Heavenly

Heavenly is the ski area that often defines a trip to Tahoe for people coming from out of the area.  It is a huge mountain with walk-to access to the casinos and up-scale hotels of South Lake Tahoe, and breathtaking views of Lake Tahoe and surrounding mountains.   Everyone who visits this mountain can create their own experience, from a ski-in slope side condo, to staying at the California Base or Casino area.  The skiing ranges from long gentle scenic cruising trails, to world class expert bumps and trees.  For those equipped to safely enjoy it, off-piste and backcountry skiing is available through a number of gates, and the famous Motts and Killebrew Canyons area.

The biggest complaint about Heavenly is that it has many traverses and is cut-up.  The secret to enjoying Heavenly, is to ski it as five different ski areas, rather than one.  You can ski more than one of the areas in a day, but you need to understand how the mountain works.  These are the five main areas.

1. Comet, Dipper, Tamarack
2. Olympic, North Bowl, Stagecoach, Boulder
3. Sky Express, Canyon, Powderhorn
4. Patsys, Groove (beginner and transit to Tram/Gunbarrel)
5. Tram, Gunbarrel

The Gondola rises from the middle of South Lake Tahoe and rises to a base area that includes several beginner slopes, and the Tamarack 6-Pack lift.  The Gondola is strictly a transit lift and does not serve skiing.  It is very prone to wind closure due to the single cable design.  Plan on entering from Nevada (Stagecoach or Boulder), or California Base on a windy or storm day.  Nevada is always a better bet during storms and even if you can go from Nevada to California, you may be unable to cross from California to Nevada due to closure of the Sky Express.

From the Gondola summit, the Tamarack Espress takes you to a summit station where you can either descend to the Nevada Comet and Dipper Express chairs, or descend to the California Sky Express or Canyon Express chairs.   These are both high-elevation and very popular areas to ski.   Tamerack is a terrain park, and the area around the Gondola consist of ski school beginner slopes.  So unless you are heading back to SLT Base, or meeting someone, the Gondola is a dead end for skiing.

Comet and Dipper feature wide-open intermediate slopes and good tree skiing.  The lifts are protected enough to stay open in most storms that close the California summit.  Dipper, you can reach the Motts Canyon trails by heading left off the chair and keeping right until you reach the gates.  If you chicken out on Motts and continue to the right, you will be sucked into the intermediate hole that is Galaxy, and perhaps the slowest lift on the planet.  Some people like this gentle trail, I find it to be flat.  Once at the bottom the only way out is the chair back to the Dipper trails.

Motts/Killebrew skis as its own area and exits from the top of the chairlift back to Dipper.  Trails are accessed through gates, and this is an all expert area.  Once you drop in, there is only one way out.  Go with a friend and ski safe.

keep skier's left on Comet and take the Crossover to the Olympic / North Bowl / Stagecoach area.  Do not ski past the day-lodge at East Peak expecting to get to the lower Nevada skiing on Stagecoach unless you like to hike.  These lower Nevada slopes are great fast cruisers, but look for opportunities in the trees, especially on North Bowl.  Stay out of Boulder lift unless you are going to the bottom, as this is another beginner area.  Stagecoach can provide surprising powder on a storm day when the crowds don't show up, but the lower section is flat groomer, making this descent to the base feel like you're missing out on the better skiing up higher.

Sky Express, Canyon Express and Powderhorn serve a wide variety of high altitude skiing on the California side.  Trails like Ridge are renown for scenery, and since it is always immaculately groomed, this is a great place for early morning smonkin' high-speed runs before the crowds show up.   Later in the day, this trail will be packed with slow beginner and intermediate skiers taking advantage of the photo opportunities.  Ridge is the only way to keep cutting over towards Powderhorn, and this can lead to a lot of congestion.  The Powderhorn express area has some interesting steeps and tree skiing, and it all funnels into the depression where the skiers coming from the Tram are moving through to access the upper mountain, and the Patsy's beginner area.

If you want to leave the upper mountain on the California side, you either take the Roundabout hike which leads to a winding, crowded cat-track, or you take Patsy's where you can drop onto Gunbarrel, or take the tram to the California Base.  The Face, Gunbarrel, and West Bowl offer relentless moguls and sometimes poor coverage subject to lower altitude freeze/thaw cycles. In the right conditions its a dream.  Most days its a challenge, and sometimes its just dangerous, such as the time someone left the snow-making on when it was above freezing, turning the slope into solid ice.  

Heavenly has something for everyone, and the secret to enjoying it is finding what you like, and skiing there.  Time the crowds, arrive early, eat early, leave late and you will ski a lot.  Best bet for crowds is North Bowl and Olympic.  Avoid East Peak lodge at lunch time.  Taking the Gondola to town at lunch can be a crowd beater. 

I went to Heavenly on March 21, for the first time in several years. The area is OK... not great. They have lots of terrain, and lots of lifts, but everything is too spread out. The resort is divided into the 'California Side' and the 'Nevada Side' (it does in fact span two states), but getting from one to the other requires a lot of lifts and a lot of trails. Even worse, they apparently sometimes close the upper-mountain lifts due to winds, which means you can't get back from the California side to the Nevada side, except via hour-long bus ride.

 

On the plus side, they have a cheap pass this year: $329 for the rest of this season and all of next season.