Saturday was about as ideal weather as Mammoth gets: sunny, no wind, high temps maybe 35F. There was also a reported 8 inches new snow, though much of it was wind-packed.
When I observed Chair 3 not running when the mountain opened, I suspected they were still doing control work up top and thus headed over to chair 22. The top of Lincoln is very rocky, and you have to take skis off to get at some of the runs. In general the chair 25/chair 9 area is still a bit thin, and after another slide sometime Saturday chair 9 was closed that afternoon and all day today. So I poked my way around to the most sheltered trees on 22:
The snow was very slabby, and even though I was on the Mantras I couldn't do much with it. I met these two boarders again at the bottom of the glade and they said it was tough even with the wide platform of a board.
So I headed back across the mountain as the top had opened. I started with the smooth windbuff in Wipe Out 2, which Adam had told me was good on Thursday. Riding 23 I did notice some spray from the skiers in Paranoid, so I went over there to check it out. Even though I was a half hour late, I did enjoy the area of Mammoth where the most powder had blown in Friday.
A couple of skiers above me in Paranoid 3.
I managed 2 more laps on 1 and 23, Monument and Paranoid 2, before lunch.
Above is the view north while riding chair 23.
I dragged into lunch, and you could stick a fork in me after lunch. Now I know how admin felt after his first day at Snowbird this season. In my case the Thursday at Baldy was the likely culprit. The Mantras were certainly good in the new snow, but seemed a lot of work on the runouts and groomers where I can normally recover some from more strenuous skiing elsewhere.
So after lunch I went back up top but headed off the back to check out 14. As you can see from the picture along Roadrunner:
the more exposed areas have a ways to go before we can ski them. Down lower coverage was fine, but it took me forever in my fatigued condition in the chowder.
I took one last ride up the gondola and went down Climax, which was thankfully smooth chalk and didn't take much effort:
Quite a few people must have agreed with me about conditions on Climax.
From there I skied Dry Creek. Here's the view across the face of 5:
I called it a day after a modest 19,300 at 2:45.
Saturday night Mammoth revived a Festival of Lights. This was done for a few years in the mid-1990's at Main Lodge, and the highlight was a laser light show projected on the Cornice above. The new Festival is at Canyon Lodge, no doubt because the weather at Main is more likely to be a problem. The show started with a torchlight parade, skiers forming the "M" with Santa and Woolly (Mammoth mascot) spotlighted at center:
The red lights above and to the right were placed on the moving chairs of 16 and 22.
This was followed by fireworks:
The finale was to be 4 skydivers landing in the illuminated area. As it was crowded and I was tired, I decided to beat the traffic after the fireworks. I was in bed by 7:30 and slept 11 hours straight. Today I heard the skydivers all landed safely about half an hour after I left, despite having to find a pilot and plane just a few hours earlier because the originally reserved pilot bailed out. They were very lucky with the calm weather, as I doubt a stunt like this in winter at night would be possible very often at Mammoth.
A storm was predicted for Sunday afternoon, and Mammoth weather typically gets unpleasant well before the storm hits. While the wind was in my face the entire first ride up chair 2, the morning was surprisingly good. It was not very windy on top, and it was clear until 11AM. I skied on the Recons, and the groomers were smooth and easy. Endurance still wasn't great, but I could pace myself and had a good 3 1/2 hours. Cornice was groomed and there was wind sift on top of it, very nice. Next up was windbuffed Dave's, where I had to traverse back to Dry Creek because the Chair 9 area was still roped off. After a couple of runs on 3 I met a few Mammoth Forum people at 10AM. We went up the gondola for another Cornice run, then to 23. Drop Out 3 in the picture below was probably the best of Sunday's skiing:
Drop Out 3 is left of the large rocks and does not exist as a separate run once the snow buries the rocks to the left and below later in the year. Drop Out 2 is the steep slot in the big rocks that should open up with another 2-3 feet of snow. Drop Out 1 is next to chair 23 at right.
