Need some solid opinions on tahoe ski areas!

If your looking for park then go to Northstar or Boreal. Squaw offers some pretty gnar inbounds terrain along with some great short hike-to stuff, but it gets crazy crowded on days with decent snow. If your looking for steeps, cliffs, and to show off underneath lifts; Squaw is the place. Alpine is great if your looking for some fun slackcountry. Sugar Bowl is underrated. Not at all crowded, nice mix of sidecountry and inbounds terrain. I could give a more specific answer if you provided more details as to when you are coming, for how long, and what you're looking to ski.

Don't come to tahoe to spend your winter or vacation at either of these places, Northstar can be cool, does have a good park, and is great for families, but it just doesn't have the type of terrain that other places in Northlake do.  Don't even consider Boreal.  You def want to look at Alpine Meadows, Squaw Valley closely, they have a joint pass if you are coming out here to live, if on vacation, splitting your time between the two would be sick, Squaw is obivously legendary for its terrain, but Alpine is underrated in that department. If you are willing to put in a little work to get to some awesome terrain, that gets skied very little, Alpine is the place to go.  You could even split it up like Squaw the day of a storm, Alpine the day after, or Squaw on the weekdays, Alpine on the Weekends. 

interesting, ill take both these into consideration, but i am looking for more or a park-ish mountain, and i know borreal is puny. is squaws park fairly small compared to northstars?

Northstar has features all over the place, and has a huge park, but its not like Squaw's park is tiny.  From what I've read, it seems like people are pretty excited about the park at squaw this year.  And while Alpine may not have a huge park, the features are generally very well put together.  Another option would be Sugar Bowl, if you want a mountain with alot of park features, but some very good, very steep terrain that would be my bet, its also generally not that crowded.

alright thanks for the info guys i think i got it figured out. plus k for all you guys!

Squaw

kirkwood should not be out of the question, its the shit

Maybe your friends want to really ski.

squaw.

This.

Obviously it is your vacation, but I too see it as a bit of a waste to ski Northstar/Boreal.

I willl never forget my first trip to Squaw.  It was my senior year in high school, during March.  The mountain just blew me away.  I lived in the east, and I had skied out west at Vail, Park City, and Sun Valley.  Nothing I had ever seen prepared me for Squaw, It had so much steep terrain that it made my eastern mountains seem like bunny hills.  None of the other western places I had been were anything like Squaw either.  I hiked the Palisades, and skied National, which made the eastern stuff I was used to seem like nothing.  It was the steepest run I had ever skied, at the time, and the only thing back east which might compare would be Tuckerman's.

My last two years of college I took winter off, and moved to Squaw.  After that, I spent 4 more years there before grad school.  Obviously I am biased, but it is a truly amazing mountain.  I ski 40 days a year now, about 30-35 at Mammoth and 10 at Mt. Baldy, and I really miss Squaw, to the point where sometimes I want to move to San Fran.  Don't get me wrong, I love Mammoth, and I'm lucky to ski there as much as I do, but Squaw has it beat when it comes to steep terrain. 

As mentioned above, Alpine is sick too.  Alpine is, in my mind, one of the most underrated mountains in the country, some of the best steeps anywhere.  Sugar Bowl is also a great little mountain, with some very steep terrain.

There is a good reason your buddies have a hard-on for Squaw.  If you don't do Squaw, then I would ski Alpine, with maybe a trip to Sugar Bowl.  Seriously, with those mountains around it is a waste to ski Boreal/Northstar.  Not meaning to offend anyone, just my two cents.