Northstar Lake Tahoe
At 3,170 acres (1,283 hectares) in size, the Northstar Resort skiing terrain is one of the largest of the Tahoe ski resorts (behind
Heavenly and
Squaw Valley). Northstar Lake Tahoe can be broadly categorised into three sections. The
front face is the main part of the Northstar Resort and largely consists of beginner and easy blue terrain above the “mid-mountain” Lodge at Big Springs. It has a few trails that drop 470 feet (143 metres) down to the Northstar Village that most folks only use as “home trails” so the “real” vertical of the frontside of Northstar Lake Tahoe is only 1,810 feet (552m). The
Backside has some slightly steeper intermediate runs and black runs, whilst
Lookout Mountain drops down adjacent to the backside and has mostly black rated terrain.
Lifts
In keeping with its upscale status, the lift infrastructure at the Northstar Resort is very well developed with 20 lifts, including 2 gondolas (that are primarily used for access to the main part of the ski area), 1 chondola (a cross between a chair and a gondola), and 7 express quad chair lifts.
Despite Northstar having very fast lifts, queues can develop, especially on weekends when the whole place can get incredibly crowded.
Lift Tickets
Single day lift ticket prices are outrageously high, especially if you purchase them at the ticket window. Thankfully as a Vail Resort, the Northstar Resort is accessible on the multi-day Epic Pass which can provide good value for money if you ride a lot. The
Epic Pass is also valid at
Heavenly and
Kirkwood (and a raft of Colorado ski resorts,
Park City Ski Resort, and even
Perisher Australia).
There are a variety of Epic Pass options including a season pass which pays for itself in just over 5 days (particularly inexpensive if you purchase a long way in advance), a 7 day pass (pays for itself in just under 4 days), a 4 day pass (pays for itself in just under 3 days), or an Epic Locals Pass (pays for itself in 4 days) but it has a lot of restrictions and black-out dates.
Northstar is also on the Ski Tahoe Six Pack deal, which can save dollars if you plan to visit various Tahoe resorts, but these tickets tend to sell out early.
Northstar Snow and Weather Conditions
Northstar Ski Resort receives an average of 350 inches (8.9 metres) of snow per season, which is very respectable but it’s a couple of metres less than the average for the major Lake Tahoe ski resorts. To make up for it, Northstar has a massive amount of snow making capability.
The Northstar Resort needs the snow making because it doesn’t seem to fare well when the snow conditions are marginal. We visited during one particularly bad season and the snow quality was far inferior to other nearby resorts such as
Squaw Valley,
Alpine Meadows,
Sugarbowl and
Mt Rose.
The backside runs are largely west facing and even though the front face has mostly northeast oriented slopes, they are so mellow that they still cop plenty of sun. Easy Street is super sunny (which is nice for the beginners). The top elevation is 8,610 ft (2,624 m), which isn’t incredibly low relative to some of the Tahoe resorts, but as examples, it’s 1,457 ft (444m) lower than the top of
Heavenly Resort, 1,191 feet (363m) lower than
Kirkwood, and (1,093ft) 333m lower than
Mt Rose.
The plus of the elevation is that the Northstar terrain is below the timberline, and the tree-lined slopes are protected from the wind and nasty weather, which can make Northstar skiing and snowboarding much more comfortable on inclement days.
Northstar Skiing for the Beginner
The Northstar Resort is ideal for novices with a large dedicated area and lots of little fenced off ski school areas with magic carpets. There are a few other green runs for progression, and confident beginners can tackle many of the front face blues.
Ski Northstar - Intermediates
With 60% of the trails rated as blue, there is lots on offer for the intermediate, although most of the blue trails cater for the low end intermediate rider. There are some black trails that are usually groomed, and these are not steep and also well suited to intermediates.
Terrain Parks
A major strength of Northstar is the amazing terrain parks. Northstar has several terrain parks to cater for different ability levels, a Burton progression park, and a 22 foot superpipe.
Advanced Riding
Many of the black piste runs are rather mellow and the degree of difficulty really depends on whether it’s groomed or not, and the size of the bumps. They’re the sort of black runs you could generally send your frail grandmother down.
The real attraction for advanced skiers and snowboarders is the trees and there are lots of them. Of course the quality of the tree skiing depends on the snow quality and whether it’s powder or Sierra Cement. Northstar is a good choice for storm skiing when the Tahoe ski resorts with mostly alpine terrain have no vis or lifts on wind hold.
On Lookout Mountain and the Backside, some of the trees are very widely spaced and good for those learning to tree ski, whilst in some other spots the trees are moderately spaced. Generally there are no particularly challenging trees. Freshies last longer in the Sawtooth Ridge area especially if you hike up the ridge to get more vertical in.
Expert Ski and Snowboard Terrain
Nothing to see here folks!