Garry Klassen finally retired this week and celebrated by heading up to Mammoth last Wednesday. Richard and I drove up for the weekend. Garry must be taking lessons from admin, as he complained of hard snow Thursday and particularly Friday. I was pretty sure from Snowman's report viewtopic.php?f=3&t=7468 that it would be the typical midwinter windbuff that characterizes Mammoth when it hasn't snowed for awhile.
In this case it has snowed just 4 inches since Dec. 26, and obviously there's been lots of skier traffic during that time. This weekend was very quiet, falling between 2 holiday weekends, so no surprise I ran up the vertical (34,000 Saturday and 27,400 Sunday) given that weather was nice, I wasn't beat up from Baldy like my December trip and I had few complaints about conditions. There was extensive grooming for the weekend (including Scotty's which is done only on occasion), more than Thursday/Friday according to Garry. The off-piste chalk/windbuff was fairly smooth with few irregularities. Garry's point is that there is usually some loose windsift on top of it, but since Friday the wind has been upslope from the east and blown much of it off the upper steeps. This is the same weather producing our warm Santa Anas here in L.A. Temps at Mammoth were probably mid-30's midday, and the wind was confined to the top.
Richard I started just before 9AM Saturday and hit the groomers on 1,2 and 3, then Cornice where we really got blasted by the upslope wind dropping in. We met Garry at 10, then he and I headed over Dave's to 9. Dave's was a windy traverse and drop in, but smooth snow and some sift on the lower part. The chair 9 & 25 area has had a tough time this season. The groomers were good, though even they had a few avoidable thin spots. The Ricochet/Dragon's Back area must have been wind-stripped in storms, plus we know some of it slid in December. We skied a nice line of chalky moguls near the top of chair 9, but lower down it had melted and refroze in the sunny exposure.
I'm about halfway down 9 here, and you can see that the steeper parts in left background are far short of the 174 inches of snow that have fallen near the Main Lodge.
After a couple more cruisers Garry and I went for some challenge on chair 22. The skiable lines on the forested east side of Lincoln Mt. were confined but the snow was softer.
Here's Garry in Shaft.
Next we picked our way into Avalanche 2.
Garry's first turn with Minarets in background.
Garry and another skier farther down in Avy2. Next we skied Viva and I rolled into lunch at Canyon Lodge having skied nearly 20K by 12:30. After lunch we skied chair 5, which had smooth but forgiving chalk from Sanctuary to Dry Creek, then headed up top again, where the wind had died down some vs. the morning..
I took a couple of pics out the gondola window over the long span between chair 3 and the top.
View toward Cornice and chair 23.
joegm would have enjoyed Climax here. On Sunday I traversed left out of this picture to ski a smoother line down into Dry Creek.
I skied some very tight windbuff in Wipe Out 1, having to traverse in from Wipe Out 2 because the top had an irregular crown from avalanche blasting in December. Then some softer snow in the same Drop Out 3 fall line that was good in December. Next we went off the backside to 14. That area below upper Roadrunner is still bare, and above treeline the snow on 14 is hardpacked, though lower down it's softer and more filled in than 3 weeks ago. We finished Saturday on Scotty's, then chair 1, skiing a couple of the race course runs with Gravy Chute added to spice it up a bit.
Sunday Garry Klassen went home and Richard and I started out similarly to Saturday. At 10AM we went to the mid-station sign to see if any Mammoth Forum people were around. There were 2, Bill (skiff on Mammoth Forum) from Orange County and his friend Gary who figured out how to relocate his business to Mammoth 3 years ago. We skied a couple of cruisers, but these guys were fast so Richard bailed when we went to chair 23. I skied the same Drop Out 3 line as Saturday, then a wind-blasted entry to Scotty's, which was actually pretty good from about 1/3 of the way down. Then a couple runs on 12.
Wipe Out side of chair 23 viewed from chair 12.
Then back up the gondola to Climax, which I thought I skied pretty well but noticed 67-year old Bill ahead of me on the way to the face of 5. Bill and Gary liked the same sector of 5 that I had on Saturday. There's a small clump of trees they referred to as "Triangle" with numerous short but steep lines dropping below along skier's right of Dry Creek.
View from Triangle into Dry Creek. Amazing that I'm still learning names of runs I've been skiing for 30 years.
