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Kirkwood

Home / Ski Resorts / Kirkwood Ski Resort

Kirkwood Ski Resort is a popular ski destination located in the Sierra Nevada Mountains of California, near the town of Kirkwood. The resort is located approximately 1 hour from the city of South Lake Tahoe and about 3 hours from Sacramento, making it easily accessible for any Lake Tahoe visitors or those wanting to drive from Sacramento, CA or Reno, NV.

Kirkwood is known for its high annual snowfall, averaging over 500 inches per season, and the snow at the resort is typically dry and powdery, making for great skiing and snowboarding conditions. The ski season at Kirkwood typically runs from mid-November to mid-April, and the resort offers over 2,300 acres of skiable terrain for all levels of skiers and snowboarders to enjoy.

We recently ranked all of California's ski resorts, so you can see where Kirkwood stacks up against all its nearby ski hills!

Season Passes

Kirkwood is a part of the Epic Ski Pass network. This allows you to buy one season pass, and ski at most of the Vail owned and operated slopes with it throughout the year. There are a handful of types of Epic lift ticket passes available, ranging from 3-7 days, to season-long.

Lodging Options

There are numerous options to stay at Kirkwood around the resort. Check out the available options with the form below.

Kirkwood Mountain Resort Terrain Overview

Kirkwood has a total of 86 ski trails, which are serviced by 15 ski lifts, gondolas and/or trams. The amount of skiable area in this park is huge, with a maximum of 2,300 acres available to skiers. This area is equivalent to 931 hectares, 3.6 square miles, or 9.3 square kilometers.

Kirkwood's slopes see on average 374 inches (9.5 meters) of snowfall a year. That is almost 31 feet every year!

Trails
Total Runs
86
Ski Lift
Lifts
15
Skier
Skiable Acres
2,300(9 km2)
Snow
Annual Snowfall
374"(950 cm)

Kirkwood Ski Resort Elevation

Kirkwood Ski Resort has a summit elevation of 9,800 feet, or 2,987 meters. However, not all of that elevation is able to be skied. The base of the ski slope sits at 7,800 feet above sea level, creating a ski hill that is 2,000 feet (610 meters) high. This is referred to as the slope's vertical drop - or a measure of how high the skiable hill is.

The summit of 9,800 feet makes this ski resort one of the highest in the country. The average ski slope summit is around 4,000 feet, so this is extremely high compared to its peers.

Mountain Summit
Summit Elevation
9,800'(2,987 m)
Vertical Drop
Vertical Drop
2,000'(610 m)
Mountain base
Base Elevation
7,800'(2,377 m)

Kirkwood Ski Resort Difficulty Level

Score
Difficulty Score™
67.9out of 100
←  EasyHard  →
Kirkwood's difficulty level of 67.9 is above average. 88% of its trails rated as either intermediate or expert-level, which doesn't leave much for the beginners.
 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

Kirkwood has 2,300 total skiable acres, which can be broken down into the three main groups of difficulty: Beginner, Intermediate, and Expert.

Kirkwood's difficulty level is higher than average, which is because 30% of its ski trails are rated as intermediate, and another 58% as expert.
Green Circle
Beginner
12%(276 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.

Blue Square
Intermediate
30%(690 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%.

Black Diamond
Expert
58%(1,334 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 Kirkwood Ski Resort good for beginners?

Kirkwood is above average in its difficulty level, so... probably not? It will depend on which trails you take since only 42% of its trails rated for either beginner or intermediate skill levels.

Kirkwood Ski Resort Location

Kirkwood Ski Resort is located in the state of California, USA. This ski area is nearest the town of Kirkwood, CA.

Address:
Kirkwood, CA 95646 USA
View on Google Maps

Website:
kirkwood.com

GPS Coordinates:
38.68400, -120.06800

Getting to Kirkwood Mountain Resort

By Car: If you are driving, you would set your GPS to either the ski resort's name (Kirkwood Ski Resort), its coordinates of 38.68400, -120.06800 (latitude, longitude), or simply drive towards the town of Kirkwood, 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 Kirkwood Ski Resort.

NameCodeCityDistance
Reno–Tahoe International AirportRNOReno, NV59 mi
Sacramento International AirportSMFSacramento, CA82 mi
Oakland International AirportOAKOakland, CA134 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 Kirkwood.

NameCodeCityDistance
Sacramento Mather AirportMHRSacramento, CA67 mi
Fresno Yosemite International AirportFATFresno, CA133 mi
Charles M. Schulz Sonoma County AirportSTSSanta Rosa, CA149 mi

There may also be much smaller regional airports next to Kirkwood 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 Kirkwood Ski Resort.

NameLocationSummitDifficulty Score™Distance
Sierra-at-TahoeSouth Lake Tahoe, CA8,852 ft53%9 mi
HeavenlySouth Lake Tahoe, CA10,067 ft73%19 mi
HomewoodHomewood, CA7,880 ft58%28 mi
Granlibakken TahoeTahoe City, CA6,350 ft15%33 mi
Palisades Tahoe - Alpine MeadowsAlpine Meadows, CA8,637 ft53%35 mi
Dodge RidgePinecrest, CA8,200 ft54%35 mi
Palisades Tahoe - Palisades MountainOlympic Valley, CA9,050 ft62%36 mi
Palisades TahoeOlympic Valley, CA9,050 ft62%36 mi
NorthstarTruckee, CA8,610 ft58%41 mi
Sugar BowlTruckee, CA8,383 ft53%42 mi
Donner Ski RanchNorden, CA7,781 ft38%46 mi
Mount RoseReno, NV9,700 ft60%46 mi
BorealSoda Springs, CA7,700 ft30%47 mi
Soda SpringsSoda Springs, CA7,300 ft31%47 mi
Tahoe DonnerTruckee, CA7,350 ft26%47 mi
June MountainJune Lake, CA10,090 ft68%83 mi
Mammoth MountainMammoth Lakes, CA11,053 ft70%91 mi

Kirkwood Ski Resort Mountain Stats

NameStatistic
Summit Elevation9,800 ft
Base Elevation7,800 ft
Vertical Drop2,000 ft
Trails86
(12% Beginner,  30% Intermediate,  58% Expert)
Lifts15
Skiable Acres2,300
Avg. Annual Snowfall374 inches
Kirkwood Ski Resort Mountain Stats
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