Earn Your Turns
Remote work and mid-week skiing and snowboarding in South Lake Tahoe
Words Josiah Roe, images by Paje Victoria
Working from home for the 67th week in a row is not an option, and certainly not with a weather report of bluebird skies across Northern California and spring skiing (or in our case, snowboarding) at Lake Tahoe in full effect.
So we book a room, load up our gear, and race out of The City late on a Sunday afternoon skipping all of the traffic going in the opposite direction.
We leave I-80 at Sacramento and take the now-familiar Highway 50 up into the Sierra. We cross Echo Summit under a sunset sky of purple and orange.
photo by Brian Walker
We check-in to Lakeshore Lodge Tahoe in South Lake right in the heart of town with a great view of the Lake. We rented a two bedroom condo for our group, dropped off our gear, and then walk down the street for a dinner at Thai on Ski Run where Sunday night felt like “Locals Night”.
The next morning we grab our gear, call a car, and catch the first lift at Heavenly at 8:30.
The views are iconic, and the snow is perfect, crystallized “corn snow” that the Sierra’s are famous for.
After a couple hours of epic runs we return to the Lodge just in time for our 10:30 am Monday Morning Team Standup Zoom call.
As work views go we can’t complain.
A school-night sense of responsibility has us opting for only two stops on the South Lake Tahoe Beer Trail, both walking distance from the lodge.
First up is the Tahoe Cocktail Corner, the sister restaurant to Tahoe AleWorX, complete with the pre-requisite firepits for outdoor dining.
Then we head over to The Brewery at Lake Tahoe for after dinner beers. The typical weekend crush is non-existent and we get some excellent beta from the bartender for the best runs at Kirkwood.
The next morning we are up early and off to Kirkwood, famous for its seemingly never ending late-season snow (and awesome cliff-drops) and its epic summit ridge.
We decide to take the morning off to get in some additional runs with a mandatory lunchtime aprés.
That night we celebrate at Sidellis, almost forgetting our relatively isolation for the last year.
The following day we return to the Bay, but not before we take a couple of transparent kayaks out on the Lake.
The water clarity, in typical “Lake Tahoe Blue” fashion, is mesmerizingly beautiful.
