Northstar rocks

This has been an unusually dry (and warm) winter, so when the forecast finally showed snow for Lake Tahoe, we decided to seize the opportunity and do a ski trip (*not* on President's Day weekend, though the snow may be even better then since it's supposed to snow on and off all week). This was a very last minute trip - I think we decided to actually go up maybe 3 or 4pm on Friday. And it was a very deciding-on-the-fly trip since when we left, we weren't sure if we were going to stay for Sunday or not.

Since Sugar Bowl got the most snow of North Tahoe in the forecast (and actually, at the time, more than South Tahoe), we picked up a couple lift tickets from Sports Basement (my gym 10% discount did not apply) on our way out of the city. We stayed the night at the Holiday Inn Express in Roseville (about an hour out of Truckee), which was quite nice. They've done a good job with a lot of these Holiday Inn Express hotels - comfy beds, nice towels, clean, new looking rooms, free breakfast... The next morning, we were up and out of there by around 7:30 and got to Sugar Bowl's Village Gondola lot and up onto the mountain by 9AM, when they opened.

I keep forgetting, and I keep re-discovering, that I'm really a very limited range skier. There are a particular set of conditions I really like - long, wide, fairly steep groomed runs - and then there is everything else. Sugar Bowl quickly made an enemy of me because it truly is bowl shaped - long flat base at the bottom of every run before you get to the lift, and long flat rim which you have to pole yourself over from the top of the lift before you get to the top of the run. Plus, they converted our favorite blue warm-up area - the Mt Judah Express - to a terrain park. It was also super-windy, quite chilly, and the visibility at the summit was horrible due to the wind whipping up snow nonstop. After doing basically the same run several times over off the Mt. Lincoln Express (mostly b/c I don't like moguls or bumps), trying Christmas Tree only to realize that with a race set up there, there were only a couple blue runs off of it, and eating a godawful meal at the lodge (my bf's pizza was terrible, my chili was typical ski resort chili), we finally made our way over to the Disney Express. This was better, especially after we figured out the higher way to make our way back to the lift, which gave us a better opportunity to accumulate speed that would get us almost all the way to the lift line. I still wasn't a particularly happy camper, especially because Sugar Bowl doesn't seem to really groom runs and it really doesn't let you know which were groomed. I'm usually the type of skier to try to squeeze in that last run before the lift closes, but I was checking my watch from 1pm onwards, and finally we just stopped at 3pm, a good hour before the lifts closed. I went to get my skis waxed and edged ($20, kind of overpriced) and after some discussion, we decided to try Northstar on Sunday, if only to make me like skiing again.

We decided to spend the night in Reno, since Northstar is the closest resort to the NV border, and Reno had some very cheap hotels (unlike Truckee). My bf turned up "The Summit at the Grand Sierra Resort" in his searches, which looked like it could be very nice, and for (relatively) not very much. Since he likes to stay in nicer places, we decided to give it a shot. Turns out the Grand Sierra Resort has been around for ages and their standard rooms are $69/night, but the Summit is their condo hotel, much newer (I think everything had been renovated in the last 3 years?) and much nicer, for only $100/night. So we went for that. Good choice - it was definitely by far the nicest hotel room I've ever stayed at for $100. Big king bed with a soft-top on the mattress, cushioned headboard, and feather pillows. Big nice sofa and desk with a big LCD TV on the wall (though with pretty bad signal), little kitchenette area with good-sized mini-fridge and microwave. Very nice modern bathroom (with a little TV in it) though without a towel rack or hook for the bath towels (a common failing in nicer bathrooms for some reason). Modern, darkish decor that made it feel much nicer than a hotel room. So we were happy with that decision. We met up with some friends who had been skiing at Squaw Valley for dinner at the Sterling's Steak and Seafood restaurant in the Silver Legacy. Very expensive entrees (more than most of the nicer SF restaurants we've eaten at) with very large portions, but quite tasty at least. We spent some time playing games on the midway at Circus Circus (where I won two stuffed animals, which I've never done before, so I got quite excited) before heading back to our hotel and going to sleep.

The next morning, we took our time getting up and getting out, but finally got some discount Northstar tickets at the hotel ($69 vs $79 on the mountain) and got to Northstar around 10:45-11. We went directly to Lookout Mountain (via the gondola to Tahoe Zephyr Express, which is a 6-chair with occasional gondola cars (??) to the tow rope), where we did two runs (Washoe and Prosser?), discovered conditions were quite icy, and headed over to backside via Back Door. We got really lucky b/c lines were incredibly short (as they had been at Sugar Bowl the night before), so aside from the lift periodically stopping, we spent very little time waiting for the lifts. Northstar is, typical lines aside, my idea of ski nirvana. Backside in particular. Long, wide, steep-ish groomed runs, clearly marked, where I can just go swish, swish, swish with some speed, but have plenty of room to steer around people or slow down if I start getting out of control. High speed quads. The best food of any ski resort I ever tried (which is a bit pricey, admittedly, but so much better) - I got a huge smoked turkey leg that was quite delicious, while my bf got a smoked bbq ribs platter with fall-off-the-bone tender meat. I was much, much happier on Sunday, especially when we stopped to get Belgian waffles and hot cocoa on the way down, finally leaving after most people had gone, so we hit very little traffic before reaching Sacramento. I was especially happy that we found a Panera Bread in Vacaville for dinner.

I don't know why I keep bothering with other ski resorts. (Ok, ok, Northstar usually has huge lines and the least snow of any resort) Northstar fits all my criteria and makes my ski day very pleasant, whereas I usually am not nearly as happy at other resorts. I think it should be Northstar or nothing for me from now on, at least in the Tahoe area...