Monday, 3/24
The EpicSki Forum scheduled a second Gathering at Mammoth this week, with the end of the week at Squaw/Alpine. Attendance was 25-30 vs. 40+ in Utah in early February, no doubt down some due to the Sierra’s dismal season. Fortunately the weather/conditions were quite cooperative for the week.
I was an advisor for the Gathering and a guide for days at Mammoth. Monday was a typical sunny spring ski day with light winds, high about 50F. As it was my first day at Mammoth for the season, I was not sure what to expect, with 1987 being the only season in my experience with a snowpack this low (40-70 inches) in late March. My sparse notes from the 1987 trip noted half winter conditions but deep mogul runs off the top.
So Monday morning 11 of us headed up and I generally deferred to Sue, who has lived at Mammoth for a decade. We skied groomers on 2, 3 and Cornice. On a second Cornice run some us tested moguls at skier’s left and found them to still have winter snow. So we knew to start working the upper mountain. Sue (blue jacket) at regroup below Drop Out.
Next we moved to Wipe Out 2.
The smooth chalky snow extended through the aprons below the steeps almost to St. Anton. There were shorter sections of dry chalk on chairs 3 and 5, though the lower half of 5 was melt/frozen.
Next we took Dave’s Run over to Gold Hill and Chair 9. This is the part of the mountain most affected by the lean season. The grooming on 9 and 25 is less intensive than usual to avoid digging up the thin base and off trail snow on 9 was more of the late than early spring variety.
I wanted an inspection ride of chair 22 before lunch, but Sue overruled that suggestion, preferring to keep our guests in the known good snow on the upper mountain. So here we are on Climax.
From here we skied Coyote down to the Mill for a nice outdoor lunch.
The group splintered after lunch, though Sue and I led almost identical routes, mostly on Chair 23. We skied Wipe Out 1 and 2, Paranoid 1 (low traverse in from Scotty’s as top entries are sketchy) and a couple of afternoon corn runs on Chair 14. View up at Paranoids.
We met Liz at the top for a final run.
28,200 vertical for me on Monday. The 3 or 4 skiers who stayed with Sue all day probably got over 30K.
Tuesday, 3/25
This was a potentially problematic day with likely deteriorating weather in advance of a storm. Only the top had winter snow and much of the rest of the mountain rated to stay firm. The wind was from an unusual due north direction, so Chair 1 and the lower gondola closed, but the upper gondola and chair 23 stayed open. I was leading a group of 7 and wasted little time getting up top as I thought it might get shut down. So we hit Climax, Cornice, Wipe Out, Paranoid and Drop Out before lunch at mid-station. Cornice:
Wipe Out
Below Paranoids
I skied P2 this time but the rest of the group passed on the last rocky step up as P1 looked inviting enough.
While the afternoon was overcast, the clouds remained above the mountain, so the top did not close and Sue led her group on similar runs as mine in the morning.
After lunch Liz and I skied with tseeb and his son Sean, starting with Dave’s and an inspection tour of Canyon/Eagle. Eagle appears to be on its last legs, and April needs to be very snowy for it to make it to Easter.
This is a headache for MMSA as it owns properties over there that are supposed to be ski-in ski-out and Easter Week is spring break for many CA school districts.
Canyon is in better shape, though the snow was soft and would have been very sloppy with more traffic. Liz quit while tseeb, Sean and I skied a final run on Climax.
Wednesday, 3/26
Mammoth’s notorious winds were very strong both Tuesday and Wednesday, but on Wednesday they were greatly to our benefit. The mountain reported 3-6 inches, but it was at least 6 with another 6 falling during the day. In many places this might be dust on crust, but not here. With wind smoothing we rarely hit bottom, and the nasty weather held crowds down for us to enjoy free refills with little competition.
We got out early, scoring fresh tracks on the sides of Stump Alley, Wall Street and Rollercoaster, then met Epic people at the Mill. About 12 of us took another run on 4, then I said I was heading up 5 and anyone who would chance the wind and visibility could join me. Tseeb, Mike and their sons came along. Since 5 went high speed 3 years ago it usually gets hammered in about 45 minutes on a powder day. But today it was running at less than ¼ capacity so we got 5 powder runs, Sliver, Triangle and 3 on Face of 5.
On the way back to the Mill we spotted 2 snowboarders ripping Rodger’s Ridge, so that had to be worth checking out despite its presumably coral reef subsurface. Unlike on 5, we occasionally touched bottom but not enough to disrupt powder turns so my guests wanted an encore before lunch at mid. After lunch Liz joined us for 2 runs on 3 and another on Rodger’s. Liz wanted to check out 22, so she and tseeb and I went over there to ski Shaft. There was lots of powder but Shaft is sufficiently steep and narrow that it needs about 18 inches to keep off the subsurface. For a 2nd run I chose north facing trees where the subsurface was not melt/frozen. We finished in the chair 10 trees, finding untracked past 3 PM.
Not a good day for many pictures but 23,600 vertical with 12K of powder.
