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Donner Ski Ranch
Rating Details »
21 reviews for Donner Ski Ranch
Donner is a great option for beginners or intermediates on a budget. A group of friends and I came here on Tuesday, mostly because I had a free admission with my Snowbomb card.
One in my group was a first timer, so the small size of Donner worked out well. We could all stop by the bunny slope and laugh at him face planting...
I can see how Donner would get old fast, since there are only a few lifts and no real terrain park for boarders. But, once or twice a year it's a good low cost option.
Bottom Line: Donner is one of the closer options, and definitely one of the cheapest($20). Definitely worth a try, maybe as a tune up before you hit the big mountains.
Obviously, you wouldn't come here if you weren't a beginner. You would know that Squaw and Alpine are the best places to go, and this place wouldn't cross your mind.
With that said and out of the way, this place is a great place to earn your stripes. The hill is nice and easy, cheap, and the staff are very friendly. Everyone comes here to learn, so everyone is in a friendly and helpful mood. Beginners, this is THE place to go!
I haven't skied in twenty years. A friend of mine and I have been trying to get a 'ski date' together and yesterday was our day. She's like a fucking pro. She tried to play it down...like she hasn't skied in 7 years. Never mind that she been on ski trips to Sun Valley and Utah. Her skis were like 3 feet taller than me.
Back in the 70s, I learned how to ski at Donner. Having very fond memories, I wanted to make my 'come back' to skiing there.
Surprisingly, I did okay. The weather was fantastic, there wasn't much of a wait for the lifts, not crowded and our mid week lift ticket price? FIFTEEN DOLLARS. No shit.
The food was just okay. Parking was decent. I'd say that Donner is excellent for beginners.... return old timer skiers (like myself) and intermediate.
Recommend this place for beginner/intermediate riders. The resort has an un-renovated feel, older lodge, and is not nearly as fancy as other Lake Tahoe resorts. Advanced riders or people who just come to hangout at the lodge will prob be disappointed. However, this place is great for newbies and prices are affordable.
I came here for their opening day (12/19), since admission was free with a Snowbomb card. I was pretty disappointed that they only had a couple of lifts open, especially since there was plenty of fresh snow. Their lodge/cafeteria could also use some upgrades.
I come here several times each year because my stepdad is a ski patroller here, and it's damn convenient -- especially since we're members of the Peninsula Ski Club, which has a cabin a stone's throw away. It isn't the trendiest ski resort in the area (like Sugar Bowl, which is about a mile away), but there are rarely lift lines and it's damn cheap. It may not be the best resort for advanced skiers and boarders because it's small and easy to memorize, but it's perfect for those of us who are trying to master our techniques.
It's also the only family-owned resort in the area, so I gotta give 'em props for that.
We see the big Sugar Bowl sign, get excited, pull in (to what we later find out is NOT the Sugar Bowl parking lot), get our gear on, walk into the lodge (which we thought was sorta ghetto, but we thought maybe we were on the backside of the mountain where things weren't as nice), proceed to buy our ticket (even though it was surprisingly cheap for what we thought was Sugar Bowl), grab a map that says Donner Ski Ranch on the front of it, and realize... we are not at Sugar Bowl.
Oh god, yes I really did just admit that story.
As I saw often on Yelp, I have no shame.
For the price, we ended up having a fun day. No lines, decent intermediate skiing and absolutely no one around to serve as obstacles when you're flying down the "mountain."
I actually didn't mind this place. I'm a solid blue run skier at the big resorts and occasionally like to challenge myself on a black run or two... everything was fair game at this joint.
I would never recommend someone go here, but if for some reason you were to stumble upon the place or had some other reason to go, I wouldn't shy away just because it's a little ghetto.
Donner Ski Ranch, you are my secret friend!
We decided to go to Donner Ski Ranch because it was small, and good for beginners. Most of us had experience snow boarding, but we took some new boarders.
I had a lot of fun here. There were a variety of runs, ranging from really easy to difficult. I liked Donner because It challenged me, but at the same time, I was able to learn and practice new boarding skills. I hold a special place in my heart for this place, because this is where I mastered my carving skills.
