Resort Skiing & Snowboarding

Twenty-seven ski resorts, more than 38,000 skiable acres, and a season that has run from November into August in exceptional years. Palisades Tahoe hosted the 1960 Winter Olympics and still holds the state's most serious inbounds terrain; Mammoth tops out at 11,053 feet with the deepest, most reliable snowpack in California and routinely spins lifts into June or July. Heavenly, Northstar, Kirkwood, Sugar Bowl and Mt. Rose fill out the Tahoe basin, Kirkwood the storm magnet and Sugar Bowl the snowiest by average. Homewood, Diamond Peak, Tahoe Donner, Soda Springs and Donner Ski Ranch keep it small and affordable. To the south, Big Bear, Snow Summit, Mountain High, Mt. Baldy and Snow Valley put lift-served skiing 90 minutes from downtown Los Angeles, while Mt. Shasta Ski Park, Dodge Ridge, Bear Valley and China Peak fill the gaps between.