Tahoe Resorts Ranked by Vertical Drop
Vertical drop is the stat resorts brag about and skiers most often misread. Here's every resort we cover ranked by it, and what the number does and doesn't tell you.
Last reviewed Nov 7, 2026 · Independent, not affiliated with any resort
How we calculate it
Our vertical figure is the one each resort publishes. At most mountains that's simply summit elevation minus base elevation, and because we show the summit and base beside the drop, you can check the arithmetic yourself. It gets less simple at a mountain with several base areas, or one whose published drop doesn't line up with the base it lists.
Two resorts land in that second group. Heavenly publishes 3,500 ft of vertical, but the 6,657 ft base on its current stats page works out to 3,410 ft from the 10,067 ft summit, and some of its other pages still list a 6,540 ft base. Mt. Rose publishes 1,800 ft, while its 8,260 ft base and 9,700 ft summit work out to 1,440 ft. We show the published figure and point out the gap instead of picking one version for you.
Tahoe resorts by vertical drop
| Resort | Vertical drop | Base elevation | Summit elevation |
|---|---|---|---|
| Heavenly Mountain Resort | 3,500 ft | 6,657 ft | 10,067 ft |
| Palisades Tahoe | 2,850 ft | 6,200 ft | 9,050 ft |
| Northstar California | 2,280 ft | 6,330 ft | 8,610 ft |
| Sierra-at-Tahoe | 2,212 ft | 6,640 ft | 8,852 ft |
| Kirkwood | 2,000 ft | 7,800 ft | 9,800 ft |
| Diamond Peak | 1,840 ft | 6,700 ft | 8,540 ft |
| Mt. Rose Ski Tahoe | 1,800 ft | 8,260 ft | 9,700 ft |
| Homewood Mountain Resort | 1,650 ft | 6,230 ft | 7,880 ft |
| Sugar Bowl | 1,500 ft | 6,883 ft | 8,383 ft |
| Boreal Mountain Resort | 500 ft | 7,200 ft | 7,700 ft |
Base and summit elevations come from official resort and USGS sources; Boreal's aren't confirmed by the resort. The vertical column is the resort's published drop, which matches the difference between the two beside it everywhere except Heavenly and Mt. Rose.
What vertical gets you
Vertical is a decent proxy for how long a top-to-bottom run feels and how much your legs will complain by three o'clock. It's a poor proxy for whether the skiing is any good. A short, well-pitched face beats a long, flat runout, and the number can't tell them apart.
The number also assumes you can ski the whole thing in one shot. On several Tahoe mountains the full published drop spans more than one lift, or bottoms out at a base you'd rather not ski down to. Pull up the trail map before you assume the headline figure describes a single run.
When vertical should drive your pick
Weight this column more heavily if any of these describe you:
- You want long, uninterrupted descents and get bored doing short laps.
- You're building legs for a bigger trip and need sustained runs rather than repeated brief ones.
- You ski fast enough to burn a short run in a couple of minutes, which turns the day into more riding up than skiing down.
- You're only skiing half a day and want each run to count for something.
Common questions
Which Tahoe resort has the biggest vertical drop?
The table above ranks all of them live from our dataset, using each resort's published vertical. At Heavenly and Mt. Rose that figure is bigger than summit minus base, and the section above gives both numbers.
Is a bigger vertical drop better for beginners?
Usually not. A large vertical often means the easy terrain is strung across a long descent with steeper or narrower sections between the friendly parts. Beginners generally do better on a hill where the whole run sits at a pitch they can control. Our beginner-friendliness rating on each resort page is a far better first filter than vertical.
Why is one resort's vertical different on different websites?
Because there's no single rule for where the bottom is. A resort with several base areas can quote the drop to the lowest one, and some market a number that folds in terrain outside the main summit-to-base line. We publish the summit and base beside each figure, so you can see where the published number and the arithmetic differ.
The numbers on this page come from the same verified data as the rest of Peak Call, so they always match our resort and parking pages.
Still deciding between mountains?
Compare the resorts we cover side by side on terrain, size, snow, and ticket notes, then turn your pick into a full trip plan.