Northstar-at-Tahoe
Monday 17 January 2000

Weather

Conditions

Overall

This was a much better day. There had been pretty heavy snow overnight and it was much drier than the previous day. 

The first challenge of the day was getting out of the hotel car park. Snow plows had left a ridge of snow about 18" high at the side of the road. With chains still on the car, we charged at it and broke through quite easily. As we were driving towards Northstar, it was still snowing and chain control was still in place. We arrived at a much more reasonable time, took advantage of the pay parking area near the gondola and got up to the mid mountain area well before 9 o'clock.

While Ian went off for another lesson, I headed straight for the backside. The upper half of Burn Out was about a foot of fresh powder, which proved to be quite hard going and I fell several times. I was pretty relieved to find that the lower half was groomed. Iron Horse was much the same with fresh powder at the top and rather heavier snow near the bottom. I spent the first part of the morning remembering how to ski powder and just about managed Burn Out properly by the time I stopped for coffee. 

Going back down to the mid mountain area to meet Ian, I checked out the condition of the West Ridge run. Ian had another good lesson and was pretty full of confidence so I convinced him to come up to the Summit and try the run down. In actual fact he had no problem at all, even with the steepest sections and as we got back to the bottom of Comstock lift, he was keen to have another go, so we went back up to top for one last run down to the village.

Ian Lloyd at the end of a satisfying day

Trees heavy with fresh snow

Runs

Last updated: 19/02/00