Tahoe Donner Cross Country
Size: 4,800 acres, 51 trails
Details: www.tahoedonner.com
Phone: 530-587-9484

The trail map says Tahoe Donner has 100 kilometers of trails over 4,800 acres, but when you’re skiing, TD feels much larger than that.

That might be because of the variety of terrain — from the lung-searing ridges of Hawk’s Peak at 7,729 feet to the sheltered meadows of Euer Valley.

Nearly half of Tahoe Donner’s trails are intermediate level, and 11 of the 51 trails are rated advanced or expert. What’s more, it has two ‘wilderness’ trails that are groomed for diagonal striding only and three tails that are reserved for snowshoers. Scattered over its sprawling network of trails are five warming huts.

If you get the sense that Tahoe Donner’s aim is to accommodate a wide range of skiers, you would be correct. It offers early morning skiing on certain days for people who want to get a ski in before work, and it has five kilometers of trails lit for night skiing from 5-7 p.m. on Wednesdays (Jan. 7-Feb. 25) for those who want to ski after work. They even hold races in the evenings sometimes.

What’s more, you can get a discount on your next trail pass if you turn in your all-day pass before noon, which is perfect for those of us who like to get out early when the snow is still cold and fresh but aren’t really interested in skiing all day. This discount translates into a half-day pass for morning conditions – an appealing deal.

You can even get a discount on certain days if you present a season pass from a competing resort. It’s called Tahoe Donner’s “good neighbor policy,” but we couldn’t find any other neighbors who were as generous.

Maybe that’s because Tahoe Donner is confident that if you ski there once that you will come back. Our complete unscientific observation over the years is that Tahoe Donner pays careful attention to its trail conditions all day long. That means that if it is snowing heavily during the day, Tahoe Donner is likely to send out its groomers to keep at least some of its trails combed out for you. That doesn’t mean you won’t get to experience that floating glide you get when there is an inch or two of powder on the corduroy, because you will. The groomers just seem to know when the snow gets too deep.

Tahoe Donner general manager Jo Jo Toeppner agrees that the grooming at her ski area is what sets it apart from others. She says her groomers focus on keeping the trail surface as flat and consistent as possible, making them easier to ski for all ability levels.

In short, Tahoe Donner is a great place for beginners as well as experienced skiers. It caters to both skaters, striders and snowshoers, but people who like to bring their dogs will want to look elsewhere. It even caters to alpine skiers; you can get a combination season pass that lets you use Tahoe Donner’s downhill area. You can even step into your skinny skis and glide over to the cross-country trails from the downhill area.

Very convenient.

Toeppner has added three new trails this year – Boot Scoot, which comes in just below Sundance Hut and offer a quick-turning route down to Boot Hill; Bullet, down in Euer Valley, which connects High Noon to Broken Spoke; and Tim’s Trek, which is a snowshoe-only trail.

Royal Gorge
Size: 9,000 acres, 300 kilometers of trails, 88 trails, six trail systems
Details: www.royalgorge.com
Phone: 800-500-3871

Royal Gorge has the most of everything – the most snow (600 inches a year), the largest trail system, the biggest grooming fleet, the highest trail pass prices. And it’s always prided itself on that size, branding itself as the largest cross country ski area in North America.

And its reputation for great snow, great terrain and innovation has always been deserved.

But this will be the year that Royal Gorge pulls back a little bit and focuses less on its sheer size and more on the quality of the experience skiers have on its sprawling Donner Summit trail network.

For starters, Royal Gorge will be closed on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, except during the holiday season. It was a difficult decision, general manager Dave Achey says, but a necessary one.

“Many components are part of the decision to cut back on Tuesday and Wednesday,” Achey said. “It has to do with the whole economy but it also has to do with our effort to stimulate some growth in this industry. We want to bring more skiers into the sport and we want to make sure their skiing experience is an outstanding one. So when we operate, it will be with a high level or quality. You won’t hear us talking so much about our size and our grooming fleet but we will be focusing on the quality of the skiing.”

Still, it’s difficult to talk about Royal Gorge without talking about its size. It has six trail networks, from the Van Orden trail system that connects with Sugar Bowl to the Devil’s Peak and Palisade Peak systems with their long tours and incredible vistas.

In fact, Royal Gorge is almost too massive for many skiers to fully comprehend. To help them out, the resort has posted a pretty nifty online interactive map that gives a wonderful bird’s-eye view of the terrain and will help even veteran skiers plan their day on the summit.

In fact, Achey recommends visitors study Royal Gorge’s trail system a little bit before setting out.

“Talk to one of our staff members,” he said. “Unless you are in the know, you don’t know Royal Gorge.”

