Tahoe: skiing’s most beautiful destination

This week Travelocity started its latest round of the Cabin Fever Sweepstakes by asking people to vote which ski destination is better, Salt Lake City or Tahoe. It’s a tough one. The Wasatch and the Sierra Nevada are both amazing for deep powder and great turns. Salt Lake has the greatest snow on earth. Yet there’s something special about skiing with one of the world’s rarest of lakes in view. In the end, my vote had to go to Tahoe, skiing’s most beautiful destination.

Cast your own vote, Tahoe or Salt Lake, here: Cabin Fever Sweepstakes. Don’t agree that Tahoe is better? Post your argument in the comment section below!

Let’s be clear, I’m not ruling out Salt Lake City as a great ski destination. I’m heading out there next week in fact. I worked a winter at Snowbird when I was 18 and to this day it remains the best ski winter of my life. I’ve skied all over the west from Alaska down, and for my money, there really isn’t any better snow than Salt Lake. Powder days at the Bird are some of my top days of riding ever. To go with all that great snow, the Wasatch Mountains offer up lots of incredible terrain too. But great snow and great terrain aren’t all that go into a great ski destination. (“Skiing” includes snowboarding in my thought process)

Skiing is a lifestyle more than just an activity. It’s loving the outdoors, thriving off the energy that ripping down the mountain gives you, and carrying that energy into everything else you do. In large part that energy first expresses itself off the hill in the Apres Ski party scene. Sorry Salt Lake, but Tahoe has you beaten hands down in this department. Anywhere that has to change its alcohol laws for two weeks during the Olympics to avoid criticism from the rest of the world is struggling, to say the least, with the party scene.

In my far from expert opinion, Salt Lake has better snow and better terrain than Tahoe. That said, Tahoe gets a bad rap for what far too many people refer to as “Sierra Cement”. Tahoe’s snow comes in wet and dense, it’s true, but the storms come in HUGE, like the 10 feet that dumped over the last week and half, and when it’s that deep, you still need a snorkel, dense or not. Powder is fun no matter what the water density, and though Salt Lake’s might be lighter and fluffier, it’s also gone sooner once that spring sun hits. With the weather in Tahoe vascillating between either big storm or sunshine, that density serves the skier well. With the California, or Nevada, sun beating down after every storm, it’s like spring skiing all winter long when it’s not dumping.

I’ve got to give it SLC on terrain by a hair too. For sheer quantity of steeps, the Wasatch have it. The Sierras have amazing terrain, but when it comes to the biggest baddest resorts out there, it’s tough to beat Snowbird. Outside of the Bird though, resorts like Sugar Bowl, Kirkwood, and Squaw Valley are right there with the top terrain you can find anywhere. As for backcountry, I haven’t done any in the Wasatch but I know first hand that the Sierras are world class.

So what’s the difference maker? Quite simply, Lake Tahoe. And if Tahoe isn’t enough, try Donner Lake, or Angora Lakes or Cascade…the list goes on and on. As for Tahoe, there are only 2 other lakes in the world that rival Lake Tahoe’s clarity, which is what lends it that deep blue color that it’s famous for. Crater Lake up in Oregon isn’t any more of ski desitination than Lake Baikal in Siberia is.

I could go on and on about what makes Lake Tahoe so unique, and in have in other stories, but long story short, there literally isn’t another place in the world that you can ski with a view like that of Lake Tahoe. There’s just something special about having one of the most beautiful views in the world while your carving turns through deep snow in the mountains. To me, that makes Tahoe one of the best ski destinations anywhere.