San Francisco Bay Area Ski Vacation Guide

The San Francisco Bay is one of the most popular places to live in the United States and while the immediate area is not known as a ski haven, there are plenty of places in the surrounding areas where you can get away from it all for a ski adventure. If you want to have a fun social time with new friends, join a local ski or athletic clubs and you can take advantage of special group rates when you go to the surrounding ski areas. Depending on the club, you may be able to enjoy a wide variety of other sports and activities. While prices may be a little high in the San Francisco area in general, there are plenty of places where you can purchase great skiing and snowboarding gear and with special offers.

Northern California and neighboring Nevada provide some of the closest local options. Northern California offers ski resorts such as Badger Pass, Bear Valley, Dodge Ridge, Mount Shasta Ski Park and Sierra Summit, while Nevada offers you a range of ski resorts in the Lake Tahoe areas. Mammoth Mountain also provides an interesting and challenging ski experience.

While the city of San Francisco itself may be known for the rain and the fog, the areas that surround it are a different story altogether. Get in your tourist fix by seeing all the popular sites—Moon Bay, Alcatraz Island, Golden Gate Bridge, Haight-Ashbury, etc. Then travel just three to four miles and enjoy a day or two, or ten, skiing some of the best slopes in the U.S.

San Francisco Bay Area Snowboard Vacation Guide


While San Francisco might not be the most obvious place to think of when you are looking for a snowboarding experience, the city makes an excellent base to plan your next snowboarding vacation. Whether you are looking to spend a couple weeks getting away from it all, or just want to take a quick one or two day trip to the mountains, there are plenty of resorts in the local area that you can find great winter sports experience.

Northern California provides excellent opportunities for snowboarding, as the Sierra mountains pass through the state and you only have to go an hour or so before you cross a wide range of different environments. The natural beauty of California has inspired generations of travelers and you can spend one day by the ocean and another day at the top of a mountain. The state provides snowboarding areas such as Badger Pass, Mount Shasta Ski Park, Sierra Summit, Dodge Ridge, and Bear Valley. Listen to the DJ during night riding at the terrain park in Heavenly. Or jump on the K2 Stomping Grounds of Kirkwood. You don’t want to miss the Olympic-sized Super Duper Pipe at Mammoth Mountain and you surely shouldn’t miss the tree-line terrain off the Granite Chief and KT-22 lifts of Palisades Tahoe. All of these snowboarding havens are located within a three- to four-hour drive from the Bay Area.

There are social opportunities in the San Francisco Bay for you to make new friends while snowboarding, skiing and enjoying other winter sports. Downhill slopes and cross-country ski adventures are frequently visited by the numerous ski clubs in the San Francisco Bay area. By joining a local snowboarding club you can go on group vacations to get discounts from the local merchants catering to the ski and snowboard crowd.

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