Northstar 12-19

[Timeless]

Hi All,

 

I kicked off my season this weekend with a Saturday at Northstar, my first time in Tahoe. I'll post up a couple of pictures from home later:

 

Arrived at Truckee on Friday night, the drive up from home turns out to be 3 1/2 to 4 hours all in and we stayed at the Hampton inn on Rt 267, very nice place, highly recommended especially if you are headed to Northstar which is just down the road (about 5 miles).

 

So we started the day at 8.30 with the 3 lift ride to the peak (gondola + arrow quad + comstock quad) and ran both sides off of this lift for most of the morning. There was lots of good stuff to be had with 80+ trails open and plently of deep soft snow in the trees. The off-trail stuff was a few days old so needed a bit of care near the trails where it wasn't shaded by the trees, but beyond that it was smooth and really fun.

 

As I was with the kids we stayed mostly on the trails (I have to pretend to be responsible some times ). Anyway, we had lunch at 11.30 at the summit (nice chilli and corn bread) then went to explore the "backside" area and Lookout mountain areas. Here we found some really nice black runs, really long sustained pitch groomers with a really nice loose surface which was not getting too soft even though it was 45 degrees and really nice and sunny.

 

We spent most of the day alternating between the backside and some nice intermediate groomers on the Pluto side, with nice little detours between trails through the woods. This was the first time my kids have ski'd or ridden "out west" and they were blown away by the size and open-ness, even though NS is one of the smaller places out here.

 

By 3.30 we were all exhausted, my legs had turned to mush about 30 minutes before that so we stopped as it was our first day and we had managed almost open to close.

 

It was a beautiful day, warm, sunny, great conditions and overall I really liked Northstar. If you are an advancing intermediate or slightly higher (or really like riding in the trees) you would love it, plenty of variety.

 

The staff were also really nice and the whole place is very well run. Despite the fact that there seemed to be thousands of cars when we left, the runs we relatively quiet all day except for a couple near the day lodge.

 

Definitely my best opening day ever, we are heading back up on Saturday for a week in a rental house, going to be hitting Squaw, Alpine (this is where the house is), Sugarbowl and Northstar again, we might even venture down to Sierra-at-Tahoe. More storms are predicted for next week so fingers crossed we'll be in fresh powder.

 

And to all those (like me before) that fall for the "sierra cement" idea, you need to get over it. The snow was as good as most of what you will find in Utah (except for a few exceptionally light events in the cottonwoods) and way better than I've seen in 6 years in the north east.

 

More reports (with pic's) next week, and some pictures later.

 

Cheers

[Erin808]

Glad you had a great trip! And are returning next week for a week, I'm jealous!

[Barb]

Sounds like you had a great first day. 3.5 hours is what my ski commute is, but it sounds like your destination is much better than mine. Looking forward to the pictures.

[Justin]

Good shit man, glad you're living the dream out west!

[Timeless]

a few pics

 

the approach from 267, this just appears out of the mist

 

 

lots of soft stuff in the trees

 

 

my son giving his early season legs some warm up

 

 

my daughter enjoying the opening day groomers

 

[phillycore]

+++++ TAHOE STOKE!!!

 

Thanks man..been looking forward to these...

[Timeless]

+++++ TAHOE STOKE!!!

 

Thanks man..been looking forward to these...

 

your welcome, I'll make sure there are plenty more from next week and as many times as I can get up there this season.