Patrick arrived June 18 and relaxed at our house for awhile before heading for Mammoth. I drove with him Thursday and come home with Lonnie after skiing Friday. Liz stayed home, trying to keep her knee out of trouble before we leave Tuesday for 2 weeks on the Paul Gauguin eclipse cruise out of Tahiti, then outback and top end Australia and finally scuba diving in Vanuatu, returning home July 29.
Mammoth finally has had its first big heat wave, melting out perhaps 4 feet of snow in 10 days. So I was pleasantly surprised with this view from the Stump Alley parking lot.
The first dirt patches are just showing, but as the liftie said, "They grow like cancers." He said and I agree that chair 2 will last through next weekend June 29-30 but might be a struggle to last to July 4.
Patrick's timing was good as the heat wave was coming to an end. While it never got below 40F Thursday night, it was expected to freeze Friday night. Daytime weather while we were skiing was cooler than normal for this time, with moderate winds in the early morning and some patchy clouds midday. It probably got into the low 50's similar to June 8 and not as warm as June 10.
Mammoth's groomers with salt were active while we were skiing as well as overnight, so groomed surfaces were manageable if not quite as smooth as earlier in the month with an overnight freeze. It was Lonnie's third day and he said definitely the best because it didn't get as hot in late morning.
I dropped Patrick at Main Lodge about 7:45 to get his new Ikon Pass, and it took me few laps mostly on Stump Alley before a crew of 5 was assembled: Patrick, me, Lonnie and his friends Jeff and Tara. We were soon joined by Mdskier, who lives in Grass Valley and usually skis Squaw on his Ikon. But Squaw is now limited to Gold Coast, Big Blue and Shirley Lake.
Here's a view of Climax from the top of 3.
Starting around 9AM we ran top to bottom gondola laps. Here's the top with that sign ~4 feet taller than two weeks ago.
But remember the sign is 18 feet tall.
Cornice:
Climax:
Snow was soft from no overnight freeze but still smooth and supportable.
Next Lonnie, Patrick and I skied Hangman's while Mdskier met us below Cornice. Patrick below Hangman's
Jeff was skiing with a knee brace, so he and Tara ran laps on Scotty's when we were on narrower or bumpier runs.
We moved to skiing laps on 1 and 23. As usual for June the rock spines separating the Paranoids have grown to cut off access from the top or by traverse from Monument.
Skyline is also gone so access to anything skier's left of 23 is via Roadrunner or Wipe Out 1. Four of us dropped in there, first Mdskier:
Patrick:
Lonnie:
Mdskier encountered a few floater rocks where Wipe Out 1 constricted lower down. The rest of us traversed left with Lonnie joining Jeff and Tara on Scotty's. Patrick and I continued on to Monument.
Snow was supportable and smooth here with just a bit more resistance where the pitch mellowed out far below. The racers were wrapping it up on St. Anton, so we had a good cruise down to chair 1.
Next up was Drop Out 2, which was wide open on my two previous trips. Here Lonnie is skiing past the big rock that has emerged the middle of its steepest section.
Lonnie then Patrick turn on the speed where it opens up.
Lonnie growing up in Seattle had a similar race background as Patrick growing up in Montreal through their college years.
Here are Tara, Jeff and Lonnie at the top of 23 just after noon.
Four of us skied Drop Out 1.
By this time all the racers were done, so we all rode 1 and 3 to ski World Cup.
We continued down Andy's Double Gold.
Jeff and Tara called it a day while Patrick had to retrieve his boot bag from Main Lodge. Lonnie and I skied Wipe Out 1. By staying in the center of the narrow part we did not encounter any rocks. But Wipe Out 1 will get narrower and rockier and probably will get cut off completely sometime during the first week of July.
Lonnie hoped to make the last 1PM gondola but we were a couple of minutes too late. They did let us on chair 1 to get to the car at 2. I finished with 21,500 vertical.
I did not ski any of the chair 5 terrain accessible from the top or chair 3. But with the warm overnight temperatures the gondola and chair 23 runs rated to be better. I had also spent a lot of time on chair 5 on my previous two trips. I told Patrick to check out that area on the cooler weekend days while the top is still firm. As for the top Friday, surfaces midday were similar to those on June 10, when the early snow was firmer but the midday temperatures were warmer.
Coverage is still short of comparable time frames in 2011 and 2017 as it has been all spring. However it's better than in 2010 despite similar snowfall patterns by month. The May new snow in 2010 was early in the month while this year it was late. Also there's not yet much suncupping yet on the more accessible runs off the top. 2011 was noteworthy in that regard too but the July holiday in 2017 had widespread suncupping confining ungroomed skiing to skier packed lines.
