Skiing in Heavenly, Lake Tahoe (California)

I used to be a ski instructor so it was obvious to go skiing in Winter. My favorite places in Europe were in the French Alps and now in California it's Heavenly at Lake Tahoe.

Heavenly is such a great place, because there are 29 lifts & 97 runs! The maximum elevation is 10,067' (3,068 meters) and the annual snowfall averages more than 350 inches (762 cm) a year. This is a unique place for me because the view is so fascinating when you are cruising down.

The snow is a little bit different from that in Europe. It seems to be a foolish idea but I just feel it when I am on my skies that the snow is more fluffy. If you are skiing at Heavenly on one side of the mountain is California, from the other side you are watching the Nevada's fields.

California

Nevada

You can use a gondola to go up from the Heavenly Village or an Aerial Tramway to go up from the California Lodge. All the other lifts are "chair lifts". Be careful as a few of these lifts are very slow but most of them - usually called "express" - are pretty fast. Another difference between Europe and America is that skiers don't like to use the bars on the lifts and there is no place to put your ski or  snowboard to relax your feet while going up the mountain.

Gondola

When you use the Gondola you can make a stop to take beautiful pictures half way. 

View from the observation station

3 years ago with Sophie

At the top of the Gondola is a nice restaurant, a snow tubing hill (1 hour/30 bucks) and a fun jungle gym.

If you like to do tricks, jumps and aerials you can use two terrain parks. If you forgot your accessories (helmet, skies, hat, gloves...) you can find many shops at the Heavenly village.

The Gondola station in the village

If you would like to take lessons there is a ski and snowboard school near by the Gondola.

Bear front of the ski/snowboard school

This year we went after Valentine's Day during the school winter-break. I was expecting more people on the runs but luckily the maximum waiting time was about 5 minutes by any one lift.

After next year I would like to take a photo with my two daughters

I haven't started my younger daughter to ski yet and this made things more complicated because one of us had to stay with her in the village. On the other hand the trip was less expensive because my husband and I could share one ticket. Psssssssssst, this is a secret. ;)

I am waiting for the time when all of us can go skiing. Maybe next year.

Going down with the Gunbarrell Express

(3 days- February, 2014)

When I was with Lili we went to a small place to go sledding (more details coming from the next post).