Garry Klassen was unable to come on my Montana/Wyoming trip, but he is on vacation with a condo in Mammoth for a week. So I made a last-minute decision to head up there for the weekend, and my friend Richard Weinstein came with me for what might be his only skiing this season. I also have been advised to get in lots of ski mileage in preparation for my next trip President's week.
Mammoth has had no new snow in February, so the wind has done its thing and there was smooth windbuff over most of the above treeline terrain. On Saturday there was considerable blown-in wind sift that makes it possible to cruise with less effort and more speed than usual on the upper mountain steeps.
I find this condition fairly often in December, but it's somewhat less common mid-season when there tends to be more skier traffic and thus more moguls. This was actually a very busy Mammoth weekend by recent standards, with 5-minute lines on chairs 3, 5 and 23 much of the time. Yet there were minimal bumps anywhere, somewhat of a mystery. Garry said it had rained to about 9,000 feet Thursday, and you could tell that off-piste terrain lower than that (~20% of the mountain) was crunchy. But most lower areas at Mammoth are well groomed.
Weather was very windy Saturday, and the upper lifts were closed for a couple of hours midday. Then it cleared out and Saturday afternoon was windbuff/windsift cruising off the top at its finest. I was able to ski Wipe Out nonstop down to chair 23, which I had not done for several years, though last weekend's skiing at Jackson Hole might have provided an assist to that. The windsift was nearly everywhere on the upper mountain Saturday and also in the sheltered areas of chair 22.
Sunday was clear, with the only wind at the very top. This time it was upslope wind, so most of the loose snow was blown off exposed areas. The windbuff was still smooth, but more caution was required to control speed and/or chattering. By Sunday afternoon we had nosed around enough to find that loose snow still remained in the area around Scotty's and Paranoid.
Despite some crowds and stops to watch Adam's college ski races (slalom Saturday 10AM and GS Sunday 1PM) I managed 30,600 Saturday and 25,600 Sunday before returning to Garry's condo to watch the Super Bowl.
Mammoth has had no new snow in February, so the wind has done its thing and there was smooth windbuff over most of the above treeline terrain. On Saturday there was considerable blown-in wind sift that makes it possible to cruise with less effort and more speed than usual on the upper mountain steeps.
I find this condition fairly often in December, but it's somewhat less common mid-season when there tends to be more skier traffic and thus more moguls. This was actually a very busy Mammoth weekend by recent standards, with 5-minute lines on chairs 3, 5 and 23 much of the time. Yet there were minimal bumps anywhere, somewhat of a mystery. Garry said it had rained to about 9,000 feet Thursday, and you could tell that off-piste terrain lower than that (~20% of the mountain) was crunchy. But most lower areas at Mammoth are well groomed.
Weather was very windy Saturday, and the upper lifts were closed for a couple of hours midday. Then it cleared out and Saturday afternoon was windbuff/windsift cruising off the top at its finest. I was able to ski Wipe Out nonstop down to chair 23, which I had not done for several years, though last weekend's skiing at Jackson Hole might have provided an assist to that. The windsift was nearly everywhere on the upper mountain Saturday and also in the sheltered areas of chair 22.
Sunday was clear, with the only wind at the very top. This time it was upslope wind, so most of the loose snow was blown off exposed areas. The windbuff was still smooth, but more caution was required to control speed and/or chattering. By Sunday afternoon we had nosed around enough to find that loose snow still remained in the area around Scotty's and Paranoid.
Despite some crowds and stops to watch Adam's college ski races (slalom Saturday 10AM and GS Sunday 1PM) I managed 30,600 Saturday and 25,600 Sunday before returning to Garry's condo to watch the Super Bowl.