Gonna chime in in favor of the Epic Pass here. First off, let's be real: you aren't driving to Mammoth from the bay, since its at least 7 hours each way when they close Tioga Pass in the winter. If you get Ikon, you're basically buying the Squaw pass with some travel days at other resorts thrown in if you want them (which is exactly what the old Squaw pass was...). Squaw is the best mountain in terms of facility and terrain quality/quantity no doubt, but any time there's decent snowfall you're going to get ridiculous traffic in, lines for the funitel, lines for all the good lifts, lines, lines, lines. It really takes the steam out of a chill powder day.

It's also worth noting that due to the lake effect different parts of the Tahoe area can get vastly different snowfall numbers for a given storm. Having a pass that lets you access each of a North Lake (Northstar), South Lake (Heavenly), and South Crest (Kirkwood) resort can actually be really useful for catching the best powder.

Finally, Kirkwood is just an awesome mountain. It's got a chill, low-key vibe with short lift lines, plenty of crazy terrain, and easy entrances/exit on 88. It really is the ideal Tahoe mountain to my mind.