Northstar California Opening Weekend in Lake Tahoe

I have an announcement to make: Winter is not coming. It's already come. Well at least in Lake Tahoe. But I'm going to be honest, even just a couple weeks ago, I wasn't sure it was coming at all. Yet yesterday found me snowboarding through fresh powder for Northstar California opening weekend. Needless to say, my stoke level was pretty high. As a new resident of the Reno-Tahoe area, this was my first proper ski resort opening weekend. And it didn't disappoint, nor could it have come at a better time for the long Thanksgiving holiday weekend, offering a nice break from family, incessant amounts of turkey, and Black Friday crowds. I'll take standing in line a couple moments for a chair lift any day over waiting in line for hours for a TV.

Most of Lake Tahoe's ski resorts started to open in the last week, with Northstar officially opening on the day before Thanksgiving, featuring a number of runs and lifts that opened last Wednesday. A couple days later, on Black Friday, Northstar was continuing to open new runs, such as East Ridge at the summit of Northstar, which opened just as my friends and I were reaching the top of the Comstock Express. But perhaps the best part was the return of my favorite winter tradition, après-ski, which couldn't have come at a better time over Thanksgiving weekend. The Village at Northstar was holiday-vibing with horse-drawn sleighs (yes, seriously), fire pits, and ice skating, all to the back-drop of snow-covered ski runs. Plus, it was just comfortable enough that a cold craft beer, Bloody Mary, or Hot Toddy were all acceptable après-ski choices.

And that was opening weekend at Northstar California! That is, until I woke up Sunday morning to find that it had snowed a foot in North Lake Tahoe. Sleep in or snowboard on fresh powder on opening weekend? I'll sleep when I die.

Meanwhile, see a few of my photos below from opening weekend at Northstar California Ski Resort. There was shredding, there was apres, there was fresh powder, there were ski patrol dogs. I believe there are certainly worse ways to spend Thanksgiving Day Weekend.