tseeb
Well-known member
Even though I drove 180 miles each way to San Luis Obispo on Sunday and back on Monday, the forecast of 12-18” on the Sierra Crest and 6-18” East of the crest motivated me to pack and get up early Tuesday morning. I woke at 3:30, saw there was chain control on I-80, with heavy snow predicted between noon and 3 pm. I got out of the house not much after 4:30. Chain control was off when I went over Donner pass, but it was slick enough that I slowed down to 50-55 part of the way and arrived at Northstar in just under 4 hours for the 235 miles. I parked closed enough to easily walk to the gondola, then went up Zephyr chair and hiked through the trees to lightly skied Islands run.
Northstar reported 1” and while it mostly had blown off Islands, there was enough new snow on the edges of the Backside runs for a couple of fast runs. EpicMix showed I once made a 9 minute lap on the 1,880 vertical foot chair, but I still fell a chair or two behind the people with whom I shared lift rides. After four runs on the Backside, I moved to Comstock, the top lift on the front-side and even rode rarely-running, not high-speed Rendezvous, which goes up the top 700 feet of Northstar. It was snowing moderately so the 1” became 1-2”, but you had to find somewhat recently groomed runs as moguls looked way too firm to ski, and off the runs was also too firm unless totally smooth.
I was hoping this would turn out like a couple of days this season and last at Northstar, where if you stayed out long enough, there would be 6-8” new, but it did not happen. Maybe another 1-2” fell in the afternoon, but it stayed cold, was windy and visibility sometimes was bad. My friend who lives North of Truckee joined me after 2 pm after parking in the remote lot. I checked out Martis Camp/Lookout lift while he was getting up the hill and found it was too low to have received enough new snow. We skied Backside once, which he found way too firm on a snowboard, then skied Rendezvous a few times before taking a break. We skied down and took Rendezvous chair one more time after break, but could not find enough new snow on the steeper top although the bottom was beginning to get better, even off the runs. We quit a little after 3:30 pm and my watch showed 20 runs and 26.4K vertical. In the parking lot, pavement was showing and there was nothing on my car. On the way back to my friend’s house it began to snow hard, but did not last much after dark and only snowed about an inch.
The next morning Northstar reported 5” storm total, but only 1” since 5 pm the previous day. The storm dropped 12” on Sugar Bowl, with only 2” since previous day. Kirkwood reported 8” (but my place to stay near there was in use and from North of Truckee, you are looking at 2 hours drive), Sierra may have reported 10”, but both Alpine and Squaw only claimed 6”. Heavenly reported 5” although people we rode lift with who lived near one of the Nevada bases said they only had a dusting.
Considering how storm under-delivered at Northstar, skiing Wednesday exceeded expectations. I skied Backside chair 9 times (plus one for entering from Zephyr) and Promised Land chair 3 times between 9 am and 1 pm. I'm not sure why rope did not drop on runs to lookers right when riding up Backside until after 11 am, but it made the meager new snow on that side last longer. I got out as far as nearly untracked Follow Me when rope was up by staying well below roped-off Challenger run. Then the rope came down and I skied Follow Me three more times, hitting a chute to skiers left of run twice when there was really only room for one set of tracks. The lower-angle trees below the chute, to the left of the run also skied well.
At the top of the lifts, sometimes 10 turns in a row were scratchy, but lower down, where it's not as steep, I was often able to make 10+ turns without hitting the bottom which also did not seem as firm as previous day. We moved to Promised Land where I made tracks in trees to the left of Castle Peak run until quitting about 1 pm with my watch counting 14 runs and just over 25K vertical. The next day Northstar reported 1”, Heavenly 2” (probably both are lying) and I saw a report that said Kirkwood had 3”. I already had beaten the Bay Area PM traffic getting home, rescued my dog who was outside in the cold and hope to keep my wife happy by coming home as planned at least until deeper snow falls.
All pictures are from iPhone as I did not carry my camera.
Northstar reported 1” and while it mostly had blown off Islands, there was enough new snow on the edges of the Backside runs for a couple of fast runs. EpicMix showed I once made a 9 minute lap on the 1,880 vertical foot chair, but I still fell a chair or two behind the people with whom I shared lift rides. After four runs on the Backside, I moved to Comstock, the top lift on the front-side and even rode rarely-running, not high-speed Rendezvous, which goes up the top 700 feet of Northstar. It was snowing moderately so the 1” became 1-2”, but you had to find somewhat recently groomed runs as moguls looked way too firm to ski, and off the runs was also too firm unless totally smooth.
I was hoping this would turn out like a couple of days this season and last at Northstar, where if you stayed out long enough, there would be 6-8” new, but it did not happen. Maybe another 1-2” fell in the afternoon, but it stayed cold, was windy and visibility sometimes was bad. My friend who lives North of Truckee joined me after 2 pm after parking in the remote lot. I checked out Martis Camp/Lookout lift while he was getting up the hill and found it was too low to have received enough new snow. We skied Backside once, which he found way too firm on a snowboard, then skied Rendezvous a few times before taking a break. We skied down and took Rendezvous chair one more time after break, but could not find enough new snow on the steeper top although the bottom was beginning to get better, even off the runs. We quit a little after 3:30 pm and my watch showed 20 runs and 26.4K vertical. In the parking lot, pavement was showing and there was nothing on my car. On the way back to my friend’s house it began to snow hard, but did not last much after dark and only snowed about an inch.
The next morning Northstar reported 5” storm total, but only 1” since 5 pm the previous day. The storm dropped 12” on Sugar Bowl, with only 2” since previous day. Kirkwood reported 8” (but my place to stay near there was in use and from North of Truckee, you are looking at 2 hours drive), Sierra may have reported 10”, but both Alpine and Squaw only claimed 6”. Heavenly reported 5” although people we rode lift with who lived near one of the Nevada bases said they only had a dusting.
Considering how storm under-delivered at Northstar, skiing Wednesday exceeded expectations. I skied Backside chair 9 times (plus one for entering from Zephyr) and Promised Land chair 3 times between 9 am and 1 pm. I'm not sure why rope did not drop on runs to lookers right when riding up Backside until after 11 am, but it made the meager new snow on that side last longer. I got out as far as nearly untracked Follow Me when rope was up by staying well below roped-off Challenger run. Then the rope came down and I skied Follow Me three more times, hitting a chute to skiers left of run twice when there was really only room for one set of tracks. The lower-angle trees below the chute, to the left of the run also skied well.
At the top of the lifts, sometimes 10 turns in a row were scratchy, but lower down, where it's not as steep, I was often able to make 10+ turns without hitting the bottom which also did not seem as firm as previous day. We moved to Promised Land where I made tracks in trees to the left of Castle Peak run until quitting about 1 pm with my watch counting 14 runs and just over 25K vertical. The next day Northstar reported 1”, Heavenly 2” (probably both are lying) and I saw a report that said Kirkwood had 3”. I already had beaten the Bay Area PM traffic getting home, rescued my dog who was outside in the cold and hope to keep my wife happy by coming home as planned at least until deeper snow falls.
All pictures are from iPhone as I did not carry my camera.