By 11:30 the cloud had lowered onto the top, so I skied groomers for awhile and then left before the whole mountain went into whiteout. 16,700 in the half day Sunday.
When I observed Chair 3 not running when the mountain opened, I suspected they were still doing control work up top and thus headed over to chair 22. The top of Lincoln is very rocky, and you have to take skis off to get at some of the runs. In general the chair 25/chair 9 area is still a bit thin, and after another slide sometime Saturday chair 9 was closed that afternoon and all day today. So I poked my way around to the most sheltered trees on 22:
The snow was very slabby, and even though I was on the Mantras I couldn't do much with it. I met these two boarders again at the bottom of the glade and they said it was tough even with the wide platform of a board.
So I headed back across the mountain as the top had opened. I started with the smooth windbuff in Wipe Out 2, which Adam had told me was good on Thursday. Riding 23 I did notice some spray from the skiers in Paranoid, so I went over there to check it out. Even though I was a half hour late, I did enjoy the area of Mammoth where the most powder had blown in Friday.
A couple of skiers above me in Paranoid 3.
I managed 2 more laps on 1 and 23, Monument and Paranoid 2, before lunch.
Above is the view north while riding chair 23.
I dragged into lunch, and you could stick a fork in me after lunch. Now I know how admin felt after his first day at Snowbird this season. In my case the Thursday at Baldy was the likely culprit. The Mantras were certainly good in the new snow, but seemed a lot of work on the runouts and groomers where I can normally recover some from more strenuous skiing elsewhere.
So after lunch I went back up top but headed off the back to check out 14. As you can see from the picture along Roadrunner:
the more exposed areas have a ways to go before we can ski them. Down lower coverage was fine, but it took me forever in my fatigued condition in the chowder.
I took one last ride up the gondola and went down Climax, which was thankfully smooth chalk and didn't take much effort:
Quite a few people must have agreed with me about conditions on Climax.
From there I skied Dry Creek. Here's the view across the face of 5:
I called it a day after a modest 19,300 at 2:45.
Saturday night Mammoth revived a Festival of Lights. This was done for a few years in the mid-1990's at Main Lodge, and the highlight was a laser light show projected on the Cornice above. The new Festival is at Canyon Lodge, no doubt because the weather at Main is more likely to be a problem. The show started with a torchlight parade, skiers forming the "M" with Santa and Woolly (Mammoth mascot) spotlighted at center:
The red lights above and to the right were placed on the moving chairs of 16 and 22.
This was followed by fireworks:
The finale was to be 4 skydivers landing in the illuminated area. As it was crowded and I was tired, I decided to beat the traffic after the fireworks. I was in bed by 7:30 and slept 11 hours straight. Today I heard the skydivers all landed safely about half an hour after I left, despite having to find a pilot and plane just a few hours earlier because the originally reserved pilot bailed out. They were very lucky with the calm weather, as I doubt a stunt like this in winter at night would be possible very often at Mammoth.
A storm was predicted for Sunday afternoon, and Mammoth weather typically gets unpleasant well before the storm hits. While the wind was in my face the entire first ride up chair 2, the morning was surprisingly good. It was not very windy on top, and it was clear until 11AM. I skied on the Recons, and the groomers were smooth and easy. Endurance still wasn't great, but I could pace myself and had a good 3 1/2 hours. Cornice was groomed and there was wind sift on top of it, very nice. Next up was windbuffed Dave's, where I had to traverse back to Dry Creek because the Chair 9 area was still roped off. After a couple of runs on 3 I met a few Mammoth Forum people at 10AM. We went up the gondola for another Cornice run, then to 23. Drop Out 3 in the picture below was probably the best of Sunday's skiing:
Drop Out 3 is left of the large rocks and does not exist as a separate run once the snow buries the rocks to the left and below later in the year. Drop Out 2 is the steep slot in the big rocks that should open up with another 2-3 feet of snow. Drop Out 1 is next to chair 23 at right.
By 11:30 the cloud had lowered onto the top, so I skied groomers for awhile and then left before the whole mountain went into whiteout. 16,700 in the half day Sunday.
