Top Ten Northern California Adventures

Wide-open bowls, precipitous chutes, and countless cornices: Tahoe serves up some of America's best skiing. If you're a schusser or a boarder, don't miss out on its diverse terrain, stunning scenery, and huge snowpack.

Skiers of all levels can find a place here. Squaw Valley, for example, is fraught with insanely steep pitches, tiny gulches, and impossible crannies. Kirkwood offers similarly difficult terrain and some of the most impressive scenic features in the whole area: vertiginous peaks, precarious ridges, and finger-like rock formations.

For more intermediate runs, head to Heavenly Valley, the highest of the all the Tahoe resorts at 10,040 feet. Straddling the California-Nevada border, Heavenly affords incredible views of the lake and, due to a prodigious snow-making system, has a solid snowpack even during the occasional dry season. The many other resorts are all within a fairly small area, so your options are virtually unlimited. Get the lowdown on all of them in GORP's Tahoe ski roundup.

Trip Facts

Difficulty rating: Easy to hardcore

When to go: December—March