CHILL TIME: If you like to ski, or snowboard, or sail down icy skiddy slopes via innertube, what exactly do you call the hours following the time that you shake off the final flakes and pull off your two layers of damp thermals? Some might refer to it as chill time, or down time, or happy hour, or having-a-hot-toddy-next-to-the-fire-pit hour, or that special period of time in which a sore knee and/or ego is nursed in the hotel lobby (along with a brewski or two). However you say it, there's a term known the world over for the post-slope time period: après ski. "Après" means "after" -- oui oui -- and "ski"? You got that one. In short, the a.s. is a golden time of day and evening, lasting for a few minutes, a few hours, or long into the wee smalls (if you're keeping company with a particularly hearty group of late-nighters). But are you doing après ski right? The North Lake Tahoe Marketing Cooperative (updated from the North Lake Tahoe Resort Association) has released a winky guide detailing how skilled après-skiers get the chillaxin' done in the way it needs to get done. Oh yes, there are tips, rules, suggestions, and bullet points, and no, it isn't all simply "don't stick throw your wet socks over the fireplace screen if a couple happens to be canoodling next to the fire screen in question." (That goes without saying, right?) Tips do include...
HOW TO TAKE A SELFIE... on a chairlift. So important. How to not speak bro-speak. (Please. This takes years of relaxatude, to even approach the appropriate amount of easy-going-ness.) Dancing suggestions and hot tub tips are also taken into account, as are spots to sushi and find bespoke suds. And if you photo and hashtag your North Lake Tahoe after-the-slopes pursuits? You're entered to win a $25 giftcard from a bevy of companies (including Patagonia or the Sugar Bowl Resort). Nicely done, North Lake Tahoe. So much consideration is given to ski time that a little love should be paid to the hours one spends warming up and reliving the stories of the day. We'll raise a hot toddy to that.
