Northstar-at-Tahoe
Saturday 25 April 1998

Weather

Mostly fine, alternating clouds and sunny periods.

Conditions

Spring conditions, with a couple of inches of fresh snow on top of the frozen base. Warmed up through the day.

Overall

A splendid day's skiing with two Germans, Walter Stahlecker and Lutz Temme. We flew up to Reno from San Diego during the weekend between an Architecture Board meeting and an Open Group members meeting and stayed in Tahoe City.

Even though it was late April, El Nino had left a legacy of an enormous snow base and in fact there was even fresh snow overnight.


Congested Area!
Lutz Temma and Walter Stahlecker are the only people in view

We were virtually the first on the slopes and there weren't really any queues for the lifts at any time during the day.


Lutz Temme and Walter Stahlecker near the Summit of Mount Pluto


The top of the West Ridge, deserted and perfectly groomed.

From the Summit, our first run was a warm-up cruise down the West Ridge, but we quickly moved over onto the backside and as the run table shows, spent the rest of the day skiing the blacks off the Backside Express lift.


Burn out.


Walter Stahlecker on Burn Out

The first run on Burn Out proved to be the best of the day. The run had been groomed at the end of the previous day and overnight powder sitting on the firm base meant a wonderfully smooth run.

The runs provided a great deal of variety. Some, like Burn Out and Sierra Grande, were groomed, some like Iron Horse had been groomed a couple of day before and some like Why Not had not seen a grooming machine all winter. Walter and I did a couple of runs through the trees alongside the upper part of Burn Out.

Although we finished quite early, our legs and the 25000 feet of vertical skied told us that we had got good value from the lift pass.


This view towards the South across Lake Tahoe, shows the amount of snow still on the mountains


Peppertree Hotel - A rather dirty looking swimming pool


Fast Eddie's

Runs

Lift Vertical Easy Runs Intermediate Runs Advanced Runs
Big Springs 480
Vista 1173 Skid Trail Cascades
Comstock 1250 Ax Handle, Cascades, West Ridge
Comstock 1250 Lower Burnout, Burnout
Backside 1860 Challenger, Challenger
Backside 1860 Promised Land, Iron Horse
Backside 1860 Burnout, Downunder
Backside 1860 Burnout, Downunder
Backside 1860 Polaris
Backside 1860
Break
Iron Horse, Why Not, Promised Land
Backside 1860 Iron Horse
Backside 1860 Rail Splitter, Sierra Grande, Lower Burnout
Backside 1860 Sierra Grande, Down Under
Backside 1860 Challenger, Follow Me, Lower Burn Out
Backside 1860
Break
Village Run, Main Street Cascades, Upper Main Street Springboard
Total vertical 24613

Last updated: 19/02/00