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

[Philpug]

Correction ... it's not "suck at powder" OR "sink". I've got both of those covered. Yay, me!

@Bob Barnes-ism #3294: If you want to get a taste for powder, you have to eat some.

 

[skibob]

A big thank you to all who gave advice on my first visit to Heavenly (this past weekend). The bad news, I wasn't really able to use any of it. The good news is I had an UNBELIEVABLY great time anyway!

In case you haven't heard: Heavenly experienced a severe power outage on the NV side friday night. NV was CLOSED all day saturday. The Gondola (for some reason) is powered from the NV side. So they crammed a million pow-seeking missiles into really just two lifts (powderbowl and canyon) at the CA lodge.

That SUCKED! However, they did a very good job of packing chairs and the waits were "only" 20-30 min. In the single line. Seriously though, if you saw the wall of humanity you would be impressed. Totally missed the goods. But Ridge run and Hi-Five were really loads of fun in big fat soft bumps.

But the real deal was Sunday. NV open (after another 10-20" of powder). Must have been 5x as many people. More brilliant big soft bump runs everywhere. Everywhere. Damn cat tracks. Galaxy closed. I think that was where the powerlines were down. I am guessing that it was completely eaten up by snow cats shuttling power company workers and supplies back and forth. They were doing avalanche control in Mott Canyon all morning, but I don't think that would affect Galaxy?

Anyway, Dipper was the place to be. Comet and Tamarack and Galaxy closed. Stagecoach fun at top, but icy at the bottom. But about 10:15, Comet started turning. I could see the lift techs working out a problem where the chairs weren't reattaching properly on their way out of the wheelhouse. Couple more Dipper runs. Comet chairs look like they are working right. 5-10 people waiting in line. That looks interesting. Stop and talk to the liftie guarding the entrance. "You can get in line if you want, but it might be another hour or two". My friend and I discuss what to do. Decide to head back to Dipper. Just as we get ready to leave someone bellows "COMET IS NOW OPEN!" YES! We darted in and grabbed the 4th chair.

Going up, observed that, strangely, Little Dipper was already skied out. Then I noticed from high up on Comet chair that it was a relatively easy traverse from Orion over to little dipper. Being new to Heavenly, I had not known to do this. Really disappointed at this point, we decide to head over to Comet (the run) and see what's up. Holy cow! There are exactly two tracks through about 20" of otherwise untouched light fluffy powder. I have never experienced such an effortless and fun run in my life. Huge GS turns at carefree speed. Wow. Two more runs and it was already pretty skied out. But that first one. Wow.

Truly enjoyed Heavenly, other than the damn cat tracks. Exhausting, confusing, and boring. On the other hand, I was having so much fun, I managed to ski bell to bell which I rarely do. Just couldn't get enough. Look forward to going back sometime.

 

[Brian Likes Pow]

Heave was off the fucking chain today. At this point the lifts serve as excellent side country shuttles. Also a nice little refresh coating came down and temps were quite cold all day meaning tomorrow should also be off the fucking chain.