Beginner, Intermediate, and Beyond. . .
The Lake Tahoe ski resorts will always be special to
me. When I lived in California I
frequented Lake Tahoe every time I had an extra day off, or every time there was a
snowstorm. Lake Tahoe wasn’t just where
I learned to snowboard as a 20 something, it was the first time I interacted
with snow at all. It was the area where
I first went down a green, a blue, or a black run, or hit a jump in a terrain
park. Since I lived in California for 4
years and snowboarded there for 3 of them, I visited most of the ski resorts in
the area. Here, I will give a brief
review of each of them in my opinion of the skill level they are best suited
for. If you are advanced you can
probably skip the first section, as I am starting with. . .
Beginner
By beginner, I mean probably will not make it past the bunny
hill. This period of time may be shorter
for those learning to ski, but for snowboarding it can take up to a week as
snowboarding is more difficult to pick up.
For beginners I recommend Boreal.
Boreal isn’t exactly in Lake Tahoe, it is in Truckee, which is a short
drive to the northwest. Skiers and
snowboarders could easily stay in the immediate Lake Tahoe area and drive to
Boreal each day. Boreal is one of the
smallest resorts I have ever seen, but it is cheap to snowboard there. When I was first learning I did not make it
past the greens of the mountain, and at some resorts that is less than 10% of
the runs. So I refused to snowboard at Heavenly
and pay over $100 for a one day lift ticket when I would only be lapping the
same 3 runs over and over. Boreal offers
deal like $15 Fridays for students and military. I took three lessons at Boreal when I was
first learning, because at the time they had a great package deal. My first day included a lift ticket for the
bunny hill, my rental gear, and a lesson for $80, a steal as I only practiced on
the bunny hill. On the second and third
days, I got the same deal for $30 each day.
After completing three days of this program, the resort gave those who
completed it a season pass for the remainder of the season. I never got the season pass as by the third
day I was ready for longer runs at larger resorts. Boreal also has night skiing on the bunny
hill if you are not a morning person like my boyfriend. I usually stopped by 5 PM, because conditions
were so icy, but he snowboarded until they closed.
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| The view of the lodge from the top of the bunny hill at Boreal. |
