The sun is shining, the sky is bright blue with not a cloud to be seen. After an early start, we headed north east from San Francisco on the I-80 cruising along in our hire SUV. The wines of the Napa valley will have to wait for another time as we have our skis on board and we’re heading towards the mountains of the Sierra Nevada.
Our journey is going to take about 4 and a half hours as we pass through Sacramento and on past the signs for Folsom Prison where we try to recall the words to the Johnny Cash song without much success. We eventually start to see signs for Reno and it’s not long before we come to our first stop, Northstar California Resort. Now, we have the Epic pass for this season so we didn’t need to worry about buying lift tickets as this is one of the resorts included on the pass. As soon as we arrived at the parking lot, it was obvious that this is a resort that attracts a lot of families. The place seemed to be over-run with young children. We had a few hours scooting around the slopes and managed to find some steeper runs over the back that weren’t so busy, then it was back in the car and on with our journey.
Our next destination was the resort of Heavenly in South Lake Tahoe just over an hour’s drive along the east side of Lake Tahoe. It straddles the state line between California and Nevada. This has to be one of the oddest ski resorts I’ve ever been to. There is 4-lane blacktop running right through the middle of the resort. The Nevada side is built up with high rise skyscrapers and casinos such as Harveys and a Hard Rock Hotel. In total contrast to this, the California side is low-rise with motels, restaurants and shops. The other thing that is immediately obvious is that there is no snow down here in the town. It’s pretty warm too. Everyone is walking around in casual summer clothes interspersed with a set of skis slung over their shoulder here and there.
This season, the Sierra Nevada has experienced a monstrous amount of snow fall with over 400 inches of the stuff. We were looking forward to getting up onto the slopes to see what that looked like.
Well, the first thing is that you have to remember that it is now Spring. It is late March, heading into April, and that sun shining in the sky is bringing a lot of warmth to the slopes. Overnight, the clear skies herald colder temperatures and so the snowpack re-freezes. Yes, this is Spring skiing at its finest.
The mornings are characterised by boiler plate, hard-packed rattling pistes where it’s hard to do anything other than hope those edges are going to do something to keep you upright. Anything that has not been groomed is lumpy ice and almost impossible to ski, it’s certainly not at all enjoyable. As the Spring sunshine warms the snowpack, the skiing improves. I think there’s a sweet spot around 11:30 am where the piste is just about right so we grab that long, cruisy run just in time before it all turns to slush by about 12. Once the slush arrives, it’s time to head down to grab a cool beer at one of the many bars or restaurants. You have to work out your best route though. The easiest thing is to take the gondola back down to Heavenly village; that’s the most direct route. On a couple of occasions we decided to ski down to one of the other base areas at Stagecoach Lodge on the Nevada side or California lodge on (you guessed it) the California side and get the bus back. It’s do-able, but we did end up having to wait for about an hour to get a bus, so it wasn’t ideal. In any case, the gondola ride is pretty nice. The views are spectacular over Lake Tahoe glistening below with the snow capped peaks surrounding it.
Our next target was Alpine Meadows and Palisades (no longer called Squaw for fairly obvious reasons). Unfortunately, these two resorts were not on the Epic pass, but luckily as we had already purchased the Ikon pass for next season we could use that as it is valid from April of the preceding season. Bonus!
It takes just over an hour to reach Alpine Meadows from Heavenly by car. You have a choice of route, you can either go north and anti-clockwise round Lake Tahoe or you go south and clockwise round Lake Tahoe. We did the north version on the way out and the south version on the way back. There wasn’t much in it in terms of time but I would say that I was pleased that the weather was good and the roads were clear on the way back as we negotiated the hairpins around Emerald Bay on the southwestern shores of Lake Tahoe. What a stunning drive though; it is absolutely beautiful here.
Alpine Meadows is a lovely resort. We spent a good bit of time in Alpine Bowl which, as its name suggests, is a wide open bowl where you can drop a line wherever you want. It’s not too steep and, on the day we were there, had some beautiful, soft snow. What a lot of fun. We couldn’t spend all day there though as we also had Palisades to explore. Now, technically the resorts are joined and you can take the Base-to-Base gondola between the two areas. We were going to do this, but a chat with the liftie persuaded us it would be a better idea to drive around. Apparently the Base-to-Base gondola is quite prone to wind closure and you can end up stuck in one resort with your car in the other. Not a total disaster as there is a bus service to bring you back round but we thought it would be easier to move the car.
Palisades is a totally different experience to Alpine Meadows. It’s much bigger for a start and there’s a large base area with shops and restaurants. Palisades is probably most famous for hosting the 1960 Winter Olympics and it is well worth taking the tram journey up to the top of the mountain and having a look round the Olympics museum.
Travel details:
Flights from London Heathrow to San Francisco with British Airways £900.14 with Avios discounts (2 adults)
Hire car from Hertz £1,049.64
We stayed at the Forest Suites Resort at Heavenly Village which is right behind the gondola. The suites are basic but comfortable and have a small kitchenette. Breakfast is included and served down in the main lobby, which usually consisted of small, plain omelettes, bagels and toast with plenty of coffee. One of the best things about staying here is the free wine hour from 4pm to 5pm. Served in the bar, it is a social occasion and very popular with all the hotel guests. There’s a small hot tub outside as well as a pool although the pool was not open while we were there. Cost £1,322.68 for one week.
Date of trip: April 2023
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