Place to stay at Lake Tahoe

My college son and I are going to the Lake Tahoe for his college break Jan. 3-13. We are planning to split our time between the North and South ends of Lake Tahoe. So does any one know of a ski house who would be willing to trade or offer group house living in that end of the world.

Any other tricks of the land there...inexpensive tickets....food joints...lodging....snow cat rides.....best steeps......hidden stashes. Would be greatly appreciated.

Lodging question is most important!

Know some of the smaller (relatively speaking) areas have "two for one" days. Believe Mt. Rose, Homewood and Sugarbowl all do it during the week. Enjoyed the first and last of those as I skied them but didn't ski Homewood.

As for lodging, sure there are some deals, good luck...

The only advise I can offer is to not waste your time at heavenly and make sure you hit alpine meadows.

If you're going to stay in Lake Tahoe, go on line and you'll find quite a few fairly inexpensive hotel/motel type accomodations in the range of $ 80 per night (for the room).
A lot of them are just ugly dives but clean. If all you care about is a decent bed and warm shower, you'll be set.

Be sure to rent a 4 wheel drive vehicle. When it snows up there, you have to put chains on your tires or have a 4 wheel drive to be allowed to go through the mountain passes.

I'll second the opinion previosly voiced: skip Heavenly (if you tight on time) and don't miss Kirkwood.

I would check out www.vrbo.com also. It is Vacation Rentals by Owner.

I've stayed in North Shore Casinos for cheep.. Plus you get those inexpensive buffets...

Stay on the North Shore if you're not going to hit Heavenly.. But DO try and hit Kirkwood if you can - it's awesome..
On the way to Tahoe from Reno - check out Mt Rose... If you have an afternoon it's pretty sweet..
Also if you have time - check out Sugarbowl... Small and steep...

Other then that - Sqawlywood and Alpine are amazing..

Squaw is amazing. Just watch out for the tiny round signs that say...cliff.

Good leads

I would check out www.vrbo.com also. It is Vacation Rentals by Owner. Good leads. Thanks.

That web site worked

Found a fine place to stay at the price I was hoping! Thanks....The chat room works!

since I can't get to Big Sky for less than $700-$800 - beginning to think about north side of tahoe...cheap but clean lodging thinking about tahoe city? any first hand knowledge - again with 14 year old.

Angus said:

since I can't get to Big Sky for less than $700-$800 - beginning to think about north side of tahoe...cheap but clean lodging thinking about tahoe city? any first hand knowledge - again with 14 year old.

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Truckee Best Western. Under 100 per night for the room. Quiet, only 10-30 mins from the hills. They have discounted lift vouchers at the desk. I think the prices were about 2/3 of the window rate. Several restaurants in Truckee where the locals eat are pretty decent.

South Lake Tahoe

We've stayed twice at Harvey's. In the past they've had some sweet midweek ski-and-stay packages that included lodging, lift tickets and some meals. In fact, I think all the casinos in Stateline have such deals.

Definitely hit Heavenly one day when you're in Taho. It was by far my least favorite of the areas I skied in Tahoe (far behind Kirkwood and Squaw), but it does have some good terrain (even though you will spend a lot of the day traversing and getting around the mountain) and the views on the California side are epic.
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Ford Taunus History

Im actually considering a Kirkwood trip...

The advantage to staying on the South side is that it puts you within an hour of all the resorts. If lodging funds are limited, there are a ton cheap motels there.

Also, if its really dumping and driving is looking sketchy, Heavenly is right there in town. A powder day in the trees of Heavenly does not suck. Just be sure to get there early.

Also recommending Squaw, Alpine Meadows, Kirkwood, and Sierra.

I second Squaw and Homewood. The latter is very cheap and very cool. We skied there in March.

Bottom line, Squaw and Kirkwood are the best, but Heavenly is a great resort where one would not be "wasting" time. Heavenly has 4500 acres of trees and it's all inbounds. Killebrew and Mott Canyons have some of the toughest and steep inbounds terrain you'll ski and they don't get near the traffic as Squaws because people don't think of Heavenly as having tough terrain. Take a couple runs down Gunbarrel/TheFace/East Bowl/East Bowl woods, and you clearly won't be wasting time. Decide you want to go from Nevada to Cali or vice versa, without a plan, and yes, you'll be wasting your time traversing. Heavenly isn't great for going for a day, but it's massive and the trees are great for any level of skier.

Sierra-at-Tahoe also has great trees and some really good slackcountry in the newly opened Huckleberry Canyon.

