Northstar-at-Tahoe
Friday 27 January 1995

Conditions

Overall

Lots of fresh snow. Still snowing lightly, but very wet snow. Visibility pretty poor. At start of the day, the powder was untracked and surprisingly light for California. The area had a bigger snow base than any year in living memory.

Overall

A weekend skiing after an X/Open Board meeting hosted by HP in Cupertino.

I drove up to Lake Tahoe with Walter Stahlecker and Allen Brown took Steve Nunn. Weather in the bay area was appalling with torrential rain making driving conditions really difficult. As we climbed up the foothills of the Sierras, this turned to snow and chain control was in place as early as Applegate on I-80.

Walter and I bought chains before the control and took advantage of the chain-up service to get equipped. Allen and Steve had to negotiate to get chains at the control .. an expensive (and illegal) activity.

75 miles with tyre chains takes a long time. It was late when we finally checked in.

On Saturday, Northstar seemed to be the right choice for the balance of skills:

• Walter of course is an expert and really wants to find the most difficult skiing there is - at Northstar he kept disappearing into the untracked powder in the trees
• Allen Brown had skied once before but is a natural athlete and was improving quickly .. he was prepared to try anything and prepared to fall
• Steve Nunn was on skis for the first time in 17 years

After a couple of introductory runs, we split up. Steve and Allen stayed together; Walter and I went our own way. I can remember one superb run down from the Forest chair through extremely regular bumps on Skid Trail and then we headed for the backside. Sierra Grande and Burnout were groomed; Iron Horse and Polaris were mogulled.

After lunch, we got back together for a run or two then Allen joined Walter and I. He struggled a bit on the backside runs, but not for long!

Vertical (feet)

Runs

Last updated: 19/02/00