In addition to its spacious and comfortable Summit Station Day Lodge, Royal Gorge also operates the Ice Lakes Lodge on Serene Lakes and the Rainbow Lodge seven miles from Summit Station. Ice Lakes Lodge is particularly convenient for skiers; the new Reindeer Trailhead is just across the street. Summit Station and Ice Lakes Lodge also offer cafes for day skiers, who can also stop at the Sugar Bowl Lodge for snacks or a meal while they are out skiing. Royal Gorge has eight warming huts for people who want to stop and have a snack.

While many cross-country areas are now catering to skaters, striders and snowshoers, Royal Gorge takes it a couple of steps further by offering four surface lifts which operate on weekends and holidays. It’s great if you want to practice your turns or if you’re skiing with a tele skier, but it’s also nice if you’ve got kids and they are starting to get a little tired on the return trip uphill to the Summit Station. The lifts are located at Summit Trailhead, Yuba Hill, Kat’s Walk and Palisade Hill.

Northstar-at-Tahoe
Size: 50 kilometers of trails
Details: www.northstarattahoe.com/info/ski/explore-xcountry.asp
Phone: 1-800-GO-NORTH

Northstar offers a different experience from most cross-country areas, primarily because it requires you to mingle with those inquiring alpine skiers.

While at most cross-country areas you can walk from your car to the trail, at Northstar, you have to buy your tail pass at the Village Center and then board the Big Springs Express Gondola or the Village Express Quad Chairlift to reach Northstar’s 50 kilometers of trail.

That means standing in line with people clomping around in heavy boots, oversized coats and bulky gloves, many of whom will look at you and your skinny skis and lightweight clothing and ask what type of skiing it is you are planning to do. You tell them, but often they still don’t quite understand. They thought cross-country skiing involved knickers and bota bags. So it’s best to bolt off the lift or gondola and show them what those thin boards can accomplish under some well-hewn thighs.

This is not to say that Northstar is not a pleasant place to go cross-country skiing, because it is. Northstar takes special care to keep its trails properly groomed, and there is plenty of challenging terrain. Plus, it’s a great place to go if you want to be around your alpining friends but prefer to climb your own hills. The views are great and it’s actually quite a bit of fun to zip around and through those downhillers when they are struggling across the flats near the Day Lodge. You can even ski downhill part of the day and then turn in your lift pass for a cross country trail pass. Northstar also allows snowshoers on its trails.

One thing that jumps out about Northstar’s cross-country area is the price for a season pass -- $99, according to its Web site. That pass has several blackout dates from late November through February, but it’s still a tremendous deal.

Although trail passes must be purchased before loading the gondola, rental equipment, pass packages and lessons must be purchased at the new Cross-Country Ski & Snowshoe Center located at mid-mountain next to the Vista Express.  If you have your own equipment and a trail pass, you can take the Village Express Quad directly to the Sawmill Flat Trail System.

You can snowshoe on the cross-country trails and two adjacent Lake Tahoe wilderness trails. The trail system features three warming huts with water and free hot drinks.

On some occasions, Northstar’s trails hook up with the system maintained by Tahoe Cross Country just over the hill in the Tahoe Basin. This year the two areas hope to host a point-to-point, 30-kilometer race.

Tahoe Cross Country Ski Area
Size: 65 kilometers, 19 trails
Details: www.tahoexc.org
Phone: 530-583-5475

If $450 boots, $500 skis and $160 glide waxes make you long for the days when cross-country skiing was a simple, inexpensive sport, spend some time at Tahoe Cross Country Ski Area in Tahoe City – it will restore your faith.

Although its grooming and trail layout are as good as any cross-country area, in other ways Tahoe XC is a throwback. It offers some free beginner and skating lessons at various times throughout the week (there are also paid lessons available). The deadline for its season pass is Dec. 1 – the latest we’ve ever seen and late enough for cheapskates like us to get a better idea of what the snowfall is going to be like for the winter.

It gets better: Dogs are welcome at Tahoe XC on Monday through Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. and on holidays from 3-5 p.m. on two of its trails covering five miles. Dog passes are $4 and you have to clean up after them (poop bags provided), but it is a real treat for those of us who have two yellow labs who develop hellacious habits in the winter when they are deprived of their trail runs.

Tahoe Cross Country, a nonprofit operation for the last 10 years, doesn’t allow skijoring – a Norwegian sport that involves dogs towing a human on skis – but it clearly doesn’t mind having the mutts around.

“It’s a treat to be able to ski on a beautifully groomed trail with your dog,” says Kevin Murnane, who managers Tahoe Cross Country with his wife Valli. “It’s a challenge (allowing dogs on trails) but people really like it.”