Kirkwood is less crowded than most Tahoe resorts (Except for powder days), but it's also got the best snow by far. (200 more inches than resorts near the lake) The upper mountain is insane and with the addition of the t-bars, it's almost all inbounds now. It's also a great mountain for families as there are plenty of groomers, too. If you want fast lifts, go elsewhere. Kirkwood is a locals mountain that skis much bigger than it's vert.

Northstar has really good groomers and parks, but unless you want to spend a lot of money, stay away.

Sugarbowl and Alpine are similar in more ways than they are not. Wide open terrain with lots of snow and some great lines. Both are short on vert, but big on backcountry access. Alpine is a mini Squaw, but also is less crowded.

Squaw is nothing short of epic. It's like skiing a European resort in the middle of the Sierra's. (Minus the vert) The lifts are awesome, the steeps unrelenting, and is the former home of Squirrel Murphy, no less. Before you ski Squaw, have an idea of what type of terrain you want to ski and find the lifts that service it. Trail names exist, but are limited. Take a wrong turn and one can get in a lot of trouble. Silverado may not look all that tough on the trail map, but many of the routes down are riddled with cliff bands and mandatory airs. Granite Chief, Headwall, and KT-22 have some of the best terrain and you can see what you want to ski from the lifts. The downside is that if the snow isn't good, Squaw does not ski well. Grooming is limited, so if it's crusty from a thaw freeze, go elsewhere. If you go to Tahoe and can only ski one resort, Squaw should be it, but it's definitely not for the faint of heart.

Homewood

OK, let me elaborate a little bit more about Homewood and Squaw. I never wrote TR's for my trips, so I am going to post some never seen photos from that trip. Yeah I know it is not exactly in response to your question...we stayed at our brother-in-law's family place located in a development overlooking the Lake (yeah, it was sick). I did notice some smaller hotels circa 1960 in Tahoe City. I can't recall any of their names.

But anyway, Homewood was the first place we skied on Sunday of our week. They were running a promo for $25 tickets if you showed a season pass to another mountain. We brought our Sugarbush passes. It was a perfect day:



We parked at the base area located right near the lake....there is a triple that runs from here to the midmountain...there's much more than meets the eye, but this Face was really nice in the afternoon when it was all corn!



The place is old school, despite the fact that the owners of Alpine Meadows bought it and have big plans for it.



The Ellis Triple is an old school chair (no safety bar) and it serves up most of the terrain. Lots of narrow trails through cedars and Redwoods. Some nice bowls, no crowds. Incredible views and a real cool feel:









They have added a new HSQ in the backbowl area and it serves up some nice runs that offer some good long runs with some good snow:





So real basic and rustic facilities, cheap tickets, but incredible views and nice legit terrain. Good for an easy day or a warm-up. They do have a set of bowls that you can hike to, but it looked pretty tame in comparison to Squaw.

Stayed in Truckee when I went. Skied Squaw 2 days, Sugarbowl, Alpine Meadows and Mt rose when it was actually raining at lower elevations and snowing like a banshee up there. Skipped Northstar but went to see the Dew tour it was a mad house. Squaw was awesome as was Alpine meadows and Mt Rose. Hit Sugarbowl on a sierra cement day but still had fun. Travel was easy from Truckee. A little tricky coming back down from Mt Rose and up over Donner pass (flew out of SAC)

Now let's talk about Squaw. We spent three days there: it dumped on two of our three days and the final day was bluebird. It took us that long to cover most of the terrain. A fourth day would have allowed me to get to Granite Chief and Silverado.

As said, the lifts are top notch. They have some nice six packs (Headwall and Shirley Bowl) and a few older HSQ's such as KT-22 that make things good and easy. However, Snow King, Emigrant, Granite Chief, and Silverado are served by slow fixed grips. The base village is very nice. Everything is well run and there is just a real feel to the place that is larger than life. The folks were all friendly. Gold Coast Lodge is nice.

One thing I noticed was that two of our three days featured some windholds as some of the upper mountain lifts are very exposed. As said, there are no real "trails" just open bowls, open snow, trees, and hundreds of acres to wander. What they do groom is groomed well. Many trails are winched. I agree with the other assessment regarding the terrain: Squaw was perfect for us because we could mix it up: some groomers, some powder, some trees, some bumps, and some creative steep terrain. The blues and greens were by and large groomed, but if you want to ski groomers, you will get bored after a couple days. Squaw's terrain is STEEP and as said you have to know where you are because cliffs and rocks are all around, especially on KT-22.

Some pics:

Skiing in Shirley Lake area:





Looking up towards Granite Chief:



Shirley Bowl:



Just poking around near The Attic:



Tree skiing...western style:







Some pics: