Skiing at lake Tahoe
It never snows in San Francisco, but just 3 hours drive from here, Lake Tahoe is home to some wonderful ski resorts.
My family loves to ski, and every winter we make several trips to one of the many ski resorts of Lake Tahoe, just a 3-hour drive from San Francisco.
Lake Tahoe is the largest alpine lake in America, and lies at an altitude of 1,897 m.
The most popular ski area lie on the west and south sides of the lake, and you have a large numbers to choose from:
- Heavenly Mountain Resort: the largest ski area in California and Nevada, located near Stateline
- Squaw Valley: the second largest ski area, known for its hosting of the 1960 Winter Olympics, located near Tahoe City
- Alpine Meadows: a medium-sized ski area on the north shore only a few miles from Squaw Valley
- Diamond Peak: a small ski area located in Incline Village, Nevada
- Northstar California: a popular north shore ski area
- Kirkwood Mountain Resort: a ski area which gets more snow than any other ski area in the Tahoe region
- Sierra-at-Tahoe: a medium-sized south shore ski area
- Boreal Mountain Resort: a small ski area on Donner Pass
- Sugar Bowl Ski Resort: a medium-sized ski area in Donner Pass
- Donner Ski Ranch: a very small ski area on Donner Pass
- Homewood Mountain Resort: a medium-sized ski area on the west shore
- Mount Rose Ski Resort: a medium-sized ski area north-east of the Lake, on Slide Mountain
I prefer the nicely groomed slopes,
but my kids are more adventurous and love the challenge of skiing or snowboarding off the beaten tracks.
or playing in the special areas set aside for the adventurous.
If you are not yet a skier, but would like to learn, or if you want to improve your technique, you can head to Ski School. Each resort has instructors for skiers of all abilities.
All resorts also have very advanced skiers who patrol the slopes and help people who get into difficulties.
And even if you don't ski, there is always some fun to be had.
