cmeyer54

DH will be in San Franciscon the first week of January and would like to meet up with our son for 3-4 days of skiing in either northern california or Oregon. Any advice on locations, lodging options with short notice, driving distances from SFO, etc? They are both advanced skiers. Thanks!

aggiemom

The first one that comes to mind is Mammoth Mountain/June Lake in the Sierras. We always went there from Orange County and it was a five hour drive.

Mammoth is a good-sized resort with lots of levels of skiing and some really good double-diamond runs. June Lake is nearby and smaller but I've never been so I don't know much about it.

bbqboy

Heading N, your first option is Mt. Shasta Ski Park,
http://www.skipark.com/
at about 200 miles from SF. Next is Mt. Ashland,
http://mtashland.com/Index.asp
about 300 miles from SF.
Both of those are locals ski areas rather than destination resorts.
Come back to town at night.
Next would be Mt. Bachelor in Bend,
http://www.mtbachelor.com/
another 200 miles North. It's a bigger area.
They could have a lot of fun skiing a combination
of Shasta and Ashland for a couple of days each, and enjoying the towns too.

Catbert

Easiest drives from San Francisco will be the Lake Tahoe resorts. I prefer Kirkwood (all about 3-4 hours, depending on weather and traffic). He may like Squaw Valley, North Star, or Heavenly Valley. Check out their websites for snow conditions. It rained this past week in some areas the snow is not as good.

jtrandolph

I think the Mammoth Ski area would be more difficult to get to than the others mentioned, since it is on the other side of Yosemite and you can't cross Yowemite in the winter. North Lake Tahoe would be easiest to get to, I think, but do check for skiing conditions.

Michael

North Lake Tahoe has several resorts. Sugar Bowl has a hotel right by the slopes, but it is more isolated than similar accomodations in Northstar or Squaw, although it may be cheaper. Google any of these for more information. If renting a car from the Bay Area, your husband could stay in Truckee, which is 20 minutes for any of the aforementioned ski resorts, which means that he would not be tied down to a single one. The cheapest main resorts in that area are Alpine Meadows and Sugar Bowl ($41 and $46 lift tickets). It would take 3.5 to 4 hours to get to Truckee from SF. All of these resorts have black diamond slopes.

janisj

Actually - the ONLY places that make any sense for your DH are (1) North Lake Tahoe (Boreal, Alpine Meadows, Squaw Valley, Mt Rose, etc) followed closely by (2) South Lake Tahoe (Heavenly, Kirkwood, Sierra Ski Ranch, etc)

Oregon or Mt Shasta are a MUCH longer drives and if there are winter storms the summit on I-5 is basically not passable.

Mammoth is even worse from SF because the pass is closed for the season so he'd have to drive all the way to Bakersfield and then north on 395.

North Tahoe is a straight shot on I-80 and South tahoe is reached via hwy 50.