Review Date
May 27, 2006

Overall Rating
 3 of 5

Value Rating
 3 of 5

Reviewed by: g75401, Snowboarder

Price Paid: $0.00

Summary:
Heavenly can be a mixed bag. Yes, the view is beautiful. But the snow is crap if it hasn't snowed recently-sierra cement. On the weekends, half the Bay Area comes in to ski, but many don't get there until Saturday afternoon, so if you rush to the gondola and stick to the NV side, you can actually ride without too many skiiers to watch out for. My fav run is Ridgerun, but if I head there first, the only way to get back to the NV side is to schooch on skyline trail, which is flat

Customer Service:
Cattle call is the best description
Do not take lessons there, esp in snowboarding.

Review Date
January 29, 2005

Overall Rating
 2 of 5

Value Rating
 2 of 5

Used product for
Once

Reviewed by: epd00, Advanced

Price Paid: $0.00

Summary:
I wasn't too thrilled with this resort. The terrain is kinda boring, most runs were indistinguishable to me. Not much grooming - which some people like, I prefer groomed runs. You have to ride the gondola down, can't ski to the base of it.

I went 2 days during the week and it was quite crowded, couldn;t find a place to sit on the mountain lodge. I'd hate to see it on a Saturday.

Review Date
October 24, 2003

Overall Rating
 4 of 5

Value Rating
 3 of 5

Used product for
6-16

Reviewed by: Geoffrey, Advanced

Price Paid: $0.00

Summary:
First time I was there it very crowded and hard to get around. After I got to know some of the locals and find the powder stashes and the local trails it skied entirely differant. Overall very good mountain. Just need to talk to the locals to get to really know the mountain.

Review Date
November 15, 2002

Overall Rating
 4 of 5

Value Rating
 3 of 5

Used product for
Countless

Reviewed by: lynnsa, Advanced, from Santa Cruz

Price Paid: $0.00

Summary:
Key to Heavenly is knowing your way around the mountain and planning your time in different areas accordingly. The gondola now takes you toward Nevada side so you will avoid the old "skate" from CA to NV. There is plenty of various terrain - go check out Motts/Killebrew for thrills - best after a storm. If you are beginning this is not the resort. It is best for "blue level" sliers. 2x diamond skiers tend to like other resorts like Kirkwood. Of course Kirkwood gets a LOT more snow - but nothing to do at night. I've been skiing since 16 (Heavenly in 1970) now I'm 48 - In order to keep up the trend I avoid anything extreme - but I still have a lot of fun at Heavenly.

Review Date
September 24, 2002

Overall Rating
 1 of 5

Value Rating
 1 of 5

Used product for
2-5

Visitors rate this review
3.00 of 5, 3 votes

Reviewed by: Jared Newell, Double Diamond, from Fresno, CA, USA

Price Paid: $0.00

Summary:
I went here once, cuz everyone ranted and raved about it, and how huge it is.

The place sucks, downright sucks.

The layout is HORRIBLE. The average day.. You get there, and ride a lift a little ways up, then ride on the flattest litle bottlenecked run to another left, that takes you farther up, then you ride down while trying to go as far to the side as possible to reach the next lift, to take you to the top. Then once you get there you realize that its not what it looks like on the map, and well, is crappy riding. SoooOOooo, you ride some crappy runs and some more lifts to find more crap. 4500 acres of nothing, seriously, nothing.

Very crowded at bottlenecks, the double diamonds here are a joke. For a resort that claims to get a billion feet of snow and make the most snow of any resort, in the 3 times I've been i've seen a max of 3 feet on the ground, and even down to like 6 inches or no snow offrun in places.

So the reason I came back you might ask? I went to kirkwood and left the skirack key at the cabin we were stayin at, which is right by heavenly. So instead of driving back to Kirkwood or another resort at the lake, we decided to try Heavenly again, because just maybe, MAYBE the better conditions would make up from last years experience there.

It didn't. It sucked the second time around too. You can't go anywhere because they designate like EVERYTHING out of bounds with ski patrol everywhere that will de-pass you.

Sorry, I would keep ranting but you get the point, don't go here.