Squaw Valley

I've booked a trip to Squaw Valley for March 2013, has anyone been there in March? How busy does it get? I've never skied USA before and wondering how it compares to Europe. I'm happy on Reds all day long is the terrain suitable? Lastly has anyone any experience of the drive from San Francisco & possible road closures due to snow?

Squaw is a great mountain - lots to please all types of skier check out the Solitude and Shirley lifts for nice open interesting terrain. Silverado is also great when there has been plenty of decent snow. You will find most US resorts have a lot more in-bounds areas where skiing is open and un-pisted with a variety of terrain compared Europe. You will find many areas that are almost like off-piste terrain (although heavily skied) but with the added bonus of being controlled and patrolled.

The drive from SF is fine. Major highway almost all of the way. You will have no problems unless there has been a major dump at lake level. Be sure to check out northstar ski resort for a day. Lots of nice wide groomed runs to cruise on with a nice new resort base.

You will love it.

You will love it the wife and I have been skiing in Tahoe for the last 3 seasons.

Any Qs pm me I have quite extensive knowledge of North/South Shore resorts and SF.

The drive can be quite nerve racking going over the D Pass in snow conditions.

My top advice to you would be hire a 4x4. When you book your hire car ask for 4x4 SUV . Be very specific saying you want a 4wd. and get this in writing/email that this is what you have asked for and paid for. Then rental car company's will try to fob you off with a 2wd then say you have to pay extra upgrade etc

I was there in Jan and March this year and the roads were fine they tend to clear the 1-80 very quickly busy trucking route.

Any Qs don't hesitate to contact me

Just an update to my original question/post and a thanks to the 2 guys who replied. Got back from my 12 night trip on Friday. Highly recommend stopping over and visiting San Francisco if you are out that way. We booked a SUV with 4wd via Hertz and this was confirmed on paperwork, the car we got was as descibed and with M&S(mud and snow)tyres, i am assuming this would mean in all but the worst conditions we would be allowed to drive in mountains.
The drive from SF to Squaw was 3 1/2hrs but i would recommend sat nav to get out of city or a patient co driver. It had snowed heavy in Lake Tahoe area day before our drive but rds were clear for us. Started to snow as we were within 30 miles of resort but nothing that we hadn't driven in before.
Squaw is fairly small compared to some of larger French resorts we have visited but enough bars and eateries to choose from. We found the mountain easy to get around although sometimes difficult to work out which slope you were actually on. As earlier post said it seems acceptable to ski anywhere unless it is marked out of bounds and once we realised this we enjoyed ourselves more by just choosing a line and skiing it.Only visited one other ski area and that was Alpine Meadows which is more laid back than Squaw but with plenty of varied terrain. It would be easy to visit other ski areas around Tahoe if that's what you fancied and had transport.
Squaw was very busy at the weekend but lift queues were well organised and moved quickly. Midweek the resort was very quiet. It didn't snow again while we were there and i get the feeling this hasn't been a good year for snow over there this year but still a good base which will see them through to end of season. Enjoyed spring skiing beneath the famous blue bird skies.
Found the Californian people to be very friendly and don't think we ever shared a chair without striking up a conversation.