Liz and I decided to get in a couple of days at Mammoth after last weekend's storms. Adam had been there Monday/Tuesday so we knew what to expect. The initial storm Friday night had a rain/snow line near the Main Lodge and snowed 7 inches at the nearby patrol plot. The second storm Sunday had a fluctuating rain/snow line that reached as high as 10,500 feet. While the snow level came down at the end, there were high winds and some stripped areas have an icy shine like this one near the top of Chair 1.
The top of the mountain got about 2 feet and generally restored coverage to where it had been on my first visit Dec. 18-19.
The steep sections from Dave's through the Wipeouts generally had soft or chalky snow. There were stripped hard areas on some of the aprons as shown above but usually there was a fall line of packed powder to avoid those. On Monday Adam said the grooming was so-so, and the rained-upon terrain below wasn't great. My experience is that Mammoth grooming first day after a storm is fairly light, but much more intensive after that. I was very impressed by the groomers Wednesday. Main Lodge groomers were essentially packed powder even though an icy glaze was often visible just off the trails. Liz speculated that the demo event may have inspired extra diligence in the grooming.
The pleasant surprise of this trip is that it coincided with the annual Southern California demo of the Western Winter Sports Rep Association. http://www.wwsra.com/show-schedule/ These demos are held around the West immediately after the SIA convention in Denver, primarily for ski shops to test and order equipment for the upcoming season. This is by far the largest demo event I have ever seen, taking over the entire Chair 2 parking lot.
I was at this event with my NASJA credential for one day in 2011, but Liz and I had two full demo days this time.
Liz wanted to start with DPS. I was on the Wailer 99 at 184cm. Dimensions are similar to many western daily drivers like my Blizzard Bonafides, but there is more tip rocker and the widest point is well back of the tip like many powder skis. We skied a few cruisers, Broadway, face of 3 and Cornice, then Climax. I also skied West Bowl and Dave's Run. The DPS skis are extremely light weight and to me had a strong soft snow bias. That didn't mean it needed to be deep powder; a couple inches of loose snow on the side of Cornice or Dave's was more than adequate. I could get them to hold an edge on the more frequent firmer snow, but they seemed to require a bit more precise balance than my Bonafides to do that.
We returned to DPS for powder skis. The women's were out but I got the Wailer 112's, also 184cm. With the mostly firm snow, 112 was not an ideal width and thus less responsive than narrower skis. I skied these on Wipe Out, St. Anton, Climax, China Bowl and Coyote. Nonetheless these would be strong contender if I were to get a new powder ski. They are similar dimensions to the Volkl powder skis I needed at Mustang in 2013 in upside down snow too deep for my Head Jimis, and I have to believe the DPS light weight is also a plus for flotation in deep snow.
Some of the shop reps were ripping the Chair 23 runs. Here are a couple in Drop Out 1 and Wipe Out 1.
For my 3rd demo I decided to aim for a ski well suited for the day's conditions. I chose the Stockli StormRider 88 at 178. To no surprise they were rock solid on Drop Out 3, so I ventured out to check out the Paranoids, here viewed from below earlier in the day
I chickened out upon close inspection as the entrances were both rocky and glazed and there would likely be fall consequences. Snow in Paranoid 3 looked good and occasionally we saw people skiing there but I never saw how they got in. I traversed across a mostly rough and frozen Monument, and due to rock barriers reached the better snow in Paranoid 1 about halfway down.
Our 4th and final demos Wednesday were from Faction. Mine was the Prodigy 98 at 177cm. These were perhaps the least responsive skis of the day, but I can hardly criticize too much since I still skied nonstop runs on Climax and Drop Out 1 on them.
Total for Wednesday was 24,500 vertical.
Both mornings it was close to 40F in town when we got going around 8:15, and with clear skies, no wind and more bare ground than snow it felt more like a typical Memorial Day than mid-February. Thursday's weather on the mountain was warmer than Wednesday and made the comparison even more salient. Spring conditions advanced halfway up the hill on the Main Lodge side, more typical of mid-April. We both dumped a layer while eating lunch outside at the Mill around noon. Fortunately the steep runs up top retained chalky/soft packed powder surfaces.
On Wednesday it took until 10:30 to get through registration, but on Thursday we were on the hill with our first demos by 8:45. Early in the morning I thought narrower was the way to go, and encouraged Liz to try the Stockli Motion, women's version of the ski I had the day before. I took the Rossignol Experience 88 at 178cm, which has won some magazine reviews as an eastern one-ski quiver. This seemed appropriate with the current east-west role reversal of snow conditions. We skied Dave's Run and continued down to Canyon Lodge. Liz on Dave's:
The run to Canyon was in full-on corn mode at 9:25AM, and would likely be slop by 11AM, especially with the upcoming President's weekend traffic. At any rate the Experience 88 was like both Stocklis a perfect ski for the conditions.
