Skiing / Snowboarding at Heavenly Resort in South Lake Tahoe

Disclosure: These tickets were provided free of charge; all opinions are my own.

If you have visited South Lake Tahoe, then you surely have seen/ridden the beautiful resort known as Heavenly. I had never experienced it for myself, so with the fantastic winter we had (in 2016), I made the point to go up and remedy this. While the lift tickets can be expensive, it is easily the most beautiful place I have ever snowboarded, here is all the information.

Details

• Lift Ticket Info
• There is a discount currently if you book your tickets at least three days in advance online.
• Location: 3860 Saddle Rd, South Lake Tahoe, CA 96150
• Information from my visit in 2016

Getting There

There are two main points of access for Heavenly, one via the gondola in the center of town and one about 2 miles away called the California Lodge. Regardless of which you go to, there are shuttles to get between them, and you can ski either with the same pass.

Rentals

Since I was traveling, I didn’t bring my own gear. I stopped on the way up Ski Run Blvd at Rainbow Mountain Rentals, and I would readily recommend them. They were great getting me set up with a board, boots, and bindings while showing me how to make changes to the set up while on the mountain. Check them out if you need rental.

The Mountain

Parking at the California Lodge is free, so that makes it nicer than the parking structure in the Heavenly Village, which is $1.50 an hour.

After getting my ticket and jumping on a lift, I set out to get all the way to the top of the mountain, which takes three lifts to get to and which sits at over 10,000 feet, almost 4,000 feet higher than the base.

I took the gondola, then two lifts and managed to make it to the top before the clouds rolled in and blocked my view. It was freezing up there but so beautiful! It took about 30 minutes to get to the top, depending on how fast you ski in between the lifts.

For the ride down, we stayed on the blue squares (intermediate) for the entire time, and it took about 20 minutes to get down to the gondola we rode up, which makes for an enjoyable ride. You can go all the way to the base, but most people ride a lift or gondola down as the main runs to the bottom from there are black diamonds.

On the way, there is a scenic overlook you can pull out at and see the below view looking out of the Tahoe Basin over Nevada. It’s pretty awesome to have a ski hill that sets up scenic overlooks.

The entire time you are snowboarding, you are looking at Lake Tahoe and the surrounding towns; it is mesmerizing. We went up a few of the lifts multiple times just to get the views over and over again since it was a clear, sunny day. Here are a few pictures.

There are even a few food places on both sides of the mountain so you can get food or a drinks without having to go all the way down.

After about 4 hours of snowboarding, we were beat, so we made our way down to the base. It was a beautiful ride that had you crisscrossing the mountain. The snow was groomed well, and the views were great the whole way down. We didn’t even go to the other side of the mountain the entire day, which shows you how big it is.

All in all, this is a fantastic place to snowboard in Lake Tahoe, be sure to try and get up there this season (2016) as the conditions have been absolutely perfect and let me know if you have any tips for the mountain in the comments.

Also, if you want to find other great ski resorts in the Lake Tahoe area, check out Local Freshies.