FYI Vail and Northstar

[Cuban Carving Gooding]

Vail buys Northstar at Tahoe

http://www.snow.com/discoverourresorts/northstar-at-tahoe.aspx

[Wun]

wow. kendrick was <del>half</del> right. i thought that was crazy talk.

that's big news for me, since sierra seems to overwhelmingly be the ONLY pick for season passes; more like, every single friend i have that i'm aware of who snowboards gets the double whammy. i can now ride with them, apparently.

thanks for the news.

[Wun]

so, i just realized i've got a bit of confusion here.

is there a difference between buying a heavenly or double whammy?

that is, does buying one of them offer access to more tahoe resorts than the other?

you buy a heavenly pass, perhaps you only get access to heavenly and northstar?

whereas if you buy the double whammy, you get access to those plus sierra?

looks like i'm making a phone call tomorrow.

[Cuban Carving Gooding]

With Heavenly pass you get Sierra and Northstar.

[Wun]

latest edit (dec 2010): now that it's been a while, things have settled down and policies have been further worked out, details of which can mostly be found on the resort websites. some phone calls today, however, yielded a couple of conflicting facts in certain places.

anyway, the only thing useful i can say now without writing an essay is that the buyer should beware that sierra sort of "pulled out" of the whole double/triple whammy thing and no longer directly offers their own multi-resort passes (except for a couple exceptions), not that it's not possible to get season passes that grant access to sierra as well as the other two resorts. they have now more or less introduced their own, new tiers of pass pricing (or kept up pricing of sierra only passes and removed most of everything else).

so yeah, some of the things in the rest of this post have been updated/changed/worked out, so i'm just going to cross out all of it and tell you guys to now go to their websites and see for yourselves

<strike>wow, you're right.

anyway, i called heavenly and sierra and this is what THEY told ME (i request that riding of my ass for bad intel' be refrained from ):

purchase of HEAVENLY pass (currently priced at $379):

blacked out every saturday for the whole season at northstar, essentially (12/18-3/26)

edit: perhaps normal blackouts also apply at northstar. however, customer service rep neglected to mention that explicitly.

have yet to decide whether to impose blackouts at sierra, said they'll find out "next week"

blackouts at heavenly still apply

Heavenly COLLEGE pass:

have yet to decide about access to northstar and sierra, said they'll find out "next week"

Purchase of ANY tier of DOUBLE WHAMMY:

As long as you are classified as an adult (age 23-69), even if you buy a college pass, access to heavenly is still granted. did not ask about blackouts, but i assume that they apply. edit: keep in mind that the cheapest Double Whammy tier (currently $419) is not good on Saturdays at Northstar or Heavenly between 12/18-3/26.</strike>

[Cuban Carving Gooding]

How is Sierra and Northstar for carving? I remember some BOLers talking about Northstar. How long of a drive to north Lake Tahoe from south? Can anyone help with these questions?

[Wun]

You start at Stagecoach like I do, so I'm sure you're bound to come through from near the 50/207 intersection.

According to Google Maps, it takes 34 minutes via Pioneer Trail to get to Sierra, 60 minutes to Northstar by traveling up the east side of the lake, both time estimates with the starting point at the 50/207 intersection.

I used to ride Sierra before I started riding Heavenly. And, I get my bootfitting done at the ski shop in the Northstar village, so I can attest to those time figures listed being pretty accurate during not-so-heavy traffic.

As for carving, I don't remember much. Just that the West Bowl at Sierra seemed kind of popular among carvers.

The almanac has some writing about these two places. Take that however you will.

See you in a couple months.

-Jesse

[Cuban Carving Gooding]

Thanks Wun

[SEJ]

We've been using the double whammy for about ten years. We know Sierra and Nstar pretty well.

Sierra:

West Bowl and lower Main are the best carving. Sierra continues to take good carving hills and turn them into parks or close them for racing. On a typical weekend you will have 1/2 of lower main and Beaver and Marmot in the west bowl open. The other two runs in the West Bowl will be a park and a race course.They all point the same direction so they all tend to soften up pretty much at the same rate, with lower main lasting the longest. Sierra has probably the best Bunny hill in Tahoe. Has it's own high speed quad. (Quickest way to the West Bowl)

North Star:

One of my favorites, just seems like I ride the best there. I HATE getting on the hill. They make it as HARD as possible for day skiers and boarders. Park miles away, make you walk a mile through the village (even though the bus could drop you near the gondola, F%#@&*^ marketing). Then it takes three lifts to get to the top!

But, once I'm there, I LOVE it. East Ridge in the morn, backside early PM, West Ridge late PM. You can follow the sun and get good snow all day, still find groom mid afternoon. Best grooming in Tahoe IMHO. Best food too. Try the prime rib at the top.

We stay at South Shore on Pioneer, right below Heavenly. Takes up about 25 minutes to get to Sierra, Nstar is about an hour, depending on where you have to park, etc. These times are without bad traffic. Nstar might be shorter if 89 is open, We take 50 to 207, but how often do you see that in the winter.

[jojogreen]

In my opinion, Northstar doesn't have enough steep terrain. The weekends are crazy with eveyrone congested in the gondola line, or congested near the lodge up the gondola. It is not all that much fun for me.