Northstar-at-Tahoe
Sunday 31 January 1999

Weather

Conditions

Overall

Skiing with Walter Stahlecker, Lutz Temma and Howard Greenwell.

This was a stunning day's skiing, but there was little promise of that when we started. A storm had been promised overnight; in fact it started to snow just as we arrived at Northstar.

True to form, Northstar allowed us to upgrade our tickets to a tow day ticket, saving $10 over the normal cost. We took the Gondola to the mid mountain area and then Arrow and Comstock up to the summit. (Howard peeled off at the top of Arrow to stay on easier runs). Comstock in particular was pretty cold and unpleasant with strong headwinds and blowing snow. The backside area was closed so we faced more skiing off Comstock. Springboard and the run out through the trees was pleasant enough, but we were already starting to think about an early finish.

This changed pretty quickl. When we got back to the summit of Mount Pluto, the backside was open. We headed for Burn Out (primarily because it was the nearest) and had a high speed run down to the lift. There was an inch of two of fresh snow on top of a well groomed slope. The fresh snow slowed skiing down a little and the regularity of the grooming encouraged us to ski the fall line pretty fast.

We then had a series of high speed runs donw groomed runs until the cold finally got to us and we stopped for a warm drink. The headwind on Challenger in particular was very unpleasant. As more snow fell, the runs slowed even further and it was necessary to ski the length of Lower Burnout without turns to avoid stalling.

After the break, we headed back down Burn Out and I headed into the trees, with Walter in hot pursuit. This proved to be a great decision. The snow condition uin the trees was excellent and every run increased the amount of powder. In addition, the trees gave shelter from the wind. With the exception of a few narrow sections, the trees were pretty well spaced and easy to ski. To my delight, I started to link rapid short radius turns to get down the more difficult sections and started to ski the rest with more confidence.

We spent the rest of the morning skiing through the various graded areas between runs on the back. Each run seemed better than the previous one and lunchtime came very quickly. We headed down to the mid mountain restaurant keeping high in the trees all the way down to keep clear of the crowds.. By the time we stopped for lunch, any idea of an early finish had been dropped.

After lunch, Lutz Temme (who took the groomed alternatives to the tree runs throughout the morning) stayed down near the mid-mountain area. Walter and I headed back towards the summit, taking in the terrain park on Marti's Landing on the way.

For the first run after lunch, we took Challenger, supposedly for an easy run. It didn't work out that way. There was a lot of fresh snow on top of the run and the wind was very unpleasant. So we headed back into the trees and took four more runs of increasing difficulty. As we traversed further across towards and then beyond Rail Splitter, the terrain became steeper and the snow deeper. For the last run, we were at time in powder to the top of our boots, but because the changes came gradually, I didn't realise I was getting into snow and terrain I could not ski and the turns continued to work well, even the jump turns on the steeper sections. By the time we finished, I had skied more varied terrain than ever before and actually skied more vertical in a single day than ever before. No wonder my legs hurt!

We underestimated the time it would take to get down to the bottom. The snow on the East Ridge was very slow and there were several places where we stalled and had to skate. By the time we got down, we were about 20 minutes late!

My best day's skiing ever!

Runs

Last updated: 19/02/00