The biggest surprise at the ski area, Murnane says, is the free lessons.

“If people are hinging on whether to try the sport, this could help promote it,” Murnane says. “The experience between skiing with a lesson and skiing without can be night and day.”

Tahoe XC has other advantages: Every season pass holder gets a 10-cookie, 10-coffee punch card; two free guest passes per season; discounts on demo rentals; and a particularly long ski season – for the last four years, Tahoe XC has stayed open longer than any other cross-country area in the region.

Tahoe XC also hosts the Winter Discover Center, a yurt that serves as headquarters and classroom for eight classes of third- to fifth-grade students from Tahoe Lake School and Kings Beach Elementary School.

The Winter Discovery Program, put on by both the Tahoe Cross Country Ski Education Association and the Sierra Watershed Education Partnership, involves three field trips for each class. The trips combine academic study with cross-country skiing.

Kirkwood Cross County & Snowshoe Center
Size: 80 kilometers
Details: www.kirkwood.com
Phone: 209-258-7248

Kirkwood Cross County & Snowshoe Center is quite a distance away from most Tahoe-area Nordic areas, and when you ski there, you become very aware of that fact.

That is to say that the terrain at Kirkwood, with its soaring lava cliffs, rolling creek-side trails and beautiful alpine meadows, is very different from many other areas. You feel like you’re in a different world.

“All our trails are bordered by wilderness areas, so you get a very remote feeling when you ski on them,” says manager Debbi Waldear, a seven-time World Masters cross-country ski champion. “Our trails are not roads, so we groom over the natural terrain, meadows and granite domes, so it’s not that perfect grade that other areas have. That’s what makes it exciting and allows us to put in those twisting little turns.”

Kirkwood has a base elevation of 7,800 feet, which means that it often has snow when other areas don’t. That kind of elevation also means that even altitude-acclimated skiers might find their lungs stinging a bit as they make their way up to some of the Kirkwood’s ridge-top trails.

Sierra Vista is one of the more remote routes in Kirkwood’s network of three trail systems and climbs to an altitude of 9,000 feet. It’s a lung-buster, to be sure, but it’s worth the effort; it offers views of the Sierra as well as the Sacramento Valley and the far-off coastal range. On a clear day, you can see Mount Diablo near Livermore.

Sixty percent of Kirkwood is intermediate terrain but there are plenty of easy-rolling trails for people to catch their breath, learn or work on their technique. The Caples Creek Trail descends to a quiet meadow and follows a creek, and Kirkwood Meadow is also great learning terrain. You can bring your dog (a trail pass for the pooch is required) on the inside loop trail in Kirkwood Meadow. Dogs are also allowed on the High Trail behind Kirkwood Inn.

All told, Kirkwood has more than 80 kilometers of trails.

At $199, Kirkwood’s season’s pass is one of the cheapest in the region. That might be because Kirkwood is a little off the beaten path – it’s a 45-minute drive from South Lake Tahoe and 45 miles from Gardnerville. But a season pass at Kirkwood comes with other incentives, including discounts on lodging, merchandise, lift tickets and clinics. If you have a downhill season pass, you can include the cross county and snowshoe center for just $59. Waldear says she sells a lot of those upgrades, and the number is increasing every year.

Waldear recommends visitors plan to spend the whole day. Ski in the morning, take a break, and then ski again in the afternoon. The variety of terrain will give you plenty of ground to cover.

Spooner Lake Cross Country
Size: 9,000 acres, 80 kilometers of trails
Details: www.spoonerlake.com
Phone: 775-749-5349

They call it simply The Big Loop, a 35-kilometer round trip from the Spooner Lake Cross Country center. The Big Loop climbs 3,700 feet in altitude and offers some of the best views you’ll find of Lake Tahoe and the Carson Valley. The carefully groomed snow beneath you is often the only hint of civilized living on this back-country trail.

Although it sits just 12 miles from the bright lights of South Lake Tahoe and Stateline, Spooner Lake’s 80 kilometers of trails are spread out over 9,000 acres of state parks land and U.S. Forest Service property. That’s an area the size of Royal Gorge, and in many ways Spooner Lake rivals the scenic beauty of Royal Gorge.

Spooner Lake, operated by Max Jones and Patti McMullan, has a very pleasant mix of trail difficulties. Around the lodge, located on Highway 28 one half mile from Highway 50 on Spooner Summit, the trials are gentle and rolling, rising to black diamond runs the higher you go and the closer you get to Marlette Lake.

Spooner Lake delivers on that common resort boast of offering something for everyone. The Spooner Lake Trail is one of the prettiest beginner trails at Lake Tahoe, and The Big Loop will challenge the fittest, most skilled cross-country skier.

