The Edgewood at Lake Tahoe, the only five-star lodging on the South Shore, is steps from that deep blue lake and offers a panoramic view of the Sierras.Brian Walker/Supplied
“Twenty-six inches of snow in the past 24 hours! 113 inches in the past seven days!” Dumbfounded, I read the numbers out loud to my ski buddies as we finished breakfast glumly on the last morning of our Lake Tahoe trip. Northstar, our last resort, was covered in so much thick deep snow that we’d not been able to ski. Weather and wind had closed the lifts for the last day and a half and we’d be leaving soon for the airport. Naturally, the lifts had just opened. Then a miracle happened.
"Looks like we’re snowed in, the roads are all closed,” Sarah read from her phone.
“Sooo, if we can’t get out,” Neal mused, “no one can get in.”
“Technically, then, we shouldn’t need to check out of our rooms,” Mark, added, already opening his phone app to track the just-opened lifts.
“The slopes are going to be nearly empty!” Michelle crowed.
That decided it. Our Lake Tahoe ski trip in February had already been a barn burner, but now the roof had just blown off.
Ski enthusiasts won't want to miss a chance to ski some of Heavenly’s renowned 1,000 metres of vertical.Corey Rich
Some destinations evoke a vibe the moment you say the name: Tahoe. Two syllables that fall off your lips in a breathy whisper. But who whispers about going skiing in Tahoe? It’s one of the best travelbrags going.
Lake Tahoe can take your breath away. Quite literally, the alpine lake has 115 kilometres of shoreline, sits at 1,897 metres elevation and never freezes. It’s also a destination where the wealthy and the ordinary hang out, where log mansions climb the mountainsides and rudimentary cabins clump along the shoreline of a cerulean lake.
In winter, it’s often a powder paradise. Pacific gales can wallop the northern Sierra Nevadas with up to two metres of snow at once. And there’s an unusual vibe here – Lake Tahoe is split by the California-Nevada border. In the South Shore neighbourhood, you simply cross the street to keep the party going. When its closing time in California’s bars, après moves to the all-night casinos in Nevada.
There’s nothing really like that in Canada. And locals who bought their Epic Pass to ski Whistler Blackcomb or historic Stowe in Vermont can maximize their season pass by heading here. At Lake Tahoe, three Vail resorts – Heavenly, Kirkwood and Northstar – are within a 90-minute drive of the South Shore. I flew down with my group to try and game the traditional week-long ski getaway by cramming them all in.
The gondola at Heavenly Village offers some of the best views in the world: white mountains, a blue-green lake and snow-covered pines.Tomas Cohen/Supplied
During the hour-long drive to the South Shore from Reno-Tahoe International, I am agog at the snow: in some spots drifts were taller than the SUV. The lake itself is astonishing: an unreal blue that sparkles wildly in the sun. The closer we get the more I feel like we’re driving back in time. Things don’t look like they’ve changed much since the area’s postwar development boom: We pass retro hotels, through corridors of old cabins and restaurants with vintage neon signs.
As we get closer to the state line, things take a turn for the ugly. Four concrete casino towers and their ancillary strip-clubs loom ahead. Fortunately the GPS demands a right turn, so we leave all that behind and drive under towering Jeffrey pines toward the Edgewood at Lake Tahoe, the only five-star lodging on the South Shore. The location is impressive: steps from that deep blue lake and a panoramic views of the Sierras. In the summer, Edgewood is famous for its lakeside golf course and celebrity tournament. But in winter, it’s a five-minute shuttle ride in your ski boots to the Heavenly gondola and 4,800 acres of terrain that straddles the state line.
I give myself a day to get used to the town’s high altitude and use my ski pass for sightseeing. I step into the gondola at Heavenly Village to reach the 2,781-metre high observation platform. On this sunny day, the views are some of the best in the world: white mountains, blue-green lake; snow-covered pines; with skiers hot dogging the out-of-bounds moguls underneath the lift. At the top I overhear a group deciding if they wanted to ski down into Nevada or California for lunch. I can’t wait to come back on skis.
But it is raining in the morning. “Looks like the Pineapple Express has moved in,” my waiter said with a sigh at breakfast. It’s a cute name for a weather system that carries moisture from the tropics, delivering big dumps of rain and snow. The locals call this snow “Sierra cement” because it is so sluggish, it feels like you’re skiing in mashed potatoes.
We head out anyway, because there’s a good chance it was snowing higher up and no one wants to miss a chance to ski some of Heavenly’s renowned 1,000 metres of vertical. While my friends get off a few good runs in the Powder Bowl woods – short, widely spaced pines give tree skiing a well-deserved reputation in Heavenly – I find it exhausting to navigate the deep blankets of wet snow. Overcast skies have also killed Heavenly’s famous Lake Tahoe views and I’m not the only one who packs it in early. This was the beginning of what meteorologists were calling an “atmospheric river” bringing both snow and rain daily to the area. Oh well, at least our après started early at the Edgewood Bistro bar.
Kirkwood’s expert ski terrain is an hour’s drive from the Edgewood.Supplied
A new day meant visiting a new resort. And while it had been raining on the South Shore, it had snowed hard on the other side of the mountain range.