With July 4 falling midweek this year, I'd strongly recommend the prior weekend vs. the following one. There's significant snow loss each week, and the loss of both mountain access and terrain once chair 2 closes are significant.
Patrick will be at Mammoth July 1 so he can report first hand how Mammoth looks heading into its final month.
Mammoth finally has had its first big heat wave, melting out perhaps 4 feet of snow in 10 days. So I was pleasantly surprised with this view from the Stump Alley parking lot.
The first dirt patches are just showing, but as the liftie said, "They grow like cancers." He said and I agree that chair 2 will last through next weekend June 29-30 but might be a struggle to last to July 4.
Patrick's timing was good as the heat wave was coming to an end. While it never got below 40F Thursday night, it was expected to freeze Friday night. Daytime weather while we were skiing was cooler than normal for this time, with moderate winds in the early morning and some patchy clouds midday. It probably got into the low 50's similar to June 8 and not as warm as June 10.
Mammoth's groomers with salt were active while we were skiing as well as overnight, so groomed surfaces were manageable if not quite as smooth as earlier in the month with an overnight freeze. It was Lonnie's third day and he said definitely the best because it didn't get as hot in late morning.
I dropped Patrick at Main Lodge about 7:45 to get his new Ikon Pass, and it took me few laps mostly on Stump Alley before a crew of 5 was assembled: Patrick, me, Lonnie and his friends Jeff and Tara. We were soon joined by Mdskier, who lives in Grass Valley and usually skis Squaw on his Ikon. But Squaw is now limited to Gold Coast, Big Blue and Shirley Lake.
Here's a view of Climax from the top of 3.
Starting around 9AM we ran top to bottom gondola laps. Here's the top with that sign ~4 feet taller than two weeks ago.
But remember the sign is 18 feet tall.
Cornice:
Climax:
Snow was soft from no overnight freeze but still smooth and supportable.
Next Lonnie, Patrick and I skied Hangman's while Mdskier met us below Cornice. Patrick below Hangman's
Jeff was skiing with a knee brace, so he and Tara ran laps on Scotty's when we were on narrower or bumpier runs.
We moved to skiing laps on 1 and 23. As usual for June the rock spines separating the Paranoids have grown to cut off access from the top or by traverse from Monument.
Skyline is also gone so access to anything skier's left of 23 is via Roadrunner or Wipe Out 1. Four of us dropped in there, first Mdskier:
Patrick:
Lonnie:
Mdskier encountered a few floater rocks where Wipe Out 1 constricted lower down. The rest of us traversed left with Lonnie joining Jeff and Tara on Scotty's. Patrick and I continued on to Monument.
Snow was supportable and smooth here with just a bit more resistance where the pitch mellowed out far below. The racers were wrapping it up on St. Anton, so we had a good cruise down to chair 1.
Next up was Drop Out 2, which was wide open on my two previous trips. Here Lonnie is skiing past the big rock that has emerged the middle of its steepest section.
Lonnie then Patrick turn on the speed where it opens up.
Lonnie growing up in Seattle had a similar race background as Patrick growing up in Montreal through their college years.
Here are Tara, Jeff and Lonnie at the top of 23 just after noon.
Four of us skied Drop Out 1.
By this time all the racers were done, so we all rode 1 and 3 to ski World Cup.
We continued down Andy's Double Gold.
Jeff and Tara called it a day while Patrick had to retrieve his boot bag from Main Lodge. Lonnie and I skied Wipe Out 1. By staying in the center of the narrow part we did not encounter any rocks. But Wipe Out 1 will get narrower and rockier and probably will get cut off completely sometime during the first week of July.
Lonnie hoped to make the last 1PM gondola but we were a couple of minutes too late. They did let us on chair 1 to get to the car at 2. I finished with 21,500 vertical.
I did not ski any of the chair 5 terrain accessible from the top or chair 3. But with the warm overnight temperatures the gondola and chair 23 runs rated to be better. I had also spent a lot of time on chair 5 on my previous two trips. I told Patrick to check out that area on the cooler weekend days while the top is still firm. As for the top Friday, surfaces midday were similar to those on June 10, when the early snow was firmer but the midday temperatures were warmer.
Coverage is still short of comparable time frames in 2011 and 2017 as it has been all spring. However it's better than in 2010 despite similar snowfall patterns by month. The May new snow in 2010 was early in the month while this year it was late. Also there's not yet much suncupping yet on the more accessible runs off the top. 2011 was noteworthy in that regard too but the July holiday in 2017 had widespread suncupping confining ungroomed skiing to skier packed lines.
With July 4 falling midweek this year, I'd strongly recommend the prior weekend vs. the following one. There's significant snow loss each week, and the loss of both mountain access and terrain once chair 2 closes are significant.
Patrick will be at Mammoth July 1 so he can report first hand how Mammoth looks heading into its final month.
