Heavenly is almost unlike any other resort that I have been to, in that it doesn’t feel that it is at the heart of what is going on in its own town. There is no denying that Vail or Val D’Isere are ski resorts, with every cobblestone, rivet, square inch of carpet and slate tile being oriented towards the pursuit of sliding downhill on plastic-coated wood. By comparison, it feels like Heavenly is a resort that happens to be at the top of a hill in South Lake Tahoe – a town which is really all about the lake, and the casinos.

Despite having to vie for attention with less wholesome pursuits, Heavenly is a great place to shred. Like the town below, the resort straddles the state-line which separates California from Nevada. The majority of the skiing is on the Nevada side of the mountain, which is also less exposed to the sun – and thus tends to hold the snow for longer (either over the course of a season or following a dump). The base of the mountain sits at 2000m above sea level, and the top just sticks its nose above 3000m, but all the terrain sits within the comforting environs of the treeline.

“It appears that during the snow-starved winter of 2014/15, Heavenly just pretty much wrote off the prospect of maintaining their parks”

And it is the trees that struck me most about Heavenly’s terrain – they left me with the impression that it would be an awesome place to snowboard during a storm, with hundreds of acres of tree runs through perfectly spaced (by Mother Nature’s hand) glades. We had a decent fall of snow during our stay, which afforded us the opportunity to snake our way through the trees and get some pow turns, albeit with the risk of gouging out our boards, given the relatively thin base.

The pitch of the mountain isn’t steep, rather predominantly fits into the category of “undulating blue to steep blue” – which is pretty much perfect if you are riding with your kids, and great for general bezzing around.  “Fun” is the word that springs most to mind. You won’t be stumbling into anything gnarly here, which isn’t to say that some gnar can’t be found (the terrain in Milky Way bowl and off Mott Canyon lift filling that gap), but you are unlikely to run down the battery on your Pieps transceiver whilst staying in Heavenly.

For feeding, I would call out Heidi’s, which is a trippy genetic mutation of a restaurant which has spliced together the body of an Austrian chalet with the organs of an American diner. Eating there felt like having my dipped my head in sherbet and force-fed pancake syrup through my eyeballs whilst trying to squeeze myself into my first cousin’s lederhosen, but it was brilliant. Go there, and feed.

For a more refined experience, we found Cafe Fiore and Nephele’s, which are two tiny (separate) restaurants spooning each other, hidden away in the more residential part of South Lake Tahoe. Eating here made me feel like a grown up again, definitely worth a visit if you are craving some white linen and fine Californian wine. Also recommended are the somewhat more prosaically-named ‘The Brewery’ (get a taster rack, so you can try all the beers that are cultivated at the back of the pub) and the Base Camp Pizza restaurant that will get you good pizza, quickly, within twenty yards of the gondola.

Whilst I have dissed the casinos, Harrah’s clearly wasn’t all mint-sucking grannies pummelling quarters into the slots. This is the place to go if you want to lose yourself for a night, either by gambling or by drinking. On the weekend this place gets lively, so dust off your winkle pickers and make sure you have plenty of travellers cheques about your person, and you could find yourself re-enacting a scene from the Hangover the next day.

So, would I travel all the way across to the west coast of America just to go to Heavenly?  In short, no. It is a good resort, perched above a slightly weird town. But is it worth a visit as part of a broader Californian shred itinerary? Absolutely. Especially if you have a gambling problem, or need to replace the photos above your fireplace.

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