The Sierra storm this week was first predicted to last most of the week, but when it was revised to wrap up by Wednesday we decided to ski Mammoth Thursday/Friday. An unexpected bonus was that the top did not open Wednesday. We were not up there as soon as we should have been. We parked across the road from small chair 10 lot about 9AM and had to walk to the Mill and load chair 2.
The storm total was 16.5 inches at the patrol plot but probably 2 feet on the better leeward runs up top. Morning temps were 15F and barely got over 20F in the afternoon and there was no wind. So even though most of the powder got hammered by noon, 80% of the mountain will still have winter snow tomorrow morning.
While riding chair 2 we saw the first skiers in Hangman's and MJB.
And here are first tracks on the Drop Out side of chair 23.
We had about a 10 minute line for chair 23 and I thought the apron below the Drop Outs were too tracked by the time I got on the lift. Skyline had taken some wind, exposing a frozen granular subsurface. Liz was put off by that and decided to ski chair 14, scoring quite deep snow in the gully section of Arriba. I took my first run on Monument, which was sufficiently untracked that I got 3/4 of the way down before needing a suck wind break. View up from there:
I cruised St. Anton to chair1, then up 23 again with a shorter line that the first time. I went out to the Paranoids this time.
I traversed out to below where those people are standing that looked like the deepest snow. View down:
Rocks are still showing between Paranoids 1&2. I skied 2, needing two breaks. View up from the second stop of Paranoid 3 at left and tracks coming out of Philippe's at right.
Later riding chair 12 I got a direct view of Philippe's.
I skied to the gondola base, then off the backside because I thought the top runs were thoroughly hammered by 11:30. View off the back:
On the windward side the snow was shallow so I was contacting subsurface, but since pitch is mellow so still skied OK. View back up from halfway down:
I took a couple of runs on 14 but most of that had been worked over by earlier arrivals like Liz. So I decided to ski Dos Passos.
The middle section was very rocky and needed to be sideslipped around far skier's left, but there were some good powder turns above and below.
Before dropping into Dos Passos I had a good view of the Hemlocks.
They look tracked too despite the 5-10 minute hike required.
I left via chair 13 and poked around chair 12, finding only scraps of powder. I joined Liz for a break at Main Lodge about 12:45.
We headed to the east side of the mountain via Gold Rush, skiing Rodger's Ridge to get there.
We skied the Quicksilver and Gold Hill/Slot groomers on chair 9, then soft packed powder with a few bumps on Sanctuary and Face of 5.
At 2:45 I was ready for my end of the day adventure. I skied Fascination to the lower gondola and exited at the top about 3:10. I had not skied Hole-in-the-Wall since January 2011, but with the new snow it seemed a good time before the approach melt/froze.
Getting there was an ordeal. I passed by Dave's Run, where weather instruments on top had been rimed by the storm.
As you leave the ski area boundary, you are headed directly south toward the Mammoth Lakes.
There's an open line there with lightly tracked snow, but if you follow it very far you will miss Hole-in-the-Wall.
So you must traverse into the trees. The traverse is quite long and while the trees are skiably spaced there is no real orientation where you are going. I knew I need to follow traverse tracks staying high, but every once in awhile they would hit thick forest and I would need to drop down some. Eventually I was in unrecognized territory and feared I was too low. But there was a well packed track off to the left and it came out at skier's right entry to Hole-in-the-Wall.
On my other times here I had come in from above, but the view up there was very bushy. While the snowpack in the core Mammoth ski area looks good, it's definitely below average out here in the sunny exposure. Snow conditions were challenging too. Above the Hole there were a lot of firm loose chunks even though the subsurface was packed powder from the new snow and prior skier traffic. View closer in at smoother but still confined snow:
View back up at the chunky snow:
Almost inside here:
Under the arch had the most consistent winter snow. Emerging from the arch the snow was all scraped down to the prior frozen granular base.
Liz drove to Tamarack Lodge to pick me up. She got a couple of pics of me below the arch.