On top of being good for beginners, as well as more skilled boarders, it's cheap. The weekend tickets were cheaper than a lot of resorts weekday prices. I was able to buy two adult tickets for $76. Not bad for a full day of boarding.
So, it's probably unusual for someone to review Donner Ski Ranch without drawing the obvious contrasts with Sugar Bowl, but I haven't been to Sugar Bowl yet.
At any rate, this was basically like going to your friend's old mountain cabin and skiing out of his backyard. And I mean that in a good way. It was a raging blizzard when I went here and I just barely survived my one chair ride to the summit. The rest of the time I stuck to the chair on the far right (#4 I think?), which made for some very short runs indeed. Didn't matter too much because the snow was so thick it was like riding on a cloud. Plus we ducked inside every hour or so to huddle in front of the big fireplace. Definitely a must for fans of all things old-school, and the ultimate antidote to the Tahoe mega-resorts.
I'm torn about Donner Ski Ranch.
I learned to ski here.
In high school, it was an adventure to stay in stinky dorm rooms.
It's cheap.
Beginners love the place.
They haven't upgraded their lifts since the Nixon administration.
I can't help myself... two stars and fond memories of Sue Peterson in a tight ski sweater.
I'd never been snowboarding before. It's pretty flat in Indiana. not quite as flat as say - Kansas or the Central valley. But there are definitely no mountains.
But my friend's family has a condo up here, and he invited me to go snowboarding. So I went. I can only compare Donner to Sugar Bowl.
And in that comparison they are both very good for different reasons. My lesson, lift ticket, and rentals were $68. My instructor was patient, though occasionally hard to understand past her Argentinian accent. And it wasn't so crazy that I couldn't take my time getting up the little hill since I was pretty bad.
That said - it was a great place to learn.
So I am a bare bones beginner ski-bunny, and this was a great place to learn. My instructor, Craig, was awesome. Since it was less crowded than the big resorts, I was able to have one-on-one attention. (Which was good because it was pretty icy and I busted my noggin' on the slopes!) The price was right (only $60 for a lesson, all day lift ticket, and ski rental)... and I didn't feel like I wasted my bucks or time trying to learn something new!
The only reason it doesn't get a full five stars, is because it's a little bit lower altitude, so getting really good "powder" is less likely. Or at least this is what I've been told...
My boyfriend and his sister are fairly experienced snow-boarders, and they seemed to have a great time, too. This place is good for beginners, families, and poor college kids! Two thumbs up!
A good place to brush-up on skills, grab a lesson or 2 and learn/remember how to stand-up on skis or boards. We stop here after driving MANY HOURS (at least it feels like it) with 3 kids. The kids get to play in the snow-- remember what that's like- jump on their equipment- maybe grab a quick/cheap lesson. Maybe I grab a quick/cheap lesson & it was just a fun day instead of a planned SPLURGE.
Everyone plays in our family of 5 for well under $100, whereas Northstar runs our family of 5 a good $450. And that works pretty well for us & our kids for now. We spend a day or 2 at Northstar, but this is a nice way to round out the trip at the beginning/end. As the kids grow older & insist on more challenges, this just might not cut it anymore, but as it stands, we get to stop & stretch our legs an hour or so earlier- Get the wiggles out- Get our mojo back and get ready to hit Northstar harder tomorrow.
This place gets one star because it was my FIRST place to go snowboarding. It gets another star for being so DARN CHEAP! 13$ for half day lift ticket when I went. This is probably one of the cheapest "resort" you'll find. You can't really call it a resort more like slopes w/ lifts and a lodge for food & rentals.
The place here isn't crowded at all because not a lot of people go here, sometimes it can get crowded but it is not as bad as Northstar or say the more popular resorts. The slopes here are PRETTY bad as there are ROCKS, grass shots and sticks/dirt sticking out off the snow and it TOTALLY scrapped my board. So thats a bunch of minuses there. The slopes here aren't perfect, very ffar from it.
