Ben Polk wrote:
There are a lot of good off-piste spots at Heavenly. That and the views
are the best thing going there.

I think your friend is talking about the Sky Trees, which are to the
skiers right of the Sky chair. It's nice in there - either go in around
50 yards from the chair, or continue on around to the Nevada sign and
follow the tracks in there.

For more of an introduction to the trees, I'd suggest the stuff either
side of the Comet chair on the Nevada side of Heavenly - there's a sign
for "Aries Woods" on skiers right. The Powderbowl Woods are also nice -
go in past the sign at the top of the Powderbowl chair, Also,
definately try the trees on either side of the Stagecoach chair, where
the lack of crowds and shelter from the weather makes it a good hangout
on busy weekends or stormy days. These places are all pretty easy.

There are good lines off Olympic and Northbowl chairs, though some
people don't like the non-express lifts.

All of Motts and Killebrew canyons are off-piste, and that's where the
steepest terrain is. Nice stuff on a good day.

Thanks for all these pointers. I see from the online piste map that
all these areas are marked with diamonds, so they are recognised runs.
I somehow did not really notice this before.

All these places get skied out early on new snow days (except
Killebrew) - finding the more hidden stashes is beyond the scope of
this note. But if the weather stays cold these places can be fun for
many days after new snow falls.

I wouldn't be the one to tell someone to go into the trees alone, but
if you are going to do it, the areas around the Comet chair are the
most well traveled, so you're probably going to be found pretty fast if
something goes wrong there. The down side is that there is so much
traffic it can get pretty skied off.

I shall try and be carefull, but I think I shall have to, unless I can
make friends with the right sort of people quickly.

They run something called "Mountain Adventure" out of the ski school
which goes for about 3 hours for $70, which is kind of a combination
lesson and mountain tour. I would talk to them before signing up to get
a promise to doing some off-piste stuff.

That sounds great, shame I am a bit hard up. I may try and streach to
one.

All this is dependent on good snow - if it's goopy or icy it's not much
fun in these places. One last thought is that the trees make a perfect
hide away on stormy days - there is much better contrast for visibilty,
and you are not as exposed to the wind. Fair weather skiers may even
find themselves changing their tune if they get used to this.

Warning: this kind of skiing is addictive. You may find that groomed
runs lose their appeal if you get lucky and have a day running through
a ten inches of untracked new snow in wide open trees on a sunny day.
(Like yesterday at Heavenly.)

PS Wear a helmet

I guess this is a better use of the 70 odd dollars. Any recomendation?
Price and protection are the prorities. I have a kayaking helmet with
no jaw protection. Might that do?

and remember, don't ski the trees, ski BETWEEN the
trees.



PS, sorry if the threading is broken, google groups seems to have lost
this message. I shall have to sort out a decent news server.