I found conditions to be slightly better than a year ago viewtopic.php?t=1106
. The major difference was that the runs up top were more wide open with smooth or skier packed snow, while last year there was more suncupping so pleasantly skiable lines were more confined.
Saturday was an energetic day, on the hill with Patrick just after 8AM and nonstop skiing until after the 1PM close. We started with 2 warmups from Cornice down to Main Lodge and joined several members of the Mammoth Forum. These include some retirees and second home owners who are up there much more than I am. We headed for Chair 23, which had excellent mid-morning conditions, skiing Wipe Out, Drop Out, and then a walk across the steep scree between Wipe Out 1&2, followed by a traverse over to Monument. Coming off the top runs St. Anton was groomed and salted for good cruising, though the strip at the bottom to get back to Chair 1 got sticky in late morning.
Midday we got one more run on 23 (Drop Out 3) but hit the gondola more for Climax and Hangman's, the latter documented under Patrick's post. As the 1PM closing approached Patrick walked to Gravy Chute while I got 3 runs on Chair 3 and finished on Fascination for 23,100 vertical, a record for July (more than any of the 4 days in Oz or NZ in 1997).
As I expected conditions deteriorated each day with no overnight freezing, temps in the 60's and skier traffic. Most obvious on Sunday was the narrowing of lower runs, but the snow also became sticky about an hour earlier than Saturday. I still skied 8 runs on top (taking a pass on Hangman's where more rocks were emerging in the throat) but we quit by noon for a busy afternoon. We visited the Mammoth Ski Museum, took the shuttle to Devil's Postpile, and after dinner went to a movie with my son Andrew. Andrew is a casual intermediate and didn't like the lower mountain conditions a year ago, so he didn't ski on this trip.
. The major difference was that the runs up top were more wide open with smooth or skier packed snow, while last year there was more suncupping so pleasantly skiable lines were more confined.
Saturday was an energetic day, on the hill with Patrick just after 8AM and nonstop skiing until after the 1PM close. We started with 2 warmups from Cornice down to Main Lodge and joined several members of the Mammoth Forum. These include some retirees and second home owners who are up there much more than I am. We headed for Chair 23, which had excellent mid-morning conditions, skiing Wipe Out, Drop Out, and then a walk across the steep scree between Wipe Out 1&2, followed by a traverse over to Monument. Coming off the top runs St. Anton was groomed and salted for good cruising, though the strip at the bottom to get back to Chair 1 got sticky in late morning.
Midday we got one more run on 23 (Drop Out 3) but hit the gondola more for Climax and Hangman's, the latter documented under Patrick's post. As the 1PM closing approached Patrick walked to Gravy Chute while I got 3 runs on Chair 3 and finished on Fascination for 23,100 vertical, a record for July (more than any of the 4 days in Oz or NZ in 1997).
As I expected conditions deteriorated each day with no overnight freezing, temps in the 60's and skier traffic. Most obvious on Sunday was the narrowing of lower runs, but the snow also became sticky about an hour earlier than Saturday. I still skied 8 runs on top (taking a pass on Hangman's where more rocks were emerging in the throat) but we quit by noon for a busy afternoon. We visited the Mammoth Ski Museum, took the shuttle to Devil's Postpile, and after dinner went to a movie with my son Andrew. Andrew is a casual intermediate and didn't like the lower mountain conditions a year ago, so he didn't ski on this trip.