Overview of Chair 5 terrain. After several runs here, we went to 25 then down to Canyon, where I bailed for a quick snack about 1:15. Afterwards I skied a very cautious run down the firm windpack of Avalanche 1 and then met Richard at 2:30 to head home after an energetic weekend.
In this case it has snowed just 4 inches since Dec. 26, and obviously there's been lots of skier traffic during that time. This weekend was very quiet, falling between 2 holiday weekends, so no surprise I ran up the vertical (34,000 Saturday and 27,400 Sunday) given that weather was nice, I wasn't beat up from Baldy like my December trip and I had few complaints about conditions. There was extensive grooming for the weekend (including Scotty's which is done only on occasion), more than Thursday/Friday according to Garry. The off-piste chalk/windbuff was fairly smooth with few irregularities. Garry's point is that there is usually some loose windsift on top of it, but since Friday the wind has been upslope from the east and blown much of it off the upper steeps. This is the same weather producing our warm Santa Anas here in L.A. Temps at Mammoth were probably mid-30's midday, and the wind was confined to the top.
Richard I started just before 9AM Saturday and hit the groomers on 1,2 and 3, then Cornice where we really got blasted by the upslope wind dropping in. We met Garry at 10, then he and I headed over Dave's to 9. Dave's was a windy traverse and drop in, but smooth snow and some sift on the lower part. The chair 9 & 25 area has had a tough time this season. The groomers were good, though even they had a few avoidable thin spots. The Ricochet/Dragon's Back area must have been wind-stripped in storms, plus we know some of it slid in December. We skied a nice line of chalky moguls near the top of chair 9, but lower down it had melted and refroze in the sunny exposure.
I'm about halfway down 9 here, and you can see that the steeper parts in left background are far short of the 174 inches of snow that have fallen near the Main Lodge.
After a couple more cruisers Garry and I went for some challenge on chair 22. The skiable lines on the forested east side of Lincoln Mt. were confined but the snow was softer.
Here's Garry in Shaft.
Next we picked our way into Avalanche 2.
Garry's first turn with Minarets in background.
Garry and another skier farther down in Avy2. Next we skied Viva and I rolled into lunch at Canyon Lodge having skied nearly 20K by 12:30. After lunch we skied chair 5, which had smooth but forgiving chalk from Sanctuary to Dry Creek, then headed up top again, where the wind had died down some vs. the morning..
I took a couple of pics out the gondola window over the long span between chair 3 and the top.
View toward Cornice and chair 23.
joegm would have enjoyed Climax here. On Sunday I traversed left out of this picture to ski a smoother line down into Dry Creek.
I skied some very tight windbuff in Wipe Out 1, having to traverse in from Wipe Out 2 because the top had an irregular crown from avalanche blasting in December. Then some softer snow in the same Drop Out 3 fall line that was good in December. Next we went off the backside to 14. That area below upper Roadrunner is still bare, and above treeline the snow on 14 is hardpacked, though lower down it's softer and more filled in than 3 weeks ago. We finished Saturday on Scotty's, then chair 1, skiing a couple of the race course runs with Gravy Chute added to spice it up a bit.
Sunday Garry Klassen went home and Richard and I started out similarly to Saturday. At 10AM we went to the mid-station sign to see if any Mammoth Forum people were around. There were 2, Bill (skiff on Mammoth Forum) from Orange County and his friend Gary who figured out how to relocate his business to Mammoth 3 years ago. We skied a couple of cruisers, but these guys were fast so Richard bailed when we went to chair 23. I skied the same Drop Out 3 line as Saturday, then a wind-blasted entry to Scotty's, which was actually pretty good from about 1/3 of the way down. Then a couple runs on 12.
Wipe Out side of chair 23 viewed from chair 12.
Then back up the gondola to Climax, which I thought I skied pretty well but noticed 67-year old Bill ahead of me on the way to the face of 5. Bill and Gary liked the same sector of 5 that I had on Saturday. There's a small clump of trees they referred to as "Triangle" with numerous short but steep lines dropping below along skier's right of Dry Creek.
View from Triangle into Dry Creek. Amazing that I'm still learning names of runs I've been skiing for 30 years.
Overview of Chair 5 terrain. After several runs here, we went to 25 then down to Canyon, where I bailed for a quick snack about 1:15. Afterwards I skied a very cautious run down the firm windpack of Avalanche 1 and then met Richard at 2:30 to head home after an energetic weekend.
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