Overpriced & Overrated
I have been skiing Heavenly for years, not so much by choice, but for convenience. But that convenience comes at great price:
Overpriced: Heavenly is among the most expensive places to ski - period! From the overpriced lift tickets, to the outrageous cost of food and drink.
All Heavenly ever claims they are improving, is the food on the mountain. But the only thing that seems to increase is the price, not the quality or the service.What Heavenly REALLY needs to improve, is the mountain itself...
For years I have been writing, calling and talking with management in person - both at Heavenly, and at Vail (which owns Heavenly), about updating the ski trails and the lift access to the mountain.
Heavenly was designed for skiing, not snowboarding. There are endless areas where you need to walk long distances to get anywhere. They need to redesign the mountain runs and lifts, so that is no longer the case. Every time I make such a suggestion, I get a lot of, "Sure, we will take that into consideration," but they never do it.
They installed a Gondolla that runs from the Stateline strip, up to the ski area. This is a real convenience if you are staying in the Casinos at the Stateline. But very few lifts come near the gondola where the Gondola lets off on the mountain. And getting back to the Gondola - to take it down at the end of the day - is EXTREMELY difficult! You have to plan your return trip an hour in advance, because you have to take several lifts in succession to get to the Gondola (even if you are skiing right next to it). And you had better pay very close attention as you are skiing down the mountain, because if you make one wrong turn, you will miss getting to the Gondola, and have to take several lifts back up.
Better signage would help, but that is no excuse for poor access and extremely poor mountain trails. Even skiiers have to spend 1/5 of their day pushing themselves along, from one place to another. This is tiring for downhill sking, and hardly what one expects for the extremely high price of the lift ticket, food and drink.
And if you are snowboarding...Yeah, you better learnt the mountain REAL fast, or you will be spending a GREAT deal of time walking.
Heavenly boasts some of the best tree skiing anywhere. But just because you have a lot of trees on the mountain, does not mean they are skiiable. Between the CA and NV sides, a lot of people go to get fresh powder in the trees (because the powder everywhere else is gone by 10:30 am - Heavenly is VERY crowded). But if you are not really careful, you will hit a wall of trees, 1/2 mile long, and so close together, you cannot crawl between them. Not only is this VERY UNFUN, a waste of time and energy to try and get out of, but it is downright dangerous. There is little if any warning before you come upon this wall of trees, and Heavenly refuses to thin any trees whatsoever, so that people can get through.
The one thing Heavenly does have is spectacular views. But that is not why I go skiing/boarding. The only reason I ski/board there at all, is because the closest good mountains are 45 minutes away on a GOOD day. That gives Heavenly a bit of a monopoly - hence the high prices, poor service and poor lift access and terrain.
Moreover, the nightlife and Casinos are WAY overblown. In recent years, Indian gaming in California has all but devastated the Casinos in Lake Tahoe. No one goes there to gamble anymore, and as a result, the nightlife is not that great. The only good reason to be at Heavenly, is if you want to drink and party at night, out on the town, and do not want to drive. All of Lake Tahoe is a DUI trap!!! They make a TON of money off busting tourists!
My suggestion would be to avoid heavenly altogether, and go to Squaw Valley, Kirkwood, Apine Meadows, Northstar, Homewood, or any number of other, less expensive, higher quality ski resorts. If you want to party, rent a cabin, bring your friends, buy your own booze and stay in.