• For more information on how to avoid pop-up ads and still support SkiTalk click HERE.

California/Nevada Heavenly Mountain Resort - All Things Related, Thread

Jerry Graffam

Booting up
Skier
Joined
Nov 18, 2015
Posts
26
Location
Portland, ME
Hi all, This is meant to be Separate from the 'Meet-up' thread and I have no intention of stepping on toes. I just wanted to start a thread for conversation on anything having to do with Heavenly.History, conditions, trail openings, lifts, expansion, legitimate peeves, perceptions, lodging, trip reports, the egregiously large amount of flailing Texans, or whatever it may be.
 
Thread Starter
TS
Jerry Graffam

Jerry Graffam

Booting up
Skier
Joined
Nov 18, 2015
Posts
26
Location
Portland, ME
I won't have my first day out there till the second week of December, but am looking forward to it. Yes, I will ski other mountains, too, like I always do, but I tend to spend the bulk of my time at Heavenly. I just feel comfortable there and like many others, know where to go to avoid crowds, get the best snow, and find the best lines. For me, it's partly to do with proximity to my condo; I'm sure things would be very different if it was located in Tahoe City or Incline Village, but it is what it is!
Snowmaking on East Bowl.jpg
 

Philpug

Notorious P.U.G.
Admin
SkiTalk Tester
Joined
Nov 1, 2015
Posts
42,624
Location
Reno, eNVy
Heavenly is the Killington of Tahoe, very expansive and if you know where and when to ski it, it can be amazing, if not it can be a miserable experience. You can be at the top pf one peak and see a beautiful view of the desert over one shoulder and Lake Tahoe over the other and just be amazed. Then you look ahead and see an expansive network of trails and think boy, that looks great over there. So you start working your way...it takes 4 lifts to get there, one of the lifts you have to take twice and then 45 minutes later you are there and you think this isn't really that good..but that over THERE looks damn good and you realize that that's where you just were. The place is put together with funhouse mirrors. Now the good, Mott and Killebrew Canyons have some great trees. There are also some glades that you wouldn't know were there unless you were skiing with a local like a @Jed Peters.
 

Jed Peters

World's Most "Okayest" Skier
Skier
Joined
Nov 10, 2015
Posts
979
Location
Placer County
Honestly, unless you know the mountain, it's a shitshow. There's so many little things you can miss--it's surprising to me that people actually like to ski there. The ONLY thing that's right in front of you is the stuff in front of california lodge, otherwise it can be a total logistical pain in the ass.

Honestly, two of the best runs at the place end up in locations where there isn't even lift service that runs on any kind of a regular basis--AND you reach it from a lift that is ALWAYS running in an area that's frequently open?

It just doesn't make too much sense.

That said, it's 10 minutes from the house, and convenient.
 
Thread Starter
TS
Jerry Graffam

Jerry Graffam

Booting up
Skier
Joined
Nov 18, 2015
Posts
26
Location
Portland, ME
Yep, the drawbacks are many. The lift layout is just plain bad. I understand the challenges posed with such a large area, in terms of footprint, but the fact that the mountain relies on ridge top lifts to get from state to state makes it a pain in the ass on windy days. A low fixed grip chair from Sky Meadows to the top of the gondola would be ideal, and I guess has been talked about.
I have a friend who used to head one of the ski patrols out there and recently moved back east. He has very similar thoughts on Heavenly as a whole. He's also a guy that showed me numerous areas/runs known only to "locals," so to speak and he brought me outside fire break my first time.
I agree, Jed, with those two lifts being closed much of the time, it can be a real pain in the ass given there is some awesome terrain there.
I think I like the fact that when there is good snow, I can literally ski anywhere and just explore, which can include some very technically challenging terrain.
Mott is great for chutes and trees, but not my favorite area for trees on the mountain. I like the contained pod with its' own lift, but for the life of me, can't figure out whey they would put it a lift that isn't long enough to cover all the gates. It makes no sense at all. The master plan has a longer lift that is to address that problem, but the same plan called for a replacement of Galaxy 6-7 years ago with a Northbowl upgrade for the following year. Damned recession!
I honestly don't know anyone who skis Killebrew for trees, but there may be a couple tree routes. The chutes in Killebrew are no joke - as technically challenging as anything else I've skied in the basin. Not counting anything with mandatory air.
And then there are the side country options, which I don't recommend unless you have someone with you who is extremely knowledgeable of the surrounding woods. On good snow years the side country vertical east of Killebrew is immense.
 
Last edited:
Thread Starter
TS
Jerry Graffam

Jerry Graffam

Booting up
Skier
Joined
Nov 18, 2015
Posts
26
Location
Portland, ME
Honestly, unless you know the mountain, it's a shitshow. There's so many little things you can miss--it's surprising to me that people actually like to ski there. The ONLY thing that's right in front of you is the stuff in front of california lodge, otherwise it can be a total logistical pain in the ass.

Speaking of which, any word on how much snowmaking progress there has been on the CA side? I have heard that there has been a lot of snowmaking a several trails in CA, but the mountain webpage no longer actually gives a snow report, just lists the open trails and weather. WTF? It used to at least have a highlighted grooming report and notes on what trails were having snow made. How effing hard can it be?
 

Jed Peters

World's Most "Okayest" Skier
Skier
Joined
Nov 10, 2015
Posts
979
Location
Placer County
Speaking of which, any word on how much snowmaking progress there has been on the CA side? I have heard that there has been a lot of snowmaking a several trails in CA, but the mountain webpage no longer actually gives a snow report, just lists the open trails and weather. WTF? It used to at least have a highlighted grooming report and notes on what trails were having snow made. How effing hard can it be?

