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Best Ski Resort in California

J

jarsoffart

Golden Member
I've been looking at SkiReview.com and it looks as if Dodge Ridge offers a great place to ski for the price. Reviews say that not a lot of people go there, prices are good (I checked myself against Northstar and Squaw and it seems cheaper), and lots of area to ski. I am able to ski the black diamonds at Northstar at Tahoe decently, but those black diamonds are supposed to be easy. Would this place be too hard?
 
Well I used to be on the ski team at Kirkwood so I would travel to a couple different places for races. The only places I've been to are Kirkwood, Heavenly, Alpine, Squaw, Mammoth, Iron Mountain, and Bear Mountain...maybe some others but I forget. From what I remember, the best places were probably either Squaw or Mammoth. The prices were high but they are high to any good place you go. Mammoth was absolutely huge so I might have to say that was the best but Squaw might have had better snow. I'm kinda of partial to Kirkwood though because that's where I normally went, but it's not all that big...snow is good though
 
Seems as if you guys are mostly talking about the Lake Tahoe resorts.

Just wondering, how is Northstar@Tahoe after the expansion? Is it complete? Since I'm here, how is Banff? I've heard it's unpopulated and the skiing is difficult, and I'm thinking about trying it out. Really don't want the warm temperatures to end but this thread has me wishing for the ski season.

Anyhow I'm an east coaster - MI - that's only made it to your guys' slopes a handful of times, so I'm kind interested in everyones opinions. Everyone goes to Squaw, J.Hole, Breck, but where are the good places that aren't listed in Ski mag?
 
Originally posted by: audiophan
Seems as if you guys are mostly talking about the Lake Tahoe resorts.

Just wondering, how is Northstar@Tahoe after the expansion? Is it complete? Since I'm here, how is Banff? I've heard it's unpopulated and the skiing is difficult, and I'm thinking about trying it out. Really don't want the warm temperatures to end but this thread has me wishing for the ski season.

Anyhow I'm an east coaster - MI - that's only made it to your guys' slopes a handful of times, so I'm kind interested in everyones opinions. Everyone goes to Squaw, J.Hole, Breck, but where are the good places that aren't listed in Ski mag?
Click to expand...

We're mostly talking about the Lake Tahoe resorts cause those are where most of the good places to ski in California are. Although there are plenty of good ski resorts in CA, I'm anxious to get up to Canada someday and ski at Whistler or Black Combe.
 
Sugar Bowl or Sqaw

if you are a snowboarder then you might want to check out Dodge because they have a lot of terrain parks.
 
I like Heavenly coz it is very large and hence lots of skitrails to choose, you can't really enjoy all of them in one day.
I like Kirkwood too, but sorry I have to say Sugar Bowl sucks. that place is Gheetttooo with a capital G. I guess it lost funding from Disney.

ski resort in SoCal is so-so compare to NorCal's offerings, Mountain High and Snow Summit are tiny compare to those up north, but I have yet to try Big Bear.
 
Originally posted by: Stojakapimp
Originally posted by: audiophan
Seems as if you guys are mostly talking about the Lake Tahoe resorts.

Just wondering, how is Northstar@Tahoe after the expansion? Is it complete? Since I'm here, how is Banff? I've heard it's unpopulated and the skiing is difficult, and I'm thinking about trying it out. Really don't want the warm temperatures to end but this thread has me wishing for the ski season.

Anyhow I'm an east coaster - MI - that's only made it to your guys' slopes a handful of times, so I'm kind interested in everyones opinions. Everyone goes to Squaw, J.Hole, Breck, but where are the good places that aren't listed in Ski mag?
Click to expand...

We're mostly talking about the Lake Tahoe resorts cause those are where most of the good places to ski in California are. Although there are plenty of good ski resorts in CA, I'm anxious to get up to Canada someday and ski at Whistler or Black Combe.
Click to expand...


If your going to Canada try Kicking Horse Resort. Its brand new, maybe 2-3yrs since its opening, and has some hard-core heli-skiing. Also lift tickets are a pretty good price, less than $30 last year.

 
i had a season pass @ kirkwood last season and went there. fun place, half the time i went it was empty but the other half i spent all day dodging people.

i'm hoping northstar's good this year, i got a season pass there and sierra and dying to hit up that mountain

 
Originally posted by: andylawcc
I like Heavenly coz it is very large and hence lots of skitrails to choose, you can't really enjoy all of them in one day.
I like Kirkwood too, but sorry I have to say Sugar Bowl sucks. that place is Gheetttooo with a capital G. I guess it lost funding from Disney.

ski resort in SoCal is so-so compare to NorCal's offerings, Mountain High and Snow Summit are tiny compare to those up north, but I have yet to try Big Bear.
Click to expand...

