Weekend Escape: Nevada : Ski...Vegas? : Laid-back slopes offer a cool respite from bustling hordes gamblers and long lines

Don’t get me wrong. I like gambling and the crazy night life of Las Vegas. But I have a limited appetite for losing money in smoke-filled casinos.

So when a friend mentioned skiing just a short drive from Las Vegas, aside from the curiosity of schussing down a mountain in the middle of the desert, it seemed like the perfect complement to the cacophony of the Strip. Ski Vegas, a slightly different take on the surf-’n’-turf vacation.

Catching the first flight out of Burbank on a recent Saturday, we rented a car at the Las Vegas airport and hit the road, stopping for breakfast at the Santa Fe, a casino on the northwest edge of the city and on the way to Lee Canyon. When you ski in Las Vegas, you can, without guilt, really test the all-you-can-eat buffets, knowing you’ll burn it off on the slopes. The Santa Fe’s buffet, $3.49 per person, provided plenty of calories despite a serious shortage of French toast.

Leaving behind the daylight cheesiness of the gambling mecca, we headed northward for the Lee Canyon ski area, which might as well be on a different planet. As you pull out of Vegas for the one-hour drive on divided highway U.S. 95, the road quickly empties. With the magnificent backdrop of the snow-covered Spring Mountain range, we traveled across a vast expanse of tawny desert dotted with cacti and Joshua trees. Not a poker chip in sight.

Just as we began to worry that we had traveled too far, a small sign pointed to the Lee Canyon turnoff. We rose steadily, leaving the cacti for snow-laden pines.

The weather had been unusually cool in Vegas--in the 40s--and the wind was blowing. This made for terrific views and, to our delight, there was no wind at Lee Canyon. We parked a short distance from the entrance, rented equipment--$15 each for rentals, $15 apiece for the lift tickets--and were skiing by 11. (Lift tickets are normally $25, but the price is reduced at the end of the season.)

Nestled in the Toiyabe National Forest, Lee Canyon is a small ragtag operation frequented primarily by Las Vegas residents. It’s at 8,510 feet, and the season usually lasts from Thanksgiving through Easter. This is not where the beautiful crowd goes to be seen. It is a place with lots of snowboarders in baggy clothes and skiers in jeans. The rental equipment has been through several wars. And they run out of chili at lunch.

But, not being high-performance skiers, it was fine for us. And best yet: no lift lines. The conditions were ideal for spring skiing: warm sun, cold air and perfect snow. One lift, Rabbit Peak, caters solely to beginners. The other two, which offer 3,000-foot runs, are meant for intermediate and advanced skiers. The runs have names such as Blackjack, Keno and Highroller.

There were small glitches: Supplies ran low at the lunchroom, pipes broke in the women’s bathroom, knocking out three of the six toilets, and at the end of the day we sat suspended on a lift for 15 minutes while they wrestled with a mechanical problem. (We knew the trip would be a gamble.)

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Early in the season Lee Canyon has night skiing but no longer, so we headed back to Vegas, getting to our hotel about 5. Las Vegas has gotten ridiculously crowded and on this particular weekend some huge convention had made it even more difficult to find a room. We ended up at the Airport Inn, located exactly where you might guess.

At this point, we made a strategic error. We should have forced ourselves to keep going and eaten an early dinner. Instead, tired from our early start and vigorous hours of skiing in the sun, we took showers and a short nap, interrupted only by the creaking and pounding of someone having the nerve to open the door and walk into the room above us.

About 8 p.m. we drove to the Rio, which has the best dinner buffet in town, according to local critics as well as skiers we’d met on the slopes. We never got to try it. The Rio was so crowded by this time that the line for the buffet would have put the line for Star Wars at Disneyland to shame. We couldn’t wait the two hours, so we grabbed a sandwich and tried our hand at the slot machines, winning $22.

The next morning we decided to splurge on what was allegedly one of the best brunches in town: the Tropicana, at $20 per person. But we discovered we were not operating on Vegas time. The brunch didn’t start until 9:30 a.m. and we wanted to hit the slopes, so we settled for a tasty breakfast in the Tropicana coffee shop. (And dropped a few dollars in quarters in the refreshing no-smoking area of the casino.)

We headed back to Lee Canyon, hoping to snowboard for the first time, and arrived for the 11 a.m., 90-minute group lesson ($15 per person). All the snowboards, however, had already been rented out. (To get a snowboard, arrive by 9 a.m.) So we strapped on skis again. While it was slightly more crowded on a Sunday, there were virtually no waits, the supply of chili lasted through lunch and none of the lifts broke down. But by the end of the second day, we’d been over the same slopes more than enough. One day may be about right.

Back in Vegas, we didn’t make the same mistake twice and headed straight for another buffet that was reputed by locals to be among the best, this one at the Palace Station casino off the Strip. Bingo. While there was a line, we got in and hungrily devoured a ransom in calories. The food was basic but generally tasty. But the wholesomeness was spoiled, when at the end of our meal, we saw a large cockroach meandering on the siding of the buffet, not far from where they were carving the baron of beef and sauteing mushrooms.

From dinner we went to the Flamingo Hilton, where I quickly dropped $19 at the blackjack table and where we had reservations for “Forever Plaid,” one of the more reasonably priced Vegas shows. The sounds of slot machines whirring and gamblers yelling could be heard distinctly inside the showroom, so I’m guessing the architect who designed the walls at the Airport Inn probably worked on the Flamingo Hilton as well.

On the way to the airport, we decided to stop at the Hard Rock Cafe’s recently opened casino, marked by the telltale neon guitar towering over the entrance. This turned out to be our nicest casino experience. The clientele was younger. Some of the slot machines had guitar handles to pull on. The room was decorated with--what else?--plexiglass cases of stars’ rhinestone-bedecked suits and signed guitars. (Yes, Bob Dylan really did sign that guitar on the wall and management paid handsomely for it, we were told.)

We had to tear ourselves away from the slot machines and blackjack table, pocketing our winnings--$118.50--in a mad dash to catch the last plane. The airport was crowded and there were lines, naturally, but after all, this was Las Vegas.

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Budget for Two

Round-trip L.A.-Las Vegas, with free companion fare: $138.00

Parking, Burbank airport: 16.00

Rental car: 81.36

Gasoline: 11.42

Breakfast, Santa Fe Hotel: 7.49

Airport Inn, one night: 91.80

Lift tickets, ski rentals (2 days): 120.00

Lockers for clothing (2 days): 1.00

Two lunches, Ski Lee: 8.50

Sandwiches, The Rio: 8.00

Breakfast, Tropicana: 23.76

Dinner buffet, Palace Station: 17.01

Tickets to “Forever Plaid”: 35.10

FINAL TAB: $559.44

Lee Canyon Ski Area, State Highway 156, Mt. Charleston, Las Vegas, NV 89130; tel. (702) 872-5462. Ski Lee Rentals, 2395 N. Rancho Road, Las Vegas, NV 89130; tel. (702) 646-0008. Snow and road conditions: tel. (702) 593-9500.