No idea, Jerry. Now that they have Olympic and most of the groomers off dipper, they'll probably move over to California. But remember, they have to get the Cal Base open for access--they don't just go down to Sky--they always have Powderhorn open, which would mean you'd need Cal lodge and the cable car/gunbarrel open. It's kind of a process.

I'd imagine that they're honestly shooting for a December 18th or 19th opening on that side of the mountain.
 

fatbob

Not responding
Skier
Joined
Nov 12, 2015
Posts
6,288
I might be availing of some local knowledge if i get out to ski Tahoe in Feb /March. I've skied Heavenly a few times and know my way around generally but always struggled to find abundant stashes and Mott/Killebrew has generally been pretty scraped.
 
Thread Starter
TS
Jerry Graffam

Jerry Graffam

Booting up
Skier
Joined
Nov 18, 2015
Posts
26
Location
Portland, ME
I might be availing of some local knowledge if i get out to ski Tahoe in Feb /March. I've skied Heavenly a few times and know my way around generally but always struggled to find abundant stashes and Mott/Killebrew has generally been pretty scraped.

There are definitely some tricks to skiing Killebrew as far as conditions go. If it hasn't snowed in a while and there have been mercurial temps, you may want to stay away from the west-facing chutes like Ramarrah's, Pipeline, and even Stateline. Those and the Boundary Chutes are the most likely to freeze and stay frozen, but if you ski the sunny side after the sun's been on that terrain for about a 1/2 hour, you'll be in corn. There is some serious no-fall terrain in Killebrew and just a word of caution, Ski Patrol WILL NOT bring a toboggan in Killebrew, so let's say you sprain your ankle to tweak your ACL; their most recent policy is that any injury that makes it impossible for the hurt skier to negotiate the Rim Trail, gets a helicopter flown in and they have to charge said skier.
 
Last edited:
Thread Starter
TS
Jerry Graffam

Jerry Graffam

Booting up
Skier
Joined
Nov 18, 2015
Posts
26
Location
Portland, ME
Wow! @Skiheavenly is having quite the bump in terrain and lifts for tomorrow. California side opening with the Tram, Gunbarrel, Powderbowl, Sky, and First Ride opening. My guess is that skiers and riders will have to download on the quad or tram if skiing out of CA, but that's not out of the norm for early season. Snowmakers have been kicking butt.
 

Jed Peters

World's Most "Okayest" Skier
Skier
Joined
Nov 10, 2015
Posts
979
Location
Placer County
Wow! @Skiheavenly is having quite the bump in terrain and lifts for tomorrow. California side opening with the Tram, Gunbarrel, Powderbowl, Sky, and First Ride opening. My guess is that skiers and riders will have to download on the quad or tram if skiing out of CA, but that's not out of the norm for early season. Snowmakers have been kicking butt.

Jerry, probably exactly the terrain that was open all last year.
 

Philpug

Notorious P.U.G.
Admin
SkiTalk Tester
Joined
Nov 1, 2015
Posts
42,624
Location
Reno, eNVy
@Jed Peters, are you skiing Saturday at Heavenly? I will be heading down to SLT for the Warren Miller Movie, I might ski in the afternoon if you are there.
 

skibob

Skiing the powder
Skier
Joined
Jan 5, 2016
Posts
4,268
Location
Santa Rosa Fire Belt
In a couple of weeks, I'll be hitting Heavenly with a friend. My first time there, his too. I am a solid level 7, he is a snowboarder. He used to be very skilled, but this will be his third time out since a 15yr hiatus. He is fearless (more so than he should be). But we should probably start with some blue, then black groomers for many runs. If that goes well, we may want to look for glades, but no bumps. Any suggestions?
 

Jed Peters

World's Most "Okayest" Skier
Skier
Joined
Nov 10, 2015
Posts
979
Location
Placer County
@skibob it depends where you will be coming from...California side or Nevada side...or right in the "middle". :)

The glades are VERY obvious off of Powderhorn (california side) and you can move along up to the more open Glades on Sky chair if you're comfortable with that.

If you're going to ski nevada...hit up Dipper, and the groomers off there..... Comet is probably the "least steep" of the groomers, but you will get a taste for them as you move your way across the hill. They get steeper progressively as you go up the ridge.

Glades are off Dipper and Comet there as well....which should be fine for ya and not bumped out.

Stagecoach will likely give you heartburn to navigate to--if you've never skied over there before. Same goes for Galaxy (nice uncrowded groomers).

Also, be sure to give Olympic a try, there is a nice groomer over there and some tighter trees skiers left of the chairlift that is fairly open.

Heavenly can be rather daunting to get around if you don't know the mountain. It actually skis pretty "small" and you have to compartmentalize the mountain more than a "big" mountain like Squaw Valley.

My advise? Pick a lift, ski it a couple times, move over to the next one.
 

skibob

Skiing the powder
Skier
Joined
Jan 5, 2016
Posts
4,268
Location
Santa Rosa Fire Belt
Wow, thanks Jed. That is very helpful. A couple of questions if you or other care to answer:

Cal or Nev? What would you choose? I assume not the gondola simply to avoid lines and wasted time? If wind is an issue, where are we least likely to encounter holds? Nev side, below the crest?

What is so difficult to navigate about Stagecoach and Galaxy?

Can I get a buddy pass for my friend (for Heavenly) with my N* pass? If you know.
 

Philpug

Notorious P.U.G.
Admin
SkiTalk Tester
Joined
Nov 1, 2015
Posts
42,624
Location
Reno, eNVy
We have a guest in town this weekend (I forgot, Jed). Let me see if he is interested in skiing Heavenly on Saturday. I will know tomorrow.
 

Sponsor

Top