Lake Tahoe Recommendations

[loafer89]

My son and I would like to ski in the Lake Tahoe area next February during Presidents Week. Can anyone give me some advise on where to ski/stay in the area as we have never been there before.

We where planning to go to Mammoth, but access from Las Vegas looks difficult/impossible because Westgard Pass is closed in winter.

Thank You

 

[thebigo]

I have only skied three of the tahoe resorts and i can you you that by far i would recommend alpine meadows. A Meadows is where the locals ski, it holds the snow very well, is never crowded and is relatively low in price compared to the more famous resorts.

I also skiied heavenly and squaw while there. I would recommend one day at squaw midweek just to check the place out. Really though Squaw and A Meadows are the same place as far as terrain, snow and location. The difference is that A Meadows is signifigantly less crowded, less expensive, less corporate, more friendly and it holds the snow much better.

Do not waste your time at heavenly. It reminded me of killington, for the east i love killington but you dont fly across the country to ski groomed crowded slopes at a corporate resort along side hordes of san franciscos social elite.

I cant help you with a hotel because i stayed at the casinos (business conference)

 

[thebigo]

One more thing, in general I would recommend LCC and BCC over tahoe everytime. Conditions are much more reliable.

 

[loafer89]

One more thing, in general I would recommend LCC and BCC over tahoe everytime. Conditions are much more reliable.

LCC and BCC???

 

[thebigo]

LCC/BCC = Little/Big Cottonwood canyon

personally i would never go to tahoe again just for the skiing, the snow in utah is just more reliable, tahoe can go through bad stretches

utah is also cheaper, easier to get around, and the cottonwoods always have good snow

 

[dmc]

Tahoe is awesome - I've been a bunch of times...

I recomend the North Shore areas... Alpine Meadows, Sqaw for some advanced terrain and Nothstar for more subdued terrain.. Northstar is a good place to go when the others are on "windhold"... Sqaw is a little crowded in the choke areas - but has some great nooks and crannies like Granite Chief and the Silverado chair...
Alpine has some great terrain.. wide open bowl skiing and some great cornice drops..

Also - Check out Mt Rose - if you land in Reno early you can get an afternoon ticket there - cool place...
Diamond Peak is way too mellow for me - spent a morning there - did three runs and ran over to Rose for the afternoon..

Homewood is nice - pretty funky area - good views.. Great trees...

Southshore has Heavenly - nice place - good cruisers - Mott canyon has some challenging terrain..
The best down there is Kirkwood.. Place is phenomonal... Can't say enough about it...

 

[kingslug]

I've only skied at Squaw but am going again this Feb. Unless you are an advanced skier I would not recommend it. I don't know how far along you're son is, you, of course would have no problem. They do not mark the difficulty of their runs, only the lifts that serve them. If it's foggy you can end up in places you do not want to be, like cliff areas. They are marked with tiny signs that are pretty hard to see. It's also very expensive, the food is unbelievably so. But if the weather and snow is good, it's a blast. Some of the steepest slopes in the country can be found there. Utah is better though. But it is a change as it is very different from Utah resorts. That cement they get sticks to anything. I have read a lot on Kirkwood and think it might be the best of them all. I am going to hit it as well.

 

[loafer89]

Thank you to all for your advise, I have actually decided to take my son to Summit county Colorado and stay/ski at Keystone. I know the resort very well and feel that Warren will have a good time there with the extensive night skiing that they offer, plus it is fairly cheap to fly there, we got a one way deal to Denver for $168.00 each from Bradley. From then on we are going to Las Vegas for the business part of my vacation.