Vail Resorts signed a contract to buy Heavenly Ski Resort on March 26, 2002 and closed the purchase on May 9, 2002, acquiring it from American Skiing Company. The headline price was $102 million including a small amount of assumed debt, and after a closing adjustment the company reported net consideration of $99.2 million. Heavenly became the company's fifth resort and its first outside Colorado.
The Heavenly deal in figures
| Item | What the filings say | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Contract signed and announced | March 26, 2002 | Vail Resorts press release, Form 8-K |
| Closing | May 9, 2002 | Vail Resorts press release of May 9, 2002; annual report for the year ended July 31, 2002 |
| Seller | Subsidiaries of American Skiing Company; Vail Resorts' subsidiaries acquired 100% of the ownership interests in Heavenly Valley, Limited Partnership | Press release; annual report |
| Headline consideration | $102 million including assumed debt (about $3 million at announcement, $2.7 million at closing) | Press releases; annual report |
| Closing adjustment | Announced as up to $6 million depending on the closing date; the adjustment was $2.8 million, leaving net consideration of $99.2 million | Press releases; annual report |
The adjustment offset Heavenly's losses between closing and the end of Vail Resorts' fiscal year on July 31, 2002, the quiet stretch between ski seasons. The closing release expected a loss of about $3 million; the annual report puts it at about $3.5 million.
What Vail Resorts was buying
At announcement the company described a resort with 29 lifts, including six high-speed lifts and a new eight-passenger gondola, four base areas (two in California and two in Nevada) and 20,000 beds in the South Lake Tahoe area. The gondola had opened within the previous twelve months at a cost the release puts at $25 million. The 2002 annual report calls Heavenly the third largest ski resort in North America, with skiing on over 4,800 acres. Its Forest Service permit covers 7,050 acres and, according to Vail Resorts' 2025 annual report, runs to May 1, 2042.
Heavenly today spans California and Nevada with 4,800 acres and calls itself the highest resort around Lake Tahoe. The 2025 annual report ranks it the thirteenth most visited mountain resort in the United States for the 2024/25 season.
Why Vail wanted a Tahoe resort
The 2002 release names diversification: the deal gave a company that until then ran only Colorado ski resorts a Tahoe resort and geographically diversified winter revenue. It also pointed to Heavenly's proximity to large California population centers and to its potential to become more of a national destination. The 2002 annual report puts the Sacramento and Bay Area markets Heavenly draws on at 8.7 million people. Chairman and chief executive Adam Aron told the Tahoe Daily Tribune at the time that Vail looks for underpriced resorts, called Heavenly "undermanaged, undermarketed and undercapitalized," and said its whole lift network needed to be looked at. A resort in a different weather pattern, he added, also spreads the risk of a poor snow year.
The company said it planned to invest about $25 million over five years in on-mountain improvements, on top of roughly $3 million a year in maintenance spending, covering upgraded facilities, new on-mountain restaurants, lifts and snowmaking. Heavenly's president, Dennis Harmon, told the same paper he expected a two-way conversation with the new owner and thought it would be positive, and Aron said Vail might explore a five-resort pass pairing Heavenly with its four Colorado mountains.
From one Tahoe resort to three, and the Epic Pass
| When | What happened | Source |
|---|---|---|
| May 9, 2002 | Heavenly acquisition closes | Vail Resorts press release |
| 2008/09 season | The Epic Season Pass is introduced, with unrestricted access to all five of the company's resorts at the time, a group that included Heavenly | Annual report, fiscal 2009 |
| October 25, 2010 | Northstar acquired, for $60.2 million net of cash assumed | Annual report, fiscal 2012 |
| April 12, 2012 | Kirkwood acquired, for about $18.2 million net of cash assumed | Annual report, fiscal 2012 |
Heavenly, Northstar and Kirkwood all have unlimited access on the 2026/27 Epic Pass, which is $1,145 for an adult (ages 31 and over) until prices rise on October 7. The Epic Pass listing has more on how the pass works.
Other Vail Resorts purchases
Each acquisition has its own date and price. The Colorado deal is in when Vail Resorts bought Breckenridge and the 2018 deal in when Vail bought Crested Butte. The Utah sale is covered in how Vail acquired Park City and the Canadian one in what Vail paid for Whistler Blackcomb. For the whole list, start with how many mountains Vail Resorts owns and who owns Vail ski resort. For the ski resort itself, see Heavenly's official site.
