We waited for the tail end of the Pineapple Express storm before heading to Mammoth. As per my New Year's 2006 experience we knew it was pointless to be up there during the midst of the storm when hardly anything would be open. The top had not been open for a week and the middle layer of lifts, 3, 5 and 22 had been closed for several of the storm days.
We arrived Tuesday night during a break, but there were ~6 inches new on Adam's car when we got up Wednesday morning and it was still snowing. We drove up to Canyon Lodge and got on the hill about 9:30AM. We skied a couple of runs on 22, which had been open the day before and was somewhat tracked with our not-so-early start. We met Ben Solish there who already had a few runs in. Snow was the expected Sierra Cement, skied well enough when untracked but bounced you around a lot when chopped. We did catch chair 5 within 10 minutes of opening after a few days of closure and I got 2 consistent untracked runs on Face of 5, then Triangle to Dry Creek.
While it was snowing, weather was quite benign by Mammoth standards with little wind. But the top was shrouded in fog and any sector exposed to potential avalanche from above (backside of chair 3, road to upper Dry Creek from 5, etc.) was roped off. We moved over to chair 3, which had a bumpier subsurface and poorer visibility, then stopped for lunch. After lunch we skied recently opened chair 12, getting there via the beginner chair 11 because the direct route via St. Anton was closed for avy exposure. The upper pitches of chair 12 had the deepest powder of this trip but they are short, no more than 500 vertical with runouts back to the lift. After 4 runs we quit early to save energy for the expected clear day Thursday. 17,700 vertical, ~10K of powder.
The storm did stop in mid-afternoon and there was partial clearing by sunset. Snow both in town and on the hill is impressively deep. I've seen it like that mid-season several times but never this early. Here's Adam by a pile of cleared snow in Von's parking lot.
Thursday morning was clear and we heard the avalanche bombing staring about 7AM. We got to chair 2 by 8:30. After a warmup Adam decide to wait at mid-station for the gondola opening even though it was going to be well over an hour. My back was sore from the day before when I got up, I had done some stretching and felt better but thought it would not be smart to stand around in ski boots for a long time. So I skied some groomers and used the lower gondola, figuring I would eventually ride it to the top when it opened. I stopped to take several pictures of the upper runs with only ski patrol cut tracks. First Hangman's, impressively wide for December.
Then the Drop Outs, which turned out to have the most powder of the upper runs.
Here's the view from Wipe Out through Scotty's, which was partially wind-packed. The moderately pitched aprons below the chair 23 runs were very slabby and tough skiing.
Finally the view from Monument to the Paranoids. Monument has a big fracture line with some rocks exposed below.
The upper gondola opened at 11AM and I got though mid-station on my 4th try from the bottom. Here's Climax out the gondola window.
Adam got there about 10 minutes ahead of me and put down one of the tracks in the right side of the picture in the deepest snow. I went looker's left, which had more wind effect but still skied fine in the steeps. Once the pitch mellowed out the slabby snow became trickier and I was very grateful for rockered powder skis.
The building enclosing the top of chair 23 had been buried in snow over the past week from the Cornice side, so it had to be excavated and chair 23 did not open until 1:45PM. Therefore the morning gondola lines once the top opened were about 20 minutes. Adam and I both decided to take our next gondola runs over to Dave's and then to now open chair 9. I was ~20 minutes behind Adam, and he caught me on the bumpy Ricochet traverse on his second chair 9 run when I was just arriving there. Even beyond Ricochet into the meadow and trees below Dragon's Back the snow was quite thick, so one run out there was enough for me. I stayed for one more on chair 9 in mellower terrain near the lift.
Here's close-up view of why skiing some of this snow was a lot of work.
The snow was actually about what we should have expected after a Pineapple Express storm, and was far better than at New Year's 2006. But our expectations had been raised by the lack of wind and some good powder during the previous day. So the wind must have cranked up overnight to pack much of the upper mountain. There was only slightly more wind during the day Thursday than Wednesday.
I need a quick lunch break after chair 9, and by 1PM the gondola lines had abated. My first run after lunch was Hangman's, about an hour after Adam and friends had been there. The snow wasn't powder anymore but it was soft packed with a consistent fall line, much less intimidating than usual. So also much more popular.
Next time up I went skier's left on Climax and then to chair 23, which had finally opened. I slogged over to Paranoid. Here's the view where I skied down Paranoid 2.
The entire steep face was consistent soft windbuff, actually a welcome respite from heavy or variable powder. Lower down it turned to powder, heavy but not as much slab as below chair 23.
I also took this picture of 2 snowboarders dropping a more sporting line into Paranoid 4.
While riding back up I checked in with Adam who had called it a day before 3PM as he had skipped lunch. On his recommendation I hit a fall line along Drop Out 3, which had not so much skier traffic due to a large avalanche control bomb hole about half way down. This area surprisingly was still yielding powder turns after 3PM even on steeps above the bomb area.
I was sufficiently impressed to repeat the same line for my final run. Total for the day was 21,600, ~7K of varied powder, some of which would not have made the cut by Utard definition.
Adam's shared season ski rental house also had its challenges from the storm. When we arrived the electricity had been out for over a day due to an overburdened tree downing a power line. Fortunately power was restored during the night Tuesday. Here's the picture of the house with a narrow notch snow step entry cut to reach the front door. The back deck is completely buried in 4-5 feet of snow.
