I won’t lie, the coordination involved to pull this off was formidable. I mean, skiing is a gear/resource intensive activity and we are tropical sailors, on a layover with no winter weather gear. zilch! So this post helps share how we made it happen.

What motivated this whole trip was the girls’ 4th birthday: their bday present was to see the snow for the first time. So during our two week stint in California (in transit from Tahiti to Seychelles) we planned a 9 day trip to the Sierras, to the relatively unknown resort town of Bear Valley, just south of Tahoe.

There was an ominous cloud hanging over this trip. Our mission was to stay healthy, especially the girls. During our previous visits to California, they got sick. This created severe problems including cancellation of travel plans. So we isolated during this time, as there was too much on the line with the big trip to Seychelles with our mountain of luggage and pile of logistical travel coordination. We were sad to miss seeing lots of our friends during this time.

Here’s a snippet from our time in San Francisco, where we landed.

You can’t win sometimes. Despite our best efforts one of the girls still got an ear infection from the Tahiti flight. Papa had a truly miserable couple of days in San Francisco solo without mama (who was visiting our friend Heidy giving birth in San Diego..!) and without our help from Zoe, who had gotten stuck in Tahiti due to visa issues. Meanwhile managing our ~20 bags and planning complex travels ahead. We were glad to have a 2 week layover to recover from all this chaos. Having buffers like this is essential for weathering the storms that inevitably hit…

In the end, all the effort was all worth it — thanks to our unbelievable time in Bear Valley!!!

How did us tropical sailors coordinate a ski trip without any gear and somehow make it affordable? It was logistically intense, here’s how we pulled it off:

• ACCOMMODATION: our co-op members Caroline & Ryan have a cabin in Bear Valley, called Casa Sidetrack, which we rented as part-trade. We love co-op exchanges 🙂
• WINTER CLOTHING: Sabrina borrowed several sets of winter clothes for our twins by going on FB and asking in twin groups. Super sweet people lent us their gear. This is where FB really shines.
• HOME BASE: As a homebase for our arrival & departure from SFO, our dear friends Kendra and Adam let us use their downstairs studio in SF and lent us winter clothes. After hosting them on 3 amazing sailing trips (Costa Rica, Marquesas, Tuamotus) it was really cool to be hosted by them this time. Thank you friends!
• RENTAL CAR: We used our credit card points to rent a 4×4 SUV to take us to the mountains with the 5 of us (now that Zoe had finally arrived). Also did that for the flights to Seychelles, but that’s another story.
• GEAR RENTAL: We rented snowboards & boots at Sports Basement for the week, which wow, that was a great deal.
• SKI PASSES: Being an independent mountain, the season pass at Bear Valley is reasonably priced, and pays for itself after 5 days. We could enjoy the luxury of a season pass, with no pressure to ride all day ever 🙂

Fortunately, the weather cooperated perfectly. We got 5 days of spring-time conditions with clear skies and really warm weather; followed by 4 days of snowy powder. A perfect combination.

Here’s a video of Captain K, bringing back his old skills from college days on the slopes:

The real highlight was the place: Bear Valley was magical on SO many levels! Here are our Top 5 reasons we loved it:

1. There’s nobody there — this tiny village has fewer than 200 residents. The ski lifts were empty, even during the weekend we got fresh powder tracks at 11am.
2. Ski in / ski out — the majority of the village is designed around the ability to ski from your doorstep to the shuttle, and ski from the mountain straight back to your front door. Until you experience this, it’s hard to express how amazing it is. To us, it felt like kitesurfing off the back of our boat, just the best ever! We didn’t touch our car the ENTIRE time we were there, and we could happily go ski for 2 hours and come back home for a quick break. Ultimate flexibility.
3. Ideal Family Space — since we could ski in / ski out of the house, the kids could stay at home and we’d take turns with them. No coordinating with lodges or baby sitting or whatever. This was just perfect for a family.
4. Super friendly — everyone we met was epic. We were treated royally by Aaron at the Bear Valley Adventure Park which has tubing, cross country, strap on skis for the kids. The girls even got to go inside the snow cat! They are obsessed with tractors so their eyes were huge. Unforgettable.
5. Fantastic skiing — the snow terrain was amazing too. We had a blast all week in so many conditions. The only downside is that the advanced part of the mountain wasn’t yet open. It’s the lower part, and the previous month had a dry spell in California.

We are happy to publicize this place because everyone asked us to — they want more visitors to make sure the resort can make ends meet! They had a rough patch for the last 20 years. Now that it’s under new ownership, I’m sure they’ll be successful.

Although our ski in / ski out cabin was beyond wonderful, there were also challenges.

First off, you can’t drive to the house… So you need to put all your belongings in sleds and shlep them up the hill in the snowy (hard packed) street on foot… or hire a snowmobile to take your stuff, which we elected to do on the way up the hill. Frankly, this was just like being on our sailboat, where we shlep monstrous amounts of stuff by hand/ dinghy. Very strenuous but we’re used to it 🙂

Second, there is no supermarket in Bear Valley, only 30+ minutes away. We decided to bring loads of groceries (which was a lot to carry up the hill!) There is a tiny general store in the village with basic staples, and 3 restaurants, and that’s it. So you have to be a bit self-sufficient. But hey, this was also just like home..

This makes it ideal for adventurous folks in the winter, and anyone in the summer (which is supposedly incredible in this area… we can’t wait to come back to see).

Most importantly, this trip left us feeling inspired, invigorated, and recharged. It was a much needed reset. We were ready for the Seychelles, ready for the hot tropics, ready to embark on the mission ahead, which we knew would take tons of effort.

We were lucky to get this perfect break from boat ownership and tropical sun. Coordinating all the gear and logistics was a monumental effort, but it sure was worth it.

Interested in renting Casa Sidetrack for a long weekend or week in Bear Valley, just 3 hour drive from SF? It is epic in both the winter and summer. Truly the perfect family getaway. We highly highly recommend it for adventurous folks. Write us at info at greencoco dot org .