Diamond Peak Ski Resort

Diamond Peak is located on the north shore of Lake Tahoe in Nevada, providing stunning views across the lake. The Lakeview chair lift is rather slow, but no one seems to mind when the views of Lake Tahoe from the little day lodge at the top are that grand.

The Diamond Peak Ski Resort is renowned for being family friendly, wallet friendly and just friendly in general!

Pros and Cons of Diamond Peak Tahoe

Pros

• The Diamond Peak Ski Resort is very family oriented.
• Relative to the high profile Tahoe ski resorts, DP is very affordable. They offer well priced beginner deals, and there are generally specials from Liftopia and Costco.
• Diamond Peak Lake Tahoe is less crowded than some of the neighbouring ski areas, and outside of peak times there are practically no lift times (during peak holidays the infrastructure doesn’t cope too well with the crowds).
• The views can be pretty special. Along with Heavenly and Homewood, it provides the best lake views of the Tahoe ski resorts.
• The terrain is ideal for beginners and low end intermediates, and the green terrain is nice and sunny.

Cons

• This is a small ski area with limited variety.
• There’s not much on offer for advanced and expert riders.
• The elevation is OK but not as high as some Tahoe resorts. Some runs are north-ish facing but there are lots that are west facing that can easily turn from slopes into slops.

Diamond Peak Ski and Snowboard Terrain

Diamond Peak Ski Resort is rather small with only 655 acres (265 hectares) of terrain and 30 named trails. The resort is long and skinny with a 1,840 feet (561 metres) vertical drop, and two main faces. All the runs funnel down to the base area, so combined with the petite size of Diamond Peak, it’s easy to keep track of all the family.

Despite only having minimal beginner terrain (2 runs), Diamond Peak Lake Tahoe is rather popular with beginners. Schoolhouse is almost flat so it’s unintimidating, whilst the other green run is a nice progression and a couple of the blue runs are very easy.

The majority of the trails are rated for intermediates (46%) and many of the supposed advanced runs can also be tackled by solid intermediates. The black runs (36% of terrain) are generally very short, and are cut bump runs or glades. A short hike or traverse to Solitude Canyon provides some more challenging tree skiing, but Diamond Peak doesn’t really have much that will entertain expert skiers and boarders for very long, and side-country skiing is not permitted.

There are 6 chair lifts, of which only one is a high speed lift that travels up the guts of the resort. Some of the other fixed grip lifts have a loading conveyor belt to speed things up a little.

Diamond Peak gets about 325 inches (8.3 metres) of snow on average per season, and like the other Lake Tahoe ski resorts, the seasons can be very inconsistent. Luckily Diamond Peak Resort has snowmaking that covers up to 75 percent of the runs.

Where is Diamond Peak Nevada?

Diamond Peak Ski Resort is located in Incline Village Nevada (which is on the northeast shore of Lake Tahoe) on the aptly named Ski Way. Diamond Peak Resort is 2.3 miles east of the centre of town and only 11 miles southwest of Mt Rose Ski Resort, 37 miles southwest of Reno, and 27.5 miles north of South Lake Tahoe (and Heavenly Ski Resort). There are shuttle services between the Reno Tahoe International Airport and Incline Village.

There is a free shuttle between the Hyatt Regency Lake Tahoe Resort in Incline Village and Diamond Peak that only takes about 5 minutes. The shuttles to and from the resort run approximately every half hour. If you self-drive to the resort, there’s a little bit of parking near the base lodges, otherwise you’ll need to park down the hill a bit and get a parking shuttle up.

Incline Village Lodging

There’s no real on-mountain Diamond Peak lodging. Near the ski area in Ski Way there are lots of condos and vacation homes, as well as accommodations down in the town of Incline Village. The town of Incline Village has shopping centres, a recreation centre with swimming pool, and various restaurants and bars, and the upscale casino at the Hyatt.

Incline Village lodging includes luxury resort hotels, condos, cute B&Bs, and vacation homes. The Hyatt Regency Lake Tahoe Resort is the most popular lodging in Incline Village. This upscale property is located on the beautiful shores of Lake Tahoe, and has a casino, restaurants and bars, spa treatments, hot tubs, a heated pool, children’s arcade, ski/snowboard rentals, and lovely hotel rooms.

Incline Village Lodging Listings

Other options are to stay in Reno, Crystal Bay, Kings Beach, or at one of the other north shore towns or resorts.

Ski Resort Facilities

The Base Lodge and a nearby building house most of the resort amenities and services including ski school (for kids aged 3+), snowboard lessons (ages 7+), retail shop with souvenirs and basic ski/snowboard accessories, and a few food outlets and bars. Top of the pops for eating is up at the Snowflake Lodge where you can enjoy the amazing lake views and BBQ fare.

The ski and snowboard rental shop at the base has some performance equipment, although the main focus is on beginners’ equipment. Otherwise there are ski rental shops down in Incline Village and at the Hyatt Hotel.