Mammoth, April 10-12, 2009

I make a point of getting to Mammoth regularly at this time of year, and the past 3 days have amply demonstrated why.

Friday April 10:
We had snow coming into town Thursday night, and 10 inches new was reported Friday morning. It had also snowed 6 inches Monday and the top had been closed a couple of the days in between. There was fog on the upper mountain (though no wind) so we knew it would be awhile before control work could be done. So Adam and I headed up Gold Rush and caught the opening of Chair 5.



A tasty sight as we rode that first chair, worth 4 laps.


But with the top closed Chair 5's powder was thoroughly pillaged by 10AM. We moved on to a couple of runs on Chair 22.


Here's Adam catching a little air in the crux of Shaft. At 11AM the cloud was lifting and we could see patrol ski cutting the upper runs. So we headed over to gondola mid-station and grabbed some pizza while waiting for the top to open. It opened at 12:40 and perversely the cloud started lowering again. Fortunately the upper mountain snow, while dense, had not been wind-packed as happens often. Thus it skied very consistently and my first 2 runs on Climax were fine despite marginal visibility. 3rd run I dropped in MJB with fog getting worse and had to use the skiers on my left in Cornice as reference. I moved to chair 23 and hit Wipe Out, not the best choice it had somewhat shallower snow on a steeper pitch. So I moved on to Paranoid, which had the deeper snow I was looking for as well as better visibility being somewhat lower.


Skiers above me in Paranoid 1


Looking across to Paranoid 2 & 3.

I ran another lap out here, but the cloud came lower and the upper gondola and Chair 23 closed at 2PM while I was riding chair 1 up hoping for more. I moved over to Chairs 12 and 13 for some short tree stashes, but some of them had been worked over in the morning while the top was closed.


View of Philippe's while riding Chair 12.

When the top had opened Adam took off at his considerably faster pace. After a similar first 5 runs up top he crossed the mountain to hit Chair 9 and the long traverse out to Dragon's Tail. You Altaphiles would be proud, as it's a very long traverse for about 500 verts of steep but untracked trees.

I finished the day with 25,700, 13K of powder. Adam skied 30K. This day was quite similar to the same weekend 4 years ago with a foot of fresh. I skied 30K that day, as it was sunny and the top opened fairly quickly. But the snow was a bit heavier and became more so as the day wore on. So qualitatively today was somewhat better as the cloudy weather with no wind preserved the powder all day, with even a few nice leftovers for the next morning.

Saturday April 11:
Sunny, but only a day after the storm it only got into the mid-30's and fortunately again no wind. So there was still some powder early on, and the 60% or so of Mammoth that faces north retained a dry winter snow surface all day.

Adam and I didn't get on the hill until almost 9AM, so we went straight to Chair 23.


Lots of skiers in Wipe Out, but I knew to head for Paranoid for the powder.


Adam dropping in.


Besides getting a lot of blown in snow, Paranoid is probably Mammoth's longest fall line for a powder day.


Zoomed view of Adam and his trail of pow. No surprise this was the last I saw of him until lunch. He went back for refills on Dragon's Tail.

I ran another lap out here and then went up the gondola and skied Hangman's. Soft and forgiving above, with some powder turns skier's right below the throat.


View of Hangman's from below. Well filled in but not as wide as in 2005 or 2006. And to looker's right Varmint's Nest is not skiable as it was in those 2 big years. 1980 and 1986 were comparable to this year in coverage up top. Mammoth did go until July 4th both of those, but with possible economic issues it may be a close call this year.


View down Balls to the Wall, which I've only skied once on the huge powder day 10 years ago. I took a pass this time and was rewarded by finding some more powder below Huevos Grande. Next lap up top I skied Dave's, then groomers all the way to Eagle, then over to Canyon to meet Adam for lunch. Also there was Janne, a new member of the UCSD ski team. After lunch we skied the Avalanche Chutes.


Janne spraying plenty of soft snow in Avalanche 2.


Now Janne is just below me. If you note his right arm, he's "throwing a beer can," portending the next pic.


Janne tripped up and crashed into that small tree. It was just a bruise, but it was sore enough that he called it a day.


View of the upper mountain cliffs from the top of Chair 5. Left to right:
Heuvos Grande is the first notch at left. Adam launched that later that afternoon. I had skied in the highest visible traverse line in the morning
Balls to the Wall is the wide patch of snow midway up the diagonal, ending in a cliff halfway down, or a constricted exit looker's right (Chicken Balls, the line I skied in 1999)
Top of the World is, aptly, the very top. There are names I don't know for the different lines up there, all of which have mandatory air.

Adam and I parted company again. I did one more run on 23, Drop Out 2, then headed over to 14. I skied far skier's left and found mostly mashed potatoes in the afternoon sun.


But check out the size of this jump they built for some pro snowboarders!

I finished the day with the Dos Passos adventure described in ski-the-face's post and a couple of runs on Chair 1. 27,400 with 4K of powder. Adam did another 30K.

