Winter is still going strong at Mammoth. Saturday was mostly clear but windy all over the mountain. There must have been a warm day last week, as the Canyon/Eagle side of the mountain was hardpack all morning with even some frozen granular is exposed spots. But the 2/3 of terrain that faces north was all packed powder and windbuff/wind sift. Only chair 14 was closed, as that was the direction from which the strong wind was blowing, along with a few afternoon clouds.
What's noteworthy is the immense coverage, definitely more than last year and possibly rivaling 1983 and 1995. I'll let the pics tell that story. So I went out of my way Saturday to ski some of the places that are sketchy or not open most years: Huevos Grande, Rockgarden, Varmint's Nest, Paranoid 4 and a couple of variations in the chair 22 Avalanche Chutes. We got a late start as it was Andrew's first day this season and he needed some boot work at Footloose, but still managed 24,600.
That night John Nash and family arrived in town from Virginia via Las Vegas and Death Valley. So Sunday we all went out for a tour. Sunday had "normal" Mammoth wind, mainly in exposed areas, but was mostly overcast and then started snowing about 3PM. So I knew to avoid Canyon/Eagle and we warmed up on the winter snow of chairs 1, 2 and 3.
After lunch Andrew stayed with Sarah and Scott on the lower mountain while I gave John a sample of the top. First we headed for the normally groomed Cornice. It has snowed so much the last month that it has not been groomed and the lip formed which was characteristic of the run before 1982. I told John he was experiencing what was the rite of passage of my generation of SoCal skiers in the 1970's, and he had exactly the same result as I did in 1978, losing his balance on the drop in and rolling 50 feet down the hill. He skied the rest of the run OK so we went back up the gondola and out to Dave's Run, which I have always viewed as the ideal spot to learn steep skiing. On its far side there is a diagonal cornice, and it's progressively steeper the earlier you choose to drop in. John liked that and also chair 5 where we next skied. Then he got his real thrill, riding chair 23 and skiing down to Scotty's in the wind blast. We then joined Andrew, Sarah and Scott for a few runs until the storm hit. During some breaks I managed to get a couple of runs on chair 22 plus one on Hangman's and finished with 25,000.
Monday the top was never open due to fog and intermittent snow. There was reported 2 inches new, which varied from dust on crust to some actual powder in a few places. The new snow did resurface the Canyon/Eagle groomers, which pleased the Nash family who normally have to deal with mid-Atlantic manmade. I skied 2 Braille runs on chair 5, trying to link tree outcroppings. Chair 22 had the only steep terrain open, so I did 4 runs there, with Avalanche 2 having the best snow. Total 19,500.
These were days 27-29 for me, and season vertical is now 580K. These won't come close to last year's totals, but the 177K of powder this year is a record, and less than half of that was the week at Mike Wiegele.
What's noteworthy is the immense coverage, definitely more than last year and possibly rivaling 1983 and 1995. I'll let the pics tell that story. So I went out of my way Saturday to ski some of the places that are sketchy or not open most years: Huevos Grande, Rockgarden, Varmint's Nest, Paranoid 4 and a couple of variations in the chair 22 Avalanche Chutes. We got a late start as it was Andrew's first day this season and he needed some boot work at Footloose, but still managed 24,600.
That night John Nash and family arrived in town from Virginia via Las Vegas and Death Valley. So Sunday we all went out for a tour. Sunday had "normal" Mammoth wind, mainly in exposed areas, but was mostly overcast and then started snowing about 3PM. So I knew to avoid Canyon/Eagle and we warmed up on the winter snow of chairs 1, 2 and 3.
After lunch Andrew stayed with Sarah and Scott on the lower mountain while I gave John a sample of the top. First we headed for the normally groomed Cornice. It has snowed so much the last month that it has not been groomed and the lip formed which was characteristic of the run before 1982. I told John he was experiencing what was the rite of passage of my generation of SoCal skiers in the 1970's, and he had exactly the same result as I did in 1978, losing his balance on the drop in and rolling 50 feet down the hill. He skied the rest of the run OK so we went back up the gondola and out to Dave's Run, which I have always viewed as the ideal spot to learn steep skiing. On its far side there is a diagonal cornice, and it's progressively steeper the earlier you choose to drop in. John liked that and also chair 5 where we next skied. Then he got his real thrill, riding chair 23 and skiing down to Scotty's in the wind blast. We then joined Andrew, Sarah and Scott for a few runs until the storm hit. During some breaks I managed to get a couple of runs on chair 22 plus one on Hangman's and finished with 25,000.
Monday the top was never open due to fog and intermittent snow. There was reported 2 inches new, which varied from dust on crust to some actual powder in a few places. The new snow did resurface the Canyon/Eagle groomers, which pleased the Nash family who normally have to deal with mid-Atlantic manmade. I skied 2 Braille runs on chair 5, trying to link tree outcroppings. Chair 22 had the only steep terrain open, so I did 4 runs there, with Avalanche 2 having the best snow. Total 19,500.
These were days 27-29 for me, and season vertical is now 580K. These won't come close to last year's totals, but the 177K of powder this year is a record, and less than half of that was the week at Mike Wiegele.