But Spooner delivers in other ways. You can swing by for a short, easy ski or for a longer half-day loop, such as the 22-kilometer Saints Rest route. Or you can reserve a night or weekend in one of Spooner’s wilderness cabins and ski to your heart’s content.

The Wildcat and Spooner Lake cabins can only be reached by skis, snowshoes, hiking or mountain biking when there isn’t any snow on the ground. The Wildcat Cabin is 2.25 miles from the lodge and the Spooner Lake Cabin is less than a mile.

These are not your typical kit-built cabins either. Each was built from native pines that were hand-peeled and fitted together using chainsaws and hand tools. The logs were towed over the snow via snowmobiles to their construction sites, where the timbers were lowered into place by hand using a block-and-tackle device. Even the floors were milled from standing trees killed by bark beetles in the Lake Tahoe Nevada State Park.

Camp Richardson Resort
South Lake Tahoe, Calif.
Details: 530-542-6584

Camp Rich, located on Highway 89 just north of South Lake Tahoe, offers 35 kilometers of marked and groomed trails winding through gentle terrain around the Tallac estates. It’s one of the few places at Tahoe where you can ski or snowshoe along the shoreline. The Mountain Sports Center offers rentals and lessons and full-moon cross country ski parties.


Clair Tappaan Lodge
Donner Pass Road, Norden, Calif.
Details: 530-426-3632

This Sierra Club lodge maintains about 12 kilometers of groomed or tracked trails right out its back door. Use of the trails is free for people staying at the lodge; others are asked to contribute $8 ($4 for kids). You can rent equipment – track, backcountry skis and snowshoes – on a first-come, first-served basis. The trails here give you good access to all kinds of backcountry terrain. Lessons are also available. There is also a snow-play area and a sledding hill.


Hope Valley Outdoor Center
Pickett’s Junction, Highway 88 in Alpine County, Calif.
Details: 530-694-2266

Hope Valley has always been a popular destination for cross-country skiers willing to cut their own trail, and it’s likely to stay that way. But thanks to the outdoor center, some of those trails will now be packed down by machine. All told there are 60 miles of groomed and ungroomed trails in Hope Valley near the yurt that serves as the outdoor center’s headquarters. According to its web site, the outdoor center doesn’t charge trail fees but does accept donations. You can rent equipment, get a lesson, sign up for a tour and bring your dog. There are snowshoe tours as well as moonlight tours.


Resort at Squaw Creek Nordic Center
Squaw Valley, Calif.
Details: 530-583-6300

The resort maintains 18 kilometers of trails groomed for striding, skating and snowshoeing. Most of the trails are in the 400-acre, gently rolling meadow but about 10 percent are advanced difficulty. It’s a good place for beginners – 70 percent of the trails are essentially flat – and you can also rent equipment.


Auburn Ski Club
Interstate 80 at Boreal
Details: 530-426-3313

Auburn Ski Club is located at the west end of Boreal’s parking lot and is typically one of the first areas open each winter due to its 7,200-foot elevation. It maintains 15 kilometers of challenging trails, which are groomed every day except Monday and Tuesday. The area is run by what executive director Bill Clark calls a “club-oriented nonprofit,” and it caters to young racers, youth programs and families. It doesn’t sell daily trail passes, just yearlong memberships, so ask them about the pricing and volunteer opportunities that can help reduce those prices. This year the area will host the cross-country junior nationals, which will bring in the best 13- to 19-year-old racers from across the country. For details on that, go to: xcjuniorolympics2009.org.


Ed Z’berg Sugar Pine Point State Park
Tahoma, Calif.
Details: 530-525-7982

The park grooms two of its four trails, which are located on both the east (lake shore) and west sides of Highway 89. The trails on the west side near the General Creek Campground are groomed “when conditions permit,” park ranger Heidi Doyle says. The trails are groomed for striding only and usually only after a storm. There are about six miles of groomed trail and about three miles of shoreline trails that aren’t groomed. There is a heated restroom in the General Creek campground and interpretive presentations are offered most weekends from January through March. Interpretive activities listed HYPERLINK "http://www.parks.ca.gov" www.parks.ca.gov.


Donner Memorial State Park
582-7892
Donner Pass Road, Truckee

This park along the east end of Donner Lake is closed to campers in the winter but its gentle, rolling campground has about five miles of marked cross country skiing and snowshoe trails. It also provides access to all kinds of backcountry terrain. The area has a new track setter ready to go for this winter, and park rangers say they’ll try to groom as often as staffing allows. Although the parking lot is no longer a Sno-Park area, you still have to purchase a daily use pass if you want to park there and don’t have an annual park pass.