northstar-at-tahoe is one of my favourite snowboarding spots in lake tahoe. the company that owns it also owns its sister site: sierra-at-tahoe. they're both good.
northstar provides a good variety of terrain. i personally am more of a freestyle snowboarder, but being a silicon valley engineer, about to turn 30, i guess i have more friends that are into downhill than parks and pipes, so i'm glad northstar has good downhill runs as well, as i often just give in to doing downhill boarding with them instead. anyway, most seasons (of course depending on the snow) they build some nice parks with a good mix of ramps and rails. on good seasons, they'll have two pipes instead of just one. one thing i wish they would do is put some jumps on their featured black diamond mountain: lookout mountain. that'd be awesome.
one awesome feature about northstar is their "home run" run that lets you by pass all the newbies on "village run," which is the default way back to your car (and is really flat). "home run" takes you to the middle of their parking lot.
there's good variety, as i said; and the resort is decently big. some other tahoe resorts like heavenly and squaw boast how they've got so much land, but at those resorts, they don't make good use of their land. for example, at heavenly, to get from one good area to another, snowboarders end up having to walk across a whole vast expanse of flat. that's no fun. at northstar, you've got lookout mountain, you've got the main mountain off of comstock, you've got the back side, you've got that roller area and park around pinball off of vista. there's lots to do. i've never had a disappointing season at northstar....
that being said, i'll tell you what the biggest negative is: the crowds!!! northstar's really crowded. in recent years, the company that owns it has been selling these awesome double whammy passes, which let you go to northstar _and_ sierra. let me tell you, it's an awesome deal... but well, everyone else agrees, and the northstar gets really crowded. i don't want them to raise their prices again. rather, i hope they continue to make more terrain. then i'd really like them.
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