tseeb
Well-known member
My son’s college is on the quarter system which does not work well for skiing. Finals end early in Dec. when the snow is usually thin and winter quarter starts on 1/3. Then he only has a one week Spring Break beginning around St. Patrick’s Day. Colleges on semester system in CA work better for skiing. They get out for Christmas a week or so later than my son, but don’t go back until the end of Jan. and they still have a spring break.
I wanted to get some Dec. turns and my son wanted to go plus a friend of his with the college version of my cheap Heavenly/Northstar pass joined us. We picked up another friend along the way. Since I watched the 49ers victory, instead of packing and with three almost 20 year-olds to get going, we did not get out of San Jose until after 9 am. The two of us with passes were on the gondola at Heavenly before 2. The attendants made sure we were not beginners as they were concerned that if gondola closed due to wind, we would have to ski to Stagecoach base. The wind was not that bad and diminished towards the end of the day, but the line of people trying to go down the gondola was the worst I have ever seen.
The line for Tamarack 6-pack was long, but we moved quickly up the singles line. We joined a snowboarding couple who seemed to be fresh of the plane from somewhere in Asia. The husband was dragging the wife the wife towards the lift while she had her board perpendicular to the direction of travel. They had to stop the lift for them to get on and off. On the lift, I asked the husband, who spoke some English, if they had been riding the Big Easy beginner lift and he said yes, but you not have known it by the way she ‘snowboarded’ as she could not stay up, let alone move on her own. He also said they may be going to Mammoth the next day. The wife (was?) stood up to get off the chair the husband had stopped for them at the top and immediately fell and was dragged out of the way by the husband. I don’t want to pick on the Asians, but later on Comet chair an Asian foursome asked the lift operator for directions, then missed two chairs as they were so slow getting to the loading area together. If everyone moved like them, the lines would have been much longer. I have more, but two examples are enough.
The skiing seemed worse than the end of November. Crowds were much bigger, there were some thin spots along the edges of the runs. I hit a couple of rocks and saw others falling over rocks. There were a couple of places where gravel was mixed in with the snow and some firm areas. There were also way too many very slow moving beginners on the intermediate WRODs. The almost 20 year-old boarder I was with said he thought Heavenly was a little better than Northstar where he skied the previous day. Moderate lines on Dipper forced us to ski Comet chair twice. Then we moved to Dipper, where snow on Big Dipper Run was pretty good and most of the crowds and beginners had not gotten over than far. We moved over to Tamarack to check out gondola line and for snowboarder to try the terrain park, but at 3:30 park was already closed for day for maintenance. We took California Trail down twice. The second time I found about 3” of dry loose snow along the right edge, where I was able to throw a lot of snow in the late afternoon sun. We did one more high-speed run on Ariel on Dipper chair, but if was a rough ride as many bumps had formed and it had firmed up in the shade. My son’s friend followed me down the loose snow on CA trail and we had almost no line downloading the gondola, a little after four. It was nice to have my son to drop and us up closer than any parking to the gondola, plus he did the grocery shopping while we were on the mountain for two hours, not including gondola up and down. 10 runs/9.7K vertical
Wednesday 12/21 was better. I got the three almost 20 year-olds fed and out of the cabin not much after nine. We drove by the gondola, but did not like the size of the line and it’s a long walk, especially in ski boots, from free parking behind Harrah’s so we drove to Stagecoach. I used two of my four $60 buddy tickets for my son and his friend without a pass – they were charging $92. I left then with a short walk to the lift while I got one of twenty or so remaining spots at Stagecoach and booted up for a much longer walk. If you arrive later, you would have to shuttle from nearby Boulder base, which needs a little more snowmaking to open.
I was on Stagecoach before 10 and took one high-speed run as traffic was light. I ran into my son in the minimal liftline where one of the Heavenly angels was passing out small, warm glazed donuts. We all got together and skied Olympic chair and run a few times. The snow was very good, but run got crowded and was short so we eventually skied to Stagecoach base, then went back up and skied down to Northbowl on Lower Nevada Run. The last pitch before the chair may have been the steepest open at Heavenly and had the best snow on the mountain, due to light traffic and exposure, but you paid for it with long, slow triple North Bowl lift. We moved up to Dipper and took it a couple of time. Then we moved to Tamarack, where the almost twenty year-olds hit the smaller jumps in the terrain park. The skier among them spent some time in Norway and threw a helicopter. I got ahead and took pictures for two of the runs, then took one run down CA trail where snow was very good.
We had sack lunch that I had carried up at a table in front of the new Tamarack Lodge, before moving to some of the plastic Adirondack chairs. Temps were probably high 30s, but it was warm enough in the sun. In the afternoon, we did more of the upper NV lifts, before splitting up. I went down to North Bowl twice, the first time sharing the lift with a young federale from Mexico City who was taking a break before returning for Christmas and their upcoming presidential election.
