This was the end of day download line at Heavenly’s California Lodge yesterday (1/4) at 4pm. Gondola & Stagecoach lifts are closed, Gunbarrel & Roundabout trails are closed, so Gunbarrel chair & Tram lift are the ONLY way off the mountain…took nearly 2 hours of standing to get through this line, no employees in sight to assist. Bring your hand warmers, you’ll need them, and leave the powder board/skis at home…rocks are EVERYWHERE.
200 bucks a day to stand around. If you’re lucky…Heavenly said they’ll arbitrarily STOP UPLOADING at any point today to control capacity. $200 Tix + $20 Parking just to be told you CAN’T go up the lift
Yesterday, while skiing Heavenlys’ Ridge Run (a beginners run), I was suddenly hit violently from behind in the middle of my back by the forearm of a speeding out of control snowboarder, slamming me to the ground, popping me out of both skis, and scattering my equipment. From the force of the impact, and the distance he slid downhill before coming to a stop…about 25 yards… I would guess he was doing at least 20+ miles an hour when he hit me. On a beginners run! Full of people because it was one of the few runs open for lack of snow. A quick “Sorry!” and off he went.
Two following skiers, who helped me gather my equipment, told me he had almost taken them out a bit further up the hill.
No Safety Officer or Ski Patrol in sight.
Heavenly needs to get a better handle on its’ snowboarders. Many are dangerously aggressive. Riding way above their limited ability, frequently in groups of 3 or 4, catching air off every little bump, spraying snow on skiers for fun, then bragging about it. (I have personally witnessed and been a victim of this). Using skiers as slalom gates. (From the trailing skiers description, that’s probably what this guy was doing and just wasn’t good enough to pull it off). I see these behaviors all the time. These jerks are dangerous…my case a good example. I survived with only a sore back, but these reckless boarders need to have their passes revoked permanently.
This crash ended my day. And my desire to ever ski “Heavenly” again. It’s the third time I have been hit by a snowboarder at this resort.
And yes, I reported the incident to the Ski Patrol Office at the bottom of the hill. On my way…out of “Heavenly”.
Ok I’ve been here before and it’s exceptional. Today we found that the iconic gondola was shut down. For how long? Nobody knows. It’s there infinite wisdom the Heavenly Valley intellectual juggernaut’s decided to cram everyone onto the California lodge lift. At the same time the two other lodges are closed and leaving the innate idiots that run this place to keep everyone jammed into the California lodge. This created a logjam and over 4 hour wait to get off the mountain by unfortunate patrons. Got a heart attack, broken leg or massive bled well we will get you down after we let our own employees down first. This is a perfect example of people in positions they should not be in. Having an alternative plan, alerting the public or Just using common. Sense. Perhaps these are the same fools discharged from the state department that led our glorious evacuation from Afghanistan? Either way I’m sure the trail lawyers awaited at the bottom with their salivary glands in full effect
Visited Tahoe for the holidays and unfortunately there wasn’t much snow. You would expect reduced rates under such poor skiing conditions but instead the prices at Heavenly were outrageous. $200 for 1/2 day lift ticket, $800 for a private lesson… Fortunately I found other mountains with similar conditions and great views at much lower prices.
Absolutely poor customer service. Ski resort announced opening on 17 Nov, only to delay it opening to after our trip. No refunds, poor communication. We also only found out upon arrival to Tahoe with no email notification.
I wanted to like the experience of Heavenly, but the skiing was way too crowded especially during the weekends. It’s never fun to be at risk of bumping to a skier and have to wait until going down an entire run. On the plus side, the snow wasn’t bad and the scenery of seeing Lake Tahoe was beautiful.
Heavenly is a corporate resort that regards skiers as profit centers while their real customers are Wall Street analysts. For spring skiing they have reduced lifts and grooming to a bare minimum. Sky lift is the one that reaches the highest altitude so it has mid year weekend lines. The trouble is this means 2 non heavy slush runs max vs 6-10 runs in winter. Grooming has been cut to almost nothing. I observed far more corduroy at Diamond Peak and Mt Rose. This made my decision on renewal for me as Northstar parking and crowds make that resort a no go. I would have renewed if spring skiing was even an average experience. By the way thanks for eliminating the ski carts at NS which has one of The most onerous walks in NA. We figure the green eye shades saved 20-25 cents per Skier visit on that one.
I am a season pass holder with the Tahoe Local Pass. The experience here is truly disappointing. I went on a low traffic day (Monday) and the the experience really sucked. The only thing decent was the grooming. Vail resorts is run strictly by Wall Street guys and pointy pencil bean counters interested only in the bottom line. To this end they sent all of their low paid J1 visa employees packing on 3/31/23 and now they are running with a skeleton crew of locals. At least two key lifts are closed and the lines (Sky and Dipper) on a Monday were crazy at 10-15 minutes per ride. Vail resorts are the kings of no-customer service. As a long time pass holder, Vail resorts may have crossed the line for me NOT to renew my pass for the 23-24 season.
Rude personnel, extremely strict rules… inconsistent feedback from people working here regarding the resort rules.
