Weather was ideal from a ski perspective today. Slight overnight freeze, completely clear all morning but with a mostly steady breeze that kept most of the snow from getting sticky. Not too much skier traffic to chew it up either.
Only chairs 1, 3 and 23 were running. Chair 1 would get an occasional line up of 20-30 people waiting. Chair 2's last day was June 6, though from this view Saturday I suspect it would not have taken much work to keep it going at least one more week:
I thought Gondola 2 was supposed to be done with annual maintenance June 18, but they were still working on it (see open cage with 2 workers at nearest tower) Saturday, as viewed from the face of 3:
It should be open next weekend, so Climax will be well skier-packed before the July 3-5 holiday weekend.
Despite the closures, skiing was excellent for the full 4+ hours I was out there by timing runs appropriately. I arrived 8:15 and Powder Bowl and the open upper part of Stump Alley were already in ideal corn mode. Views from chair 1 show just one small bare spot in Broadway: most groomers had full width but you can see the lower ungroomed snow took a beating in the early June hot spell.
I would expect the lower runs for July 4 to be similar to 2006, given that weather is supposed to stay slightly cooler than average in the meantime.
By 9AM Broadway, Mambo and Forest Trail also had the ripe corn, along with Cornice due to its NE tilt. So I ran 3 top-to-bottom laps from Cornice until some of the upper ungroomed softened about 10:30. I thought Cornice skied better than face of 3. Most of the good ungroomed skiing was in the Drop Out area:
The apron below had good skier packed corn, though the skier packed lines funneled to a designated race course crossing just high enough to get back to chair 23.
About 11:30 I explored west of chair 23 into less frequently skied territory. Skyline has burned off so you need to drop into Wipe Out to head in that direction:
After a few turns I traversed over to the top of Scotty's/Monument. Not too many people had been here, judging from the suncups.
There was a slot opening at Monument, similar to when Patrick and I skied there 4 years ago:
Just below that slot I continued the traverse over to Paranoid 1, where I had spotted a good skier packed line from below:
You need to stay in your line here, as you will get into lots of suncups if you stray too far.
This pic traces the line of my route to Paranoid 1:
Good for a few more days, but the entry/traverse will melt out well before July I think.
The upper mountain does not have as deep a snowpack as in 2006. Hangman's is long gone already, no surprise given how narrow it was in April/May.
You can also see a narrow point for intermediates in Saddle Bowl to the right of the top of the halfpipe. The other side of the dirt patch is World Cup, which was roped off for racing until ~11:30. As usual I hit the race courses in Gremlin's/St. Anton around noon for the best groomer corn after skiing the Drop Out area.
Shortly after noon I step/traversed from Chair 1 to Gravy Chute, where you get a good view of some of the open lower runs.
Patrick walked across the dirt to get here in 2006, as I expect he will this time too.
I took my final upper run on Wipe Out, which is the last to soften and skis best after noon on a day like this.
It skied great, but that bare area between Wipe Out 1&2 is getting bigger, so there is some question in my mind whether the opening in Wipe Out will stay covered another 2 weeks.
I'm providing a lot of caution here as a guide to those coming up for the holiday weekend. But I had no complaints about Saturday; it was one of my better days for this late in the season as I skied 24,800 and nearly all of it in pleasing snow conditions.
8PM view of Mammoth Mountain on the way back from Tioga Pass and the Whoa Nellie Deli.
Only chairs 1, 3 and 23 were running. Chair 1 would get an occasional line up of 20-30 people waiting. Chair 2's last day was June 6, though from this view Saturday I suspect it would not have taken much work to keep it going at least one more week:
I thought Gondola 2 was supposed to be done with annual maintenance June 18, but they were still working on it (see open cage with 2 workers at nearest tower) Saturday, as viewed from the face of 3:
It should be open next weekend, so Climax will be well skier-packed before the July 3-5 holiday weekend.
Despite the closures, skiing was excellent for the full 4+ hours I was out there by timing runs appropriately. I arrived 8:15 and Powder Bowl and the open upper part of Stump Alley were already in ideal corn mode. Views from chair 1 show just one small bare spot in Broadway: most groomers had full width but you can see the lower ungroomed snow took a beating in the early June hot spell.
I would expect the lower runs for July 4 to be similar to 2006, given that weather is supposed to stay slightly cooler than average in the meantime.
By 9AM Broadway, Mambo and Forest Trail also had the ripe corn, along with Cornice due to its NE tilt. So I ran 3 top-to-bottom laps from Cornice until some of the upper ungroomed softened about 10:30. I thought Cornice skied better than face of 3. Most of the good ungroomed skiing was in the Drop Out area:
The apron below had good skier packed corn, though the skier packed lines funneled to a designated race course crossing just high enough to get back to chair 23.
About 11:30 I explored west of chair 23 into less frequently skied territory. Skyline has burned off so you need to drop into Wipe Out to head in that direction:
After a few turns I traversed over to the top of Scotty's/Monument. Not too many people had been here, judging from the suncups.
There was a slot opening at Monument, similar to when Patrick and I skied there 4 years ago:
Just below that slot I continued the traverse over to Paranoid 1, where I had spotted a good skier packed line from below:
You need to stay in your line here, as you will get into lots of suncups if you stray too far.
This pic traces the line of my route to Paranoid 1:
Good for a few more days, but the entry/traverse will melt out well before July I think.
The upper mountain does not have as deep a snowpack as in 2006. Hangman's is long gone already, no surprise given how narrow it was in April/May.
You can also see a narrow point for intermediates in Saddle Bowl to the right of the top of the halfpipe. The other side of the dirt patch is World Cup, which was roped off for racing until ~11:30. As usual I hit the race courses in Gremlin's/St. Anton around noon for the best groomer corn after skiing the Drop Out area.
Shortly after noon I step/traversed from Chair 1 to Gravy Chute, where you get a good view of some of the open lower runs.
Patrick walked across the dirt to get here in 2006, as I expect he will this time too.
I took my final upper run on Wipe Out, which is the last to soften and skis best after noon on a day like this.
It skied great, but that bare area between Wipe Out 1&2 is getting bigger, so there is some question in my mind whether the opening in Wipe Out will stay covered another 2 weeks.
I'm providing a lot of caution here as a guide to those coming up for the holiday weekend. But I had no complaints about Saturday; it was one of my better days for this late in the season as I skied 24,800 and nearly all of it in pleasing snow conditions.
8PM view of Mammoth Mountain on the way back from Tioga Pass and the Whoa Nellie Deli.
