First-time cross-country skiers should start small with Luxembourg and work their way up to black-diamond nations such as Canada. Forge a powdery path with today's Groupon: for $44, you get two adult ski rentals and two day-long trail passes at Tahoe Cross Country Ski Area in Tahoe City (an $88 value). This deal expires May 13.

Serpentinely winding through Lake Tahoe's majestic backdrop of ponderosa pine and white fir, Tahoe Cross Country Ski Area's 19 trails lay out a 65-kilometer white carpet for flake-forays. With two sets of ski rentals (a $22 value each) and two day passes (a $22 value each), winternauts may tenderly traipse through open valleys, silently slide under the Sierra Nevadas' stunning summits, and propel past two trailside cocoa-equipped huts to warm gullets and ward off invasive species of snowman.

Trails may be blazed every day from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. until the end of the season, which usually occurs around mid-April. However, March's 10-foot sanction of snow has stretched out the season like an ambitious rooftop icicle, with trails now remaining open through May 1. Check the current conditions before for wriggling into your snowsuit; as this gliding-foot feat is even more weather dependent than other evergreen excursions, tours cancelled for poor weather may be rescheduled anytime when conditions improve.

Tahoe Cross Country Ski Area is open to all ages and multiple species, with children under 10 and seniors over 70 admitted free, two trails open to cross-country canines ($4 each, max two/person), and human-powered pulk-sled rental ($22) for ferrying frost-flecked kiddies and especially lazy hounds.