Lift line on the California side of Heavenly.SLI bottom drive terminal with Yan operator shack.View up the line.Another view up the line.Lift overview from above.SLI tension unit.Lift line.
This lift rarely runs. Once upon a time Heavenly offered night skiing on this chair but those days are long gone. There also used to be a terrain park here for a while. It is really only used for special events these days like races, competitions, and the spring pond skim.
I visited Heavenly eleven years ago and always kinda wondered what the purpose of this lift was. It was short, but too steep to be a beginner lift, plus Heavenly has a bunch of dedicated beginner areas elsewhere across the mountain, including the nearby First Ride lift.
Seems like a lot of ski resorts once used to have night skiing and no longer do it anymore. Whistler Blackcomb was kind of similar in that it had one lit up, short chairlift for night skiing. I believe it was the Magic Chair.
But now that age old question of mine is answered! Every lift at Heavenly made sense to me back in the day but this one. Squaw Valley on the other hand… so many lifts there confuse me.
It has limited usefulness even for racing, as it is pretty short and has intermediate pitch. I’ve raced on it in USASA races (low-level, really amateur racing), and that seems like about all you can do on the one run served by the lift.
This lift was installed in 1969, when Hugh Killebrew ran the show. He was a publicity hound and loved rubbing shoulders with celebrities. I believe this lift was a means to combine those two – via a series of “celebrity pro-am” races. It ran pretty regularly through the mid 80’s, and wasn’t a bad way to get in a few turns at night or when storms were raging up top. Resumed skiing Heavenly in 2007, and have seen it run maybe 3 or 4 times since, and then only when there was a course set up or for the spring pond skim. Given it’s age and very limited usefulness, I’m sure it’s demise can’t be too far off.
Lift Blog 
is this lift operated very much? It does not look like it
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Kind of. It’s not open to the public, only racers and bibs are required to board the lift.
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This lift rarely runs. Once upon a time Heavenly offered night skiing on this chair but those days are long gone. There also used to be a terrain park here for a while. It is really only used for special events these days like races, competitions, and the spring pond skim.
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I visited Heavenly eleven years ago and always kinda wondered what the purpose of this lift was. It was short, but too steep to be a beginner lift, plus Heavenly has a bunch of dedicated beginner areas elsewhere across the mountain, including the nearby First Ride lift.
Seems like a lot of ski resorts once used to have night skiing and no longer do it anymore. Whistler Blackcomb was kind of similar in that it had one lit up, short chairlift for night skiing. I believe it was the Magic Chair.
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But now that age old question of mine is answered! Every lift at Heavenly made sense to me back in the day but this one. Squaw Valley on the other hand… so many lifts there confuse me.
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It has limited usefulness even for racing, as it is pretty short and has intermediate pitch. I’ve raced on it in USASA races (low-level, really amateur racing), and that seems like about all you can do on the one run served by the lift.
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This lift was installed in 1969, when Hugh Killebrew ran the show. He was a publicity hound and loved rubbing shoulders with celebrities. I believe this lift was a means to combine those two – via a series of “celebrity pro-am” races. It ran pretty regularly through the mid 80’s, and wasn’t a bad way to get in a few turns at night or when storms were raging up top. Resumed skiing Heavenly in 2007, and have seen it run maybe 3 or 4 times since, and then only when there was a course set up or for the spring pond skim. Given it’s age and very limited usefulness, I’m sure it’s demise can’t be too far off.
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Was the lift open to public yesterday?
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@PO
Yes
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