Going to Tahoe, what mountains/lifttickets should we buy????

Captain_Slow

Captain_Slow

Active member
A group of about 8 of us are going to Tahoe in the middle of January. Passes are somewhat expensive and we would like to ski at least 4 of the 6 days we are there. We were wondering, are there any 4 or 5 day passes to different mtns at a discounted rate? I know that when we went to CO, we bought a 5 day pass that inclued Vail, BeaverCreek, Etc. for cheaper than individually buying passes every day.

I've never been there and don't exactly know what the hotel is called, but it is near Heavenly and we would like to hit up Squaw as well(don't know how far they are from one another, but we are willing to rent cars for the week)

Any recommendations on passes/mtns?

Thanks!
 
I did a 12 day trip to Tahoe. We stayed in Tahoe City which is up by Squaw. You will definately need a rental car unless you plan to ski at Heavenly the whole time. I would def recommed hitting up Kirkwood which is also in South Lake.

I bought individual lift tickets at each mountain (we hit 6) but you can probably find a deal on www.skilaketahoe.com or liftopia.com. Liftopia probably wont have much stuff listed until November though.

Im sure a Tahoe local on here might have some better intel though.

Now I want to go back to Tahoe.....
 
You will definitely need a car (I don't know if the buses run Nlake to Slake but it would take forever anyway) from Heavenly (in Southlake on the border) to Squaw-just NW of Tahoe City. They are pretty far apart. As far as mountains go...definitely check out Squaw (or Alpine, or both as they are right next to each other. I would say these are the two best mountain in Tahoe), Heavenly I think is overrated as a mountain but it does have a great view and is right next to the South Lake casino/party scene, Kirkwood is out of the way in South lake and great for powder days, Northstar has a great park but, well, it's called Flatstar for a reason. Alpine/Squaw has a $399 "Super Six" tickets=6 days unrestricted that work for both Squaw and Alpine. Heavenly and Northstar might do something too like that. Any resort might do cheaper (per day) tickets if you could be on a schedule (say buy a few days at one resort, a few at another).
 
thanks to both replies, I will talk to them about the "super six"... is it worth buying though if we cant ski heavenly/north star?
 
If you want a small mountain feel, you can check out Mt. Rose also, it's about a 45 min drive towards Reno, but the Chutes are some of the best terrain I've ever skied. Tickets are $69/day this season, which is cheaper than last season, plus if you buy your tix online, they do a different daily special for discounted tickets. One more thing is Mt. Rose has the highest base elevation at 8,260' and the summit is 9700'.
 
heavenly and northstar are both under vail resorts, their passes and lift tickets can be used at both i believe, since you're gunna be in south lake, hit up sierra at tahoe and kirkwood.

alpine and squaw are pretty awesome as well, you can skip flat star. despite what many people think of heavenly on this site, there is something for everyone there, mott canyon, and killebrew canyon, both have some gnarly terrain, and usually open in late december.
 
Snowbomb has some hookups... Basically spend $70 and get a free ticket at Kirkwood and Alpine. The other mountains probably aren't worth going to, even when free :)

Check the black out dates though...

Alpine has some good deals like alpine club -http://www.skialpine.com/ski-tickets/alpine-club

Squaw is sick, but expensive. Spending your time getting to know Kirkwood and Alpine will cost less and be well worth your time.

I wouldn't bother with Heavenly unless you want to just hit jumps and rails (it has more then that, but the north shore blows Heavenly away)....
 
Another vote for alpine/squaw and kirkwood. the wood is a definite yes, and the next decision comes down to squaw and alpine. Squaw is legendary for its terrain for a reason, it is also huge and hard to beat. Alipne is much more laid back, with generally less people. If your group is willing to hike a little bit, or sidestep and skate, my vote would be for alpine. There is much more to the resort than you would think by looking at the lift system. Most of the really awesome terrain takes some effort to get to which means that it doesn't get skied out as fast. If you do go to alpine, make sure to traverse from the cat track behind the summit to the back bowls, then when getting towards the bottom, come back hard skiers left, so you don't get stuck in a creek. Also hike the ridgeline out to or past beaver bowl (protip: estelle bowl is full of spines, we call it mini AK), as that ridge line has three bowls on it that stay good for a while and have awesome features.
 
