Road from Reno to Northstar

Planning to spend a few days at Northstar, and am debating what kind of vehicle I need to rent from the airport. On past trips, I always just rented a small SUV, and it was almost always a 4WD. But now it seems the car rental agencies have thought of a new trick. You get there to pick up the SUV, and they tell you it's not 4WD, and you really need a full-size SUV with 4WD for about twice the price. So far, I haven't bitten on that but the last trip to Heavenly, we were skidding around on the drive to Northstar and we almost got stuck leaving our condo (our condo was up on a ridge and the roads were not well maintained). So now I'm wondering. However, it appears to me that driving from Reno to Northstar, you're on interstate almost all the way, which should be safe, unless that last 4-5 miles on CA89/267 is hilly and/or not well maintained. Any advice on that?

CA-267 from Truckee to Northstar turnoff is not steep and rarely requires chains or 4WD. CA-267 from Northstar to Kings Beach is much steeper, especially on the north side of Brockway summit and often requires chains or 4WD.

The road into Northstar can require chains or 4WD when highway from Truckee to Northstar turnoff does not. It gets very busy, often with stop-and-go traffic and some people have trouble getting started after stopping. This is usually pickup trucks, even with 4WD, and mostly happens past the Fire Station.

Most of the time you will be OK with good tires and front wheel drive, but if you get stopped by traffic or chain enforcement during storm, you will have problems.

Really? Chains on Northstar access road?

You must be dealing with a exceptional cases.

I have never seen it. It's flat, low from Truckee - a little hilly on the access road.

It has taking me a while to respond as I was out of the country for 9 days for my anniversary. But unlike Tony C and jamesdeluxe, I went south to a place where the lowest temperature was 63. Beaches were not very crowded if you walked a little through the jungle.

I did say "during storm". I must have experienced better days at Northstar than ChrisC. My last day there 12/22, there were a couple of vehicles unable to get going after stopping due to traffic. I could feel my AWD SUV with too many winters on it's tires start to go right before rear wheels kicked in. If you don't get stopped on first hill after turn from 267 or on hill after fire station or when entering parking lot, you should be OK.

I've hit a lot of powder days at Northstar, but wanted to review my notes before replying. Two season ago (when I had Squaw pass) all three days I was at Northstar were powder including one where they claimed 32 inches new. Last year, there was more than 6 inches new on 6 of my 11 days (with a max of 29 inches claimed) and some new (less than 6) on 3 other days.

Northstar has a lot of people inexperienced in snow driving. I've seen a lot of rear-end accidents at the stop sign leaving the village and also approaching the stop light at 267. Plus I remember a day 20 years ago when my son was an infant. I was staying in Tahoe Donner, where they received 3-4 feet of snow and did not plow very well. It took over an hour to get to Northstar as people could not get up access road so seeing vehicles unable to get up access road is not something new. I don't remember any problems from when I worked there during drought winter of 75-76 and drove a VW bug with studded snows on the rear.

Good points by tseeb. Northstar's bread and butter business is low end skiers (read inexperienced snow drivers) due to the majority of its terrain. But it's also a logical powder choice on storm days when much more of its terrain will be open than at most Tahoe ski areas. I have 5 days lifetime at Northstar, one in 1976 as a beginner, one in 1984 when I was staying on North Shore for a 4-day weekend. The last 3 have been powder days during huge Sierra dumps in 2005 and last year.