Not worth the lift ticket prices and f**k vail resorts altogether
This place is an absolute nightmare! Do not come here unless you want to wait in line for a shuttle for over an hour minimum and wait to park your car for an hour as well. Just parking your car will make you wanna leave it’s so chaotic. Have fun looking at the backside when you arrive, there’s fresh powder everywhere, however they won’t open it and force feed everyone into lines once you hit the front side. It’s honestly the worst resort I’ve ever been to. Just a giant trap to take your money away from you. Oh and when it’s time to leave be prepared to wait in another hour line to get back to your car and then another hour to leave. Avoid at all costs
2 hours to download from village to parking lot. 100+ people line built up from 3:30 to 4 waiting on first bus. Supply trucks were dangerously pulling in and out through the queue of people. Cutting left and right with no direction. Total mess.
No lights in the pitch black parking lot at 6 pm to top it off. This resort needs a total overhaul on customer service and parking functionality. Frankly unacceptable from an upper level management perspective. They have the $$ to do it right.
Don’t come here unless you stay on site. 4x Epic Pass holder. Heavenly and Kirkwood are visitor friendly.
After paying for very EXPENSIVE ticket during Christmas, we were informed by staff that the mountain is closed for the day due to safety reason and extreme weather, after only less than 2 hours of total time spent at the resort. When asking about partial refund or credit, nothing was offered and staff told us that “this situation happens frequently at the resort”.
The reader who shared the picture says that “…people are placing their ski or snowboard equipment up in the front of the lift line in the morning, then go hang out in their warm cars until about ten minutes before loading the lift.”
Vail resorts is the worst company running multiple ski resorts!! Absolutely horrible! They declined my request to cancel my auto renew and basically live to just steal money from people!!! I’m tempted to file a class action lawsuit but debating if it will be worth my time!! The lines are stupid long constantly… can be our skiing or snowboarding for a full day and only get max 2-3 actual runs in… it’s quicker to hike the mountain than actually ride the lifts!!! DONT WASTE YOUR TIME AND MONEY WITH AN EPIC PASS THIS YEAR!!!!
I just compared what I used to pay a few years ago for a specific ski resort before Vail took it over in 2020. Wow – didn’t realize what these guys are doing. The group has great resorts that we like a lot but will definitely be more conscious choosing where we travel to next time.
Michael Livi via Facebook.com
I purchased tickets in advance to Paoli Peaks, to find out the day of that 12 of the 15 slopes were closed (only 3 open). I called over 10 times to speak with someone about canceling my tickets, but no human would answer a phone. I had to drive 2 hrs to speak with someone at the ski lodge. When arriving, even though I pre-purchased tickets that all claimed to “save time– don’t wait in line,” there were no signs explaining where to go; I still had to wait in the ticket line to speak with someone, who then sent me to guest services in a completely different part of the building. I used the restroom on the way to find it disgusting and out-of-date with no paper towels or driers working to dry my hands. The guest services manager said that a machine wasn’t working to blow fresh snow, so they had to close 80% of the slopes, while still charging people full price and not answering the phones because they were too busy. I’ll choose Perfect North from here on out.
Eric Bivens via Facebook.com
Tried vailresorts epicpass this year. Their level of transparency was abysmal. Be sure to read the fine print before buying (if you can find it). No transfers, no refunds. You can upgrade, but it will cost you 200% of what you paid originally. 20% off on food/beverages? Only if it is a non-alcoholic beverage. They overpromise and don’t deliver
Russell Huffman via Facebook.com
Nothing surprising from this company and it’s low rating when they hire lying, purple-haired pigs to work in dispatch. The way your employee treats people coupled with your low rating explains it all.
Olena Pearson via Facebook.com
Bought lift tickets through epic pass. Ski school for my daughter and ski rentals. Had to cancel because of winter storm Elliott and the southwest debacle. No flights out of Texas. 25,000 flights cancelled. Couldn’t make the trip. Spent over 1,200 on the trip. Zero refunds. Nada. Because my house wasn’t inhabitable I couldn’t get a refund. Unbelievable. No compassion. Zero common sense.
Donnie Elliott
Let’s get this straight. Vail Resorts does not care about its customers. All they care about is money. The internet is riddles with people talking about the many deceptive business practices Vail Resorts engages in. These policies are absolutely abhorrent and border on theft, if you and I were to do it. They show absolutely no empathy towards their loyal customers at all and as such do not care about retaining customers. They will simply cycle onto the next sucker and screw them next. That is their bottom line business, please stay clear if you can, there are other friendlier ski resorts to ski or snowboard at that actual care about you as a person.
Todd Chamberlin via Facebook
Worst customer support of all time. If you can actually get someone on the phone, good luck with them being able to resolve any issues or actually help.
Vale Ski Resorts is putting their customers, their season pass holders at risk for Omicron at Heavenly Valley South Lake Tahoe!!! By insisting on grouping multiple parties in the small Timberlodge gondolas. Worst there’s no reason for doing this nonsense; especially on weekdays. Many of these strangers aren’t wearing masks! I’ve been a season pass holder here for as long as the resort’s existed but if they are going to intentionally put my family at risk for Omicron by crowding strangers in these small gondolas then I’ll be looking closer at other resorts and end a near 20 year relationship as season pass holder
NorthStar California Sucks | VailEpicFail 