We next moved to Armada. Besides the typical 88 and 98 width skis, Armada had the Invictus 95 Ti 185cm with a bit more sidecut, so I gave that a try. I skied a Broadway cruiser and then Climax and Upper Dry Creek. Liz on Climax:
Upper Dry Creek:
We rode up Chair 5 to ski Christmas Bowl and Coyote. Chair 5 still has marginal skiing. Dry Creek has blown-in soft snow and Solitude is groomed, but all the runs across the middle of 5 have big exposed ice patches and nobody was skiing there.
Liz and I both have an impression of Armada as a soft snow/powder oriented company, but the Invictus 95 Ti was the best mid-90's width ski for the packed and spring conditions of the day. The Invictus is also available without the Titanium as a $499 intermediate oriented ski.
Armada also had a plain white prototype of the Kufo 103 at 186cm. I took these to Drop Out 3 and Wipe Out 2. These were not as quick as the Invictus but still comparable to some of the mid-90's width skis from other manufacturers.
After lunch at the Mill we went to Atomic, where I took the Vantage 95 at 177cm. This is likely similar to the Alibi that I had in Austria 2 years ago when my skis were delayed arriving. I skied Drop Out 1 and then we decided to check out the backside, which I suspected might be softening nicely in the warm weather. The rain had compacted the snow, so Thursday's warmup produced corn perfection here:
I was a little sluggish after lunch but perked up with that corn. We liked the Atomics but not quite as much as the Armadas.
Our final demo was Nordica. I had the Nrgy90 at 186cm. I skied Wipe Out 1 and then we had to have an encore of the backside corn. There were maybe 10 or so tracks out there near the boundary and we were responsible for 4 of them. Riding Chair 23 we finally noticed a Hulk action figure attached to one of the big rocks under the lift.
Despite not being super wide and having a flat tail the Nrgy90 had quite a bit of early rise and was a quick turning ski despite the length. This was put to the test when we skied Scotty's from Chair 14. The strip of soft snow between ice patches is relatively narrow and required lots of short turns to maintain the best line.
We finished Wednesday with 24,800 vertical. It was a well-timed trip, a few days after the storm for Mammoth to groom the lower runs but before President's weekend crowds will likely chew up a lot of the lower mountain snow. Mammoth will ski like a typical May for intermediate cruisers, but most of the runs up top should remain good for quite a while.
The top of the mountain got about 2 feet and generally restored coverage to where it had been on my first visit Dec. 18-19.
The steep sections from Dave's through the Wipeouts generally had soft or chalky snow. There were stripped hard areas on some of the aprons as shown above but usually there was a fall line of packed powder to avoid those. On Monday Adam said the grooming was so-so, and the rained-upon terrain below wasn't great. My experience is that Mammoth grooming first day after a storm is fairly light, but much more intensive after that. I was very impressed by the groomers Wednesday. Main Lodge groomers were essentially packed powder even though an icy glaze was often visible just off the trails. Liz speculated that the demo event may have inspired extra diligence in the grooming.
The pleasant surprise of this trip is that it coincided with the annual Southern California demo of the Western Winter Sports Rep Association. http://www.wwsra.com/show-schedule/ These demos are held around the West immediately after the SIA convention in Denver, primarily for ski shops to test and order equipment for the upcoming season. This is by far the largest demo event I have ever seen, taking over the entire Chair 2 parking lot.
I was at this event with my NASJA credential for one day in 2011, but Liz and I had two full demo days this time.
Liz wanted to start with DPS. I was on the Wailer 99 at 184cm. Dimensions are similar to many western daily drivers like my Blizzard Bonafides, but there is more tip rocker and the widest point is well back of the tip like many powder skis. We skied a few cruisers, Broadway, face of 3 and Cornice, then Climax. I also skied West Bowl and Dave's Run. The DPS skis are extremely light weight and to me had a strong soft snow bias. That didn't mean it needed to be deep powder; a couple inches of loose snow on the side of Cornice or Dave's was more than adequate. I could get them to hold an edge on the more frequent firmer snow, but they seemed to require a bit more precise balance than my Bonafides to do that.
We returned to DPS for powder skis. The women's were out but I got the Wailer 112's, also 184cm. With the mostly firm snow, 112 was not an ideal width and thus less responsive than narrower skis. I skied these on Wipe Out, St. Anton, Climax, China Bowl and Coyote. Nonetheless these would be strong contender if I were to get a new powder ski. They are similar dimensions to the Volkl powder skis I needed at Mustang in 2013 in upside down snow too deep for my Head Jimis, and I have to believe the DPS light weight is also a plus for flotation in deep snow.
