Kirkwood: Best kept local secret in Tahoe! Consistently earning the most snowfall in Tahoe. One draw back, its no secret on powder days but the lines here are never what you’ll see at Squaw or Heavenly. You’ll just realize the cliffs are bottomed out before the powder is gone.
Powder Rating: 9/10 Earn your turns, and if your willing to traverse far enough good snow can almost always be found.

Squaw: Big mountain legends and local chargers fill this mountain with enough snow stoke thats its been claimed as the “best ski resort in the world” . For sure the best lift accessible terrain in Tahoe! Every line & cliff has a name & points bracket as the locals play a game out of it called Gnar. Check out UnofficialNetworks.com and if you think could claim some fame in the game, get yourself a copy of Squallywood.
Powder Rating: 8/10 Get it quick and pay your dues!

Heavenly: Unique! Ride in two states, crossing the border is quite the traverse. Meet people from Florida, and the craziest of locals all in the few runs. Tree runs are often exceptional. Heavenly has access to some amazing powder runs. They’re kind of local secrets because once you find them you’ll notice nobody else is there.
Powder Rating: 7.5 Wind hides stashes at higher elevations, check out Mott’s Canyon. Best bet is riding the trees and better yet riding low elevation storms.

Northstar: Probably more known for its board parks than powder. Northstar actually has a few good powder stashes and cliffs to be had in its boundary.
Powder Rating: 7/10 Seek and you will find.

Sierra @ Tahoe: There are a few cliffs, a few powder stashes, and not a lot of powder chasers on the mountain! Lucky for you powder hound, most of the locals are found in the park, but not all. I’ve had some amazing, amazing powder days here, where every run covered its tracks.
Powder Rating: 6.5/10 I took half a point for witnessing my friend & I nearly have our pass pulled for riding “in-bounds” powder by ski patrol who thought they were cops.

Powder Tips… Ride the storms! Most Californian’s don’t ride during storms, possibly because of the great challenge of driving through snow. The 2 main routes going to Lake Tahoe 80 & 50 close pretty easy during storms, chains often are required, so drive your Subaru if you got one. Check current conditions @ CAL Trans before you go.

Check out some local sites:
Virtual Tahoe: “Lake Tahoe’s #1 Online Guide”
Official Lake Tahoe: Official Visiting Bureau
Tahoe.com: “A .com planner for Tahoe”
Ski Lake Tahoe: Info on the 7 Ski Areas
Map of Tahoe Area Mountains: See the mountains of potential!