Tubing at Northstar

Our second big ski resort was Northstar.  Justin's birthday request was to go snow tubing, something that neither one of us has done before.  The "tubing center" at Northstar is in a yurt, a kind of very solid tent based on Mongolian design.  From there you are assigned a tube and told when to be where.

So, yeah, tubing is so much fun!  Northstar grabbed our attention because it had two advantages the other resorts didn't: (1) the bottom of the tubing hill is a big curve, and (2) you don't have to walk back up the hill, they attach your tube to a pulley and haul you up.

At the top of the hill, you can pick whether to go down solo or in a group, and whether you would like to go straight down or start out with a spin.  Spins are way better.

Here's a trip down the hill with Justin:

The tubing hill is wedged in between two ski runs and you could see even more ski lifts and runs.  We joked that it felt like a big white anthill - people zipping around everywhere.  

The snow guns were in full force the whole time we were there.  We talked to a few of the workers, who told us the 2013-2014 winter was a terrible one in terms of skiing, which meant very low snowfall.  Apparently this winter has been even worse, and doesn't bode well for the areas that rely on the snow melt from these mountains.