After 16 hours of driving and $30 worth of Flying J truck stop food (see “big dog” below) everyone was happy to finally be in Tahoe. The four of us left from Boulder in a ‘96 Nissan Altima with the thump in the trunk and 22 Red Bulls. Spring Break 08 had begun.

Our first stop was Kirkwood where we were greeted by a very friendly staff. Getting off the first chair lift we were all impressed with the immediate vertical of the mountain, we could only imagine what that run would be like on a powder day. The mountain, located about 20min. outside South Lake Tahoe offered two park lines with a distribution of rails, boxes, jumps, and stalls. Though the park wasn’t as large as some of the other resorts we visited, the features were well maintained. The real gem of Kirkwood however, as we were informed during our extensive mountain tour, was the “backside”. Here, we found more steeps and rocky terrain.

The next day we loaded up and headed to Northstar. It was slushy and wet but the park was hip-hoppin’ off. There were over 50 features ranging from flat boxes to kinked stair sets. Compared to Kirkwood, there was a lack of steeps but Northstar quickly made up for it with their park, including “The Stash”, Burton’s all-wood park.

For Day 3 we headed back to South Lake to Heavenly the largest mountain that we rode on our Tahoe Tour. The park lacked slightly, but this was understandable as they had focused most of their energy on South Shore Soldiers- which looked awesome. The mountain offered glade style terrain and had little restriction as to what was ridable.

Next we went to Sierra @ Tahoe for some adventure on their purple boxes. The mountain was much smaller but had a homey feel and “The Circuit” provided a fun loop of park features.

Kingvale came next, a quick 15 mins. outside Truckee. It was the smallest hill and only offered a rope tow but the features were packed in like sardines. It was similar to a California version of Echo Mtn, full of potential. It was definitely worth the $22.

After Kingvale we took a day off and drove to Utah so we could split up the trip and get another day of riding in at Brighton. It was refreshing to ride in fresh snow again; the day was cooler and it felt more like Rockies riding. We spent the day exploring the mountain and all of its diverse terrain, but only made it to about 2:30 because we were all so spent.

The next six hours back to Colorado were filled with disappointment. After being taunted by “Little America” 50cent ice cream cones billboards throughout the entire state of Wyoming we pulled into Little America to find a broken cream machine. We were forced to settle with Taco Bell.

Props to all the mountains for letting us shred there
Peace, The Spring Break Crew