Mammoth had been subject the same heat wave mentioned in Utah and Colorado reports. No overnight freezing, and some off-trail areas that I would expect to see smooth corn are already in the suncup stage. Furthermore there had been thundershowers in late afternoon Friday. With a storm expected Sunday my expectations were fairly low, as dropping temperatures and Mammoth's high winds could result in quite unpleasant surfaces.
Saturday was a pleasant surprise. Temps dropped about 10 degress (highs in the 50's) vs. the past week, the top of the mountain firmed up a bit overnight, and the light breeze was enough to slow down the process of making the snow mushy. The 11-13 foot base still has a well refrigerated core, so the instabilities and abrupt collapses reported elsewhere aren't happening at Mammoth yet.
So after several salted cruisers on chairs 1,2 and 3 I headed up top about 10:30, starting with Dave's Run, which had a bit of blown-in snow at the top, and then coming down to a few runs on chair 5. In general the off-trail skiing was best where it had been skier-packed and particularly in the steep areas up top. Between noon and 2:30 closing of the top I skied Climax, Hangman's, MJB, Drop Out 2, Wipe Out 1&2 and the Hump. Paranoid's snow did not look that great, and it now takes some grunt work to get over there.
I skied 27,000 Saturday and was pretty beat, as the snow required some more effort than the best spring days, and the weather forecast for Sunday was not promising. The exception to the above was the area between Saddle Bowl and Chair 23 which had been cordoned off for race training in the morning. I hit the rope drop for the public at noon and it had the "Magic Carpet Ride" effortless corn that is the highlight of spring skiing. I arranged to pass through this area a couple more times on the way to 23.
Sunday was about the emptiest I've seen Mammoth on a weekend, which is not surprising as it was raining steadily at Main Lodge and Chair 2 at 9AM. I would probably not have shelled out $56 for a lift ticket but since I have a Value Pass why not go up and take a look? The rain turned to snow partway up Chair 2, and the snow level lowered to the base of 2 about an hour later. Nonetheless I got soaked and had to take a few breaks to add layers and even bought an end-of-season-sale new pair of gloves when mine were saturated by 11:30.
The new snow was obviously very dense (peanut butter would probably be a better description near Main Lodge and Chair 2), but that was probably desirable in terms of covering up the subsurface. The key was to find something of intermediate pitch, not too steep and previously groomed to have a smooth subsurface. Despite its sketchy visibility the area of yesterday's hero corn was probably best. I did venture once down the face of chair 5 and it was a bouncy ride, so I was very fortunate that there were very few people over there churning up the few inches of new Sierra Cement.
During the morning there was not much wind but it started to pick up after noon. By 1PM I was both soggy and starting to chill, so I bailed after a modest 11,700. The storm arrived earlier and more intense than predicted, so there might be some decent powder the next couple of days.
Saturday was a pleasant surprise. Temps dropped about 10 degress (highs in the 50's) vs. the past week, the top of the mountain firmed up a bit overnight, and the light breeze was enough to slow down the process of making the snow mushy. The 11-13 foot base still has a well refrigerated core, so the instabilities and abrupt collapses reported elsewhere aren't happening at Mammoth yet.
So after several salted cruisers on chairs 1,2 and 3 I headed up top about 10:30, starting with Dave's Run, which had a bit of blown-in snow at the top, and then coming down to a few runs on chair 5. In general the off-trail skiing was best where it had been skier-packed and particularly in the steep areas up top. Between noon and 2:30 closing of the top I skied Climax, Hangman's, MJB, Drop Out 2, Wipe Out 1&2 and the Hump. Paranoid's snow did not look that great, and it now takes some grunt work to get over there.
I skied 27,000 Saturday and was pretty beat, as the snow required some more effort than the best spring days, and the weather forecast for Sunday was not promising. The exception to the above was the area between Saddle Bowl and Chair 23 which had been cordoned off for race training in the morning. I hit the rope drop for the public at noon and it had the "Magic Carpet Ride" effortless corn that is the highlight of spring skiing. I arranged to pass through this area a couple more times on the way to 23.
Sunday was about the emptiest I've seen Mammoth on a weekend, which is not surprising as it was raining steadily at Main Lodge and Chair 2 at 9AM. I would probably not have shelled out $56 for a lift ticket but since I have a Value Pass why not go up and take a look? The rain turned to snow partway up Chair 2, and the snow level lowered to the base of 2 about an hour later. Nonetheless I got soaked and had to take a few breaks to add layers and even bought an end-of-season-sale new pair of gloves when mine were saturated by 11:30.
The new snow was obviously very dense (peanut butter would probably be a better description near Main Lodge and Chair 2), but that was probably desirable in terms of covering up the subsurface. The key was to find something of intermediate pitch, not too steep and previously groomed to have a smooth subsurface. Despite its sketchy visibility the area of yesterday's hero corn was probably best. I did venture once down the face of chair 5 and it was a bouncy ride, so I was very fortunate that there were very few people over there churning up the few inches of new Sierra Cement.
During the morning there was not much wind but it started to pick up after noon. By 1PM I was both soggy and starting to chill, so I bailed after a modest 11,700. The storm arrived earlier and more intense than predicted, so there might be some decent powder the next couple of days.
