Legends of Tahoe: KT Cheryl

Cheryl Varner doesn’t drink coffee. She gets up at 4:30 in the morning and is ready to go. On storm days, she starts her day by shoveling off her deck. When she’s done with that, she heads to the ski hill. Ask her what time she starts waiting at the base of KT-22 on a powder day and she’ll laugh and simply say, “Oh-dark-thirty.” If she had to summarize her life motto, it would be: Wake up and ski.

“I’m a morning person,” says Varner, who’s 70 and has snow-white hair and the energy of a high-strung puppy. “I love the feel of being there and watching it all happen. The minute the chair opens, watch out. It’s go time.”

Varner, who earned the nickname KT Cheryl years ago, has scored more first chairs on KT-22 than pretty much anyone. “There’s nothing like seeing the mountain and not a single line on it,” she says. “Knowing that you’re going to be one of the first people down all that? It’s worth it.”

Growing up in Seattle, Washington, Varner wasn’t a skier until college, when she moved to Boise, Idaho, to attend Boise State University. “I got there, and I said, ‘What do you guys do in the winter here?’ They said, ‘We ski.’ I loved it right away,” she recalls. She learned to ski at Bogus Basin and spent occasional weekends at Sun Valley.

After college, she got a job in hotel management in Vail, Colorado, where she lived for a decade and competed in the pro mogul championships. “I decided working in hotels was a good position because I went to work at 3 p.m., so I could ski all day,” Varner says. Eventually, she became an accountant, doing the books for small businesses.

In 1988, her good friend, Susan Lopez, who owns Wildflour Baking Company, the beloved cookie shop at the base of Palisades Tahoe, told Varner about the magic of Tahoe. “You’ve got to move out here,” Lopez had said. “This place is amazing.” Lopez had opened Wildflour five years earlier and she and Varner were ski friends from Colorado. Varner didn’t need much convincing. She heard the skiing was incredible and the community equally so, so she moved to California.

Right away, Varner discovered the lure of KT-22, the chairlift with so much terrain, you could ski different lines all day. “KT could be a ski area of its own,” Varner says. “It has every aspect—east, west, north, south. There’s always something to ski.” She instantly became part of the community, too, a vibrant member of the highly spirited crew that gathered at the base of KT-22 on big storm days.

Soon, Varner was vying for first chair, hanging out with a core group of skiers who always showed up in the wee hours of the morning, toting bagel sandwiches and mugs of coffee and waiting for the lift to open on powder days. She’s always made friends with everyone around her—resort employees, fellow skiers, whoever shows up. “Lift maintenance has always been kind to me,” Varner says. “They know I’m not going anywhere, so they’d let me stand in the shack and chat with them. Eventually, they would give me a shovel and I’d start clearing the deck.”

On her birthday in March, Lopez would often join Varner for first chair. “She was always so grateful to be there, and so happy to share it with anyone else. She’d point out the size of the snowflakes or a marmot running by, just all the beauty around us,” Lopez says.

Other people have earned KT nicknames, too, but Varner’s moniker seems to be the longest lasting. There was KT Larry, back when KT-22 was a double chair—he’d ride the lift all day long. And there was KT Tina, who worked line control. In one article, Varner was named the Empress of KT. “That name didn’t stick at all,” Varner says.

Over the decades, she’s watched as a new generation of skiers and riders migrate to KT-22 early in the morning. The pre-dawn gathering feels like a social event of the most loyal powder fans. “The daylight comes, and you can’t see the sun until it crests over the top of the Fingers,” Varner says. “It’s heaven.”

For those interested in joining the early-morning KT-22 ranks, Varner has a few words of advice. “Enjoy it, respect it, talk to the people around you,” she says. “That’s what it’s all about. Get to know each other. Be part of the community.” There’s no sensing in rushing or being antsy. You’re going to wait, so you might as well wait peacefully, according to Varner’s mantra. “Be patient. You can’t come angry. That defeats the purpose,” she says. And dress warmly—it’s cold out at that hour of the day and you can always ditch a layer later.

Saving spots for friends who aren’t coming until much later is strongly discouraged. (But if you want to run to Wildflour when it opens at 7 a.m. to grab breakfast, someone will likely hold your spot.) “If we see someone walking up with two pairs of skis, we’ll say, ‘Who are those for?’” Varner says. “There was a guy once who showed up with two pairs of skis, then left to go wake up his wife. We’re friends now, so it’s OK.”

Don’t think Varner just skis on powder days. She’s out there every single day, after a two-foot storm or when it’s been hardpack for weeks. She doesn’t miss a day on the hill, regardless of conditions, and she easily logs over 100 days on skis each season. “You don’t know how bad it is until you go out,” she jokes.

Lopez says if you’re not sure where the good snow is, just follow Varner’s line. “Even on days that some people would consider the worst skiing, Cheryl is still able to find great snow,” says Lopez. “She’s one of a kind. She has this enthusiasm for life and for skiing and for sharing the joy of skiing with other people. That is her legacy.”

In the fall of 2021, Varner was featured in the 72nd annual ski film from Warren Miller Entertainment called “Winter Starts Now,” in a star-studded segment shot at Palisades Tahoe alongside skiers like Jonny Moseley, Amie Engerbretson, and Karsten Hart.

This winter, we didn’t see Varner lining up at KT before the sun comes up. After 34 years of living in Olympic Valley, she recently moved to the small town of Wallace, Idaho, for a quieter pace of life and a new adventure. There’s skiing not too far away—and you can bet she’ll be there early—but she knows it’s no KT-22. “If you’ve skied KT, you know it’s a mountain of its own,” Varner says. “It’s not easy to walk away from that.”

All photos included in this piece were taken by Brandon Skinner and Kate Abraham.