I skied 21,500 vertical, about 5K of powder. Today was another example of how Mammoth in April is hard to beat and why I'm not as motivated for ski travel then.
The storm total was 16.5 inches at the patrol plot but probably 2 feet on the better leeward runs up top. Morning temps were 15F and barely got over 20F in the afternoon and there was no wind. So even though most of the powder got hammered by noon, 80% of the mountain will still have winter snow tomorrow morning.
While riding chair 2 we saw the first skiers in Hangman's and MJB.
And here are first tracks on the Drop Out side of chair 23.
We had about a 10 minute line for chair 23 and I thought the apron below the Drop Outs were too tracked by the time I got on the lift. Skyline had taken some wind, exposing a frozen granular subsurface. Liz was put off by that and decided to ski chair 14, scoring quite deep snow in the gully section of Arriba. I took my first run on Monument, which was sufficiently untracked that I got 3/4 of the way down before needing a suck wind break. View up from there:
I cruised St. Anton to chair1, then up 23 again with a shorter line that the first time. I went out to the Paranoids this time.
I traversed out to below where those people are standing that looked like the deepest snow. View down:
Rocks are still showing between Paranoids 1&2. I skied 2, needing two breaks. View up from the second stop of Paranoid 3 at left and tracks coming out of Philippe's at right.
Later riding chair 12 I got a direct view of Philippe's.
I skied to the gondola base, then off the backside because I thought the top runs were thoroughly hammered by 11:30. View off the back:
On the windward side the snow was shallow so I was contacting subsurface, but since pitch is mellow so still skied OK. View back up from halfway down:
I took a couple of runs on 14 but most of that had been worked over by earlier arrivals like Liz. So I decided to ski Dos Passos.
The middle section was very rocky and needed to be sideslipped around far skier's left, but there were some good powder turns above and below.
Before dropping into Dos Passos I had a good view of the Hemlocks.
They look tracked too despite the 5-10 minute hike required.
I left via chair 13 and poked around chair 12, finding only scraps of powder. I joined Liz for a break at Main Lodge about 12:45.
We headed to the east side of the mountain via Gold Rush, skiing Rodger's Ridge to get there.
We skied the Quicksilver and Gold Hill/Slot groomers on chair 9, then soft packed powder with a few bumps on Sanctuary and Face of 5.
At 2:45 I was ready for my end of the day adventure. I skied Fascination to the lower gondola and exited at the top about 3:10. I had not skied Hole-in-the-Wall since January 2011, but with the new snow it seemed a good time before the approach melt/froze.
Getting there was an ordeal. I passed by Dave's Run, where weather instruments on top had been rimed by the storm.
As you leave the ski area boundary, you are headed directly south toward the Mammoth Lakes.
There's an open line there with lightly tracked snow, but if you follow it very far you will miss Hole-in-the-Wall.
So you must traverse into the trees. The traverse is quite long and while the trees are skiably spaced there is no real orientation where you are going. I knew I need to follow traverse tracks staying high, but every once in awhile they would hit thick forest and I would need to drop down some. Eventually I was in unrecognized territory and feared I was too low. But there was a well packed track off to the left and it came out at skier's right entry to Hole-in-the-Wall.
On my other times here I had come in from above, but the view up there was very bushy. While the snowpack in the core Mammoth ski area looks good, it's definitely below average out here in the sunny exposure. Snow conditions were challenging too. Above the Hole there were a lot of firm loose chunks even though the subsurface was packed powder from the new snow and prior skier traffic. View closer in at smoother but still confined snow:
View back up at the chunky snow:
Almost inside here:
Under the arch had the most consistent winter snow. Emerging from the arch the snow was all scraped down to the prior frozen granular base.
Liz drove to Tamarack Lodge to pick me up. She got a couple of pics of me below the arch.
I skied 21,500 vertical, about 5K of powder. Today was another example of how Mammoth in April is hard to beat and why I'm not as motivated for ski travel then.
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