Don't even bother going to Big Bear. If that's the place I'm thinking of, then it's quite horrile compared with up north. There's not even supposed to be snow there. It's like bare land and then all of a sudden you get to this hill covered in man-made snow. It was crowded and hot, but at least you could ski
 
Originally posted by: Salvador
For all around skiing, you can't beat Heavenly. I do love Squaw and Mammoth though.

Sal
Click to expand...

I went to Heavenly for my first time last year and I was pretty impressed. It was pretty darn expensive and one thing that is bad is that I did a lot of traversing. I talked to a snowboarder (I'm a die-hard skier) and he hated it because he had to hike so much and that's a pain when you snowboard
 
Originally posted by: Stojakapimp
Originally posted by: Salvador
For all around skiing, you can't beat Heavenly. I do love Squaw and Mammoth though.

Sal
Click to expand...

I went to Heavenly for my first time last year and I was pretty impressed. It was pretty darn expensive and one thing that is bad is that I did a lot of traversing. I talked to a snowboarder (I'm a die-hard skier) and he hated it because he had to hike so much and that's a pain when you snowboard
Click to expand...

After saying I was impressed, I'm still not gonna say that it was the best. I personally think mammoth was better. And I think squaw was but that's kind of a fuzzy memory
 
i didn't like heavenly too much except for the convenience factor. it's probably the priciest resort since it's right smack in tahoe, but the runs didn't seem that great to me (boarder here). i also went just a little bit before the season ended so that probably made a significant difference, there was hardly any snow left (heh, and forget about powder, that was long gone).
 
Which resort gives you a good price for what you get? I'm not a hardcore crazy skiier maniac, but I don't want to go to some super expensive resort that is the best when there is a much cheaper one that is decent. I'm looking for a good performance/price ratio. Dodge Ridge seemed very good when I read the reviews on it (at SkiReview.com and Epinions.com) but wolfsblood said it was only good if you are a snowboarder. Anymore opinions on Dodge Ridge? Last winter when I went to Northstar-at-Tahoe I thought it was not crowded at all (I went late in the season) and lodging was comfortable, but the snow wasn't that great (could've been because I was late in the season again) and it was super expensive.
 
if you're looking for price, you're probably not going to beat dodge or bear valley. neither are really up to par as far as the tahoe resorts are concerned though, if you're really interested in learning a season pass would be a good investment, there's a lot less hassle and usually with 4 days you've already paid for it. i got into it big last season to learn and ended up going way more than i thought i would, got a season pass from kirkwood for ~$200 (day passes are roughly $55, so in 2 weekend trips i was satisfied).

i used to go to bear valley before that just because it was closer, but ended up loving the kirkwood terrain to make the extra drive worth it.

 
Yo,
It depends on what you want to do and what's important to you.

The two largest and arguably the most fashionable are Squaw Valley and Heavenly.

If you want nightlife, Heavenly, since it's next to the South Lake Tahoe casinos.

Mammoth is under reconstruction.

SugarBowl (not the Disney side) and Alpine Meadows are relatively uncrowded, have enjoyed boarding at both locations.

If you're taking a date, Squaw's probably the prettiest, with High Camp and the views and restaurants.


Avoid the trees,
PCM
 
excellent summary PCmodem; me like your final touch "Avoid the Trees" 🙂


i got one question though;
I am skiier myself and never snowboarded, I don't understand how a trail can be more enjoyable for a skiier but not a snowboarder (and vice versa)
 
I don't understand how a trail can be more enjoyable for a skiier but not a snowboarder (and vice versa)
Click to expand...

The main thing is that a trail that requires traversing in spots (flat areas) can be a real pain in the butt for a snowboarder especially if you don't use step-in bindings. If you lose your momentum in a flat area you may just have get out of your bindings, walk out of the flat, and then get all strapped back in. Then the other side is snowboarders are normally more interested in jumps, half-pipes, and terrain parks and not real big on moguls.


I snowboard in Tahoe often and I have become really sick of Heavenly. One of the last times I went it was so crowded that we had to park way down the street and wait for a shuttle to the parking lot. Then wait through a huge line to get lift tickets and then again to get on the gondola, Wasted about 1 1/2 hours from parking to getting on a slope. If you ever go to Heavenly the only reasonable thing is to park at the less-busy Nevada side, but I'm going to try to avoid the place.

Squaw is my favorite and they have one nice long run open at night. You can stay until 9-10pm which really adds to the value for me. Kirkwood is very nice as well but kinda out of the way from South Lake. I don't know where you can stay that's closer. Alpine Meadows is pretty sweet to and a little cheaper.
 
Another vote for Alpine Meadows, I was going to say that I was suprised nobody has mentioned it yet. My g/f and I spent a week at Tahoe This Spring. We got to ride in that late season 2' dump back in the first week of March. There are just so many (14+?) areas to ski/ride over at Tahoe i'm sure you can find a place that suits your needs. We are both instructors so we recieved comps (mostly partial) at most places, we did use this thing called the 'Powdercard' which has great deals on the surrounding mountains. It's free, you should look into it.

-VTrider
 
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