March 23, 2018 Heavenly

We had a loooong drive on the 22nd from Price, UT to Gardenville, NV. It was a 680 mile drive on the freeway, but there was an enormous storm hitting UT, NV, and The Sierra. The driving was difficult due the strong winds and heavy rain and we could only drive at 55mph with the wind gusts. The tractor trailer drivers were passing us at 75=80mph. After 13 hours of keeping our campervan on the road we finally arrived and collapsed into bed at 9pm.

We drove up highway 207 from Gardenville to the Stagecoach lift area on the Nevada side of Heavenly. We arrived at 8am and the lift opens at 9am. They had received 9-16" over the last 24 hours and most of the lifts were closed due to the "extremely high winds". With our Epic Local Passes we rode the express lift with a couple that lives down the hill in Nevada. Their son is a ski patroller and he updated them that the CA tram and upper lifts were closed. He has been a ski resort manager at different ski resorts and knows the realty of high winds in the Crest area.

We got off the Stagecoach lift and looked at untracked lines and watched a few skiers dive into the snow, go 5 feet, and fall. Yes, skiers and snowboarders both hit those untracked lines and arrived in the wind scoured 9-16" of snow. OK, let's go over to the Olympic express lift with a different orientation and hopefully less wind affect. Riding the lift was a like getting sand-blasted by the wind. We tried skiing the untracked snow along the groomed terrain - nope. Then we skied down to the base of the Stagecoach lift, but about 200 vertical feet from the base the surface had been rained on last night which meant ice. Next, we try our ride up higher and see the untracked with a few tracks of crashes and trying to skim down. We planned to go around to the Comet and Dipper lifts, but just as we were about to take the trail to the base we learned that the lift was closed because of the high winds.

We got the message and skied down to the campervan and headed to the indoor swim center for a nice warm shower. After all that effort we got 2 cold, windy runs out of it, or 4 runs if you count the short runs to the lower lift!

If still there, or the next time, find a burned out area called the "burn" on skiers left boundary line on Olympic Chair. It can hold deep sheltered
Powder and blow over for days. Moderately angled and spaced out trees. You eventually get pushed back right to a run that takes you to Boulder Chair. Take the free shuttle back to Stagecoach and repeat if good. If Boulder is running you can sorta scratch out a way back to Stagecoach with some uphill. Great side country powder for good powder skiers like you!

If still there, or the next time, find a burned out area called the "burn" on skiers left boundary line on Olympic Chair. It can hold deep sheltered
Powder and blow over for days. Moderately angled  and spaced out trees. You eventually get pushed back right to a run that takes you to Boulder Chair. Take the free shuttle back to Stagecoach and repeat if good. If Boulder is running you can sorta scratch out a way back to Stagecoach with some uphill. Great side country powder for good powder skiers like you!

I read the above after skiing Heavenly on March 25. On the 23rd, I noticed a patroller setup the lines for the Nevada Woods and The Burns. The North Bowl lift was not running and the snow surface was not happy. Last month, we did ride the North Bowl lift and noticed all the great terrain but the snow coverage was not good. I wish I had remembered that ride. You have great memories of that area.

I think I might have been lucky as you need a deep base to start and then a big dump on top. That probably doesn't come around very often...