Timeless Posted January 18, 2010 Report Share Posted January 18, 2010 Hi All, just got down off of the mountain before they shut down the lifts for high winds. The storm arrived much later than we expected, with the wind picking up through the day but the snow not hitting until around 3pm, but when it arrived it went from sunshine to blizzard (and not the crunchy ice- cream type) in less than 30 minutes. Those of you familiar with Heavenly will know that it can be a real bitch to get across the mountain, we found this out the hard way as we needed to back to the summit to get back to the gondola from the lower californian side, the wind was blowing over 80mph at the peak (according to the lifty, but we all know they cant be trusted... ). Long story short, we made it down OK but it was a hairy end to a great day. We started from the gondola, where people were alreay telling us (at 8.30, 4 th gondola up)that they would stop the lifts early today and that it would be difficult to get down, everyone was telling us "you have to make a plan to get off of the mountain", I had a GPS, what did I need to worry... A quick blue groomer off of the tamarack (sp?) lift and my son takes a really hard slam with both ski's off, no idea what happened but after all the stuff he's been doing lately it was realy ironic that he would take a hard fall on an easy groomer. It took him a couple of runs to shake it off, but no lasting harm. Once he got over it we started a few of the more challenging runs off of the "dipper" lift, then ran down to the galaxy area. I really liked in down through the trees here, but the snowpack is painfully thin. They really need the snow coming this week, the claim of a 49" base seems a little hopeful, unless they had logs on the ground that were a foot thick and 4 feet deep. Either way, we spent a lot of time over on the nevada side, the only disappointment there was the stagecoach area, lots of flats and cat tracks, not worth the time we wasted there. Heading over the other side, we spent a lot of time off of the canyon express and the quad up to the peak (pics below from this area), then we had a late lunch and a few more runs here before running from the storm. One of these pic's really captures the day, lots of nice groomers in the sunshine but you can see the storm over the lake in the background. Takeaways from Heavenly for me: It's very big, and if they get the snowpack back then it would be great, but they need at least another 6 feet of snow to make some of those areas useable. There are way to many cat tracks, I hate this. The lodges are pretty expensive, but quite good and it wasn't too busy (impending storm?) Nice tree runs (better with more snow) Some nice steeps, but seem very happy to encourage long mogul runs (a plus for some but not me). That's about it, I would not rate it even with Squaw or Alpine meadows as a riding experience, not sure I'll be rushing to come back but glad we tried it and had a great day with my kids (as always) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DiMe Posted January 18, 2010 Report Share Posted January 18, 2010 Nice pics, looks great! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phillycore Posted January 18, 2010 Report Share Posted January 18, 2010 Well it's the 17th and I'm getting there in 6 days so these storms better start blanketing shit quick....lol Damn this is kind of a bummer, as we're doing heavenly 2 days out of our 6 because of location. We're going to do them mid week though so hopefully they'll get some fresh by then to liven things up. our schedule is as follows so far...subject to change.. 24th - Squaw 25th - Homewood 26th - Heavenly 27th - Alpine Meadows 28th - Heavenly 29th - Kirkwood Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Timeless Posted January 18, 2010 Author Report Share Posted January 18, 2010 Well it's the 17th and I'm getting there in 6 days so these storms better start blanketing shit quick....lol Damn this is kind of a bummer, as we're doing heavenly 2 days out of our 6 because of location. We're going to do them mid week though so hopefully they'll get some fresh by then to liven things up. our schedule is as follows so far...subject to change.. 24th - Squaw 25th - Homewood 26th - Heavenly 27th - Alpine Meadows 28th - Heavenly 29th - Kirkwood by the time you get here it will be a different mountain, the storms this week look massive, it's snowing a storm right now and this is the first and smallest of the forecast storms. Given how the other resorts were at christmas with less than is forecast, you'll have great conditions. As for 2 days here, wouldn't be a problem for me, it's a big place and the new snow will open up a lot of options in the trees. I may be back in the area next weekend myself if these storms bear fruit as they are supposed to. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phillycore Posted January 18, 2010 Report Share Posted January 18, 2010 LOVE to hear that man... I'm going to start packing my stuff tonight....ok more than likely tomorrow...lol Wifey is getting a little frustrated with my ski shit right now... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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