Heavenly North Bowl Express: An Upgrade, But Half-Baked
The North Bowl Express is Heavenly’s first new high-speed chairlift since 2007.
Background
For the 2022-23 season, Lake Tahoe’s Heavenly ski resort received its first high-speed lift upgrade in fifteen years. The iconic lakeside resort replaced its nearly four-decade-old North Bowl Triple, located on the lower mountain of the Nevada side, with a high-speed quad in the same alignment. But while rumors had swirled that the resort would also replace its Boulder beginner lift as part of this project, these mullings did not come to fruition. Here are our thoughts on the installment and the overall impacts on Heavenly’s on-mountain experience.
The Heavenly trail map, with the North Bowl lift upgrade highlighted in red.
The Experience
Guests who have previously spent time in Heavenly’s North Bowl area will notice improvements from the new lift. This pod chiefly services some pretty cool, advanced-level glades, and North Bowl’s transformation from a fixed-grip triple to a high-speed quad makes it much more desirable to lap this area.
Those familiar with the area will really appreciate that one can now continuously ski or ride the Nevada Woods and Bohemian Grove trails, both of which are chiefly accessible from the Olympic Express chair, without needing to bear through a slow lift ride back up. And while Heavenly can get crowded, the North Bowl lift still seldom sees traffic, making it the rare place where guests can get repeat laps on busy days.
Despite its newly doubled speed, the North Bowl lift still seldom sees notable crowds.
However, this upgrade leaves a massive elephant in the room—the lack of an upgrade for the nearby Boulder lift, which remains a fixed-grip triple. More than anything else, the Boulder/North Bowl route is really more of way to get from the Boulder parking lot to main resort areas; as a result, it’s perplexing that the North Bowl Express wasn’t a two stage lift that replaced both Boulder and North Bowl.
The lack of an upgrade for the Boulder lift has a couple of notable consequences. First off, guests still need to take a slow lift to get out of the Boulder parking lot, meaning that any relief benefits for the nearby Stagecoach parking lot, which is Heavenly’s only other Nevada-side base, are limited—especially on peak mornings. In addition, beginners continue to get neglected, as there’s still no high-speed-served green terrain at the entire resort—a stunning omission for a mountain that aims to be family-friendly.
And while the North Bowl lift rarely sees lines, we’d argue this is because it’s not a practical lapping area. The terrain is by no means bad, but its low elevation, difficult-to-reach location, and relatively docile views combine to make it less desirable than other mountain pods—even with the upgraded lift.
The Boulder lift (pictured here behind the North Bowl lift) provides the only out-of-base access from its namesake base, but it wasn’t upgraded as part of this project.
Ultimately, we’re not quite sure what Heavenly was thinking with upgrading North Bowl but leaving Boulder as is, given that the obvious use case—providing a high-speed lift route from the Boulder parking lot—was not fully realized. Perhaps Heavenly didn’t feel that the Boulder parking lot, which is smaller than the resort’s other access portals, was big enough to handle the expected demand from an out-of-base high-speed lift; however, in proceeding with upgrading North Bowl alone, the result is a brand-new multi-million-dollar lift that sees very little traffic.
Considering a ski or snowboard trip to Heavenly this year? Check out our full Lake Tahoe ski resort rankings, as well as our comprehensive Heavenly review. You can also check out our thoughts on North America’s major 2021-22 ski resort lift and terrain upgrades in video form below.