Sunday April 12:
Today as predicted it warmed up considerably, to maybe 50F or so. By midday only about 30% of the mountain was still winter snow, and some flat spots near the bottom got sticky later on. I was pretty beat, so did more cruisers today. There was also some upslope wind that stiffened any powder that might have remained up top.


Adam taking a break, showing easy July coverage at the top.


Adam dropping into Hangman's.

Next time up we took Dave's over to Chair 9. We went partway out the traverse. Ricochet was a mix of windpack with some irregularities. Not bad, but with a greatly decreased crowd for yesterday and the warm weather I was ready for some corn cruising on Chair 25.


Groomed, frozen overnight, south-facing, 50 degrees by 11AM and note the skier traffic = corn perfection for 3 runs of 1,350 vertical. We also did an ungroomed run in this area. Adam blasted right through that on his Gotamas, but I was bouncing around quite a bit since the snow hadn't smoothed out yet only 2 days after the last storm.

After lunch Adam met some more UCSD people while I took it fairly easy on Chairs 4 and 5 before one last run up top.


Here's the view down Philippe's, definitely DFU territory. I've been in there a few times, but not when I was as tired as the end of these 3 days. So I took the safer line down Paranoid 3, as I did not want April 12 to end the way it did for me a year ago. On the way home we heard it may have ended that way for Molly up at Heavenly today. She may have blown the other ACL: she heard the ominous pop and will be having an MRI tomorrow.

24,200 today, 77K for the 3 days. Mammoth is in its prime; spring is just beginning. Or maybe not, snow is predicted for Tuesday!

the first couple of pictures are reminesent of conditions we encountered all day. soft predicitable consistent snow.

Looks like you had a great time Tony. Great pictures. We might be getting a "dump" here in the Wasatch starting Tuesday evening. We all have our fingers crossed! [-o<

Too bad it's such a PITA to get to Mammoth from the East Coast... I'd like to check it out. But in the time it takes to fly/drive there, I could be in the Alps.

jamesdeluxe":3noa3k86 said:

Too bad it's such a PITA to get to Mammoth from the East Coast... I'd like to check it out. But in the time it takes to fly/drive there, I could be in the Alps.

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No kidding. There are a bunch of resorts I would like to visit, but either obligatory drive (4+ hours after a flight) or a connecting flight has kept me from visiting. The connecting flight shouldn't be that big of a deal, but that tends to increase the cost and time. Often in the winter my schedule is as such that I need to pick a resort that I can get to and back from with ease. As a result I've yet to visit big sky, fernie, taos, and mammoth. Even reno can be a pain to get to. I think this last year was the first year in which the airlines offered direct flights from NYC. However, from what I've heard Tahoe is nice, but not as good a ski experience in terms of a destination that Utah or Colorado is.

In mid june my schedule frees up, and I can take off anytime I want. However, it just doesn't seem worth going to Mammoth by then.

In mid June my schedule frees up, and I can take off anytime I want. However, it just doesn't seem worth going to Mammoth by then.

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Patrick would disagree. At any rate, if you view it as a "mixed vacation," fly in via Reno or Vegas (maybe more direct flights and/or cheaper) and spend some time in Yosemite or other nearby attractions along with the skiing, you won't be disappointed. I could even risk admin's and mention that Mammoth has 2 golf courses. If concentrating on skiing, I'd recommend coming by Memorial Day.

FYI I rode a chair with someone involved in Mammoth's marketing. Evidently the new air service has been successful despite the economy and will expand from one flight per day to 3 next season. The reason the current flight departs mid-afternoon back to LA is to connect to redeyes headed back East. Next year will add a later flight allowing a full ski day, plus a new flight from San Jose. I asked about the oft-discussed flight to Las Vegas for better eastern connections, and she said that Mammoth really wants that, but they have to negotiate with Horizon and have so far agreed just upon LA and San Jose.

Considering that I would want to bring my boots and skis, and that nowadays cost money to bring along, I would want the vaction to be more ski specific. And since as I said before my schedule doesn't free up till mid june, memorial day doesn't cut it.

I asked about the oft-discussed flight to Las Vegas for better eastern connections, and she said that Mammoth really wants that, but they have to negotiate with Horizon and have so far agreed just upon LA and San Jose.

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When flying with my gear for a short vacation, i.e. five or less days, as most of my ski vacations have to be, a connection is just not an option. Besides, flying out to california from NYC is pretty far compared to hitting the Rockies.

rfarren":2jk313kj said:

When flying with my gear for a short vacation, i.e. five or less days, as most of my ski vacations have to be, a connection is just not an option.

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For just about anyone who lives anywhere other than NYC, it's pretty much the only option.

Admin":37l5herp said:

For just about anyone who lives anywhere other than NYC, it's pretty much the only option.

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All places have their advantages and disadvantages.

Mixed vacations I sometimes only take boots, not skis. The airline charges are going to make more people consider that option. Post Memorial Day, most of my Mammoth trips I only ski one day, then head to Yosemite or river rafting, etc. Just to reiterate, there's plenty to do in addition to skiing at that time of year. I know admin would make the same point about Utah given his active summer schedule.

Great photos, Tony. I particularly like the one of Adam dropping into Hangman's.