“You’re going to Kirkwood?! On a powder day?” our waitress sighed in envy. Everyone skis in this town and the locals all love Kirkwood’s expert terrain, which is an hour’s drive from the Edgewood.
I’m glad I’m not driving so I can take in the mountain and valley vistas over the Carson avalanche pass. It’s otherworldly – Tahoe had been logging record snowfalls for weeks: Snowbanks towered over the car and white outs slow us to a crawl often.
It is a relief to finally reach Kirkwood’s base area (at 2,377 metres) in the Eldorado National Forest. The low-key resort is proud of its hardcore reputation and 610 metres of vertical drop. Steep chutes, cliff drops and double black diamond runs are the norm. Even intermediate runs have names such as “Ditch of Doom” and “Trench of Terror.” Intimidating? You bet, but at least there’s no Sierra cement. A day on these slopes (with a guide who knew how to challenge and support skiers) makes me feel hardcore and happy.
The Ritz-Carlton in Northstar California is the only on-mountain hotel in North Lake Tahoe.Photographer: Chris Bartkowski/Supplied
The following day, the drive to our last resort takes us through more retro towns to the other side of Lake Tahoe on the North Shore. It’s been snowing a lot here, too and all that fresh powder makes Northstar’s “playground of the rich and intermediate” reputation more appealing for the experts in my group.
Top notch amenities and a family-friendly atmosphere make Northstar a popular resort, but it also gets its wry nickname honestly: it literally gives the bubbly away, pouring fresh flutes every day at 2 p.m. on a scenic ridge so you can raise a toast to your lucky life.
So, it’s fitting that the only on-mountain hotel is a Ritz-Carlton. Upon arrival, we succumb to the pampering, our ski gear is whisked away with promises that our boots will be warmed overnight. By the time we head down to dinner, big fat flakes of snow begin to fall and I notice powder pillows piling up on the outdoor lawn chairs. Tomorrow should be an awesome ski day.
But it isn’t, even though 66 centimetres of snow fell in the last 24 hours. Even though 25 to 35 more centimetres are expected to fall throughout the day. The storm also brought thunder and lighting, and the lifts are on “hold.” Many guests hang around in their ski clothes anyway, nursing coffee by the lobby fireplaces, hopeful that the lifts will open eventually (they never do).
It is the following morning when my group discovers that we are stuck. But being snowed in at a mid-mountain hotel? We’d just hit the skier’s jackpot.
My West Coast colleagues vibrate with excitement on the first lift rides up the mountain. They usually ski in busy Whistler: “If you make the wrong choice off the lift you may not get another chance at fresh powder,” Sarah said. “But here! With so few people … ” she couldn’t finish, distracted by skiers and boarders already whooping and hollering down the untouched runs.
That day I earned my first freshies and face shots and suffered my first powder face-plant. Digging yourself out of 114 cm of light fluffy snow is an exhausting, slightly panicky business. So many people got stuck that, from the chairlift, some runs looked like they were covered in human Smarties, brightly coloured skiers slowly digging out. It was the only fly in the ointment: snow this deep needs much steeper terrain to enjoy it on, and Northstar – at 695 vertical metres – doesn’t have it.
But I couldn’t complain. We’d spent a week flashing our Epic Pass at three resorts in Tahoe, often in conditions that felt like surreal, life-size snow globes. It would be hard to go home.
The writer was a guest of Vail Resorts. It did not review or approve the story.
On a clear day, Heavenly offers breathtaking Lake Tahoe views.RACHID DAHNOUN/Supplied
Your turn
Vail Resorts’ all-access Epic Pass is US$969. New this year, however, skiers can buy Epic Day Passes for four to seven days of discounted skiing (some holiday restrictions apply).
The best local advice we received was to download the Caltrans QuickMap. Select the Tahoe region for California highway updates every few minutes, which means you can keep track on the chairlift.
Where to stay
On the south shore of Lake Tahoe (near Heavenly Resort) rooms at the Edgewood Tahoe start at US$309 in ski season, edgewoodtahoe.com. On the north shore, midmountain rooms at Northstar are found at Ritz-Carlton, Lake Tahoe from US$299.
What to do
Wondering where to go when the lifts close? On your drive out of Kirkwood, stop at the Kirkwood Inn & Saloon, a California historical landmark that’s been slinging drinks since 1864. This log cabin bar oozes charm.
In Northstar, the fireside lounges and spa at the Ritz will keep you happily occupied but if you’re looking for a scenic, surreal slice of Americana, drive 20 minutes into nearby Truckee. The main street has shops with “NRA Friendly” stickers in the window and the toy store sells wooden magnums and AK47s that shoot rubber bands next to the books and puzzles, but best of all is the diner Jax at the Tracks. Stepping into this restored 1932 building is like stepping back in time. Grab a stool at the counter and indulge.
In Heavenly, après isn’t hard to find on mountain at the daily “unbuckle” party at Tamarack Lodge, but later, after dinner, seek out the tiny speakeasy, hidden behind the freezer door of the California Sandwich shop in Heavenly village.
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