Northstar-at-Tahoe Monday 26 March 2007

Weather

Conditions

Story of the Day

As we left the hotel, there were already indications that it would be a warm day just like the previous two, but snow was in the forecast. We decided to head for Northstar, about an hour's drive around Lake Tahoe from our hotel.

Northstar had changed dramatically since my previous visit. The original base area has been converted into a "village" and even the gondola station is hidden inside an accommodation block. Finding the skiing, particularly on an off-peak day, was almost as bad as finding the gates at Heathrow Airport.

Chris and I took the gondola to the mid mountain lodge where we put on our ski boots and left our shoes and surplus clothing in the basket check.

07:27 Getting ready to leave the hotel

08:46 Ready to ski .. Shoes in the basket check

The last time Chris was at Northstar was January 1992. About all he could remember was Burn Out, a long straight run down the backside. So, that was the destination for the first run of the day. Up the lifts from the base area to the summit of Mount Pluto and then straight down burn-out. At that time of the morning it was well groomed but a little crispy.

08:50 Under Arrow lift	08:52 Cascade under Comstock lift is deserted
08:52 Chris on Comstock lift	09:02 Mt. Pluto - the top of Comstock lift
09:04 Chris at the top of Burnout	09:05 Chris at the top of Burnout

We decided to leave the backside to soften up a little and returned to the runs from the West Ridge, which were already in the sun and softening nicely. There were very few people about, so there was no problem in "beating the lift" on every occasion, either in terms of congestion on the runs or queues for the lifts.

So we spent around an hour taking various runs down from Comstock lift and the West Ridge.

09:18 West Ridge	09:18 Chris on West Ridge
09:18 The top of Comstock lift	09:31 Ax Handle
09:31 Chris at the top of Ax Handle	09:38 Beneath Comstock lift
09:42 The top of Springboard	09:42 Springboard
09:51 Springboard from the lift	09:51 The upper part of Comstock lift
10:05 Chris on West Ridge	10:05 Chris on West Ridge

One hour on, the backside had chance to soften up. From the top of Comstock we headed across the summit area and down Sierra Grande run, stopping at the vista point near the top of the run and then followed up with almost the same run, but taking Follow Me to cut off the long loop of Sierra Grande. Follow Me was groomed but not to perfection, so needed some care.

10:18 Chris at the vista point near Sierra Grande run	10:19 Sierra Grande run
10:19 The picnic area	10:19 Looking down Sierra Grande run
10:27 Poor cover under Backside on Lower Rapids	10:27 Poor cover under Backside on Lower Rapids
10:28 Poor cover under Backside on Lower Rapids	10:36 The top of Follow Me
10:36 Follow Me	10:36 Follow Me

Before stopping for coffee we took a run straight down Burnout, top to bottom is just around 3 minutes.

10:46 Nearing the top of Backside Express
11:16 Getting ready to restart after the coffee break	11:16 The trail map at the top of Mt. Pluto

After coffee we headed for the runs of Lookout Mountain, the newest and steepest part of Northstar. Lookout Road is an extension of West Ridge and leads to a drag lift to get across to the runs on Lookout Mountain.

The only run that was skiable on Lookout Mountain was Marti's .. groomed (not very well) and steep. The top of the steepest section comes at the abrupt end of a cat track, just around a corner. A ridge of ice caught one of Chris' skies and the most painful fall of the week.

Despite the fall, we returned to do the same run once more before returning to the other side of the mountain.

11:22 Chris on the only tow lift in Northstar	11:22 Chris on Lookout Link
11:28 Martis .. Pretty steep	11:28 View towards Truckee from Martis
11:29 Chris putting skis back on after a crash	11:30 Chris putting skis back on after a crash
11:34 Under Lookout Express lift	11:38 The top of Lookout Express lift

From the top of Lookout Express we skied down to the base area via Lower Pioneer and took the new 6-pack Zephyr Express Telemix (a lift which has a combination of chairs and gondola cars on the same cable) to get back to the Comstock lift to the summit of Mt.Pluto.

11:48 Thin Cover	11:53 A gondola on Zephyr Express chair lift
11:54 Lower Pioneer	12:02 The top of Zephyr Express

Back at the Summit of Mt. Pluto, we decided to try some runs from the East Ridge with its magnificent views over Lake Tahoe. This time it was my turn to fall. I managed to catch one ski on the only rock on the ridge and went over, slightly straining a groin muscle, but again not serious enough to stop us skiing. We did two runs from East Ridge, one down Powder Bowl and one down the rather steeper Toninis a little further down the ridge.

12:12 East Ridge and Lake Tahoe	12:12 Chris in the distance on East Ridge
12:12 East Ridge and Lake Tahoe	12:25 East Ridge

To the backside where there were two groomed runs that we had not done. Iron Horse was great at the top but starting to get soft near the bottom. Back at the top of Backside, we stopped for lunch.

12:40 The top of Iron Horse

12:40 Chris heading down Iron Horse

After lunch, we did one more run down Burnout and the Promised Land, the only groomed run on the backside that we had not yet skied. Conditions approaching Backside Express lift were getting very sticky, so we started to think about finishing for the day.

13:26 Burnout

13:38 The top of Promised Land

13:38 Thin cover again

We took East Ridge to head down towards the base and The Chute. Lower and Upper Main Street were not fun. The snow was too heavy and there were too many people, so we tried one run off Vista. There were fewer people, but the snow near the bottom of the lift was very heavy, so we decided enough was enough.

13:55 Chris at the foot of The Chute	13:55 The Chute
14:11 The top of Loggers Loop

As we were changing from ski boots to shoes, the promised snow arrived. At the time of the day is was very light. By later afternoon, it got rather heavier; so much so that we decided to stay in the hotel for dinner rather than venture out in the snowstorm.

14:29 Light snow starting
18:19 Heavier snow on our rental car	18:19 Snow on the tree outside out room

Runs

Last updated: 3rd April 2007