Gleb Kolyagin

Review of Homewood Mountain Resort, Lake...

Small mountain but they have a bit of decent terra...

Small mountain but they have a bit of decent terrain - mostly in the forest on the backside of the mountain (where the old homewood express lift is). No crowds at all.

I can not give more than 2 stars because:

1) [Major concern] Their rental prices are crazy, in particular for kids' gear (they do not seem to differentiate between kids' and adults' gear which is nonsense).
We came here to teach our 3 years old to ski. Got some old boots and skis (we had our own helmet, goggles, wedgies and other stuff) for her from their rentals and paid $69 for it. One can buy such pre-owned combo from ebay or craigslist for the same money. For comparison, Sierra-at-Tahoe's price for the same would be $36, Squaw (yes, the very expensive resort of Squaw Valley) would charge us $38 dollars fot the set. So if you go to Homewood, try to make sure that you never rent from them.

2) I do not think that it is a good place for beginner because
2.a) The magic carpet slope is like 20 meters. It takes 5-10 seconds to cover it downhill. You do not learn much in 10 seconds.
2.b) The longer beginner slope's lift is a T-bar. So in addition to fighing for balance and maintaining pizza-position a kid needs to fight the T-bar.
2.c) The long green run has some blueish parts on it. We were not able to ski it top-to-bottom (which means you ski green run then blue run) though since the lift at the bottom where the long green run ends was closed.
2.d) The chairlift starting from the parking lot does not have safety bars. So keep you child tightly.

Summary:
if you are an ok-to-good skier and have your own gear, there are couple reasons to come here, including lack of crowds, some decent terrain, cheaper lift tickets.
Otherwise, go to another place.