Tahoe braces for big winter storm, Ski Week and major event all in the same week

SF GATE
February 13, 2024
By Silas Valentino

The yearly exodus to Lake Tahoe for some Bay Area families is about to begin and hotels around the lake say they’re preparing for a particularly busy week as several factors such as weather and a World Cup event coalesce around the same time.

Every February, some Bay Area schools allow students to take the entire week off following President’s Day, which falls on Feb. 19 this year. Many people take off for the mountains on the Friday before the holiday, which is often the worst day to drive to Tahoe in February.

This year’s mid-winter break — colloquially called “ski week” to the chagrin of those who don’t partake in the sport — occurs at an optimal time for visiting Tahoe. There’s typically a fresh load of snow and hotels in the region say they rely on the boost in bookings.

“February is almost always the busiest winter month,” said Greg O’Malley, a director at Stardust Lodge & Americana Village in South Lake Tahoe. “With our low snowfall totals in the early part of the winter, we have not been as busy as usual. But the combination of Ski Week and a big winter storm on the way has increased demand greatly for the rest of the month.”

The Stardust Lodge, a 78-room hotel near Stateline, has already sold out reservations for the first weekend and O’Malley said that mid-week occupancy is “very high,” while the second weekend starting on Feb. 23 is starting to fill up.

Basecamp Hotel, a 73-room hotel just down the street from the Stardust, is also reaching capacity. Cameron Bradberry, Basecamp’s general manager, told SFGATE in an email that they see a “substantial increase in occupancy during Ski Week” every year, even though he said it can be unpredictable to manage a hotel in Tahoe when attracting customers depends on the weather. “This year is still a bit soft, but we’re seeing steady pick up, especially with the big storm on the way,” Bradberry wrote.

Prime weather and snowfall aren’t the only reasons why the upcoming mid-winter break is shaping up to be a popular week in Lake Tahoe. On top of all the Bay Area folks coming to the mountains, the Men’s Audi FIS Ski World Cup starts on Feb. 23.

“This year Ski & Skate Week coincides with the Stifel Palisades Tahoe World Cup which means that North Lake Tahoe will be busy from the weekend before Presidents Day and right through until the World Cup ends,” said DJ Ewan, a director at Granlibakken Tahoe, a 190-room resort outside Tahoe City.

Palisades not only has a rich history of hosting the 1960 Winter Olympic Games, but the resort was also the setting for the women’s 2017 Alpine Skiing World Cup. Palisades hosted the event last year and the upcoming World Cup features downhill “slalom” skiing on Feb. 25 and Feb. 26.

Ewan added that February is usually busy since “for some families, it signifies the last optimal time to come up to Tahoe to ski and snowboard.”

Elsewhere, on the other side of the lake, the Incline Lodge is starting to reach capacity but rooms are still available for the best days to ski or snowboard. Andrew Gauthier, the lodge’s general manager, said that the 38-room boutique hotel near the base of Diamond Peak in Nevada is almost booked up for the weekends, but availability exists mid-week — a time when he said the region is at its best.

“That’s Tahoe as it should be,” Gauthier said on the phone, about weekdays. “It’s fewer crowds.”