 Poster: A snowHead
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Just about recovered from the inevitable jet-lag and time to reflect on a brilliant trip to Lake Tahoe and the splendid ski mountain that is Heavenly.
Booking a trip last July was something of a risk, given the continuing drought in California and three or four very poor seasons for the Lake Tahoe resorts. But the weather systems resulting from the El Nino phenomenon have delivered in big style with almost daily snowfall since November. Conditions around the lake are fantastic and there's more to come say the met men! Heavenly itself was 100 per cent open with fresh, deep snow everywhere. The only lift closed was the old North Bowl two-man chairlift - one of the chairs had fallen off the cable the previous week!
After a couple of days in Los Angeles, we flew into Reno, a quiet, efficient airport just an hour by regular coach shuttle from South Lake Tahoe. We stayed in the Station House Inn, a Best Western, reasonably close to the main Heavenly 'village' complex, gondola and the casinos across the Nevada border in Stateline. It was clean and comfortable and had the huge bonus of breakfast included in the price of £490 (including tax) for eight nights for two. You can get cheaper as there are hundreds of typical US roadside motels in South Lake Tahoe, but location is important and the quality is variable. You can also pay for upmarket accommodation if you budget can stretch to it! The hotel was served by a free shuttle bus to the gondola which runs from 8am to 6pm and it links with buses that go to the two other main lift access points at the California Lodge and the Stagecoach Lodge. The only ski-to-door here is from the expensive and remote Ridge Resort at Stagecoach.
I last went to Tahoe more than 10 years ago. Little has changed although the Heavenly 'village' complex is now much more developed with a number of shops, lively bars and restaurants. Good to discover McP's bar survived demolition and has relocated to a new complex just inside California near to Harvey's casino hotel. There's a massive choice of places to eat and drink including the casinos inside Nevada where an all-you-can-eat buffet costs $27 including tax. We especially enjoyed the atmosphere and food in Azul, a Mexican-style restaurant. The biggest drawback is the constantly busy Interstate 50 with traffic thundering through the town all day and night.
Heavenly itself is a much bigger ski area than the piste map would suggest and spreads from the California side to Nevada and is blessed with fantastic views of the spectacular lake itself. The skiing caters for all grades with some particularly steep and ungroomed terrain in Killebrew and Mott Canyons and under the cable car (tram) above California Lodge. Many of the plentiful blue (European red) runs are left ungroomed for an additional challenge. I particularly liked the almost deserted runs off the old Galaxy chairlift (the ungroomed Outlaw was a delight) and the Olympic downhill, wide and inviting long, fast turns. The real glory of Heavenly is the ability to go anywhere through the trees in the plentiful in-bounds off-piste areas. Great fun. Probably best to have the right sort of skis for the job - some old Line Prophet 90s were just about perfect. There were very few lift queues anywhere apart from on the Saturday; it would appear San Francisco and Sacramento skiers pour into town on Friday night, ski Saturday and go home after breakfast on Sunday! Perhaps they find the lift pass price to be too expensive; $119 a day is a lot (but you do get a lot of bang for your buck!). The most economic ticket was a local season-long pass which paid for itself after four days. However, if you ski fast, recklessly or dangerously, you can lose your pass. Yellow-jacketed patrollers crack-down hard on those deemed to be stupid or out of control, particularly in the designated slow skiing areas. Helmet wearing is almost universal, by the way. Prices for food and drink on the mountain are steep; all of the outlets are, of course, controlled by the owners, Vail resorts. My other half had booked four group lessons in advance; for the first she was in a class of three, for the other three she had what amounted to a private lesson - bargain!
Unfortunately, couldn't make a longed-for return to Kirkwood. With no car we were reliant on the bus and after much digging around and inquiring, we eventually found out the twice-weekly shuttle would only start operating after our departure, on January 18!
Worth shopping around on the internet for ski hire. I don't normally hire but American Airlines charge $100 for a pair of skis per flight which would have amounted to $400 all told. The two biggest operations, Heavenly Sports and Powderhouse, are very expensive. I found Shoreline of Tahoe to be the best value and friendliest of options.
As a trip to mark a special occasion, this was a holiday that was hard to beat. I hope it's not 10 years before I return.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Great report - do you have a link to the lift pass that you purchased?
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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@hd if you know in advance like @LOTA that you are going to ski there, then you can buy one of the epic passes in the summer and it's a bargain. I did see, that they were offering it as late as December 8th. It is $519 for an unrestricted pass and $469 with black out dates (there aren't many). With the same pass, you can ski Northstar and Kirkwood. It's a bargain.
I've reserved a place for next Christmas - so doing my research on the passes.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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| LOTA wrote: |
| However, if you ski fast, recklessly or dangerously, you can lose your pass. Yellow-jacketed patrollers crack-down hard on those deemed to be stupid or out of control, particularly in the designated slow skiing areas. Helmet wearing is almost universal, by the way. |
^^^ this @CameronPhillips2000
Enforcement. Keeps us humans honest.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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@LOTA, great trip report!
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Bummer about Kweed. Nice to know the Heave's having a good season. Have they filled/ built on "the big hole" yet?
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The big hole is about half-filled in; current building work was 'sealed in' for the winter.
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