Some places make you want to visit just because of their evocative names: Sunset Boulevard; Yellowstone National Park; Martha’s Vineyard. … And Lake Tahoe.
The lake sits like a huge flooded volcano basin, which is rimmed with peaks that are white with snow in winter and home to around a dozen ski areas. It is intersected from north to south on the map by a line that divides the states of California and Nevada. On one side are the blonde, gleaming toothsome-smiling, health-obsessed residents of the Golden State. On the other side, the dark sister, purveyor of gambling and legalised prostitution. In between is the famous lake, which sometimes shines brilliant blue in the sunshine, and is sometimes steel grey and cold.
We are staying at Harveys Lake Tahoe on the South Shore, temporary home of the desperate seeking salvation in the bottom of a slot machine. There has to be a very good reason to keep me here. The answer is just across the rain-splattered road, its cables stretching up into the grey cloud.
Skiing has the power to transcend, and today the cable car ride up to Heavenly mountain resort, rising out of the rain to the sugar-coated world of fresh powder and sunshine, is like going to heaven.
If you collect famous world ski resorts Heavenly is a must-have stamp in your passport. The 1067m drop to the lake shore is so dramatic it almost feels as though you can jump in.
The 30 lifts cover 1942 hectares of skiing for all standards, with well-groomed runs cut through the trees. After a night of heavy snow, the tree skiing through thigh-deep powder is “awesome!”
But, as we all know, a successful ski trip consists of two parts – the ski and the après-ski. The European experience of falling into the fug of a warm bar at the bottom of a slope rarely exists in American skiing. So why not kick off your boots and pull up a chair at the roulette table?
That’s the point about flying to California to go skiing – it offers more than just skiing. Tahoe is 322km east of San Francisco, which is an easy ½-day drive. The ultimate trip for me would be San Francisco to Tahoe by car, fly to LA (to avoid an 8-hour drive) then, after a stay in LA, hire a car to go up Highway 1 through Malibu, Big Sur, and Carmel back to San Francisco.
I would strongly recommend a first night stopover in San Francisco to recover from the long flight through eight time zones before starting any trip, but an alternative is to take one of the hourly shuttle flights to Reno, the gateway airport for Tahoe.
If South Lake Tahoe/Heavenly is your main ski destination, do not overlook a few days stay in Reno to ski the handful of delightful resorts at the north end of Lake Tahoe.
Squaw Valley, host of the 1960 Winter Olympics, is a quirky little resort where you can easily ski between the marked runs, creating your own variations. Northstar and Mount Rose are also each worth a day’s visit.
Northstar is owned by Vail Resorts, who also own Heavenly and a third area, Kirkwood, to the south, and a joint pass can be purchased that is valid at all three. Northstar is a very pleasant family-friendly village, and, being in California, offers a refreshing escape from gambling and the fug of smoke-laden air.
Mount Rose is typical of the independent privately-owned American ski resort that does things its own way. There’s no village, just a parking lot, restaurant, and lift-ticket office. A steep bowl called the Chutes has been opened up, allowing ambitious skiers who find America’s carefully controlled pistes too cossetted, to enjoy seriously steep off-piste skiing. The day we went it was deep in fresh snow, and I just wanted to keep going round and round the dozens of routes until my legs gave up, or closing time arrived. By the end I felt I had met and made buddies with everyone else who was skiing the Chutes that day.
There are so many small charming resorts like Mount Rose in North America that define the American ski experience for me much more accurately than going to Vail, Aspen, or any of the other ski-metropolises, including Heavenly.
These resorts are 1-day ski destinations, with often little or no accommodation at the base. For Mount Rose it’s best to stay in Reno at one of the big casino hotels, and the Peppermill is probably the best choice. As I suspect the big hotels are subsidised by gambling you can also get great value for money, and in the case of the Peppermill a swimming pool, gym, and various restaurants.
As you leave in the morning with your hat and goggles, board or skis in hand, and you pass the all-night gamblers in the forever twilight world of the casino, it’s hard to know who is living in the correct version of reality.
Getting To Tahoe
Crystal Ski (crystalski.co.uk) is offering a week’s stay (w/c 19 February) at the 4★ Peppermill Reno from £995pp (based on four sharing), departing from London Heathrow with American Airlines to Reno via Los Angeles.
A week’s stay (w/c 19 February) in Heavenly on South Lake Tahoe at the Horizon Casino Resort costs from £1065pp (based on four sharing), also departing from London Heathrow with American Airlines to Reno via Los Angeles.
