Snow News Is Good News!

So, where are the best ski conditions right now?

It’s Sunday, January 25, and I’ve been checking out the latest snow conditions; which ski hills have the most snow and comparing them to previous years. (That’s what you do on Sunday when you own a ski shop.)

Some of the best all around snow conditions right now are at Heavenly Valley in South Lake Tahoe with 32 inches, upper and lower slopes.

Sugar Bowl has 15 inches of snow on the lower slopes, but 45 inches on the upper slopes. Sugar Bowl is known for its high annual snowfall and is one of the closest ski areas to the San Francisco Bay Area.

Kirkwood has 25 inches at the bottom and 37 inches on top. Kirkwood is approximately 33 miles south of South Lake Tahoe on Highway 88 and is known for having one of the highest average snowfalls of any resort.

Bear Valley has 30 inches of snow, both upper and lower slopes. Bear Valley is south of Lake Tahoe on Highway 4.

Boreal Mountain Resort has 25 inches of snow on both the upper and lower slopes. Boreal is located near Sugar Bowl at Donner Summit, and like Sugar Bowl, is one of the closest areas to the Bay Area.

Following is a list of some of the Lake Tahoe area ski hills with the best conditions right now.

Ski Hill	Lower – Upper
Sugar Bowl	15”- 45”
Homewood	7” – 40”
Kirkwood	25” – 37”
Squaw Valley	18” – 34”
Alpine Meadows	18” – 33”
Sierra-at-Tahoe	12” – 33”
Heavenly	32” – 32”
Bear Valley	30” – 30”
Donner Ski Ranch	11” – 30”
Northstar	18” – 28”
Boreal	25” – 25”

At this point, we haven’t had any appreciable snowfall since December 30th. That’s a long dry spell, but actually is not that atypical. The snow depth on the upper slopes at Squaw Valley right now is 34 inches. Comparing the snow depth on the upper slopes at Squaw on this date over the past ten years, snow depth has been 34 inches or less five times, and over 34 inches five times, so this year is very close to average. As it turns out, January is often a dry month.

Think Snow!
George Denise
The Ski Renter