The North Lake Tahoe and Truckee region is known for its world renown skiing. When most people think of a great ski vacation they are dreaming of fresh powder and a winter wonderland. Don’t get me wrong, I love a good powder day and nothing beats the beauty of fresh snow blanketing everything, but every year around March, the sun comes out, the birds start to sing, and the snow changes to smooth corn, and I debate with myself weather corn snow or powder is my favorite…
So, I have complied a list of the best and my favorite, spring skiing runs at the various ski resorts in the North Lake Tahoe and Truckee region because spring skiing has so much to offer that powder does not and you can decide for yourself which one you like best!
Palisades Tahoe
Smoothie 
Smoothie is the all-time best spring skiing run in my opinion. It is located along the ridge between Granite Chief Peak and Silver Peak. It is only accessible when the Silverado chair is running and the Palisades Tahoe Ski Patrol open the gate. They keep this area closed off until the freeze thaw cycle has started and only open it for a few hours first thing in the morning because it is south facing. This way the snow does not get over-skied and sloppy. Because the patrol do such a good job monitoring this area it is like skiing fresh, smooth corn every day. It is not the steepest run at Palisades Tahoe by any means, it is rolling hills and small cliffs, but the corn is smooth, untracked, and fast! This is a great run for expert skiers, mostly because it involves a LONG traverse to get there.
Tower 16 and Sun Chutes 
Tower 16 and Sun Chutes are located off the Broken Arrow chair on the northeast facing slope of Broken Arrow (the mountain). Tower 16, so named for the 16th tower of the old gondola, is a long, open, and steep mogul field that is a perfect place to practice your freestyle bump skills in nice soft, slushy bumps. The Sun Chutes are located to the skier’s right of Tower 16 and are three wide chutes that offer some fun, challenging skiing that is often overlooked by those who ski Tower 16 and is often less bumped-out.
Sun Bowl 
The classic spring skiing experience at Palisades Tahoe, Sun Bowl is located on the backside of Squaw Peak, accessed from the Headwall chair. This run is a beautiful open bowl that overlooks Alpine Meadows and the Five Lakes. The run is steep and offers both slushy bump skiing and some open bowl skiing in corn snow. It ends with a run-out that leads to the Cornice Two Ridge and from there you can ski The Bullet (a fun and fast groomed run) or Cornice Cliffs (if the snow is warm enough because they are North Facing).
Alpine Meadows
Three Sisters 
Three Sisters are three parallel chutes located on the lower end of Wolverine Bowl on Ward Peak. This run is accessed via Summit Chair. From the top of Summit Chair you traverse Wolverine Bowl to the ridge between Wolverine Bowl and Beaver Bowl and then drop in through the trees above the three chutes. The chutes are narrow and technical. Wolverine Bowl above offers some great open bowl skiing as well before accessing the Three Sisters chutes. This whole slope is east facing so it warms up nicely in the mid-morning.
High Traverse 
The High traverse has amazing options for skiing along the Southeast facing ridge of Ward Peak. As it is named, the High Traverse is accessed via a traverse/small hike from the Summit Chairlift. This area is only opened when the Alpine Ski Patrol deem it safe, so check before you begin hiking. From the peak you can continue to traverse west along the ridge and chose any number of lines to ski, keeping in mind that you have to make your way back to the Sherwood chair. This is one of the best ski locations in Alpine both for winter and spring skiing (it is even great hiking in the summer!)
Sherwood Chair
For some fun slushy, mild, bumps check out Sherwood Chair-line first thing in the morning. The slope is south facing and warms fast. It is not too steep and is a wide-open run to practice some great mogul skiing.
Diamond Peak 
Crystal Ridge and Golden Eagle Bowl
Crystal Ridge made the list of top 100 ski runs in the world by CNN and it isn’t hard to see why- the views. It can feel like you are about to ski into Lake Tahoe as you carve down this intermediate run. Crystal Ridge is accessed by the Crystal Express and the trail starts at Diamond Peak’s summit. Golden Eagle Bowl is just to the skiers left of Crystal Ridge and affords some great open tree skiing with a northwest aspect, great for warm spring ski days.
Mt. Rose
The Chutes 
The Chutes are famed across the North Lake Tahoe and Truckee region for their steep, challenging terrain. These Chutes are technical and rocky, and by springtime they can be a bit burned off so watch for rocks! The main Chutes are north facing and thus often closed in springtime because the snow remains too icy, but the lower Chutes are northeast facing and can get some good sun by afternoon. These Chutes are a bit more open and less steep (though still advanced skiing) and offer some fun open turns in corn snow when the backside of Mt. Rose is too slushy to enjoy!
Greg,
WOW! Smoothie, Tower 16 & Sun Chutes? I don’t even know about these runs, as Silverado seems to never be open when we’re there, and same with Broken Arrow. Thanks for this listing! I’m gonna print it out and bring it with me next time we ski.
I’m surprised to hear you like corn snow as much as powder, but we had our OVI week in March this year, and it WAS fun and less cold and stressful. My problem with it is I hate corduroy, and there’s SO much of it in spring….
Hope to ski with you next year, we’re comin’ in February!
ski ya later!
Crystal
They both have their benefits! I’d love to ski with you when you are in town…Sun chutes and Tower 16 are equally as good with winter snow. I’ll introduce you to them when you are here!