Ski place close to big cities

donner pass, bear valley, dodgeridge, all 2.5 hours or so from SF. 75 minutes from sacramento up to donner

Check out Sierra@Tahoe, Northstar, Sugarbowl, maybe even Heavenly. All of those are less than four hours away and totally worth it.


Dont waste that shit

heavenly is the only one worth it that you named

ahem, sugar bowl is way closer, cheaper, has more snow, better steeps, and way less people than Heavenly

my bad, i've never been to sugar bowl. I've just heard bad things. Also there's no way it has better steep and better snow, you're just not going in the right place at heavenly

sugar bowl is right on the pass (one of the snowiest places in the country) . . . of course it gets more snow. 500+ vs 350 or whatever

Pretty much any place around Lake Tahoe. From downtown SF, the resorts off of I8o will be the closest. These are in Sugar Bowl, Boreal, Squaw, Alpine, Northstar, Homewood, Mt. Rose. Of these, all of them are very near I 80 (+/- 5 miles) except Homewood and Mt. Rose which are a bit smaller, so not really worth the extra drive.
You can also break to the south end of the lake along 50 which splits at Sacramento and hit Sierra at Tahoe and Heavenly. South of there is Kirkwood off 88 and if you take the very southern route off of 4 is Bear Valley.
Those are the bigger resorts around. All of them have their pros and cons and it really depends what type of skier you are and what you like. Hope this helps.