iStockphoto / filipk
There is officially snow on the ground at Heavenly Resort in South Lake Tahoe. That’s changed since I was there three weeks ago for what was supposed to be the official opening weekend of the ski season at Heavenly, but there wasn’t enough snow on the ground for the resort to even bother turning the snow machines on, which was a bummer having flown all the way from Florida.
While it was gorgeous, I didn’t get to go snowboarding, I also didn’t see any bears though I saw bear scat and some massive paw prints while hiking. But I’m quite jealous of the skiers who had to dodge this bear in the viral video below. I love seeing bears in the wild and seeing skiers dodge a bear at Heavenly would’ve been the cherry on top of this year for me. Alas, I’ll have to settle for this clip like everyone else:
@tao7570 Almost hit a bear skiing down ridgerun Heavenly. Didn’t realize it was a bear until it was too close #Tahoe #LakeTahoe #tahoelife #travel #heavenly #ski #bear #wildanimals
That same video is also going viral on X (formerly Twitter) if anyone would prefer to watch or share it from there.
As for the video above, that bear that had to dodge all of the skiers was basically playing a real-life game of ‘Frogger’. It saw its window of opportunity to dodge all of the skiers and the bear took off. It was ready to bowl over one of the boarders or skiers if need be but luckily it never came to that.
Also, it never ceases to amaze me how visible bears are in South Lake Tahoe. Around this time last year, a bear attacked an inflatable reindeer Christmas decoration. Just a few days before that incident, a bear walked into a cookie shop in Lake Tahoe.
I feel like there are more public bear encounters in Lake Tahoe than anywhere else in the nation, but that might just be due to the bubble I’m living in.
Lastly, I’ll say that when I was in South Lake Tahoe three weeks ago we went to a Lake Tahoe Lakers game. It’s a minor league hockey team that’s either currently owned or was once owned by Tim Tebow. The game was electric. Definitely hit up a game if you find yourself there dodging bears with other skiers.