Boreal
Boreal Mountain Resort is a ski destination located in the Sierra Nevada Mountains of California, near the town of Soda Springs. The resort is located approximately 30 minutes from the city of Truckee, less than an hour from Lake Tahoe, and 1.5 hours from Sacramento. It is one of the great ski resorts near Lake Tahoe that is infrequently brought up when talking about great Lake Tahoe resorts.
Boreal Mountain Resort has a high annual snowfall like most Lake Tahoe resorts, averaging around 400 inches per season. The snow at the resort and around Lake Tahoe is typically dry and powdery, making for some of the best skiing and snowboarding conditions. The ski season at Boreal typically runs from November to April.
Boreal also has a dozen terrain parks for freestyle skiers and snowboarders, featuring a variety of jumps, rails, and other features. In addition to its great skiing and snowboarding, Boreal also offers a variety of lodging options, including ski-in/ski-out condos, and vacation homes, as well as a variety of dining options, and après-ski activities. Their summer park Woodward has everything from golf to trampoline parks to keep summer visitors having fun when the snow disappears!
We recently ranked all of California's ski resorts, so you can see where Boreal stacks up against all its nearby ski hills!
Season Passes
Boreal is not a part of any nationwide lift ticket system. Passes such as Epic, IKON, or Mountain Collective allow pass holders to ski at multiple mountians with a single purchase. Unfortunately, none of those passes work with Boreal Ski Resort. To purchase season passes, you'll need to visit Boreal's website.
Lodging Options
There are numerous options to stay at Boreal around the resort. Check out the available options with the form below.
Boreal Mountain Resort Terrain Overview
Boreal has a total of 33 ski trails, which are serviced by 12 ski lifts, gondolas and/or trams. With 380 acres, Boreal Ski Resort has a moderate amount of skiiable terrain available for skiers. This area is equivalent to 154 hectares, 0.6 square miles, or 1.5 square kilometers.
Boreal's slopes see on average 400 inches (10.2 meters) of snowfall a year. That is almost 33 feet every year!
Total Runs
33
Lifts
12
Skiable Acres
380(2 km2)
Annual Snowfall
400"(1,016 cm)
Boreal Ski Resort Elevation
Boreal Ski Resort has a summit elevation of 7,700 feet, or 2,347 meters. However, not all of that elevation is able to be skied. The base of the ski slope sits at 7,200 feet above sea level, creating a ski hill that is 500 feet (152 meters) high. This is referred to as the slope's vertical drop - or a measure of how high the skiable hill is.
Boreal's summit elevation is higher than average. There are a lot of ski slopes that are much higher than this one (some stretch to 12,000 feet!), but it is not small by any stretch of the imagination.
Summit Elevation
7,700'(2,347 m)
Vertical Drop
500'(152 m)
Base Elevation
7,200'(2,194 m)
Boreal Ski Resort Difficulty Level
Difficulty Score™
29.8out of 100
DID YOU KNOW?
At Parks & Trips, we've created a proprietary Difficulty Score that attempts to show how difficult a particular ski slope is. We get to this number by combining a number of metrics for each resort and comparing them to its peers. Most of the score is based off the amount of easy-intermediate-expert slopes by acreage and the maximum vertical drop of the overall resort, but also includes a few lesser-used metrics as well.
Our algorithm compares each resort’s metrics with all others in North America, then assigns each a Difficulty Score, which we use to rank them accordingly. Resorts with a lower score are easier to ski than those with a higher one. However, a high score does not mean that the resort does not have any easy slopes, or vice versa. This is just an overall score given to the resort based on all its metrics grouped together.
Skiable Terrain by Difficulty Level
Boreal has 380 total skiable acres, which can be broken down into the three main groups of difficulty: Beginner, Intermediate, and Expert.
Since Boreal is an extremely beginner-friendly ski area, it has 30% of its trails are rated as "beginner-level". 55% trails are rated as intermediate.
Beginner
30%(114 acres)
Beginner trails (identified by a green circle) are the easiest trails on the hill with a gradual 25% or less gradient, and are usually wide to accommodate beginner skiers.
Intermediate
55%(209 acres)
Intermediate trails (identified by a blue square) are usually the most popular and crowded runs, which have a slope of anywhere between 25-40%.