We arrived Tuesday night during a break, but there were ~6 inches new on Adam's car when we got up Wednesday morning and it was still snowing. We drove up to Canyon Lodge and got on the hill about 9:30AM. We skied a couple of runs on 22, which had been open the day before and was somewhat tracked with our not-so-early start. We met Ben Solish there who already had a few runs in. Snow was the expected Sierra Cement, skied well enough when untracked but bounced you around a lot when chopped. We did catch chair 5 within 10 minutes of opening after a few days of closure and I got 2 consistent untracked runs on Face of 5, then Triangle to Dry Creek.
While it was snowing, weather was quite benign by Mammoth standards with little wind. But the top was shrouded in fog and any sector exposed to potential avalanche from above (backside of chair 3, road to upper Dry Creek from 5, etc.) was roped off. We moved over to chair 3, which had a bumpier subsurface and poorer visibility, then stopped for lunch. After lunch we skied recently opened chair 12, getting there via the beginner chair 11 because the direct route via St. Anton was closed for avy exposure. The upper pitches of chair 12 had the deepest powder of this trip but they are short, no more than 500 vertical with runouts back to the lift. After 4 runs we quit early to save energy for the expected clear day Thursday. 17,700 vertical, ~10K of powder.
The storm did stop in mid-afternoon and there was partial clearing by sunset. Snow both in town and on the hill is impressively deep. I've seen it like that mid-season several times but never this early. Here's Adam by a pile of cleared snow in Von's parking lot.
Thursday morning was clear and we heard the avalanche bombing staring about 7AM. We got to chair 2 by 8:30. After a warmup Adam decide to wait at mid-station for the gondola opening even though it was going to be well over an hour. My back was sore from the day before when I got up, I had done some stretching and felt better but thought it would not be smart to stand around in ski boots for a long time. So I skied some groomers and used the lower gondola, figuring I would eventually ride it to the top when it opened. I stopped to take several pictures of the upper runs with only ski patrol cut tracks. First Hangman's, impressively wide for December.
Then the Drop Outs, which turned out to have the most powder of the upper runs.
Here's the view from Wipe Out through Scotty's, which was partially wind-packed. The moderately pitched aprons below the chair 23 runs were very slabby and tough skiing.
Finally the view from Monument to the Paranoids. Monument has a big fracture line with some rocks exposed below.
The upper gondola opened at 11AM and I got though mid-station on my 4th try from the bottom. Here's Climax out the gondola window.
Adam got there about 10 minutes ahead of me and put down one of the tracks in the right side of the picture in the deepest snow. I went looker's left, which had more wind effect but still skied fine in the steeps. Once the pitch mellowed out the slabby snow became trickier and I was very grateful for rockered powder skis.
The building enclosing the top of chair 23 had been buried in snow over the past week from the Cornice side, so it had to be excavated and chair 23 did not open until 1:45PM. Therefore the morning gondola lines once the top opened were about 20 minutes. Adam and I both decided to take our next gondola runs over to Dave's and then to now open chair 9. I was ~20 minutes behind Adam, and he caught me on the bumpy Ricochet traverse on his second chair 9 run when I was just arriving there. Even beyond Ricochet into the meadow and trees below Dragon's Back the snow was quite thick, so one run out there was enough for me. I stayed for one more on chair 9 in mellower terrain near the lift.
Here's close-up view of why skiing some of this snow was a lot of work.
The snow was actually about what we should have expected after a Pineapple Express storm, and was far better than at New Year's 2006. But our expectations had been raised by the lack of wind and some good powder during the previous day. So the wind must have cranked up overnight to pack much of the upper mountain. There was only slightly more wind during the day Thursday than Wednesday.
I need a quick lunch break after chair 9, and by 1PM the gondola lines had abated. My first run after lunch was Hangman's, about an hour after Adam and friends had been there. The snow wasn't powder anymore but it was soft packed with a consistent fall line, much less intimidating than usual. So also much more popular.
Next time up I went skier's left on Climax and then to chair 23, which had finally opened. I slogged over to Paranoid. Here's the view where I skied down Paranoid 2.
The entire steep face was consistent soft windbuff, actually a welcome respite from heavy or variable powder. Lower down it turned to powder, heavy but not as much slab as below chair 23.
I also took this picture of 2 snowboarders dropping a more sporting line into Paranoid 4.
While riding back up I checked in with Adam who had called it a day before 3PM as he had skipped lunch. On his recommendation I hit a fall line along Drop Out 3, which had not so much skier traffic due to a large avalanche control bomb hole about half way down. This area surprisingly was still yielding powder turns after 3PM even on steeps above the bomb area.
I was sufficiently impressed to repeat the same line for my final run. Total for the day was 21,600, ~7K of varied powder, some of which would not have made the cut by Utard definition.
Adam's shared season ski rental house also had its challenges from the storm. When we arrived the electricity had been out for over a day due to an overburdened tree downing a power line. Fortunately power was restored during the night Tuesday. Here's the picture of the house with a narrow notch snow step entry cut to reach the front door. The back deck is completely buried in 4-5 feet of snow.
