Mammoth 4/14/06-4/15/06

[Sir Felgar]

Before I hit Baldy on Sunday I went up to Mammoth on a planned trip with a friend. Friday was the better day. It was raining on the drive up and kept raining lightly all the way to the base of Canyon! Not the most auspicious beginning...

We started off on Chair 8 where the snow was soft for the most part. The rain quickly changed to a wet snow and sometimes sleet. Later we left Canyon and tried chairs 5, 3 Stump Alley, Roller Coaster and the lower gondola. Snow came down all day, maybe 4 inches in spots, with some wind. I got totally soaked by the wet snow (I had to hairdry my gloves for 30 minutes that night!). In the end we had some good runs in some fresh snow on Roger's Ridge and Chair 22.

The next day, we woke up to sun at the very base and clouds and howling wind above. Very cold. Very windy. The top of the mountain was closed as it was the day before, so we headed over to Chair 12, the most protected part of the main mountain. We skied the trees there in a few inches of fresh snow. Anywhere beyond 1/3 the way up was a complete whiteout. Besides Chair 12, the only real bright spot was to take Canyon express and cut over to Viva and Lower Grizzly under Chair 22 which was closed. Other than that, the snow Saturday was either cold packed powder blown by the wind, or hardpack wind slab.

It felt like mid-winter, but the calendar says mid-April. Mammoth is a great mountain, but the weather there can be some of the worst anywhere.

PS- An avalanche occurred on Climax today- it seems no one was killed at last report, but Mammoth doesn't need any more tragedies this season.

 

[Admin]

PS- An avalanche occurred on Climax today- it seems no one was killed at last report, but Mammoth doesn't need any more tragedies this season.

Here's the LA Times photo -- check out the width of that fracture line! It's amazing that no one got swept up.

 

[Tony Crocker]

L.A. Times story on the Climax avalanche: http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me ... 8832.story

Look how wide the fracture line is:

Hopefully it was not very deep and no one got buried. This makes 3 adverse safety stories at Mammoth in the mainstream media in one season.

With regard to Mammoth's weather, I have 218 lifetime ski days there since 1978 and the top has been closed for about 30% of them.

 

[Admin]

Gee, great minds think alike! :lol:

 

[Admin]

I see your picture, and raise you a video. :wink:

Leave it to Calif. TV news to have video of everything. Here's a very jumpy home video of the slide. WMV, and you'll have to endure a brief Frontier commercial first.

 

[Patrick]

Who said that a picture is worth a 1000 words?

That "There's no lack of snow..." speaks volume.

Very cold. Very windy.

Sorry, but after having skied with Tony this winter, the term "Cold" is a very subjective. :wink:

 

[Tony Crocker]

I will freely confess to "wimphood" by eastern Canadian standards. Mammoth's weather issues are entirely wind-based, as the actual temperatures during ski hours rarely drop below 10F. At Mammoth I dress moderately but use my jacket's integrated hood, sealing it as tight as possible riding some of the chairs and on top. Then I flip it back most of the time while skiing.

Bridger at 8F and Wiegele sometimes close to 0F were a different story. I had to wear more layers and pay close attention to any heat leaks. On the coldest day at Wiegele one of the skiers got numb feet and had to quit shortly after lunch.

Mammoth would probably be a good test for flexibility of helmet ventilation. I am skeptical that any helmet could withstand my metabolism's excessive range of heating and cooling.

Isn't Morgane ready for some Mammoth spring/summer skiing? 4th of July at Mammoth is probably better than April 17 at Tremblant. Not to mention lower skier density.

 

[baldyskier]

Tony, you DO wear a helmet, don't you? I only started last season. I got used to the helmet very quickly, and now feel vulnerable w/o it, just as I would feel w/o a helmet on a bike. I haven't had overheating problems with my Giro Ravine, although I haven't skied any real warm days with it (just some warm days). On fairly cold days it keeps me warm enough, although I would probably look for a thin balaclava for anything less than about 15 degrees.
All in all I love my helmet, and highly recommend them!

 

[Sir Felgar]

I agree, the temps don't go much below 20F this time of year at Mammoth, but when a 50mph wind gust hits you and blows chunks of snow in your face while snowing, you get pretty chilly fast. Coldest I've ever been is -10F at the top of Stowe where the wind was so strong it pushed me up a small incline! No joke. Don't even want to guess the wind chill.

I am spoiled now living in SoCal and skiing at Baldy and Mammoth, so I guess I complain all the more when it sucks in mid-April in the Sierras. Hopefully when I go up around July 4 it won't snow. O

 

[Jonny D]

On fairly cold days it keeps me warm enough, although I would probably look for a thin balaclava for anything less than about 15 degrees.

I've never had a problem with my helmet. From -35C (with thin baclava... yum... baclava) to +15C with vents wide open; it's been perfect. Wouldn't ski without it. (though i sometimes do need to take it off on the lift to let my head cool, on warmer days).

 

[Spensar]

LOL. I just read the Western reports for the voyeuristic thrill. Gee, only 4 inches in the trees. Very rough there for sure! :lol:

 

[loafer89]

I will be out at Mammoth on June 6-7th, what can I expect to be open as far as lifts and trails are concerned. I will also be skiing with my 6 year old son who is a strong intermediate skier, do they groom much in June?

