One of the things that makes skiing interesting is its unpredictability. In years past I might have bugged out of this weekend at Mammoth, given the modest 2-3 foot base, no snow in the past week and 5 inches the week before that. But this year I have a Value Pass and for this weekend a cheap lodging deal so I went anyway. I brought my regular skis (Volant Power Ti) and 20 year old Rossi 3G's in case the rock situation got out of hand. I left the fat skis at home, given the prediction of "partly cloudy Saturday, mostly cloudy Sunday with 1-3 inches snow possible late Sunday afternoon and evening."
As soon as we pulled into the Chair 2 parking Saturday morning it was obvious the rock skis would not be necessary. Mammoth has not had enough skiers in the past two weeks to chew up the base, and in December/January almost nothing melts at that altitude. There was no hardpack, just groomed packed powder and off-trail windbuff with wind-sifted powder blown in occasionally.
Mammoth seems to ski decently on the modest base. The lower runs are mostly groomers, and about 3/4 of the mid and upper tiers have comfortably skiable lines between some rock boundaries that I have rarely seen. Some steeps weren't covered adequately (Paranoid, Wipe Out side of Chair 23, most of Chair 22), some were filled in well (Dave's, Cornice, Scotty's) and others that are normally wide open (Climax, Drop Out) are skiable but constrained. The constrained lines had great snow, as the intimidation factor tends to keep the riffraff away
. In many respects Mammoth's upper terrain skied this weekend very similarly to low-snow but well-preserved areas like Lake Louise or Crested Butte.
Saturday was thick overcast with erratic gusty winds and it seemed likely that whatever weather was predicted Sunday was going to arrive early. So I skied the upper terrain (Dave's. Climax, Cornice, Drop Out, Scotty's) plus several runs on Chair 5 and totalled 24,900 vertical, not bad for first day of the season (well, since September 9 in Las Lenas).
Then there was that weather prediction. It started snowing hard about 5PM Saturday, and even in town there was at least a foot new by Sunday morning. It dumped all day Sunday, even as low as Bishop when we were driving out, and by Monday morning the predicted "1-3 inches" turned out to be 37!
The Main Lodge area was a whiteout Sunday, the top was of course closed, so we moved to the more sheltered Canyon Lodge side. Snow was somewhat thick in open areas like Chair 5, but was knee deep in the trees, and without fat skis I would occasionally grind to a halt when the slope flattened. When skiing along Chair 16 I noticed a couple of people emerging from the bowls under the Avalanche Chutes, so I decided to venture up Chair 22 and try to find the traverse in. I was fortunate to ride the lift with someone who had just skied Avalanche 2 from the top. Avy 2 normally has the rockiest entrance, but this year's wind deposition filled it in, another of this weekend's many pleasant surprises.
Weather and visibility were tough Sunday, so 13,800, 8K of it in powder, was still quite a workout. All pics except the last from Saturday.
As soon as we pulled into the Chair 2 parking Saturday morning it was obvious the rock skis would not be necessary. Mammoth has not had enough skiers in the past two weeks to chew up the base, and in December/January almost nothing melts at that altitude. There was no hardpack, just groomed packed powder and off-trail windbuff with wind-sifted powder blown in occasionally.
Mammoth seems to ski decently on the modest base. The lower runs are mostly groomers, and about 3/4 of the mid and upper tiers have comfortably skiable lines between some rock boundaries that I have rarely seen. Some steeps weren't covered adequately (Paranoid, Wipe Out side of Chair 23, most of Chair 22), some were filled in well (Dave's, Cornice, Scotty's) and others that are normally wide open (Climax, Drop Out) are skiable but constrained. The constrained lines had great snow, as the intimidation factor tends to keep the riffraff away
. In many respects Mammoth's upper terrain skied this weekend very similarly to low-snow but well-preserved areas like Lake Louise or Crested Butte.Saturday was thick overcast with erratic gusty winds and it seemed likely that whatever weather was predicted Sunday was going to arrive early. So I skied the upper terrain (Dave's. Climax, Cornice, Drop Out, Scotty's) plus several runs on Chair 5 and totalled 24,900 vertical, not bad for first day of the season (well, since September 9 in Las Lenas).
Then there was that weather prediction. It started snowing hard about 5PM Saturday, and even in town there was at least a foot new by Sunday morning. It dumped all day Sunday, even as low as Bishop when we were driving out, and by Monday morning the predicted "1-3 inches" turned out to be 37!
The Main Lodge area was a whiteout Sunday, the top was of course closed, so we moved to the more sheltered Canyon Lodge side. Snow was somewhat thick in open areas like Chair 5, but was knee deep in the trees, and without fat skis I would occasionally grind to a halt when the slope flattened. When skiing along Chair 16 I noticed a couple of people emerging from the bowls under the Avalanche Chutes, so I decided to venture up Chair 22 and try to find the traverse in. I was fortunate to ride the lift with someone who had just skied Avalanche 2 from the top. Avy 2 normally has the rockiest entrance, but this year's wind deposition filled it in, another of this weekend's many pleasant surprises.
Weather and visibility were tough Sunday, so 13,800, 8K of it in powder, was still quite a workout. All pics except the last from Saturday.