The EpicSki Forum scheduled a second Gathering at Mammoth this week, with the end of the week at Squaw/Alpine. Attendance was 25-30 vs. 40+ in Utah in early February, no doubt down some due to the Sierra’s dismal season. Fortunately the weather/conditions were quite cooperative for the week.
I was an advisor for the Gathering and a guide for days at Mammoth. Monday was a typical sunny spring ski day with light winds, high about 50F. As it was my first day at Mammoth for the season, I was not sure what to expect, with 1987 being the only season in my experience with a snowpack this low (40-70 inches) in late March. My sparse notes from the 1987 trip noted half winter conditions but deep mogul runs off the top.
So Monday morning 11 of us headed up and I generally deferred to Sue, who has lived at Mammoth for a decade. We skied groomers on 2, 3 and Cornice. On a second Cornice run some us tested moguls at skier’s left and found them to still have winter snow. So we knew to start working the upper mountain. Sue (blue jacket) at regroup below Drop Out.
Next we moved to Wipe Out 2.
The smooth chalky snow extended through the aprons below the steeps almost to St. Anton. There were shorter sections of dry chalk on chairs 3 and 5, though the lower half of 5 was melt/frozen.
Next we took Dave’s Run over to Gold Hill and Chair 9. This is the part of the mountain most affected by the lean season. The grooming on 9 and 25 is less intensive than usual to avoid digging up the thin base and off trail snow on 9 was more of the late than early spring variety.
I wanted an inspection ride of chair 22 before lunch, but Sue overruled that suggestion, preferring to keep our guests in the known good snow on the upper mountain. So here we are on Climax.
From here we skied Coyote down to the Mill for a nice outdoor lunch.
The group splintered after lunch, though Sue and I led almost identical routes, mostly on Chair 23. We skied Wipe Out 1 and 2, Paranoid 1 (low traverse in from Scotty’s as top entries are sketchy) and a couple of afternoon corn runs on Chair 14. View up at Paranoids.
We met Liz at the top for a final run.
28,200 vertical for me on Monday. The 3 or 4 skiers who stayed with Sue all day probably got over 30K.
Tuesday, 3/25
This was a potentially problematic day with likely deteriorating weather in advance of a storm. Only the top had winter snow and much of the rest of the mountain rated to stay firm. The wind was from an unusual due north direction, so Chair 1 and the lower gondola closed, but the upper gondola and chair 23 stayed open. I was leading a group of 7 and wasted little time getting up top as I thought it might get shut down. So we hit Climax, Cornice, Wipe Out, Paranoid and Drop Out before lunch at mid-station. Cornice:
Wipe Out
Below Paranoids
I skied P2 this time but the rest of the group passed on the last rocky step up as P1 looked inviting enough.
While the afternoon was overcast, the clouds remained above the mountain, so the top did not close and Sue led her group on similar runs as mine in the morning.
After lunch Liz and I skied with tseeb and his son Sean, starting with Dave’s and an inspection tour of Canyon/Eagle. Eagle appears to be on its last legs, and April needs to be very snowy for it to make it to Easter.
This is a headache for MMSA as it owns properties over there that are supposed to be ski-in ski-out and Easter Week is spring break for many CA school districts.
Canyon is in better shape, though the snow was soft and would have been very sloppy with more traffic. Liz quit while tseeb, Sean and I skied a final run on Climax.
Wednesday, 3/26
Mammoth’s notorious winds were very strong both Tuesday and Wednesday, but on Wednesday they were greatly to our benefit. The mountain reported 3-6 inches, but it was at least 6 with another 6 falling during the day. In many places this might be dust on crust, but not here. With wind smoothing we rarely hit bottom, and the nasty weather held crowds down for us to enjoy free refills with little competition.
We got out early, scoring fresh tracks on the sides of Stump Alley, Wall Street and Rollercoaster, then met Epic people at the Mill. About 12 of us took another run on 4, then I said I was heading up 5 and anyone who would chance the wind and visibility could join me. Tseeb, Mike and their sons came along. Since 5 went high speed 3 years ago it usually gets hammered in about 45 minutes on a powder day. But today it was running at less than ¼ capacity so we got 5 powder runs, Sliver, Triangle and 3 on Face of 5.
On the way back to the Mill we spotted 2 snowboarders ripping Rodger’s Ridge, so that had to be worth checking out despite its presumably coral reef subsurface. Unlike on 5, we occasionally touched bottom but not enough to disrupt powder turns so my guests wanted an encore before lunch at mid. After lunch Liz joined us for 2 runs on 3 and another on Rodger’s. Liz wanted to check out 22, so she and tseeb and I went over there to ski Shaft. There was lots of powder but Shaft is sufficiently steep and narrow that it needs about 18 inches to keep off the subsurface. For a 2nd run I chose north facing trees where the subsurface was not melt/frozen. We finished in the chair 10 trees, finding untracked past 3 PM.
Not a good day for many pictures but 23,600 vertical with 12K of powder.
