Drtsm21

Review of Northstar at Tahoe

Have mixed feelings about this resort. Not a good ...

Have mixed feelings about this resort. Not a good place if you think skiing as a sport, while may be a good destination if you come here for a vacation with some snow playing and to take some nice pictures to wow friends back home.

It was my home resort in the early 2000's when I first moved to the Bay Area. Enjoyed it very much, especially the back side and Lookout mountain with a variety of steep groomers, moguls and glades for advanced skiers. Parking was limited and lift line could get long, but season pass holders had dedicated gates. Once Vail acquired it and started turning it to more of a vacation destination, and with a new child, we moved to other Tahoe resorts. There are quite a few more convenient and economical resorts for teaching children the sport.

Now my child has progressed to the advanced, and wants to explore all there are in Tahoe, we bought the Epic pass and came back. The parking is still bad even with the addition of Castle Peak lot, though the shuttles are an improvement. Lift line before Christmas was not bad, but on MLK weekend, it became too long, and at some lifts where there were lines from both sides, the operator did not direct the flow well. We could only manage about 11,000 vertical ft, and this was arriving at the parking lot at 8:30 AM, making the last run at 3:30 PM and half of hour for lunch. We did over 20,000 vertical ft at Heavenly in 2/3 of the time, albeit before Xmas.

Well, I'd avoid Northstar, at least around public holidays.