It might be the first time you heard this cliche today - but honestly, last Friday was heavenly at Heavenly. Blue skies, vistas like no other, and interesting skiing, in and out of two states, and acres and acres of trees.

I skied with a mountain host who took me on a tour of much of the area, including the many photo op vistas and points of interest that seem to naturally occur just about everywhere you look. In fact, there is just so much that is memorable on and around the mountain that you would be hard pressed to take it all in unless you took up residence here. And a lot of skiers have done just that.

Skiers who are looking for big mountain destination resorts that have laid out their plans for the future can be assured that, with the approval of Heavenly Mountain Resort's Master Plan, this resort will be moving forward with big improvements and all in environmentally responsible ways.

Phase I calls for replacement of the existing North Bowl and Olympic fixed-grip chair lifts with high-speed, detachable lift technology, done in a way that will avoid a nearby stand of large trees. These new chairs will access North Bowl Woods and will provide a unique skiing experience within a grove of beautiful, giant red fir trees.

Much more is planned for on-mountain improvements during the next 10 years, including a 1,000-seat on-mountain restaurant, 152 acres of new ski trails, re-grading Skyline Trail - the infamous traverse from California to Nevada, and a skier bridge that will allow skiers and riders to ski from the Gondola top station to Tamarack Express.

The plan also calls for multi-use hiking/cross-country skiing/snowshoeing trails in the area between the Gondola top station and the Observation Deck, and a zip line adventure ride for summer use.

Check out this album I put together of some of the photos that I was able to take when I wasn't concentrating on skiing the fresh powder trails and manuevering through the woods.

Stay tuned for photos and article on my adventure following my mountain host into acre after acre of Heavenly trees.

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Photo © Mike Doyle