Mammoth 5/9/2015

[Staley]

Figured I'd start a Mammoth thread today as Tseeb seems like he was here as well. Long story short, today was one of the best days of the season.

Given that Mammoth's spring hours are 7:30-1:30, I got in line for Chair 1 at 6:45 and was the only person there for a little while. Control work had already been completed up top and Chair 23 was spinning at full speed, so I headed there straight away and was on the first chair when it opened about 5 minutes later. I took the direct line down Dropout 3 and it was awesome--not super deep, but perfectly smooth hero snow. After a few more runs on 23, I took a Paranoids run to the gondi and skied a fun line in Upper Dry Creek.

I realized at that point that the Avy Chutes were probably epic, so for my next 3 laps, I made the trek out there via Dave's and was rewarded with untracked runs of about 2 feet of pow. It was starting to get heavier by my third run, so I opted for a Face of 5 lap on the 4th trip to stay a little higher and then transitioned to skiing the backside. The storm came in with north winds, so while the ridge lines didn't fill in, Fresno Bowl was great. I even hit Dos Pasos for the first time this year and that was excellent as well. Returning from the backside involved a quick hike up to Chair 12. While the top few turns off 12 were fun, the untracked snow on Chair 12 was getting very sticky by noon so I called it quits a little before 1.

The best part of the day was that every single run I took was untracked. I can safely say I've never had a resort day where that was the case, and I'm not talking about pockets of untracked snow--I rarely crossed any tracks while hitting the most desirable runs on the mountain. Considering the amount of hiking involved, I did pretty well vertical-wise for just skiing a bit over 5 hours--about 23,000. Of that, I'd estimate 20,000 was high-quality, untracked powder. I didn't have time to take many pictures; ironically, I only stopped on the 2 worst runs of the day where there wasn't enough pitch and I got bogged down in heavier snow.

Face of 5 run--it just wasn't quite steep enough

Chair 12 run--first few turns were fun but it got very sticky by mid-day

 

[Tony Crocker]

I gotta ask how much hiking was involved. If you ski face of 5 where do you go since chair 2 isn't running? This question apples to the Avy Chute runs as well.

I've done Fresno Bowl backside runs in late spring corn, not too hard to catch Roadrunner to get back around 12 to Main.

But I assume there's little natural snow base below ~9,500 feet or so. That's why I wonder what you do after skiing 5 or the Avy Chutes.

I just got home from CO, so wondering if a last Mammoth trip is worth the effort later this week.

 

[Staley]

From the bottom of the Avy chutes, it's a quick boot pack to basically the top of Ch. 4, where you can then get back to the mill. Then hitchhike from there back to Main. Lower Roadrunner is burned out, so you have to take the quick hike up to the top of Ch. 12 to return from the backside.

I spent today in the backcountry, hit Red Cone Bowl, Hollywood Chute, and Crystal Chute. Despite being north facing, there wasn't real powder, but the snow was still pretty good. With the heat, the snow is going to melt quickly, but there's good coverage up top except for the ridges.

 

[Tony Crocker]

Staley is truly an animal on the hill to get 23,000 on 5/9:
3 hikes to the Avy Chutes
4 hitchhikes from the Mill to Main
The hike up Chair 13 to top of 12
Getting into the Paranoids isn't trivial either with this season's coverage.

None of these hikes are that big a deal, but there were at least 4 of them plus the hitchhiking plus the mountain closed at 1:30.

Hopefully tseeb hung around after the extremely restricted operations 5/8 to reap the rewards the next day. If not it would be the third time he's left Mammoth in May one day too early.

 

[tseeb]

Staley is truly an animal on the hill to get 23,000 on 5/9:
3 hikes to the Avy Chutes
4 hitchhikes from the Mill to Main
The hike up Chair 13 to top of 12
Getting into the Paranoids isn't trivial either with this season's coverage.

None of these hikes are that big a deal, but there were at least 4 of them plus the hitchhiking plus the mountain closed at 1:30.

Hopefully tseeb hung around after the extremely restricted operations 5/8 to reap the rewards the next day. If not it would be the third time he's left Mammoth in May one day too early.

I think one of the previous times Tony has me leaving too early was Memorial Weekend 2011 when I left after skiing super windy Fri/Sat to pickup my wife at Reno airport and skied 6-12" new at Squaw the next day where I mostly stayed ahead of the crowds (unlike my wife and friends). The other was mid-May 2013 where I skied Thu/Fri with late season storm that meant hard snow. While snow may have gotten softer and gondola ran that Sat, I was glad to be on my way and only 3 hours from home when when my wife called to say she got home from work to find a door had been kicked in and our home burglarized.