Expert
15%(57 acres)
Expert trails (identified by a black diamond... or two) are the hardest slopes on the mountain, and have very steep gradients over 40%.
Is Boreal Ski Resort good for beginners?
Boreal is a very beginner-friendly course. In fact, it is one of the easiest ski slopes in all of North America, ranking in the bottom 10% of overall difficulty. 30% of its trails are rated as "beginner".
Boreal Ski Resort Location
Boreal Ski Resort is located in the state of California, USA. This ski area is nearest the town of Soda Springs, CA.
Address:
Soda Springs, CA 95728 USA
View on Google Maps
Website:
rideboreal.com
GPS Coordinates:
39.33000, -120.35000
Getting to Boreal Mountain Resort
By Car: If you are driving, you would set your GPS to either the ski resort's name (Boreal Ski Resort), its coordinates of 39.33000, -120.35000 (latitude, longitude), or simply drive towards the town of Soda Springs, CA to get close.
By Air: If you are coming in from across the country, then you may need to board an airplane to get here.
A large airport has scheduled major airline service with millions of passengers per year. This type of airport always accepts international flights. Here are the closest large airport(s) to Boreal Ski Resort.
| Name | Code | City | Distance |
|---|---|---|---|
| Reno–Tahoe International Airport | RNO | Reno, NV | 33 mi |
| Sacramento International Airport | SMF | Sacramento, CA | 80 mi |
| Oakland International Airport | OAK | Oakland, CA | 150 mi |
A medium-sized airport has scheduled regional airline service. This type of airport may or may not accept international flights. Here are the closest medium-sized airport(s) to Boreal.
| Name | Code | City | Distance |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sacramento Mather Airport | MHR | Sacramento, CA | 74 mi |
| Redding Municipal Airport | RDD | Redding, CA | 131 mi |
| Charles M. Schulz Sonoma County Airport | STS | Santa Rosa, CA | 144 mi |
There may also be much smaller regional airports next to Boreal Ski Resort, but we didn't list them here due to the fact that no major airlines go through them.
Other Nearby Ski Resorts
Skiers will - especially if coming from far away - try and visit a couple different slopes all in the same trip. Here are the closest other ski slopes within 100 miles of Boreal Ski Resort.
| Name | Location | Summit | Difficulty Score™ | Distance |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Donner Ski Ranch | Norden, CA | 7,781 ft | 38% | 1 mi |
| Soda Springs | Soda Springs, CA | 7,300 ft | 31% | 2 mi |
| Sugar Bowl | Truckee, CA | 8,383 ft | 53% | 5 mi |
| Tahoe Donner | Truckee, CA | 7,350 ft | 26% | 5 mi |
| Palisades Tahoe - Palisades Mountain | Olympic Valley, CA | 9,050 ft | 62% | 12 mi |
| Palisades Tahoe | Olympic Valley, CA | 9,050 ft | 62% | 12 mi |
| Palisades Tahoe - Alpine Meadows | Alpine Meadows, CA | 8,637 ft | 53% | 13 mi |
| Northstar | Truckee, CA | 8,610 ft | 58% | 13 mi |
| Granlibakken Tahoe | Tahoe City, CA | 6,350 ft | 15% | 16 mi |
| Homewood | Homewood, CA | 7,880 ft | 58% | 20 mi |
| Mount Rose | Reno, NV | 9,700 ft | 60% | 23 mi |
| Heavenly | South Lake Tahoe, CA | 10,067 ft | 73% | 35 mi |
| Sierra-at-Tahoe | South Lake Tahoe, CA | 8,852 ft | 53% | 39 mi |
| Kirkwood | Kirkwood, CA | 9,800 ft | 68% | 47 mi |
| Dodge Ridge | Pinecrest, CA | 8,200 ft | 54% | 82 mi |
Boreal Ski Resort Mountain Stats
| Name | Statistic |
|---|---|
| Summit Elevation | 7,700 ft |
| Base Elevation | 7,200 ft |
| Vertical Drop | 500 ft |
| Trails | 33 (30% Beginner, 55% Intermediate, 15% Expert) |
| Lifts | 12 |
| Skiable Acres | 380 |
| Avg. Annual Snowfall | 400 inches |