Some of the shop reps were ripping the Chair 23 runs. Here are a couple in Drop Out 1 and Wipe Out 1.
For my 3rd demo I decided to aim for a ski well suited for the day's conditions. I chose the Stockli StormRider 88 at 178. To no surprise they were rock solid on Drop Out 3, so I ventured out to check out the Paranoids, here viewed from below earlier in the day
I chickened out upon close inspection as the entrances were both rocky and glazed and there would likely be fall consequences. Snow in Paranoid 3 looked good and occasionally we saw people skiing there but I never saw how they got in. I traversed across a mostly rough and frozen Monument, and due to rock barriers reached the better snow in Paranoid 1 about halfway down.
Our 4th and final demos Wednesday were from Faction. Mine was the Prodigy 98 at 177cm. These were perhaps the least responsive skis of the day, but I can hardly criticize too much since I still skied nonstop runs on Climax and Drop Out 1 on them.
Total for Wednesday was 24,500 vertical.
Both mornings it was close to 40F in town when we got going around 8:15, and with clear skies, no wind and more bare ground than snow it felt more like a typical Memorial Day than mid-February. Thursday's weather on the mountain was warmer than Wednesday and made the comparison even more salient. Spring conditions advanced halfway up the hill on the Main Lodge side, more typical of mid-April. We both dumped a layer while eating lunch outside at the Mill around noon. Fortunately the steep runs up top retained chalky/soft packed powder surfaces.
On Wednesday it took until 10:30 to get through registration, but on Thursday we were on the hill with our first demos by 8:45. Early in the morning I thought narrower was the way to go, and encouraged Liz to try the Stockli Motion, women's version of the ski I had the day before. I took the Rossignol Experience 88 at 178cm, which has won some magazine reviews as an eastern one-ski quiver. This seemed appropriate with the current east-west role reversal of snow conditions. We skied Dave's Run and continued down to Canyon Lodge. Liz on Dave's:
The run to Canyon was in full-on corn mode at 9:25AM, and would likely be slop by 11AM, especially with the upcoming President's weekend traffic. At any rate the Experience 88 was like both Stocklis a perfect ski for the conditions.
We next moved to Armada. Besides the typical 88 and 98 width skis, Armada had the Invictus 95 Ti 185cm with a bit more sidecut, so I gave that a try. I skied a Broadway cruiser and then Climax and Upper Dry Creek. Liz on Climax:
Upper Dry Creek:
We rode up Chair 5 to ski Christmas Bowl and Coyote. Chair 5 still has marginal skiing. Dry Creek has blown-in soft snow and Solitude is groomed, but all the runs across the middle of 5 have big exposed ice patches and nobody was skiing there.
Liz and I both have an impression of Armada as a soft snow/powder oriented company, but the Invictus 95 Ti was the best mid-90's width ski for the packed and spring conditions of the day. The Invictus is also available without the Titanium as a $499 intermediate oriented ski.
Armada also had a plain white prototype of the Kufo 103 at 186cm. I took these to Drop Out 3 and Wipe Out 2. These were not as quick as the Invictus but still comparable to some of the mid-90's width skis from other manufacturers.
After lunch at the Mill we went to Atomic, where I took the Vantage 95 at 177cm. This is likely similar to the Alibi that I had in Austria 2 years ago when my skis were delayed arriving. I skied Drop Out 1 and then we decided to check out the backside, which I suspected might be softening nicely in the warm weather. The rain had compacted the snow, so Thursday's warmup produced corn perfection here:
I was a little sluggish after lunch but perked up with that corn. We liked the Atomics but not quite as much as the Armadas.
Our final demo was Nordica. I had the Nrgy90 at 186cm. I skied Wipe Out 1 and then we had to have an encore of the backside corn. There were maybe 10 or so tracks out there near the boundary and we were responsible for 4 of them. Riding Chair 23 we finally noticed a Hulk action figure attached to one of the big rocks under the lift.
Despite not being super wide and having a flat tail the Nrgy90 had quite a bit of early rise and was a quick turning ski despite the length. This was put to the test when we skied Scotty's from Chair 14. The strip of soft snow between ice patches is relatively narrow and required lots of short turns to maintain the best line.
We finished Wednesday with 24,800 vertical. It was a well-timed trip, a few days after the storm for Mammoth to groom the lower runs but before President's weekend crowds will likely chew up a lot of the lower mountain snow. Mammoth will ski like a typical May for intermediate cruisers, but most of the runs up top should remain good for quite a while.
