tseeb
Well-known member
I skied Northstar on Thursday, even though I had spent the night in SLT and had to be back in San Jose in the evening. I decided on Northstar over Kirkwood based on:
They reported 10" with all of it overnight (incorrect as most of it fell during previous day)
Kirkwood only said 6" new (0 overnight) and I'd skied their only good high-speed lift previous day
(While researching this, I see I overlooked Heavenly -a mile from cabin and claimed 7" all overnight)
N* had wind holds Wednesday (Comstock and Backside closed most of day but did load)
High-speed lifts and earlier opening when I had to quit early to get home for my anniversary
Not as many powder skiers (this turned out to be the big advantage of going there)
Some of the negatives going to Northstar are:
Not as steep or as high as Kirkwood
Longer drive. Only about 4 miles longer, but 10-15 minutes more usually and can be worse.
Longer drive home after skiing by 50 miles. Even though you get on I-80 about 10 miles from Northstar, it's hard to make it to San Jose in under 4 hours, while Kirkwood is about 30 minutes less.
4. Worst parking of any ski area - told to me by one of their Customer Service reps on gondola
I was on a gondola before 9 and took 6 laps on Backside chair. Drifter, the run from top of Zephyr chair to Backside was groomed on one side and ungroomed with some untracked on other side and there were sections totally untracked in places along edge. I next took two runs on Monument Glades and found a lot more untracked at the top and towards the bottom, but had to cross a few more tracks in the middle. I then took two laps lookers right at the top and stayed left where I found a lot of untracked and very few obstacles in usually thinly covered area. By going farther out I got some steeper pitches after crossing the main run. I took one more run down Backside before moving to Martis lift on Lookout Mountain.
I entered Lookout using Sugar Pine Glades for the first time this season. I did find one rock on the lower part where it often gets thin. Next run I went far lookers right and skied some of the boundary rope checking gates into Lookout Glades. I could not find an open gate, but almost nobody had been there before me so I had a lot of short pitches in untracked. Next time up I noticed nearly untracked line in trees just to right a top of chair and skied it. I thought about doing White Rabbit, which is rarely open, connects top of Martis to Backside, for my last run but there was so much barely tracked N-facing in trees right next to Stampede, N*'s steepest run and even in places on the run that I did not risk skiing the SW-facing White Rabbit. I quit after 4 Martis laps and skied some totally untracked low-angle on the way to Home Run where I cut through a residentail area to get a little closer to my car. I was on the road again at 12:30 with almost 20K. Today N* reports 18" new.
They reported 10" with all of it overnight (incorrect as most of it fell during previous day)
Kirkwood only said 6" new (0 overnight) and I'd skied their only good high-speed lift previous day
(While researching this, I see I overlooked Heavenly -a mile from cabin and claimed 7" all overnight)
N* had wind holds Wednesday (Comstock and Backside closed most of day but did load)
High-speed lifts and earlier opening when I had to quit early to get home for my anniversary
Not as many powder skiers (this turned out to be the big advantage of going there)
Some of the negatives going to Northstar are:
Not as steep or as high as Kirkwood
Longer drive. Only about 4 miles longer, but 10-15 minutes more usually and can be worse.
Longer drive home after skiing by 50 miles. Even though you get on I-80 about 10 miles from Northstar, it's hard to make it to San Jose in under 4 hours, while Kirkwood is about 30 minutes less.
4. Worst parking of any ski area - told to me by one of their Customer Service reps on gondola
I was on a gondola before 9 and took 6 laps on Backside chair. Drifter, the run from top of Zephyr chair to Backside was groomed on one side and ungroomed with some untracked on other side and there were sections totally untracked in places along edge. I next took two runs on Monument Glades and found a lot more untracked at the top and towards the bottom, but had to cross a few more tracks in the middle. I then took two laps lookers right at the top and stayed left where I found a lot of untracked and very few obstacles in usually thinly covered area. By going farther out I got some steeper pitches after crossing the main run. I took one more run down Backside before moving to Martis lift on Lookout Mountain.
I entered Lookout using Sugar Pine Glades for the first time this season. I did find one rock on the lower part where it often gets thin. Next run I went far lookers right and skied some of the boundary rope checking gates into Lookout Glades. I could not find an open gate, but almost nobody had been there before me so I had a lot of short pitches in untracked. Next time up I noticed nearly untracked line in trees just to right a top of chair and skied it. I thought about doing White Rabbit, which is rarely open, connects top of Martis to Backside, for my last run but there was so much barely tracked N-facing in trees right next to Stampede, N*'s steepest run and even in places on the run that I did not risk skiing the SW-facing White Rabbit. I quit after 4 Martis laps and skied some totally untracked low-angle on the way to Home Run where I cut through a residentail area to get a little closer to my car. I was on the road again at 12:30 with almost 20K. Today N* reports 18" new.