Yeah they all want to hit squaw but Ill let them know what you said about alpine. Now to get a good package for all of us, I'm the only one in college going, the rest are 30+
 
Did you book the hotel already?

We rented a house and found it to be much better then a hotel. And it was relatively cheap.
 
Yes we did...I dont know why they didnt rent a house

We didnt plan anything because we didnt know that we were going until last week. The group (my dad's friends) had planned a trip, but two people backed out so they asked my dad and I. They are really clueless and last time , when we went to CO , they decided to go to BeaverCreek for 2 days. After that point my dad decided that we tell them which mtns we should all go to.

 
sounds like the group is not going to be willing to put in some work to get the goods, if that is the case i'd go to the Wood and Squaw
 
Im guessing so too...If anything, we can ditch them and do what we want to do on the mtn, but we are all going to travel together.

Does Tahoe get a lot of snow in mid Jan??

...I wish we could of gone a little later in the season but they booked it, not us
 
haha this, i was in the wrong place at the right time last year, in tahoe when mammoth got the 8ft dump and in mammoth when tahoe had its huge storm, fucking sucked(still a lot of snow though just not as much as the other)
 
i mean, there will be plenty of snow cover, it just might not be fresh is what i'm getting at, california got almost no fresh snowfall in january of last year, but it still ended up being a record breaking season, some of the resorts had 15-20 foot bases last year
 
kirkwood, absolutely beautiful. plus there's a bomb little tavern right down the road from the base area in Carson Pass. also, 700+ inches last year.....any more reasons?
 
traditionally yes, there is normally a 5-6 footer...last year we went for 6 weeks where it snowed 8inches on one night, and every other day was 50 and bluebird...sooo its a crapshoot.

you will be stoked regardless.
 
Yes. If anything...I would do Alpine/Squaw and a day or two at Kirkwood. N* and Heavenly can be skipped unless you are really feeling like just doing park.
 
Yeah, I'm def. not going to Tahoe for the park, Im thinking 2 days alpine 2 days squaw and one other mtn for a day or two
 
Another vote for Alpine/Squaw here. Northstar sucks, so don't bother, and Heavenly is overrated, though there is something for everyone. Don't expect to huck your meat or ski any gnarly lines at Heavenly, though... In south lake, Kirkwood is the bomb and Sierra's alright. Honestly, though, I would just take 6 days at Squaw/Alpine.
 
There r def som places to huck ur meat, and some gnarly lines in kilebrew and mott, but they r not open that often
 
.

Instead, you can come to Alpine and Squaw and have eternal big lines all over the place, even when there's not been snow for a month. It makes for a different vibe on the mountain as a whole, which is enough for me to want to come to the north shore.
 
you can get a Heavenly Northstar college pass for 300 which is a pretty damn good deal. A lot of people like to hate of Heavenly but it has everything and the powder lasts way longer because of that.
 
But there's not as much of it at Heavenly... may last longer, but there's not nearly as much. And Flatstar is a worthless shit of a ski hill other than that it acts as a gaper magnet that draws from Alpine and Squaw. And if you want powder that lasts long, its not like Alpine Meadows—or the slackcountry—gets tracked out very quickly either... Takes at least two or three days for the far side of Grouse to get skied out...
 
This sounds good, Ill tell my dad abt the pass thing that Squaw/Alpine have .

My dad was looking at Heavenly though, should I tell him it'd be better if we just stick with alpine/squaw?
 
In my opinion, yes. That said, if you are staying in South Lake, it might be better to take a few days at Kirkwood and Sierra and a few days at Alpine/Squaw. It is an 45 minute long drive, and if it's been snowing, there's a very high chance (almost 100%) that the road will be closed over Emerald Bay. In that case, you would have to drive around the long way (not worth it, takes too long) or stay in South Lake.
 
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