This time I did stay as planned and skied Mammoth on 5/9, but did not hike and did not get as much untracked as Staley and even though tempted, I did not ski to the Mill. I did get almost 27K before quitting at 12:45 pm with two core shots and a lot of other damage to my skis from the two days. Where I stayed did not open breakfast until 7 so I ate quickly and was on the road at 7:10. Since lower gondola was loading and chair 1 still had a small line when I walked up between it and gondola, I went up gondola and was in about the 20th car. But it ran slow. SkiTracks shows me loading by 7:38, but not getting to top until after 7:55. I skied right side of Climax and found some good snow, then moved to chair 23 and lapped it four times. The entrances to Drop Out 1 and 2 and Wipe Out 2 and 3 were non-existent and entrance to Wipe Out 1 was very sketchy so I skied Scotty's into lower Wipe Out 3, then Cornice into Drop Out 3, then two laps into the lower Noids, cutting back to the chair on the first one, then skiing to the bottom on the 2nd lap. I could feel one of my skis dragging and tried to smooth the hanging P-tex on the fence at gondola base. I ran in Near_Nyquist (Tom) from EpicSki and rode gondola with him to mid-station where he got out as he was showing a lady Mammoth and she was not ready for upper gondola. I went to top and went further right on Climax where snow was getting chunky from very limited sun.

At 9:30, I moved to chair 3 and lapped it eight times in the next hour finding some untracked without many rocks between Face and West Face before skiing a couple of laps on Back of 3 where packed snow was excellent. I moved back to 23 and skied the only well covered entrance before Cornice and down some of Drop Out, then Wipe Out. I went up 23 again and hiked across rocks to get to Noids 2, but it was mostly not worth the effort as it had been skied out and partially baked. I skied down some of Bristlecone before cutting through trees back to St Anton to get back to gondola where I found pass missing from open pass window on my sleeve. The attendant let me load and told me they would give me another one, but I instead stayed at the top and skied the Upper Gondola three times, twice trying to find a packed line on Climax, once going into Cornice Bowl where the firm top was starting to soften. I was tempted to go with some guys I rode gondola with who were skiing Solitude into the Mill and catching shuttle, but I did not want to waste time waiting for shuttle or replacing pass. I finished my day with three more laps on Cornice, first taking the race course with rollers that had been setup of the Back of the 3, then skiing West Bowl. I ran into Tom again and rode lift with him and his friends, then I skied Face of 3 to Broadway and went to right side of Main Lodge and Chair 6 to get closer to my car.

I was at car at 12:45 and on the road by 1. I made a quick stop at Whoa Nellie Deli at base of closed until following day Tioga Pass. I got the carnitas tacos as I thought they would be possible to eat while driving. I finished one before, then one while waiting for the signal-controlled two miles of one way at a time road due to construction past Lee Vining. Sonora Pass had also not re-opened so I took Monitor Pass which saves about 20 miles, but little time vs. going into Gardnerville although it is a beautiful drive. With minimal stops on my 322 mile drive that went past Kirkwood, I was home at 7 PM.

 

[egieszl]

Staley is truly an animal on the hill to get 23,000 on 5/9:
3 hikes to the Avy Chutes
4 hitchhikes from the Mill to Main
The hike up Chair 13 to top of 12
Getting into the Paranoids isn't trivial either with this season's coverage.

None of these hikes are that big a deal, but there were at least 4 of them plus the hitchhiking plus the mountain closed at 1:30.

This report almost doesn't seem believable, but whatever.

However, I think the term "epic" is meaningless since it is so misused. I'm sorry, but 12-18" of new snow over what was really is no significant base is not "epic". How's the bottom of your equipment? I like how tseeb in the reply shows the "true story" about the conditions. Nailing rocks nearly every turn and seriously risking life and limb is NOT "epic".

Glad you had fun.

 

[EMSC]

Two core shots and long deep scratch on left ski.

Yikes! :shock:

Given the core shots, seems hard to determine if it was a good day or a bad day at Mammoth with the new snow...

 

[Tony Crocker]

This report almost doesn't seem believable, but whatever.

I've skied with Staley. He's in his early 20's, extremely fit. For these people it's routine to put in several hikes a day to get to untracked lines. I would be surprised if his skis don't have few battle scars too. The low tide conditions undoubtedly contributed to Mammoth's powder being virtually uncontested vs. what A-Basin experienced last weekend. In a snow-starved season some people probably viewed equipment damage as a reasonable price to pay for it.

Too bad Staley and tseeb didn't meet up. I think they would have enjoyed each other's company.

