Resolution Skis: Spring Break in Cali, the Land of Beaches, Bikinis, and Sun

Squaw Valley USA

Team Resolution was recently on Spring Break from school, and members Tom, Duncan and roommate Thomas Hever, decided to head out to Duncan's home town of Truckee, California. We were in for quite a surprise when we arrived to find a couple feet of fresh snow on Saturday morning. We started out the week skiing at Squaw Valley USA, where we were only able to enjoy the lower mountain on our first day, due to the intense storm. Lapping KT-22 and Red Dog gave us some of our best skiing of the year, and our luck hadn't run out yet. After checking the weather forecast, we discovered to our surprise that it was suppose to keep dumping for the rest of the week.

The next day, we went touring on the lower section of Lake Run near Donner Lake in Truckee. It was a high avalanche danger day so we chose a mellow section to ski.

Tom setting the deepest skin track we have ever seen (He's 6'6")

After setting the deepest skin track of our lives, we were able to ski a short pitch full of pillows and small drops, allowing the Torpedo's to carry us through 3 feet of completely untouched snow.

Tom Meiners Ripping it on the Torpedos

Now the storm total was approaching 70 inches, and it appeared that we were going to get a break in the storm. After skiing another lower mountain day at Squaw on Monday, we were able to explore the upper mountain, including Headwall and Granite Chief, on Tuesday. Again the Torpedo's showed their skills, allowing us to tear up the whole mountain.

After another couple of feet, we decided to check out one of the local's favorite storm day runs, Schallenberger Ridge, which is located on the south side of Donner Lake, and contains some of the best storm day tree skiing to be had in the Truckee area. After an hour long skin to the top, we descended the pitch experiencing bottomless powder, with snow flying over our heads on the entire run.

Thomas Hever going deep

After skiing down from Schallenberger, Tom and Duncan decided to ski a short cliff section located at the bottom of Northwoods Boulevard in Truckee.

Duncan Lowder going for it

Taking only a couple of minutes to skin to the top, we were able to lap it several times, hucking the small drops to our hearts content.

Tom Meiners

After seeing how much snow had fallen in the past couple of days, on top of the rest of the snow that has fallen on Truckee this winter, the snowbanks where higher than we had ever seen in our lives. On Ski Slope, in Tahoe Donner, the snow banks were around 20 feet high!

Now that's a snowbank!

After skiing a couple more days at Squaw, we ended our trip with one final hike up Jake's, located on the west shore of Lake Tahoe. For the hike, we teamed up with friend Jehren Boehm, who helped show us the goods on our final tour. It was another extremely snowy and windy day, but we experienced some of the best turns of the trip.

Duncan Lowder Slashing it

After 8 days of skiing and over 140 inches of snow, we unfortunately had to head back to Boulder and continue with school. On the drive back, we encountered blue skies for the first time since leaving for Spring Break. We couldn't have gone anywhere else in the world and experienced better skiing than we did this past week. Even though we missed out on the beaches, bikinis, and sun during spring break, the snow was spectacular and we could not have had a better week.