I started my skiing at Baldy on Thursday. I only stayed until about 11 and Chair 1 was all that was open. This was my first time at Baldy, so I don't know what to compare it to, but the place was completely empty. It was certainly fun and there was enough coverage to ski most of the Chair 1 terrain, but the snow was heavier than any I've ever skied. I would compare it to skiing 2 feet of slush, and there was a strange mix of rain/snow falling that coated everyone's goggles and destroyed any visibility.
After seeing how heavy the snow was, I decided to take off for Mammoth. We left Claremont around 8, encountered snow everywhere, a flooded desert, broke a chain, and made it to Mammoth Lakes by 4:30 am. 2 hours of sleep later, we were up early to enjoy the waist deep, light powder. We hit Rodger's Ridge first as only Broadway and Stump were open, and predictably, it was deep powder. The next few runs we did variations of Bear, where the snow was so deep I got stuck a few times. We then headed to Chair 22, but we got there a bit late. It was definitely tracked out, but we still had a few good runs in various Avy Chutes and some less-tracked trees.
At around noon, I just started dying from the lack of sleep and trying to keep up with a better skiier, so I split off to get some water at Main Lodge and take a short break. I had a great untracked run down Baby Gravy, but instead of staying, decided to go over to the Chair 5 area. 5 wasn't open, but I traversed into Sanctuary and Sliver from Chair 10. I traversed as high as possible, and amazingly, I was the first person to do it all day. This meant I had a brutal 10-15 minute sidestep/traverse until I reached my desired line, but it was completely worth it. I'm not exactly sure what run it was, but the snow was up to chest deep, and with my skinny skis, every turn was a faceshot. For the next 3 hours, I did the exact same run, and every run was just as deep. Normally, this area will get tracked out by people traversing from Chair 10, but for some reason, absolutely no one was taking the highest traverse. I got 8 incredible laps and was the last person off the mountain.
Saturday was a complete mess. Stump opened 45 minutes late despite no overnight snow and the lift line was probably 1000 people. Still, nothing else was open, so we had to be content to ski Bear every run and endure the 20-25 minute wait. Bear had filled in overnight, and while we got very few runs in due to the lift lines, the quality was still excellent. We didn't want to wait for hours to ski wind affected snow on 3 and 5, so we only got sloppy seconds on both lifts. When patrol dropped the rope to St. Anton, we won the race to first chair on 23, but the lifty told us it wouldn't open for a very long time. We headed over to Chair 12 for some low angle powder, but then decided to just go back to Claremont to avoid Sunday traffic. The top certainly would have been fun, but given the crowds, we probably would only have gotten one untracked run, not worth the cost of the Motel 6 and missing the first Saturday night of second semester.
After seeing how heavy the snow was, I decided to take off for Mammoth. We left Claremont around 8, encountered snow everywhere, a flooded desert, broke a chain, and made it to Mammoth Lakes by 4:30 am. 2 hours of sleep later, we were up early to enjoy the waist deep, light powder. We hit Rodger's Ridge first as only Broadway and Stump were open, and predictably, it was deep powder. The next few runs we did variations of Bear, where the snow was so deep I got stuck a few times. We then headed to Chair 22, but we got there a bit late. It was definitely tracked out, but we still had a few good runs in various Avy Chutes and some less-tracked trees.
At around noon, I just started dying from the lack of sleep and trying to keep up with a better skiier, so I split off to get some water at Main Lodge and take a short break. I had a great untracked run down Baby Gravy, but instead of staying, decided to go over to the Chair 5 area. 5 wasn't open, but I traversed into Sanctuary and Sliver from Chair 10. I traversed as high as possible, and amazingly, I was the first person to do it all day. This meant I had a brutal 10-15 minute sidestep/traverse until I reached my desired line, but it was completely worth it. I'm not exactly sure what run it was, but the snow was up to chest deep, and with my skinny skis, every turn was a faceshot. For the next 3 hours, I did the exact same run, and every run was just as deep. Normally, this area will get tracked out by people traversing from Chair 10, but for some reason, absolutely no one was taking the highest traverse. I got 8 incredible laps and was the last person off the mountain.
Saturday was a complete mess. Stump opened 45 minutes late despite no overnight snow and the lift line was probably 1000 people. Still, nothing else was open, so we had to be content to ski Bear every run and endure the 20-25 minute wait. Bear had filled in overnight, and while we got very few runs in due to the lift lines, the quality was still excellent. We didn't want to wait for hours to ski wind affected snow on 3 and 5, so we only got sloppy seconds on both lifts. When patrol dropped the rope to St. Anton, we won the race to first chair on 23, but the lifty told us it wouldn't open for a very long time. We headed over to Chair 12 for some low angle powder, but then decided to just go back to Claremont to avoid Sunday traffic. The top certainly would have been fun, but given the crowds, we probably would only have gotten one untracked run, not worth the cost of the Motel 6 and missing the first Saturday night of second semester.