Hello,
My friend and I are considering a foray into winter climbing, as we have both previously spent some time hiking, camping, and scrambling up in the sierra during the other three seasons. He is slightly more experienced than I, having been on a handful of university-led trips in the Tahoe region, while I've only been hiking on light snow in the late spring, where weather and conditions were not major concerns.
Are there any good mountains that the two of us could tackle together to slowly build skills? I am worried most about objective hazards, as while I know my own limits in climbing inexperience in winter conditions means neither of us are skilled judges of avalanche or weather conditions. We are both out of the bay area, so climbs on the Western side of the Sierra, or up near Tahoe would be best as we wouldn't need to spend a whole day in travel. Is this reasonable? Or should we really team up with some more experienced people to get the hang of things?