Lake Tahoe
Lake Tahoe · near Tahoe City / South Lake Tahoe · Sierra Nevada / Yosemite
Sailing
At a glance
- Difficulty
- advanced
- Best season
- Summer (thermal & frontal wind); spring frontal systems strongest
- Water temperature
- Cold (50s–low 60s°F) — snowmelt-fed, dress warm
What is here
- Amenities
- Sail the iconic blue alpine lake · Tahoe Yacht Club & marinas · World-class mountain scenery · Summer sailing & racing
- Best for
- Alpine sailing amid world-class scenery
- Features
- The iconic turquoise alpine lake · Stunning Sierra scenery · Frontal & thermal mountain wind · Tahoe YC & summer racing
Worth knowing
- Hazards
- Cold snowmelt water (hypothermia risk) · High altitude (6,225 ft) · Gusty, sudden mountain wind shifts · Big fetch & fast-changing weather
- Good for a first timer
- No
Guides, rentals and operators
- Lessons
- Yes
Sailing detail
- Styles
- day-sail · racing
- Breeze
- moderate
- Venue
- lake
- Exposure
- 4
- Sailing
- Sailing the largest alpine lake in North America — variable mountain wind (frontal & thermal, 8–20 kt) over impossibly blue, cold water at 6,225 feet, ringed by peaks
- Intl tip
- Sail the iconic turquoise alpine lake — the largest in North America, ringed by Sierra peaks at 6,225 ft. Variable mountain wind (spring frontal systems best; summer thermals gustier, 8–20 kt). ADVANCED: cold snowmelt water (real hypothermia risk), high altitude, sudden wind shifts, fast-changing weather, big fetch. Tahoe YC and marinas; summer season. Dress for cold water. A bucket-list scenic sail for experienced sailors.
The guide
Sailing Lake Tahoe is about the setting as much as the wind — gliding across the impossibly blue, crystal-clear water of the la…
In the Guidebook
Everything above is yours for free. The written guide to Lake Tahoe — what it is actually like, and what we would tell a friend before they went — comes with the Guidebook.
Getting there
- Coordinates
- 39.09, -120.03