New to the Bay Area

[egibbons]

I just started grad school in California. I grew up and have skied in Utah (Park City and Powder Mountain) exclusively until this point. I have realized that I will need to give up my expectations of the 30 minutes to the resort commute.

That said, if I am coming from Palo Alto, what is the best resort (for carving) in Tahoe and how long can I plan on driving?

[shawndoggy]

Mt. Rose is the best, but Kirkwood is closer.

[Sinecure]

You'll get lots of opinions on which is the best resort for carving. Everything from Tahoe Donner (you'll laugh when you see it) to Squaw and Kirkwood. There's a pretty regular crew of carvers that hang out at Mt. Rose and also at Kirkwood. Add in Squaw and you've got most things covered. Northstar would be good for carving if it weren't for the constant human slalom, especially on weekends.

Drive time from PA is going to depend on when you leave. I live close to there and I've had it take anywhere from 3 hours to 8 hours. Typically on a Friday afternoon, you're looking at 4-6, depending on traffic and weather.

There's a Tahoe Carvers group on FB, and there's a yahoo group called ski pals that's good for ride shares. http://www.snowpals.org/ will get you to their page and a link to the yahoo group. I think there are also some Stanford resources for student skiing.

My suggestion is consider K-wood for day trips and some combination of Squaw (also owns Alpine now) and Rose for weekend trips. I don't think the Stanford Alpine Chalet is actually geared toward students any more, but if you can get a deal on staying there, it's a pretty nice place right by the hill (Alpine).

Pray for another long season. And you can probably count on me for rideshare offers many weekends this season.