Winter made a comeback. Photo: Top of Dipper cam at Heavenly Ski Resort, April 17, 2026.
What a spring, eh? Back in March, California ski resorts were dropping like flies and shutting down operations at least a month earlier than most seasons. Record heat through much of the month on top of poor season snowfall totals sent us all limping out of winter. One of the last holdouts at the time was South Lake Tahoe’s Heavenly, which shut things down on Easter Sunday (April 5). On Friday morning, the resort announced they weren’t actually going to wave the white flag after all, and are opening back up April 18 and April 19 for a bonus weekend.
The last gasp comes after an April storm just a week ago that felt like a cruel joke at the time. Only a handful of resorts were left open throughout the Sierra when more than three feet fell over the course of a few days. Heavenly’s summit sits at the highest elevation of all Tahoe resorts, so it turns out the decision-makers were watching all that snow fall and hoping to cook something up.
“Just when we thought it was over, that storm came through last weekend and we started brainstorming what was possible,” the resort announced on Friday morning. “This Saturday and Sunday, April 18-19, we’ll reopen for a couple more party laps from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Upper California Trail and Tamarack Return as a thank you for an incredible 70th anniversary season. All mountain access will be from the Gondola.”
It may be a limited window and only a slice of terrain, but beggars can’t be choosers after the winter we just had. A little plot twist in April should help plenty of people through their daydreams of next winter’s Godzilla El Niño hype.
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