Journeys›Photograph

Fresh Snow and Clear Skies at Northstar

·Placer County, California·#winter#skiing#snow#lake tahoe#mountains
A wooden cabin surrounded by snow-covered pine trees under a bright blue sky, viewed from a snowy deck.

Snow overnight, enough that the deck railing carried a rounded white cap of it this morning, and then the storm cleared out and left a hard blue sky over Truckee. So: Northstar.

From the top, around 8,610 feet, Lake Tahoe sat dark blue below the snow line, with white ridges running the whole way around the basin. The trees up high were still holding everything the storm dropped, branches bent sideways under it, and the bowls off the ridge hadn't been tracked out yet. The place claims 3,170 acres and a hundred-plus trails, and on a morning like this it feels like most of them are pointed at the lake.

Lower down, back toward the base at 6,330, the lake kept reappearing through gaps in the firs — a strip of blue between snowed-over treetops, then gone again at the next turn. One small grey cloud parked itself over the water and stayed there most of the day while everything else blew through.

A panoramic view of snow-covered mountains with evergreen trees, a vast blue lake in the distance, under a clear blue sky.Snow-covered mountains with evergreen trees overlook a large blue lake under a clear blue sky.A panoramic view of snow-covered mountains with frosted pine trees overlooking a large blue lake under a clear sky.A snow-covered mountain landscape with evergreen trees, a ski slope in the foreground, and a clear blue sky.Snow-covered mountains with pine trees slope down to a large blue lake under a clear blue sky with one dark cloud.A vast winter landscape with a clear blue sky, snow-capped mountains, a large lake, and evergreen forests.A snowy mountain landscape with pine trees, a large blue lake, and distant snow-capped mountains under a clear sky.Snowy evergreen trees frame a vast winter mountain landscape with a distant lake under a clear blue sky.

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