 

[Staley]

I've got rock skis, and I value the quality of skiing over the condition of my gear. Plus after 4 years of low-tide skiing in Mammoth, I don't really care about hitting rocks--it's expected. Shockingly, my skis (which had no fewer than 10 core shots going into the day) didn't suffer that much damage despite taking those rocky entrances to Drop Out 3 and Wipe Out 1 that Tseeb avoided. \/

For the day, my runs that involved hiking were:

3 Avy Chute runs (4 minute hike up Lincoln Mountain, 2 minute hike to ski out)
1 Face of 5 run (2 minute hike to top of Chair 5)
2 Fresno Bowl runs and 1 Dos Pasos run (1 minute hike to top of Chair 12)

That's less than 30 minutes of hiking, and since the hikes are all short, it's possible to hike as fast as possible without suffering too much fatigue.

 

[ShiftyRider]

Great reports, I was a chair behind Staley off the top. Couple notes...

It's a beautiful thing when one can ski Chair 23 without dealing with all the idiocy of the fanned-out traverse tracks coming from Chair 3.

tseeb numbers Dropout differently, but Dropout 3 is the main run.

You can do all of Avy 2 and gravity will still get you to Chair 2. Even on a snowboard.

If the Parking Shuttle is running at all, it goes to Chair 2 if for no other reason than that's the first spot it's capable of turning around.

People shoulda all been on rock skis but weren't generally hitting rocks on the descent, just entrances and after the "charging" portion of the run was over, say the lower flat part of St. Anton.

 

[tseeb]

Nailing rocks nearly every turn and seriously risking life and limb is NOT "epic".

It was not that bad. There were runs where I did not hit anything, but the average was at least two per run and when you ride almost 50 lifts in two days it adds up.

Given the core shots, seems hard to determine if it was a good day or a bad day at Mammoth with the new snow...

If you get to make some powder turns and don't get hurt, it's a good day. Whether it was worth the almost 7 hour drive (with a stop for a most of a night's sleep) through So. Tahoe to get there and 6 hour drive home to ski 5 1/2 hours each day is questionable.

Too bad Staley and tseeb didn't meet up. I think they would have enjoyed each other's company.

from a later post "I just got home from CO, so wondering if a last Mammoth trip is worth the effort later this week."

I think I ran into Staley a couple of time in UT last season. Once was when we were all staying with friend in UT and he drove by when we were loading car and then once was after skiing for me at Alta - he was still going well after 4. On this trip, I did try calling Skiace to see if he was around or coming up.

It sounds like you did not make it to Mammoth as I saw you already posted your yearly total. OpenSnow predicts 3-7" at Kirkwood tonight and a little less at Mammoth.

tseeb numbers Dropout differently, but Dropout 3 is the main run.

If the Parking Shuttle is running at all, it goes to Chair 2 if for no other reason than that's the first spot it's capable of turning around.

People shoulda all been on rock skis but weren't generally hitting rocks on the descent, just entrances and after the "charging" portion of the run was over, say the lower flat part of St. Anton.

+1 on the hitting rocks part. With all the new snow on the way down 395, I was thinking I should have brought my Super 7s that only have about 10 days on them, but I'm glad I did not do that kind of damage to them. And to quote Phil from EpicSki "There are two types of skis...rock skis...and skis that have yet to me be mounted. Eventually all skis become rock skis."

I do not know the numbering of DropOuts very well. I thought both Drops Outs and Wipe Outs started with 1 nearest chair 23 and went up as they went out from there. If that's the case, I probably did ski Drop Out 3.

From guys I rode gondola with, I knew parking shuttles were running, but did not want to get to bottom and find I just missed one and the next one was in 15-30 minutes when it was a short day to begin with and I had a long drive after skiing. Plus I would probably have needed to get missing pass replaced and lower elevation, even nearly untracked, was probably not where to be after noon.

 

[Tony Crocker]

I do not know the numbering of DropOuts very well. I thought both Drops Outs and Wipe Outs started with 1 nearest chair 23 and went up as they went out from there. If that's the case, I probably did ski Drop Out 3.

That is correct. My understanding is that snow in Wipe Out 1 and Drop Out 1 is good but you have to walk over steep rocks to get in from the top now. Drop Out 3 has been some of the best skiing at Mammoth all season.

Whiskey Creek has been closed for 2 seasons now. I knew Mammoth Brewery was planning to move in when we visited its prior site during NASJA 2013.

 

[ShiftyRider]

http://patrol.mammothmountain.com/Atlas ... rnice.html

P.S. The main entrances to Dropout and Wipeout were way more doable 5/23 and 5/24/2015...with lotsa fresh tracks to be had when the lifts opened.