Northstar - beauty and incompetence

I have just returned to Oz from the USA, after being in Northstar at Tahoe for 12 days. Got there New Year's eve, sat around the fire pits and watched the fireworks - good time. The next day was sunny, and showed up the need for a snowfall. Good mountain with a good selection of blue/black runs, but on the smallish side, so fine for the time we were there. The next day is started bucketing down, the superstorm of the decade hit. Dinner at TC Pub....bloody ordinary and very expensive, US$14 for a glass of red, and no ability to buy a bottle....! All the restaurants pretty well offered the same American fast food...... no fine dining anywhere.
The next day we went out barely nothing had been groomed, not a problem for me but it was for half our party. Made the mistake of buying a coffee on the mountain - Starbucks machine, so rubbish cappuccino at US$7 each.....ouch!
The snow just kept on coming, and management had no idea what to do. 2 days of torrential rain followed and then they closed the whole mountain citing safety - fair enough on the steep, but the blue and green runs could have been kept open. More heavy snow continued - over 10 feet in 12 days. Management panicked and sent all the staff home, so there we were, paying guests with nothing to do, no restaurants open and no shops open either!!!!!!!!! Then the power goes out overnight and into the middle of the next day. No back up generators, no contingency plan.....priceless.
Never again Northstar......fancy marketing yourselves as the BEAVER CREEK of California.....not a snowflake's chance in hell. Amateurs.

North America certainly seems to be pricing itself out of the market for some reason. Seems they neither want nor need overseas skiers anymore!

Well, at least it was not expensive :thumbup:.

Oh wait - the lift pass for 6 days comes in at over $700, ski/boot hire over $300 and a fortune for lessons :evil:. Even before the collapse of currencies against the dollar, these prices are ridiculous :evil:. Your experience shows up the marketing spin that the resorts are far better maintained/managed than in Europe:shock: .

I have often coveted a ski trip the States but the more I look at it, the more I conclude that it is simply not worth it on many different levels, not least of which is the exorbitant cost :evil:.

Brucie wrote:North America certainly seems to be pricing itself out of the market for some reason. Seems they neither want nor need overseas skiers anymore!

To be honest they have over 300 million people leaving in America alone, this is a considerable market already to try to change something just to attract some exotic tourists.

Don't be too quick to judge against resorts delaying the opening or closing blue runs during periods of heavy snow. The risk assessment they conduct does not really focus on the risk of a slide triggering on the slope itself rather on terrain above the piste and lift pylons.

I don't suggest trying to change anything. I've tried it, its too expensive, and I wont be returning.
Skiing is average, and the 'customer service' is less than that.
There are far better places to ski in Europe. Just because its far away doesnt make it better.

I've travelled from th U.K. to N America to ski 6 times now and been lucky to get good snow and experience great holidays (tagging on a couple of nights before going home in cities like San Fran and Vancouver).

Really supprised about the northstar comments as it's one of my favourite places to ski with some great long cruising runs. I guess the excitement of all that snow turned to big frustration when everything had to shut.....they always seemed to be well organised but maybe you were unlucky with the unprecedented storms.....if the £ ever recovers v the us$ I'd go back to n America but try Utah as all the yanks say it's amazing. Whistler was also pretty good.