Tag: grooming

Heavenly: “Idiots running the show”

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

Jim M via TripAdvisor

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.

David B via TripAdvisor

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.

Stay01608001420 via TripAdvisor

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.

Noah W via TripAdvisor

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.

Willy K via TripAdvisor

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.

Michael A via TripAdvisor

“Vail will collapse. It’s not IF but WHEN.”

Vail will collapse. It’s not if but when. When pass prices go up by 20% they can only muster a 6% revenue increase associated with a 12% drop in units sold their upper tier passes while buying FOUR new areas. This all in an economy with huge inflation and huge labor cost increases. The financials just don’t add up to sustainability.

Their Experience Of A Lifetime (TM) is turning people away. Limited snowmaking this year (disasterous last year).

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Poor grooming quality. I laugh at some of the pics posted to the pass group on Facebook talking about the amazing conditions when there’s huge grooming ruts, 2 foot ice boulders, death cookies galore, etc. in the pics.

Lack of maintenance to their lifts leading them to break down all the time (Attitash last year, Stowe this year). Lack of running lifts. Non lifties running lifts. Grumpy employees some that scream at you for no reason. Bad traffic. Long lines. Charge you to park with no lifts running. I can go on…

Interest rates are through their roof. Their line of credit they’ve been using to fund their upgrades is now suddenly much costlier. Meanwhile their bread and butter resorts — Vail, Beaver Creek, Breckinridge, Keystone — have a ton of aging detachable that need to be replaced within the decade.

obienick via Snowjournal