Just returned from an awesome week in Tahoe. Flew into Reno last Saturday and rented a car. We stayed at the Tahoe Summit Village at the Stagecoach base on the Nevada side of Heavenly. Got a great price on a two bedroom condo. I'd recommend it, though Heavenly is a bit removed from a lot of the other resorts.
We arrived on the tail end of a storm, but had no trouble driving. Can't say the same for the SUV that spun out in front of us on the drive in.
We spent the first day at Heavenly. Beautiful bluebird day, with lots of soft snow from the day before.
On the Galaxy chair
South Lake Tahoe
For day two we headed over to Diamond Peak. By Tahoe standards, Diamond is tiny, but it still sports 1800 vert and is plenty for a day. The real reason for heading there was that Shelly, my wife, and I wanted to take a bump lesson and private lessons at Diamond were much much cheaper than Heavenly. Conditions were a little hard and choppy in the morning, but softened up nicely in the afternoon.
Looking at the north end of the lake (Squaw Valley is the white mountain tops on the right)
Day three was spent at Squaw Valley. The oddities of mountain weather showed themselves this day and it was a raging snowstorm at Squaw, but sunny on the other side of the lake. Squaw was only running a handful of lifts on the upper mountain, but it was still a great time. No lines and we found some great little stashes in the trees.
Limited visibility Yours truly in the woods
Day four was back at heavenly in another snowstorm. We spent the morning in the woods around the Canyon Express. Heavenly really has some great marked glades and a lot of unmarked ones between trails that you can venture into without fear because it's clear what you're getting into. At lunch time we headed back to Nevada since it looked like the Sky Express might go on wind hold and trap us. Spent the afternoon skiing trails and trees on the Nevada side. I recommend Dipper Woods and especially Scorpion Woods.
A small section of bumps in the trees near Canyon Express.
The snow continued into the night, but subsided by morning. For day 5 we headed south to Kirkwood. Kirkwood had gotten well over a foot of snow and there was powder and forming powder bumps everywhere.
The wife skiing down a small gully.
We spent a lot of time on High Whisky a short diamond run off to the side that everyone else was ignoring, allowing us to work on our powder skiing.
The last day was back at Heavenly. First thing in the morning, we traversed across to the California base because Shelly was determined to ski Gunbarrel, their long double diamond mogul run. We did it, but it took a while and it pretty much wiped her out. Sorry, i was too out of breath to remember to take a picture of it . We wandered around skiing some easier groomers and a few small bump sections after that before calling it a little early and heading down to explore the town for our last afternoon evening.
Wow. Tahoe looks amazing. Being under 25, and dying to go, how easy would you say it is to manage without a car? nice pictures and video. stunning.
Depending on where you stay, it could be done without a car. You could book an airport transfer to South Lake Tahoe. Heavenly has a gondola that comes right into town. There is also a shuttle that runs around the condos at the Nevada bases to the lifts and a bus from there down to the Casinos in town. I think the bus cost $2 per trip. The other big mountains, Squaw, Kirkwood, etc. have large base villages and you could just stay there.
I also saw ads for a company running bus trips out to Kirkwood from South Lake Tahoe. $70 for transport plus lift ticket. So South Lake would allow access to at least two mountains without a car. The town itself is small and very walkable.
On the other end of the lake, Truckee is in the middle of several mountains, but I can't speak for the availability of non car transport.
Also, you might be able to rent a car, even under 25. I'm only 27 and have looked at that recently. Some companies in some areas do it. You just have pay for extra insurance. The last time I did it, I used my corporate number and they waived the extra insurance.
. We wandered around skiing some easier groomers and a few small bump sections after that before calling it a little early and heading down to explore the town for our last afternoon evening.
