I had high hopes for Heavenly. On paper, it looked magical ... it has the name, a huge 4,800 acres of terrain spread across two states, receiver of powder dumps, probably the best view of Tahoe of all the local resorts, and lots of money spent on the infrastructure. However, in reality, we came away from the place after a day's boarding feeling a bit peed off.

Thinking back on what worked and what didn't, I can see now that Heavenly is much more of a ski resort than a boarding resort, and this is largely down to the numbers of flat sections on the terrain. There's nothing worse for boarders when you run out of steam on a run and find yourself having to peg along on one leg, or take the board off and walk. You'll do a lot of this at Heavenly. True, once you get skills at giving it some turbo speed and remember where the flat sections are, this can be avoided, but generally it's an undesirable feature of any mountain.

We did have some good times at Heavenly. On the powder days, there was much fun to be had in the excellent bowls on offer. Specifically, I remember big grins tanking it down Milky Way Bowl at break neck speed, also the experts only area of Mott and Killebrew Canyon were fantastic.