This Tahoe Ski Resort Is Unexpectedly Reopening for One Final Weekend

We love a good comeback. 

In an unexpected twist, Lake Tahoe’s Heavenly Mountain Resort is reopening this weekend on April 18 and April 19 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., taking advantage of a late-season storm that blanketed California’s mountains with feet of snow earlier this month. 

The slopes will be limited, including the California Trail to Tamarack Return. Skiers will ride the gondola to access the mountain.

The resort, in an email, called it “a rare reopening and a final chance for a thank-you lap to celebrate Heavenly’s 70th anniversary season.”

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The news follows an abrupt end for many of the ski resorts around Lake Tahoe and across the broader West. Snowfall was consistently low since winter began, and then, to add insult to injury, a record-breaking heat wave hit in March, baking the mountain snowpack. 

That led, in part, to numerous ski resort closures, including Heavenly. The resort first shut down early on April 5 due to the warm weather and a lack of snow.

Just a handful of California’s resorts made it beyond the heat wave without closing, including Palisades Tahoe and Mammoth Mountain. Both those resorts remain open, and they were rewarded for sticking it out with the most recent April storm.

At Palisades Tahoe, the new snow even allowed ski patrol some tougher terrain, including the famed Chimney. 

Neither Palisades Tahoe nor Mammoth Mountain has confirmed a closing date, but Mammoth Mountain, according to its website, is still targeting at least Memorial Day despite the low snow year.

Two other hangers-on, Kirkwood and Mt. Rose-Ski Tahoe, plan to close this weekend on April 19.

It has, without a doubt, been a strange ski season. We’d always hoped, though, that April might give skiers a few more opportunities to get out there. 

Given the powder and now the reopening of Heavenly, those wishes were, to an extent, fulfilled (there's still a few more weeks for that fabled ten-foot April storm to arrive, but we'll take what we can get).

Our advice? Go up and enjoy the snow while it lasts. When July or August arrives, you’ll probably be glad you did.