April 4, 2005, Homewood,NW. Lk. Tahoe

Overnight most of the ski areas on the Sierra Crest near Lake Tahoe received 12 inchesof powder but winds had gusted over 70 mph at the higher resorts. One of the true gems of Lake Tahoe is Homewood ski area. Homewoods attributes are that it is below the Sierra Crest and is never really affected by the strong winds that accompany most Sierra storms. It also has 1650 vertical spread along 1260 acres of terrain. There are no high speed lifts because the place is never crowded on a weekday. O yeah, the lift tickets are $25 Monday through Thursday or $20 a day if you buy a 2 day pass. The other biggee is that you will ski fresh lines from start to finish. <br><br>It was a classic Sierra snowstorm that arrived late the previous afternoon and dropped 12 inches by lift opening under blue skies. Another chains required day but we put them on before we went to bed in the camper. We arrived at Homewoods South Lot which is down the road from the North or main lodge. Few folks start here and we park next to the lift. During the first hour and a half, Jill and I layed down 6 sets of tracks on the front runs to the lift that were the only tracks on the slope until 11am. There were no other skiers. As the morning progressed we moved higher on the mountain and saw other tracks but skied untracked lines until we stopped for lunch at 1pm. The area is a tree skiers paradise. If you need an adrenalin shot, there are the runs off Quail Face. Quail Face was open and we dropped a line down the face just before lunch. The exit requires a short 10 minute climb out of the basin but it is worth the climb. We skied until 3pm and there was still untracked powder on all the main runs plus the trees. <br><br>Backcountry access is available. A couple of years ago Craig Dostie wrote an article in Couloir magazine about Homewood and the terrain off Ellis Peak and the Fourth of July Chutes. Homewood has been a favorite of ours and it has provided some great powder memories. Zap & Jill<br>

Zap's comments about Homewood are spot on. The vast majority of skiers there never go off-piste so the place almost never gets tracked out. The chairs there are also fairly slow and old; it reminds me a lot of Mt Hood Ski Bowl.

Yeah - Homewood is great. Just make sure the snow level is low. I have been rained on there a few times when it was snowing up higher.<br><br>