California Overview

California is world famous for a lot of things such as Hollywood, Disneyland, Freeways and of course snowboarding. The riding terrain and conditions can vary vastly across this massive state. In the south are the dry San Bernadino Mountains surrounding LA and in the north are the powder-covered peaks of the Sierra Nevada range in northern California.

Northern California: The Mammoth Lakes Region and Lake Tahoe  region are the jewles in the Northern Californian snowboarding crown. Based in the Sierra Nevada mountain ranges, resorts in these regions receive awesome snowfalls and superb weather. 

Southern California: Southern California is home to sun, surf and Hollywood. Here you can be guaranteed sunny days, great pipes and parks, and warm weather. However, don't go to Southern California if you want powder and big terrain. For that, you will have to head up north to Mammoth/June and Tahoe.

Snowboarding in California

California is known as America's home of skateboarding and surfing, therefore it is no surprise that the resorts and the riders in this state are particularly freestyle-orientated. As a result, there are very few resorts in California that do not have a good snowboard park and halfpipe and whilst huge Pacific storms play havoc with their maintenance, heavy competition amongst the resorts ensures these facilties are always in A1 condition. As far as freeriding goes, Mammoth Mountain and the Tahoe resorts are the place to be if you are after good steeps and powder. The mountains in these places offer plenty of high alpine riding and the peaks in these areas are characterised by bowls, cliffs, chutes, cornices and glades. The terrain in northern California is, without a doubt, close to the best in the USA.

Accommodation

As mentioned in the California Overview above, the main two snowboarding regions in California are Southern Califrnia around LA and Lake Tahoe in Northern California.

For all the details on Accommodation in Lake Tahoe , check out our Lake Tahoe Page.

Genral Accommodation Info:

Motels and hotels are everywhere you go in America so there is no issue finding somewhere to stay, it just depends how much you want to spend. Sometimes you will be paying US$10 and sometimes you need to fork out US$50 per person for a nights accommodation.

Almost all American resorts offer you both on and off mountain accommodation as the mountains are usually close to a major city or town. It is very easy to do a road trip, staying at major cities each time, and commuting 1/2 an hour to the mountain each day. This is very true in places like Salt Lake City, Utah .

If you are staying in a place for a number of days, weeks or months, then you definitely need to organise and apartment or house, particularly if there is a group of you. See what we did for each state that we visited.

Browse the individual resorts you are interested in to check out Accommodation details in that region.

Transport

America is a big place, and there are a lot of resorts to visit. Once you have established what sort of a trip you are going to do (ie, stay put or move around) then you can decide what sort of transport you need. Let us say that the car is a part of the American way of life, you need one to get everywhere - but the pay off is that they are cheap.

In our transport section, we look at how to get the best deal on a car, be it hiring or buying. We also look at using trains, buses and airplanes to get yourself around.

Hints & Tips

• If you are flying in to San Francisco or Los Angeles and plan on spending a couple of days there, consider pre-booking your first few nights with a travel agent as you are likely to get cheaper prices than the walk in rate.
• It is about a ten hour drive from Los Angeles to Tahoe and about 4 hours from San Francisco to Lake Tahoe
• California is the place for park and pipe riding.

Getting There

California is located on the west coast of USA.  The main International Airport in the state is LAX which is in Los Angeles or San Fransisco.  However, there are thousands of airports littered across the state and plenty of airlines to get you where you want to go.

Last updated on 01 November 2004.