Heavenly to stay open into May!

There are pros and cons in having a large percent of your ski resort be in National Forest Land. Quite frankly, I haven’t found any of the pros as of yet, but I know there are many people out there who have a laundry list of them, so out of respect, I’ll agree that there are pros. I think one of the drawbacks for western resorts in the last few decades is that most have to close in mid-April when the mountain is 100% open, because of agreements with the forest service. Now I understand that there is a unique balance of nature, but as a skier, I doubt I’d make many friends with the environmentalist ‘cause I think people should ski till the snow is gone. Interestingly, Heavenly Mountain Resort is almost entirely on National Forest Land, but for some reason or another, someone gave them the go ahead to break from tradition as Heavenly recently announced that they will not close at the traditional time in April and have extended their season into May due to the large snowfall totals to date. While I think this is fabulous, I also think it should be noted that both the forest service and the mountain have worked well over the past few years and this might be the fruits of the relationship. Perhaps both can have their way!