Park Ave, Stateline Area

Each Lake Tahoe ski resort has its own flavor and unique style. Squaw Valley is an expert skiers' paradise sought after by visitors from all over the planet. Northstar is a user-friendly luxurious resort frequented by tourists and locals alike. Sierra is a soft, friendly mountain with great snow and even better terrain parks. Kirkwood is a hidden, tucked-away spot in the High Sierra with better snow and lift served "backcountry" runs than any other mountain in Lake Tahoe. And Boreal is the accessible, beginner skier and boarders' terrain.

But no mountain, for better or for worse, is as unique as Heavenly - perhaps the only mountain that is characterized even more by its surrounding area than it is by the skiing itself. Lacking any kind of centralized village, Heavenly practically IS South Lake Tahoe, with gondola and lift access departing from the major streets. The casinos are at least as prevalent and as the ski bars, although there seems to be a bit of an odd divide between skiers and gamblers. One of the mountain's biggest selling points is its omnipresent nightlife.

The other selling point, of course, is the skiing. Not the quality, but the sheer abundance. It is, after all, the biggest mountain in Lake Tahoe, both in terms of acreage and height, and boasts the 8th longest vertical drop in the U.S. and the 14th longest in North America. Heavenly doesn't really NEED to have great terrain for marketing purposes, because it has so much mediocre terrain.

If IKEA had a ski mountain equivalent, Heavenly would be it. Imagine a mountain so disorienting that you don't really know where you are at any time, but with signage so good that somehow, regardless of where you end up, you will always find your way to the bottom. Nothing is centralized and at times, nothing seems to make sense, but you always manage to find your way out. The quality is mediocre, but the abundance of runs furnish the needs of skiers of every level.

Massive sections of continuous terrain - a drag for skiers and a dealbreaker for snowboarders - almost make it feel like the mountain was designed in segments. A few runs here, a few runs there, let's build this flat section to connect them together, and voila! We have one of the biggest resorts in North America.

While the experience may be mediocre, Heavenly doesn't really need to aim for greatness, because in the world of massive ski resorts with great nightlife, if you build it, they will come.