There’s plenty of snow at Tahoe ski resorts and the weather should be fairly agreeable, producing a great Christmas holiday season for skiers and snowboarders.
The Christmas holidays are annually the busiest time for all of Lake Tahoe’s 14 ski resorts, which ranges from a big mountain like Squaw Valley Alpine Meadows that offers some extreme skiing areas, to Granlibakken, a family-friendly lodging location on the west side of Lake Tahoe that offers snow fun like sledding, tubing, and has one lift for skiing and snowboarding.
What resort has the most snow in Tahoe? Sierra-at-Tahoe had a few recent powder days, thanks to some storms that hit the Tahoe region prior to Christmas. Sierra, located off Highway 50 on the drive into South Lake Tahoe, has the most snow (160 inches) among the Tahoe ski resorts.
SEE SEASON SNOW TOTALS (below) FOR ALL TAHOE RESORTS
Vail Resorts in Tahoe: All three Vail Resorts – Heavenly Mountain, Kirkwood Mountain, Northstar California – have lots of snow and plenty of available terrain for the holidays.
Kirkwood is 100-percent open for the holidays and received 17 inches of snow earlier this week, hiking its season total to 158 inches for the 2019-20 season, the second most snow among Tahoe ski resorts. Kirkwood is located off Highway 88 in the South Lake Tahoe region.
Located off Highway 267 in Truckee, Northstar is 71-percent open with 87 of 100 trails. It received 13 inches several days ago and has 149 inches this season.
A longtime favorite due to its ideal location in South Lake Tahoe, Heavenly received 4 inches of snow during a 24-hour period starting Christmas Day and ending Thursday morning (Dec. 26). The resort is 86-percent open and has 92 of 97 trails available for holiday skiing and riding. Heavenly has received 138 inches this season.
Night skiing: If you’re stuck at work during the holidays or just looking for another evening option, Boreal Mountain is open until 9 p.m. daily. Boreal opens at 9 am., but does sell night-only lift tickets. Night-time hours are 3-7 p.m. Evening lift tickets can only be purchased at the resort.
Current conditions
OpenSnow.com California forecaster Bryan Allegretto is predicting light snow Thursday after some clouds and fog in the morning. However, Tahoe ski resorts stay cold with highs in the teens on the upper mountains and 30s at lake level. Gusty east winds of 30-40 mph were expected over the ridges.
Allegretto says a high pressure builds Friday into Saturday. That will bring drier weather with sunny skies, resulting in temperature highs into the 30s for most elevations through Saturday. Winds diminish Friday and continue into Saturday.
“We could see another weak system move Sunday afternoon/evening and last into Monday morning,” Allegretto reported on OpenSnow.com. “Depending on the track of the storm we could get missed or pick up several inches of snow. We will be watching the track closely.
Going into the end of December and the first week of January, Allegretto predicts it looks like a dry pattern with high pressure sitting off the West Coast and blocking storms. There could be a pattern change for the second week of January.
SEASON SNOW TOTALS (Dec. 26)
- Sierra-at-Tahoe: 160 inches
- Kirkwood Mountain: 158 inches
- Squaw Valley: 151 inches
- Northstar California: 149 inches
- Mt. Rose: 148 inches
- Alpine Meadows: 145 inches
- Sugar Bowl: 141 inches
- Soda Springs: 138 inches
- Boreal Mountain: 138 inches
- Heavenly Mountain: 138 inches
- Homewood Mountain: 115 inches
- Diamond Peak: 83 inches
- Tahoe Donner: NA
- Granlibakken: NA
