I just got back from a week in Tahoe! Simply the most beautiful place. 40F and Sunny everyday. Sqaw's Granite Chief was a healthy hike and yielded some nice finds.
As you have already heard the weekends at both sqaw and Alpine can be a zoo. Alpine has terrible parking / shuttle situations on the weekend, but its almost 1/2 price. We ended up snowmobiling the 2nd Saturday instead. Found a place (the ski barn) you can tow the sleds to where ever you want or have them delivered to a monster rec area and go as fast as you want...

Enjoy!