Northstar-at-Tahoe
Saturday 10 January 1998

Weather

Light snow all day. Tempearture above freezing, so snow very wet.

Conditions

Started absolutely perfect, with perfectly groomed slopes and some fresh powder on top. The snow got very heavy as the day went on.

Overall

An excellent day at Northstar. As usual, the lifts started running a little earlier than the advertised time, so I was at the Summit by about 8:40am.

West Ridge at the top of the Springboard run	The sun tries to break through (from the Comstock lift)
Comstock lift and the lower part of Grouse Alley	Looking towards Springboard from Comstock lift
Looking towards Springboard from Comstock lift

I cycled round various runs from the Comstock lift until just before 10am. Northstar now offers free lessons for intermediates and above on a first come, first served basis and I wanted to sign up. Actually, no one was actually turned away. There were about 12 people looking for a level 8 class and we were split into those who wanted to improve their turns on groomed slopes and those of us who wanted to get onto ungroomed slopes.

Mogul lesson on Polaris

Looking down Polaris

The focus of the lesson was on flex in the knees on bumps, and on turning on top of the bumps rather than in the troughs between them. With New Zealander Julian in charge, we started off on the artificial terrain features on Jibboom and Martis Landing and then migrated onto the moguls of Polaris on the back-side. By the time we reached the bottom, I was skiing moguls down the fall-line for short periods.

After lunch, I set out to complete the "set" of runs on the backside, but didn't have enough left in the legs, especially after the bumps and then the ungroomed narrow section of Cascades. With intermitent snow and sleet conditions got very heavy and hard on the legs.

Lower Burnout from the Backside Express	Backside Express and the bottom of Rapids
Heavy crud at the bottom of Rapids	Backside Express and the bottom of the Rapids
A wintry scene from the 5th floor of the Peppertree Inn	Snow falling on the Peppertree Inn

Vertical (feet)

22098

Runs

Lift	Vertical	Easy Runs	Intermediate Runs	Advanced Runs
Big Springs	480
Arrow	535
Comstock	1250		West Ridge, Ax Handle, Cascades
Comstock	1250		West Ridge, Cascades	Springboard
Comstock	1250		Powder Bowl, Cascades	East Ridge
Comstock	1250	Lumberjack		Grouse Alley
Comstock	1250		West Ridge	Flying Squirrel
Comstock	1250
Break
		Main Street	West Ridge, Upper Main Street	Jibboom
Vista	1173	Lumberjack	Martis Landing
Comstock	1250			Polaris
Backside	1860
Lunch Break
				Iron Horse
Backside	1860			The Rapids
Backside	1860			Iron Horse, Promised Land
Backside	1860			Burn Out, Down Under
Backside	1860			Rail Splitter, Lower Burn Out
Backside	1860	Main Street, Village Run	West Ridge	Flying Squirrel
Total vertical	22098