Wed. was the first day Heavenly opened a connection from NV to CA - only return was and still is via shuttle. I offered to pickup the three college students at CA base. They probably would have had better snow and been in the sun longer by going to CA, but the two snowboarders were discouraged by the flat they would have had to cross. Instead we all met at Stagecoach base after taking runs that were now in heavy shade and getting firmer. I sent my son on the long walk to the car while his friends and I waited by the lodge. I finished with 22 runs and 21.2K, then took the three guys first to $1 tacos and later to $9 prime rib all at Mont Bleu with a poached lakefront hottub and showers at the cabin in between. I think I wore them out as they were ready to go back to the cabin before me.
Thursday morning only my son’s pass-holding friend and I were the only ones planning to get up early and go. His friend had other snowboarding friends from Sacramento arrive that he was going to ride and return with. My son surprised me by getting up and dropping me near the gondola well before 9. It was windy and in single digits above 9,000 feet. At the top of my third time up Tamarack I saw the three snowboarders. One was struggling to open his rear binding and we were all getting blasted by snow moving in the 20-30 mph winds. At my suggestion, he removed snowboard from his front foot so he could better see what he was doing and open the binding. I thought he fixed it and we were all moving, but never saw them again. I toured all of the open runs and lifts on NV, including fast, empty run to North Bowl chair and going to Stagecoach once, but did not find any donuts. I heard they were giving them out at both gondola and Stagecoach, but my timing was off. I tried to take a picture on the snowmaking on Boulder and lower Nevada Trail, while going up North Bowl chair, but my camera battery would not allow it in the cold.
At a little after eleven, I took the turn towards CA with enough speed to mostly make it across the flats. There was good coverage on the somewhat south-facing trail, but it would have been slow on a snowboard. At the top of Sky chair, which had very low crowd for it for 11 am, they were blowing snow to open the trail to NV. It looked like they had a long way to go. My first run down Ridge, the only run open on Sky, I found too firm of snow in the middle. Next run, I stayed in the softer snow on the right, then continued down Maggies, the only run open on Powder Bowl chair. I took short Patsys chair to download the Tram and since I just missed a tram, I hiked up and rode down Gunbarrel chair. I called my son for pickup at CA base and quit at noon with 12 runs and over 14K vertical. Heavenly claims over 170 acres open, but I don’t think the snow will hold up between Christmas and New Years and crowds will not be fun. With five days in, I am more than even on my pass, but hope the New Year finally brings more snow.
I wanted to get some Dec. turns and my son wanted to go plus a friend of his with the college version of my cheap Heavenly/Northstar pass joined us. We picked up another friend along the way. Since I watched the 49ers victory, instead of packing and with three almost 20 year-olds to get going, we did not get out of San Jose until after 9 am. The two of us with passes were on the gondola at Heavenly before 2. The attendants made sure we were not beginners as they were concerned that if gondola closed due to wind, we would have to ski to Stagecoach base. The wind was not that bad and diminished towards the end of the day, but the line of people trying to go down the gondola was the worst I have ever seen.
The line for Tamarack 6-pack was long, but we moved quickly up the singles line. We joined a snowboarding couple who seemed to be fresh of the plane from somewhere in Asia. The husband was dragging the wife the wife towards the lift while she had her board perpendicular to the direction of travel. They had to stop the lift for them to get on and off. On the lift, I asked the husband, who spoke some English, if they had been riding the Big Easy beginner lift and he said yes, but you not have known it by the way she ‘snowboarded’ as she could not stay up, let alone move on her own. He also said they may be going to Mammoth the next day. The wife (was?) stood up to get off the chair the husband had stopped for them at the top and immediately fell and was dragged out of the way by the husband. I don’t want to pick on the Asians, but later on Comet chair an Asian foursome asked the lift operator for directions, then missed two chairs as they were so slow getting to the loading area together. If everyone moved like them, the lines would have been much longer. I have more, but two examples are enough.