Thanks

 

[Tony Crocker]

Chairs 1, 3 and the gondola for sure. Maybe 2, maybe 23. The maybes are much more likely on weekend days. Grooming and salting is of very high standard as long as the area is open, which will definitely be July 4 this year.

The whole top of the mountain is accessible from the gondola. But it helps if 23 is open some of the time like last year to keep more of the ungroomed snow skier-packed. Having chair 2 open allows its terrain plus most of chair 5's to be lift/ski accessible. Maybe 2000 acres vs. 1500 with the deep cover of the past 2 seasons.

Patrick's pics from June 9-13 last year should give you some idea: http://www.firsttracksonline.com/boards ... php?t=1089 . But he was doing a lot of exploring in lightly trafficked, suncupped areas. You need to time those very carefully for sun. The salted groomers and steep skier-packed and mogul runs should be good for 3-4 hours per day.

 

[Marc_C]

Sir Felgar - where was that photo of Mt. Whitney taken from? It doesn't look like the Whitney I climbed! It looks more like one of the peaks just to the north. Here's the standard view of Whitney from Lone Pine:

Photo from: http://www.carto.net/neumann/mountainee ... hitney.jpg since all of mine are on non-digitized slide film

 

[Sir Felgar]

Marc_C: It is indeed Whitney- just taken from the NE, around Independence. Perhaps some of the associated peaks are obscuring the true summit, though. Because of the toothy summit, it's hard to make out the actual peak. I've included another pic from Lone Pine, but it's taken late in the day and so it's a bit crappy. That's why I uploaded the other version.

PS- Much respect for taking on Whitney- not sure if I could do it in my current state of fitness...

 

[Marc_C]

It is indeed Whitney- just taken from the NE, around Independence. Perhaps some of the associated peaks are obscuring the true summit, though.

Cool! It's certainly a different, and not often seen, perspective than the standard issue photos from Lone Pine, the Alabama Hills, etc. I just didn't recognize it as it's been a while since being on that stretch of 395.

PS- Much respect for taking on Whitney- not sure if I could do it in my current state of fitness...

We did it as a fast and light one-day ascent, but the 25 mi round trip sure was a slog, esp. the last 6 miles or so. Started at 6a and returned to the trailhead at 7:30p. We had been climbing in the Sierra Needles the previous week, so were pretty well acclimatized (sleeping at 8700' and climbing between 9K and 10K). Being about 20yrs younger at the time also helped a bit! :wink:

 

[Tony Crocker]

Mt. Whitney has always been very difficult for me to pick out from Hwy. 395. The pinnacle peaks in the pic look more like the area around Mt. Muir, which you past just after Trail Crest on the hike. From the top Whitney is a gradual and rounded summit to the west and south, a bit steeper to the north, and precipitous only to the east. There are also secondary peaks at 12,000+ to the east that might confuse a view from that direction.

Adam (age 14) and I (age 46) climbed Whitney on Sunday/Monday of Labor Day weekend in 1999. We spent Friday and Saturday nights at Mammoth to help acclimatize. That helped but there were still noticeable altitude effects at 12,000 ft. Trail Camp, like Adam throwing up his dinner and me having insomnia all night. We also took Diamox to fend off headaches.

Most people do Whitney as a day hike because it's very difficult to get the camping permits. But IMHO I would need a full week of acclimitization (as Marc C. had and as I had at Silverton) to consider that.

 

[Patrick]

I will be out at Mammoth on June 6-7th, what can I expect to be open as far as lifts and trails are concerned. I will also be skiing with my 6 year old son who is a strong intermediate skier, do they groom much in June?

Tony already pointed you to my point from last year.

The lift opening were: midweek: 1, 3, 23 / weekend: gondola, 1, 2, 3

All lifts had something groomed - Dave's and "the long one around the back tour" were groomed for those skiing off the gondy or 23.

From the lower lifts, most major trails were groomed. There was even a skiout from left side of Chair 2 toward Chair 5 that was groomed.

Watch out for those groomers. Because they groomed during the day and the trails aren't closed or they isn't any sirens to warn you that they downhill from you. Ski wide around them, because that they put salt on the trails and it can shot out to the side and hit you. :? ouch...

 

[Tony Crocker]

Last year they were doing some kind of maintenance work on the gondola midweek. Normal late season practice is to run only the gondola and not 23 after Memorial Day unless attendance warrants it. I found that conditions on the runs near 23 (Wipe Out, Drop Out) were in much better shpe last year than other Junes due to skier packing and thus prevention of the suncupping that is so evident in Patrick's explorations off the beaten track. On the July 2-4 weekend last year both Gondola 2 and 23 were running.

Since June 6-7 are midweek I would expect Gondola 2 to operate but not Chair 23. The top of 23 is only a couple of minutes hike from the top of Cornice, and I would expect its skiing to still be decent only 10 days after Memorial weekend. This prediction is subject to varying spring weather. If it gets really hot the ungroomed snow will deteriorate fast. Last year there were 2 heat waves, one in late May and the other late June. The latter did the most damage, as can be noted comparing my June 18 and July 2 reports last year.