Heavenly is one of the best-known ski and snowboard destinations in the United States, and for good reason. With Lake Tahoe sprawling below the California side of the gargantuan resort, and the Nevada desert below the other, Heavenly has some of the most beautiful and unique scenery of any resort in the country. At 4800 … Read more
Sierra-at-Tahoe is a medium-sized ski resort in South Lake Tahoe. It’s not nearly as well-known as other resorts around the lake — like Squaw Valley, Heavenly, and Kirkwood — which would seem to make it a bit of an underdog in our Best in the West Showdown.
On closer inspection, however, the idea may not be so strange.
We’ve been traveling to ski resorts in the western U.S. trying to decipher which will provide the best vacation experience for skiers and snowboarders like you. We spent a few days at Sierra-at-Tahoe interviewing locals, shooting local skiers and boarders tearing up the hill, and then compiling what we learned into this micro guide.
The video above contains lots of useful information, but, if you want to carry have this information on the hill where it will really come in handy, bookmark this guide on your phone.
When we asked people at Sierra-at-Tahoe what they loved most about the hill, they mentioned a few things. Many people mentioned the amazing terrain park system, which includes five terrain parks that gradually increase in difficulty from a kiddie park with features that rise just a few inches above the snow, to the big feature park with jumps up to 40 or 50 feet. Several people mentioned the beautiful job the hill does of maintaining their groomed runs, and lots also loved the Huckleberry sidecountry gates.
We got a few pictures of each during our trip.
Special thanks to Bryon of Exploring Elements for contributing some of his photos to this photoessay.
After Sugar Bowl we packed up and headed over to Sierra-at-Tahoe. I’d never heard of the resort, so I didn’t know what to expect. Sierra-at-Tahoe is the South Lake Tahoe locals’ resort. It’s the place where most of the average working people from town will buy their lift ticket, so that’s who we met on … Read more
Sugar Bowl is not as well known as other resorts around Lake Tahoe, like Squaw Valley, Northstar, and Heavenly, but that may be to its advantage. Personally, I’ve found throughout this tour that usually I enjoy visiting small resorts more than large ones because the atmosphere tends to be more friendly and homey and fresh tracks are easier to find.
I know that many other people feel the same way that I do. If the majority of skiers and snowboarders agree with me, then Sugar Bowl is a good contender for the title, Best in the West.
We sat down with several locals and visitors at Sugar Bowl to find out what made the hill special to them. We found out that the lift lines are short, there’s a lot of snow, and the hill has a lot of history. It is, after all, home to the first chairlift in California.
We also asked the locals about where they liked to ski, snowboard, and eat, as well as what else is fun to do in the area. This is what we learned.