The skiing seemed worse than the end of November. Crowds were much bigger, there were some thin spots along the edges of the runs. I hit a couple of rocks and saw others falling over rocks. There were a couple of places where gravel was mixed in with the snow and some firm areas. There were also way too many very slow moving beginners on the intermediate WRODs. The almost 20 year-old boarder I was with said he thought Heavenly was a little better than Northstar where he skied the previous day. Moderate lines on Dipper forced us to ski Comet chair twice. Then we moved to Dipper, where snow on Big Dipper Run was pretty good and most of the crowds and beginners had not gotten over than far. We moved over to Tamarack to check out gondola line and for snowboarder to try the terrain park, but at 3:30 park was already closed for day for maintenance. We took California Trail down twice. The second time I found about 3” of dry loose snow along the right edge, where I was able to throw a lot of snow in the late afternoon sun. We did one more high-speed run on Ariel on Dipper chair, but if was a rough ride as many bumps had formed and it had firmed up in the shade. My son’s friend followed me down the loose snow on CA trail and we had almost no line downloading the gondola, a little after four. It was nice to have my son to drop and us up closer than any parking to the gondola, plus he did the grocery shopping while we were on the mountain for two hours, not including gondola up and down. 10 runs/9.7K vertical
Wednesday 12/21 was better. I got the three almost 20 year-olds fed and out of the cabin not much after nine. We drove by the gondola, but did not like the size of the line and it’s a long walk, especially in ski boots, from free parking behind Harrah’s so we drove to Stagecoach. I used two of my four $60 buddy tickets for my son and his friend without a pass – they were charging $92. I left then with a short walk to the lift while I got one of twenty or so remaining spots at Stagecoach and booted up for a much longer walk. If you arrive later, you would have to shuttle from nearby Boulder base, which needs a little more snowmaking to open.
I was on Stagecoach before 10 and took one high-speed run as traffic was light. I ran into my son in the minimal liftline where one of the Heavenly angels was passing out small, warm glazed donuts. We all got together and skied Olympic chair and run a few times. The snow was very good, but run got crowded and was short so we eventually skied to Stagecoach base, then went back up and skied down to Northbowl on Lower Nevada Run. The last pitch before the chair may have been the steepest open at Heavenly and had the best snow on the mountain, due to light traffic and exposure, but you paid for it with long, slow triple North Bowl lift. We moved up to Dipper and took it a couple of time. Then we moved to Tamarack, where the almost twenty year-olds hit the smaller jumps in the terrain park. The skier among them spent some time in Norway and threw a helicopter. I got ahead and took pictures for two of the runs, then took one run down CA trail where snow was very good.
We had sack lunch that I had carried up at a table in front of the new Tamarack Lodge, before moving to some of the plastic Adirondack chairs. Temps were probably high 30s, but it was warm enough in the sun. In the afternoon, we did more of the upper NV lifts, before splitting up. I went down to North Bowl twice, the first time sharing the lift with a young federale from Mexico City who was taking a break before returning for Christmas and their upcoming presidential election.
Wed. was the first day Heavenly opened a connection from NV to CA - only return was and still is via shuttle. I offered to pickup the three college students at CA base. They probably would have had better snow and been in the sun longer by going to CA, but the two snowboarders were discouraged by the flat they would have had to cross. Instead we all met at Stagecoach base after taking runs that were now in heavy shade and getting firmer. I sent my son on the long walk to the car while his friends and I waited by the lodge. I finished with 22 runs and 21.2K, then took the three guys first to $1 tacos and later to $9 prime rib all at Mont Bleu with a poached lakefront hottub and showers at the cabin in between. I think I wore them out as they were ready to go back to the cabin before me.
Thursday morning only my son’s pass-holding friend and I were the only ones planning to get up early and go. His friend had other snowboarding friends from Sacramento arrive that he was going to ride and return with. My son surprised me by getting up and dropping me near the gondola well before 9. It was windy and in single digits above 9,000 feet. At the top of my third time up Tamarack I saw the three snowboarders. One was struggling to open his rear binding and we were all getting blasted by snow moving in the 20-30 mph winds. At my suggestion, he removed snowboard from his front foot so he could better see what he was doing and open the binding. I thought he fixed it and we were all moving, but never saw them again. I toured all of the open runs and lifts on NV, including fast, empty run to North Bowl chair and going to Stagecoach once, but did not find any donuts. I heard they were giving them out at both gondola and Stagecoach, but my timing was off. I tried to take a picture on the snowmaking on Boulder and lower Nevada Trail, while going up North Bowl chair, but my camera battery would not allow it in the cold.
At a little after eleven, I took the turn towards CA with enough speed to mostly make it across the flats. There was good coverage on the somewhat south-facing trail, but it would have been slow on a snowboard. At the top of Sky chair, which had very low crowd for it for 11 am, they were blowing snow to open the trail to NV. It looked like they had a long way to go. My first run down Ridge, the only run open on Sky, I found too firm of snow in the middle. Next run, I stayed in the softer snow on the right, then continued down Maggies, the only run open on Powder Bowl chair. I took short Patsys chair to download the Tram and since I just missed a tram, I hiked up and rode down Gunbarrel chair. I called my son for pickup at CA base and quit at noon with 12 runs and over 14K vertical. Heavenly claims over 170 acres open, but I don’t think the snow will hold up between Christmas and New Years and crowds will not be fun. With five days in, I am more than even on my pass, but hope the New Year finally brings more snow.
