Amy Everett recently visited Northern California for a Lake Tahoe ski trip, taking to the hills for high-altitude yoga, experiencing the wonders of breathwork, and testing the anti-inflammatory power of olive oil…
Words: Amy Rose Everett | Images: Amy Everett & Visit Fairfield
Jet lag has its upsides. At 6am, South Lake Tahoe is mine alone, or so I think. I pull on my running shoes, wrap a hotel dressing gown over my kit and crunch down to the water’s edge. I stash the robe and jog, dodging sugar pine cones the size of my head. The lake is almost offensively blue and completely still. A lone figure sits near the shoreline, perfectly still, earbuds in, just breathing.
Her name is Meg. We meet properly later on, our chance encounter turning out to be the thing that completes my understanding of South Lake Tahoe: world-class ski resort and summer watersports wilderness. Meg runs Blackbird Breathwork, giving conscious connected breathwork sessions on the dazzling lakeshore, steps from Hotel Azure. Hour-long journeys are cued to music, followed by a polar plunge in the shallows: cold exposure that, paired with a post-ski jacuzzi, works as natural contrast therapy, flushing tired muscles and resetting the nervous system.
“The land is holding you, grounding you, supporting you,” she tells me. “Tahoe has a particular quality of stillness that accelerates the landing process for women who carry a lot.” Snow-capped Mt Tallac rising behind us, I do start to feel it.
I’d been building towards this trip for weeks – leg strength and cardiovascular stamina – so full days on the slopes would feel satisfying rather than survived. Meg’s words stuck with me as I turned the previous four days over in my mind: a girls’ road trip through California wine country, each leg designed to balance strenuous movement with recovery.
We’d flown into San Francisco and driven to Caymus-Suisun, Fairfield’s hidden gem of a winery known for its petit syrah. I tasted thoughtfully (alcohol impairs muscle recovery, which matters at altitude), more interested in what the valley was growing. “We make single vineyard zinfandels. You work with what Mother Nature gives you.” Everyone’s heard of Napa, but the insiders come here.
At Il Fiorello next door in Suisun Valley, we learned to detect counterfeit extra virgin olive oil. The real stuff is packed with anti-inflammatories that act similarly to ibuprofen, linked to better cardiovascular health and reduced chronic disease risk – exactly what you want working in your favour before hard skiing. “Light, heat and oxygen are the enemy, so always choose a dark bottle. Rain or shine, we mill!” Homemade gelato drizzled in homegrown oil and aged balsamic was one of the best things we tasted.
This stretch between Napa and Fresno is America’s breadbasket, 70% of the nation’s food supply. The region eats accordingly: chefs source directly from farmers, seasonal produce eaten at its nutritional peak.
A yoga class above the vines at Village 360 set the tone; light-filled and framed by vineyard views, we moved through a Vinyasa flow, mobilising hips and hamstrings before settling into restorative poses. The instructor worked in threes: three breaths to open, three poses to ground, three minutes of stillness to close. Small, but it lodges somewhere useful. Brunch followed at The Landing next door: local eggs, chicken apple sausage, roasted tomatoes. Whole foods, proper fuel.
Sacramento gave me easy mornings of active recovery, light jogs on the wooden boardwalks of Old Sacramento past Gold Rush-era shopfronts, the (unexpectedly fascinating) California State Railroad Museum, and R Street’s record stores and bookshops. Family-run Cantonese and dim sum spots hidden in strip malls reveal themselves to people who’ve slowed down enough to look (Quán Nem Ninh Hòa’s DIY spring roll platters earned a pin on my Google Maps).
At Camden Spit and Larder, the chef has “a Rolodex of farmers,” a fisherman going out for black cod and oysters, a business partner planting hash chillies. At the Sunday farmers’ market, stallholders wowed us with apriums and pluots (apricot and plum hybrids). “We’re here every Sunday, no skips.” Back at the Kimpton Sawyer, the rooftop pool delivered a final pocket of stillness before the Sierra Nevada. I’m sure I felt the difference on the mountain, properly fed and rested.
Two hours east, Sierra-at-Tahoe is a proudly local, family-friendly resort, everything flashy Aspen and Vail aren’t. A forest fire years back opened up the runs in ways nature never intended, and skiing through that landscape gives you a new appreciation for trees: their immense heights in this part of the world, and the shelter they give. The legs felt it on day one, that burn in the quads that tells you the prep work was worth it. Each morning I unrolled a mat on the balcony, three breaths to open, the same short practice warmed the muscles and steadied the mind before the real work began.
Heavenly is a different proposition entirely: four base areas across two states, within the highest concentration of ski resorts in the country. The 97 trails range from long, sweeping blues to serious terrain in Mott and Killebrew Canyons. The Skyline Trail crosses the state line from California into Nevada, lake in one direction, desert in the other. Skiing two states in a single day is the most scenic full-body workout going. Quad-burning, core-demanding runs function as interval training, heart rate spiking on each descent and recovering on the lift. There’s no room for distraction, every turn demands focus, a kind of moving meditation at speed.
One icy afternoon we took the chairlift home in pursuit of Hotel Azure’s jacuzzi. I found myself breathing in the view, slowly and deliberately, as Meg had prescribed: “There’s research supporting nature as a regulator of cortisol and the nervous system.” Three counts in, three counts out. My legs had nothing left and, for once, neither did my head.
The hotel sits ten minutes from the lifts, walkable from the action. The free Lake Link shuttle lets you abandon the hire car and follow evenings wherever they lead; peanut butter milk stouts and fresh-cherry martinis at Elements one night, steamed clams and wine at waterfront Riva Grill the next. Recovery, after all, is part of training too. The Nevada border’s casinos are twenty minutes away, and South Lake Tahoe’s bars thump with live music, for those whose zen does have limits.
For us, though, the trip ended with a sunset cruise around Emerald Bay, the mountains glowing pink from the water. I tried the breathing again.
“You’re always in control. The practice works with your capacity, not against it. It’s a quick reset,” Meg had said. I’d come for the skiing, but left with a tool I can use every day.
Travel facts
- Fly: Land in San Francisco and pick up a hire car. Drive northeast to Suisun Valley, continuing to Sacramento, then head east on US-50 to South Lake Tahoe.
- Stay: Hilton Garden Inn, Fairfield (hilton.com); Kimpton Sawyer Hotel, Sacramento (kimptonhotels.com); Hotel Azure, South Lake Tahoe (hotelazuretahoe.com).
- Ski: Lift passes at Heavenly are available via the Epic Pass, which gives 20% off mountain dining. Gen Z (ages 13–30) receive 20% off for 2026/27. Sierra-at-Tahoe has its own pass and partners with Ikon.
- Get around: The free Lake Link on-demand taxi service runs 365 days a year on the South Shore (visitlaketahoe.com).
Amy was a guest of Visit California.