North America > United States > California > Lake Tahoe > Articles > Heavenly Skiing

To obtain the air the angels breathe, said Mark Twain, “you must go to Tahoe”. Whether Twain would have approved of today’s intriguing contrast of skiing and bling-riddled gambling joints is difficult to say.

Heavenly is as much about gambling as the truly striking views across this magnificent lake, and the skiing of course. One of the highest and largest alpine lakes in the world, Tahoe is almost a third of a mile deep in places, and split roughly into two-thirds in California, with the other third in Nevada. Heavenly has skiing in both states. Twain went on to described the lake as ‘A noble sheet of blue water, lifted 6,300 feet above the level of the sea, and walled in by a rim of snow-clad mountain peaks.” That was before skiing had really been established on those peaks

My initial visit to Heavenly Valley (as it was still called in the late 1970s) was one of the very first experiences I had of skiing in the USA. Back then they gave us “Heavenly Hostesses” to accompany our efforts to explore the slopes.

Rather ungallantly, I can no longer recall the name of my hostess, but I remember being slightly envious of a colleague’s, Heavenly Bambi – well named I felt, with doe-eyes and long eye-lashes. It was all rather Disneyesque. Hardly surprisingly, since the neighbouring Lake Tahoe resort of Squaw Valley persuaded Disney himself to provide the visual effects (2,000 pigeons, 52 school bands, 2,645 voices and 1,285 instruments, and countless fireworks and balloons) when Squaw unexpectedly hosted the 1960 Winter Olympics.

I was however fortunate enough to ski with a host too, and his name I do remember. Mike Killebrew was the then owner Bill Killebrew’s younger brother, and skiing with him gave me a much more informative experience than any hostess would have done. Mike actually took a keen interest in the nuts and bolts of running the resort. When we stopped at a small mountain restaurant, for example, the manager mentioned that the roof was leaking. Without further ado, young Killibrew, whose endearing demeanour resembled that of a maintenance man more than that of the owner’s brother, shinned up to investigate. It was the last day of the season, and I also recall the code on that day’s lift ticket: TGIO. It stood for Thank God It’s Over.

Over the years I have returned to Heavenly many times, but it wasn’t until my most recent visit last winter, that I found such superb snow conditions again. More than sufficient to justify the ‘Call of the wild’ T-shirt I spotted bearing the slogan: “If you aren’t living on the edge - you’re taking up too much room.”

Heavenly (its name was truncated in 1990, when Bill Killebrew sold Heavenly Valley to the Kamori Kanko Company of Sapporo, Japan) has been owned since 2002 by Vail Resorts. It is an exciting but curious mix of alpine peaks, the magnificent lake, and 24-hour nightlife, with a heavy emphasis on gambling. Away from the casinos, the ski resort becomes very special when there is a significant fall of fresh powder. Vast expanses of back-country (off-piste) terrain suddenly open up, transforming and enlarging the skiing terrain dramatically. The Red and White Firs, along with the Jeffrey and White-barked Western Pines, are perfectly spaced for the exhilarating pursuit of tree-skiing, in which the trees form natural slalom gates, and the snow, if deep enough, will check your speed sufficiently for you to take your time as you drift between them – remembering the old tree-skiing adage of making sure you look at the spaces rather than the trees! During that first visit to Heavenly, the concept of tree-skiing had been new to me, and while sensing the novelty value, I had failed, though lack of experience, to make the most of it. Now, almost three decades later, I was able to take full advantage of the conditions.

Apart from tree-skiing opportunities which had opened up all over the mountain, Heavenly’s main focus of back-country attention is its two back-country canyons, Mott and Killebrew (the latter named after Bill Killebrew’s father Hugh, who died in an air crash when Bill was only 22, pitching him into premature resort ownership). These steep ‘gated’ areas offer double-black diamond terrain with clutches of broad, quite steep but not at all unmanageable couloirs. Although they bear such daunting names such as Snake Eyes, Widowmaker and Hemlock, falling is not too worrying a prospect in good conditions: deep snow will both cushion your fall and arrest your progress. You need to attack these canyons to get the most out of them, but that’s half the fun. Above these areas lies the impressive Milkyway Bowl, a largely treeless, single black-diamond bowl, with impressive views of Nevada’s desolate-looking Carson Valley from the top. Aries Woods, off the Comet Express lift, provide another attraction for off-piste enthusiasts.

Like snowboarders who hang around in small pockets around the mountain, bump skiers tend to congregate around Gunbarrel, a steep mogul field billed as ‘North America's toughest black-diamond bump run’. With a vertical drop of 610m (2,000ft) it explodes all the way from the top of the Aerial Tramway down to the California Lodge. Skiers who have dubbed themselves “The Face Rats”, do almost nothing else but ski this seemingly endless bump run, sometimes managing as many as 50 descents or more in a day. For most holiday skiers, however, once is sufficient. If the bumps get too much, you can traverse into East Bowl woods – or even take the easy Round-A-Bout option.

At the downtown Californian base of the mountain, things are changing rapidly. At Heavenly Village, economy motels and T-shirt shops are rapidly making way for a lively village area with up-scale lodging and restaurants. An eight-person gondola now takes skiers and snowboarders almost two thirds of the way up Monument Peak, feeding the six-passenger high-speed Tamarack Express, which climbs to near the top of the Nevada side. The gondola is only minutes from the state line at South Lake Tahoe. Cross that line and you walk into a different world: a world of vast, Las Vegas style gambling hotels, with glitzy shows at places like Harrah's, Harvey's and the former Caesar’s, recently purchased by the Montbleu group. There are six 24-hour casinos in the South Lake Tahoe area. Together, they have a total (at the last count) of 7,051 slot machines and 411 game tables.

As I was leaving – too late to seek him out - I discovered that Mike Killebrew was still working at the resort his brother had once owned. He drives a snowcat and grooms the trails. I wasn’t altogether surprised - I don’t believe he harboured management ambitions. And even a place called Heavenly does have earthly needs.

Articles

• More from Arnie Wilson