may be your only options and they are the cloest to South Shore.

 

I've never been to any north shore resorts, but I can give advice onsSouth shore resorts.

Kirkwood is definitely a good choice. I haven't been there in quite a long time. I don't remember how good it will be for beginners, though. Sierra at Tahoe is also a very good choice (my personal favorite), I learned to to ski and snowboard there. There is a nice bunny slope and some other wide easy runs (Sugar'n'spice) that has some blue square shortcuts (in case you get momentarily bored with babysitting your companion). Also, if you are from the "Push them onto a steep slope and they'll learn very quick" school of teaching, there are some fairly easy blue diamonds at Sierra (like the outskirts of the west bowl).

I'd stay away from Heavenly. Its always too crowded there for my taste. There are some good easy, wide runs (although I think they rate their runs harder then they really are). But so many people it gets annoying at times.

I'm sure someone will chime in with thoughts on some north shore resorts.

EDIT: Yeah, listen to lowball, Kirkwood might be the way to go. If you don't want quite as much of a drive, though, try Sierra.

 

Im chiming in to say Kirkwood also, especially if you're at South Shore. The drive has never taken me longer than 30-45 minutes from South Shore to Kirkwood, I dig the snow, and I don't think I've ever been in a lift line longer than 5 minutes. I also think they have plenty of newbie - moderate runs at Kirkwood.

Sierra works as well usually for South Shore.

 

Well based off of what you guys have said so far I think I am still leaning towards Kirkwood, and narrowed the rest of the list down to Sierra at Tahoe. I guess I will just have to see what other opinions people may offer.

 

If you go to S@T be aware that they are not as large as Heavenly and you will have large lines and a bunch of people on the runs. S@T offers a dual pass with NorthStar and they see a lot of weekend traffic. I would say Heavenly or Kirkwood, and you will be much happier then @ S@T. Yes the lines may be long at Heavenly too, but it's a larger resort with longer runs.

 

Well if you are looking for steeps, there are only a few places that offer true steeps: Kirkwood is fun but the wind often comes up and creats some probs. Squaw Valley has the best as far as technical descents and a good park area, beware of the crowds however. Alpine has some really good terrain as well, and if you like to hike to find the deeps, nothing beats the sun bowls on the back side. Where ever you choose you should get great snow.


Have fun.

 

Its hard to compare Ca to UT just 'cause our snow pretty much sux compared to good snow in the rockies, however we get a lot more of it so quantity sometimes almost makes up for the lack of quality.

It's also hard to say any resort is like another- they all have their own characteristics and vibe.

Brighton rocks as a snowboard venue, I'm not sure there's anything here that has as varied a terrain and all, but Kirkwood is going to come closest.
The Canyons is a really fun place too, and I have logged over 40,000 feet of vertical in one day at Solitude, I think Utah is worth the drive back out at least once a season if you can swing it

Heavenly is good for South lake convenience, but I feel it is highly overrated from a riders perspective, yeah there's some nice views of the lake, good cruisers on the NV side and Motts Canyon has some nice steeps, but for the price and crowds, I prefer just about anywhere else.

Sierra at Tahoe is a fun mountain, not huge, but in contrast to all of Heavenly's hype, S@T has to rate as one of the underrated sweet spots amongst the Tahoe resorts, a little bit more varied terrain than NS, and a lot closer to South Lake.

Mammoth pretty much rules California in terms of mountain/terrain, snow scenery (unless you are really fixated on that lake- in which Case you might like Heavenly better than I do,) but Mammoth's vibe is hurt bad by all of the LA people that go there, and its too far to drive from Tahoe- hit Mammoth late season and stay in town there, that's the best way to enjoy that mountain I think.

If you stay in Truckee or closer to north lake- there's a similar situation, Squaw gets all the hype, but Alpine is every bit as good a mountain. Sugar Bowl is worth checking out too.

Northstar has zero expert terrain, but LOTS of good advanced intermediate, crowds can be an issue sometimes, but it's worth checking out too.



If I was in your situation (I guess I was about 18 yrs ago when I moved here from Montana) I'd try to hit as many of the different mountains that you can, it's really hard (and not as much fun) to fairly judge mountains based on other peoples opinions, and you might find one you really like that doesn't have some of the problems we all deal with going to the big resorts.

So here's my ranking statewide presuming they all had similar weather conditions- from my experience -for what thats worth;

1 Mammoth
2 Kirkwood
3 Alpine Meadows
4 Squaw
5 Sugar Bowl
6 Bear Valley
7 Sierra at Tahoe
8 Northstar

These last ones I'd probably only go to with rank beginners or for free tickets;

9 Donner Ski Ranch
10 Tahoe/Donner

 

you should definitely head up to tahoe... while the "sierra cement" is a heavier snow than what you're used to in utah, you've got to check out some of the tree runs and steep stuff tahoe has to offer. i've skied several utah resorts (canyons, park city mtn, alta, snowbird) and the canyons was probably my favorite.

south shore recommendations:
kirkwood first, then sierra @ tahoe. i don't recommend heavenly to anyone but tourists (for the view).

north shore has more options - for next time i guess:
alpine, squaw (after a big dump), northstar (good for intermediates), sugar bowl, homewood

have fun!

 

Oh yeah, almost forgot Homewood, that can be one of those little overlooked gems I was talking about

 

Homewood is one of my all-time favorites

 

I am going to agree with most. Kirkwood is my fav. it will meet your needs. heavanly is right there in s.tahoe and you can find nice long uncrowded runs because it so big.

kirkwood is where i would go.

 

if you don't want to deal with crowds, stay away from flatstar, i mean northstar.