heavenly has been around for a long time, and many bay area vacationers will name it amongst their favourite winter vacation spots. however, keep in mind, most people who would say that are going to tahoe to have a nice, pleasant vacation and not so much to do hardcore, serious snowboarding.
heavenly is a decently luxurious resort. it's got a nice view of the lake as the city of south lake tahoe was practically built around it. sometime in the past few years, they even installed a nice lift that takes you to the mountain right from the center of town! that really turned south lake tahoe into one of those ski bum towns in colorado. they just need their own film festival, right?
anyway, as tahoe snow is in general pretty good, i wouldn't say that heavenly's a "bad" resort, but there's just many better resorts in tahoe. heavenly brags that it's the biggest resort in tahoe, but consider this: do they make good use of all that land? no. they might have a lot of acreage, but so much of it is unrideable, especially for snowboarders! to get from one good area to the next, snowboarders find that they need to hike quite a bit across long distances of flatlands. that's no fun. maybe they should consider installing a rope pull like what norsthar has installed to get to their lookout mountain.
heavenly also brags that their resort spans two states: california and nevada. however, again, to get from the california side to the nevada side, a snowboarder's going to spend a good chunk of his/her day hiking and not riding. that's no fun.
i _have_ had fun days at heavenly, and they _do_ have a few decent terrain park features now and then, but i've never felt all that loved there as a snowboarder, rather always felt they've favoured skiers a bit too much.
i think heavenly's a good place for a prep school, rich kid to enjoy a beer on the top of the mountain, dressed in nice new snow gear without sliding an inch on the snow. it's a luxurious venue for an après-ski soirée but not for serious boarders.
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