These sites aren't sanctioned by any determined faith. They simply provide the subsistence and potential for participating in one of the world's greatest winter playgrounds.

Ahead of me, Tom Telluride boogied more expertly and enthusiastically, "shaking my assets," he bragged out loud. He had been righteously shaking them since the mid-seventies when we both first moved to Lake Tahoe. It all seems so long ago.

Those were the days before snowboards, cell phones, and SUV's, websites, and the X generation humping on MTV. Back then, Tom and I dated girls who did homework, and we skied a ton. Palisades Tahoe's KT-22, the Headwall, and the Bear Pen bar were our favorite hangs.

Bodie was called the "most lawless, wildest and toughest mining camp the far west has ever known." It is said that murders were an almost daily occurrence, as were robberies, stage holdups, and street fights.

Red Light District

For a pleasant 10-mile jaunt, go to the TRT trailhead located on Highway 50, about 3/4 of a mile east of it's intersection with Highway 28.

The trail requires about five miles of moderate hiking to the south; then you reach South Camp Peak. "Peak" is a misnomer for this long, flat, open area with spectacular views of Lake Tahoe. To the west you can look straight into Emerald Bay. South Camp is a great spot for lunch, and there is even a rustic bench tucked into the rocks.

Located a stone's throw away from U.S. Highway 50, the superb walls of Lover's Leap loom over the hamlet of Strawberry, 40 miles east of Placerville and 18 miles southeast of Lake Tahoe.

The Leap's steep, north-facing walls are at least a half-mile wide, and several climbing routes on its main and western walls rise dramatically to 600 feet. Rugged points of rock form a cliff band that separate into four distinct and forbidding bluffs.

The Emigrant Trail begins at the Donner Camp picnic site about five miles north of Truckee on Highway 89. The trail covers 11 miles to Stampede Reservoir. The route is primarily rolling ups and downs through a scattered forest of Jeffrey pines. Riders will pass several meadows laced with yellow buttercups and bright purple, camas lilies.

Emerald Bay
On the West Shore, the Rubicon Trail begins on the beach of Bliss State Park. The trail runs along the shore of Lake Tahoe to Vikingsholm; the trail is open and extremely beautiful from May on when the sun is bright.

"The snow in the lower elevations might be getting thin, but in the high elevations the spring skiing remains phenomenal. The upper snow elevationsin 2006 are 120 percent of normal," says Bela Vadasz of Alpine Skills International (ASI).

While purists may put spring skiing behind the adrenaline rush of deep snow, nothing captures the free fall thrills of snow sports as the exhilaration of corn. Simply speaking, corn snow makes ordinary skiers or snowboarders into gods.

In fact, even the gods agree.

"I'll take corn snow over three feet of the driest powder any day," says Todd Kelly, a former US Ski Team member and veteran World Cup downhiller. "It's like turning on butter. You can ski anything you want."

#9 Snowfest Spirit
"It's not any one individual event, but the whole Snowfest spirit. I get a feeling of happiness and good cheer that I really appreciate." Steve Risko, a.k.a. 'Snow Slippery.'

#10 Mr. North Lake Contest