I knew there was a lot more snow that the other 6 Julys I've been at Mammoth, but I was pleasantly surprised by Saturday's conditions. It was very warm; I was skiing in a T-shirt by 9AM and it got into the 70's by late morning. Unlike my midweek June trip when they were catering to the racers, Mammoth groomed and salted the lower runs intensively with the expected big holiday crowd, and repeated the process mid-morning (pic below of mid-morning groomer on World Cup) to hold off the slush.
The other big convenience was keeping Stump Alley going so I could park in my usual spot there ~7:40AM.
Garry has been in Bishop for a week and skied a few mornings. Last Wednesday he reported about 3 inches new snow up high, and while there was no direct evidence of that, the suncupping from the heat was only at a modest level. Thus we were not confined to skier-packed and mogul runs up top as in previous years this late. I was with Ben and Adam most of the morning, and on our first run up top they ripped up skier's far right of Climax at speeds I would expect 2 months earlier. With Chair 2 open we skied down Dry Creek into the chair 5 area. Ben here in the Dry Creek/Triangle area.
No one else was out here and it was smooth skiing down to the Comeback Trail. So we went back for an encore ~9:30AM even though there was about a 50-foot walk across the dirt to Stump Alley at the end. Adam and Ben were leaving at 11AM to meet people in Bishop for a float on the Owens River, so they wanted to spend the rest of the morning on 23. We hit Wipe Out twice and both Drop Outs.
Coverage was good enough Saturday to get out to Paranoid 1.
Adam broke his poles recently and is skiing without them as he knows someone who can get a deal for new ones at the beginning of next season.
Monument (which Patrick skied with me in 2006) was wide open Saturday, but it's choke point narrowed each day.
After Adam and Ben left I ventured into Hangman's.
I had to step over the rocks in the choke. As with Philippe's in June, I only venture into this type of exposure in the forgiving spring snow.
When skiing the top runs, the runout through St. Anton to chair 1 remained easy corn cruising all the way to my 12:30 departure. I skied 22,700 for the day, with variety and quality of skiing more typical of early to mid-June of the other seasons I've skied July 4. Another sign of Saturday's quality is that Andrew decided to snowboard all 3 days of the holiday instead of taking Sunday off for a Tuolumne hike. Patrick knows Andrew's opinion was quite the opposite 5 years ago.
The other big convenience was keeping Stump Alley going so I could park in my usual spot there ~7:40AM.
Garry has been in Bishop for a week and skied a few mornings. Last Wednesday he reported about 3 inches new snow up high, and while there was no direct evidence of that, the suncupping from the heat was only at a modest level. Thus we were not confined to skier-packed and mogul runs up top as in previous years this late. I was with Ben and Adam most of the morning, and on our first run up top they ripped up skier's far right of Climax at speeds I would expect 2 months earlier. With Chair 2 open we skied down Dry Creek into the chair 5 area. Ben here in the Dry Creek/Triangle area.
No one else was out here and it was smooth skiing down to the Comeback Trail. So we went back for an encore ~9:30AM even though there was about a 50-foot walk across the dirt to Stump Alley at the end. Adam and Ben were leaving at 11AM to meet people in Bishop for a float on the Owens River, so they wanted to spend the rest of the morning on 23. We hit Wipe Out twice and both Drop Outs.
Coverage was good enough Saturday to get out to Paranoid 1.
Adam broke his poles recently and is skiing without them as he knows someone who can get a deal for new ones at the beginning of next season.
Monument (which Patrick skied with me in 2006) was wide open Saturday, but it's choke point narrowed each day.
After Adam and Ben left I ventured into Hangman's.
I had to step over the rocks in the choke. As with Philippe's in June, I only venture into this type of exposure in the forgiving spring snow.
When skiing the top runs, the runout through St. Anton to chair 1 remained easy corn cruising all the way to my 12:30 departure. I skied 22,700 for the day, with variety and quality of skiing more typical of early to mid-June of the other seasons I've skied July 4. Another sign of Saturday's quality is that Andrew decided to snowboard all 3 days of the holiday instead of taking Sunday off for a Tuolumne hike. Patrick knows Andrew's opinion was quite the opposite 5 years ago.