This place is great for beginners or anyone that has a cheap board who doesn't mind messing it up.
Pluses are cheap prices and not too crowded
Negatives are HORRIBLE HORRIBLE SLOPES!! Snow DOES not get thick at all, its so bad the wax will be skinned from your board.
For a novice/low intermediate skier like myself, this place is ideal. It has plenty of moderate terrain, not too many crazy-ass snowboarders, is reasonably priced and is easy to get to being conveniently located right off I-80. Good for families and cheapskates who don't want to spend the big Sugar Bowl bucks.
I had a great time snowboarding in this little mountain. The variety of runs makes up for the short distances. It's also cheap! With the number of huge and expensive resorts in the Sierras, this place is a hidden gem. There aren't a lot of people, especially on the backside.
I like Donner, It's cheap, easy to get to, nobody is ever there, and the backside of the mountain (when it is open) is a lot of fun. Also, a friend of mine got a snowboarding lesson here, and the instructor was the hottest piece of man-meat I'd ever seen. rrrwow! minus one star for not being able to pay enough employees to keep the whole mountain open all the time.
A few years ago they had some Wicked Midweek special, one thursday of the month 5$ all-day pass. They had this calendar with this crazy color coding, one day of the month is the 5$ day, rest of the midweek was 15 or 20$ and weekends were $30. Too bad that was years of yore.
This place is nice in the intermediate range. Theres no terrain park at all, it's one giant hill on the front but the backside is ok. It's a small place, smaller than Boreal, actually they used to have a pass where you could skii both places on the same pass. You could see boreal from the backside, it was kinda neat. If you have a pack of adventurous noobs that have advanced a bit this place is for you. But after one day of being there you'd pretty much have done all the runs.
The noobie area is a slightly steeper noobie area, so first timers should avoid this place. But then you'd learn faster on a steeper slope. It depends on your learning style.
I like the shack that you see near the parking lot. It is THE shack of shacks in the area!
Great value for beginner and low intermediate skiers.
Great instructors.
Easy to get to from I-80.
Little crowd if at all.
This was the place where I took many lessons and loved. Although now I usually go to Boreal, I would still recommend this place to anyone new to skiing and wants a less crowded surrounding. For the price, it offers the best value on learn-to-ski beginner packages which include lift ticket, equipment rental, and group lessons.
definitely good for beginners but really small went to sugar bowl which is right next to Donner and went to the top of the biggest mtn and looked down at Donner. it looked like a small flattish hill in comparison.
this place is great, especially if you're only decent like me. well i thought i was decent before i came here! they have 6 lifts, with 3 in the back! i don't think a lot of people know this. if you take the biggest lift up, there's a couple of different trails to get to the bottom. i went here last saturday and it was pretty cool. $40 ticket (save $8 starting at 12:30). i ate it TOO many times. they also have half pipes and logs to slide on. the weather was pretty harsh, when getting to the top it was so foggy&the snowflakes felt like little needles poking you in the face endlessly! but it was fun. the backside of the mountain is where it's at! but be careful because it just drops off in a couple of spots. so umm be careful not to die. i ate it so many times! after a while i decided to chill in the lodge. got a latte which was really good and hung out in the "warming room" because i didn't wanna sit by myself and feel like a loser while my bf and his friend were on the slopes. inside the room was an old school fireplace that would turn on&off on its own. there were also two "warming stations" for gloves, mittens, boots, etc. it's pretty much two orange tin boxes mounted on the wall with two thickish tubes sticking out that blow out hot air. geez i am terrible at describing things. anyways it costs a quarter. this lady&i spent like 10 minutes trying to find the "on" button and when my bf came in, i asked him&he said "you put a quarter in here". uh duhh. that's why he's my bf. the bathrooms inside the lodge are way cleaner than the ones downstairs in the rental place. this place closes at 4&god was i thankful that they were closing! my body was so beat up! all in all, i had a good time and will be returning. but i definitely think soda springs is better for beginners.
