Mammoth has had no snow in December after just 30 inches in November. The 19 inches that I skied October 7 melted out completely. This is the driest start to a season since 1999-2000 and no snow is expected for at least the next week. When I was working, and certainly before MVP when I was buying day tickets, I would never drive to Mammoth under these conditions. My primary motivation for this trip was to demo boots. Gory details here: viewtopic.php?f=8&t=9890
So this is the first time I've seen Mammoth in an ongoing process of covering terrain exclusively with snowmaking. If you go you will be skiing exclusively on groomers. For those of you tempted to explore, Here's a typical overview of the upper mountain from Thursday morning.
The Drop Out side has some natural base. However we know the first big dump after an extended drought will generate tons of avalanche activity.
Out towards Scotty's/Paranoids Mammoth is pretty much starting from square one.
Same with chair 5, Climax in far background
On Thursday they were blowing snow on upper Solitude so the new high speed chair 5 could open Friday.
Dave's in far background has a solid base on top with some exposed ice.
The chair 15 area is lower and more sun exposed. But note there is some snow beneath the chair while there is almost none on the steeper sunny side of Lincoln Mt. in the background.
I make the title comment about Big Bear because I'm familiar with the priority of blowing snow there, and it's interesting to see the same process at Mammoth. Most of the runs between chairs 1 and 2 are open. The steepest open runs are the race course runs, which are in use by racers all morning and maybe one of them in the early afternoon. Patrolmen's was not open yet but they were blowing snow on it Friday. Saddle Bowl is open from the back of 3 and Cornice from the top. Wind was strong only at the very top and I did get sandblasted in the face dropping into Cornice. According to Staley Mammoth has been blowing snow on the face of 3 for a week as seen here.
It's a lengthy process up here as much of that snow ends up in Saddle Bowl and upper St. Anton.
Canyon/Eagle opened Wednesday Dec. 14, and on the next day I would describe the trail network east of chair 2 as skeletal. As in the early stages at Big Bear, basically one run was open to serve each chair: Rollercoaster for chair 4, Downhill for chair 16, Roundabout/Little Bird for chair 17, Swell for chair 8 and Bridges for chair 15. Holiday/Pumpkin (very flat) were open to access the bases of chairs 9 and 25. They blew snow at the base of 25 and also on the ridge above Gold Rush's top station, so I think they may want to open 25 by Christmas. Chickadee is open to get from Eagle to Canyon and only Easy Rider is open to get from the Canyon side of the mountain to Chair 2. Also, when exiting Gold Rush the only open trail is around the knoll to Solitude. When 5 opened Friday with only upper Solitude, lower Solitude was pretty intense for skier density combining all of the traffic exiting 2 high speed chairs.
The good news for snowmaking is that Mammoth's weather is very reliable to do it 24/7, so a couple of new runs may open each day. In addition to Solitude, Avalanche between chairs 4 and 16 plus a small connector trial opened Friday. The South Park terrain features were getting final touches Friday and will probably open this weekend. They are blowing snow on the beginner chair 7 so it should be available for the holidays.
Surfaces were at least 75% "normal" packed powder. There were scattered firm spots, inevitable with skier traffic over manmade, but with Mammoth's midwinter temperatures and exposure nothing anyone could call a melt/freeze. Temps were below average, probably upper teens most of the time, but the one time I got up top midday Thursday it was 8F.
We were teased with a few flurries around 2PM Thursday and there was a trace of snow overnight. This did nothing to improve coverage but certainly made the upper mountain look nicer.
In the early morning thin clouds and perhaps snowmaking mist contributed to a sunbow.
The official opening of the new chair 5 was at 1PM Friday. People start to gather as we ride Gold Rush.
Lots of us there by the time it opens.
Woolly giving High Fives (the official name of the new lift) at the top.
The new location at the base of Dry Creek/Coyote will offer better fall line skiing plus Coyote as alternate access. You better be there when 5 opens on a powder day, because it will be pillaged in about half an hour though. When chair 3 went high speed, increased traffic seemed to reduce the late season (mid-May onwards) coverage some. 5's terrain is more expansive so I expect less of an issue there. Time will tell.
This report perhaps overemphasizes the negative. There are 450 acres of skiing, far more than anywhere else in California, and surfaces are good. Without snowmaking Mammoth would not even be open, as was the case in Decembers of 1976 and 1986. The mountain was empty Thursday and only a few spots like that Solitude merge were congested Friday, and of course 5 had just opened and was temporarily running at full capacity. It's fun skiing for a couple of days, although for more than that I would find it a bit repetitive since it's all groomers. I'll make my usual editorial comment about early vs. late season by noting that last July 4 (or an average Memorial Day) offers far more diverse, challenging and comfortable skiing than what's up there now.
Going forward I think Christmas "zoo week" will be horrendous when you put huge crowds on ~500 acres of manmade. But based upon the last bad season in 2006-07 I expect ongoing snowmaking will fill in the entire lower mountain by mid-January. There were 38 inches natural snow between Dec. 9-21 that season, which also means this Christmas will be worse. But January 2007 had only 11 inches, and I was pleasantly surprised by the lower mountain coverage and surface conditions over MLK weekend that season.
So this is the first time I've seen Mammoth in an ongoing process of covering terrain exclusively with snowmaking. If you go you will be skiing exclusively on groomers. For those of you tempted to explore, Here's a typical overview of the upper mountain from Thursday morning.
The Drop Out side has some natural base. However we know the first big dump after an extended drought will generate tons of avalanche activity.
Out towards Scotty's/Paranoids Mammoth is pretty much starting from square one.
Same with chair 5, Climax in far background
On Thursday they were blowing snow on upper Solitude so the new high speed chair 5 could open Friday.
Dave's in far background has a solid base on top with some exposed ice.
The chair 15 area is lower and more sun exposed. But note there is some snow beneath the chair while there is almost none on the steeper sunny side of Lincoln Mt. in the background.
I make the title comment about Big Bear because I'm familiar with the priority of blowing snow there, and it's interesting to see the same process at Mammoth. Most of the runs between chairs 1 and 2 are open. The steepest open runs are the race course runs, which are in use by racers all morning and maybe one of them in the early afternoon. Patrolmen's was not open yet but they were blowing snow on it Friday. Saddle Bowl is open from the back of 3 and Cornice from the top. Wind was strong only at the very top and I did get sandblasted in the face dropping into Cornice. According to Staley Mammoth has been blowing snow on the face of 3 for a week as seen here.
It's a lengthy process up here as much of that snow ends up in Saddle Bowl and upper St. Anton.
Canyon/Eagle opened Wednesday Dec. 14, and on the next day I would describe the trail network east of chair 2 as skeletal. As in the early stages at Big Bear, basically one run was open to serve each chair: Rollercoaster for chair 4, Downhill for chair 16, Roundabout/Little Bird for chair 17, Swell for chair 8 and Bridges for chair 15. Holiday/Pumpkin (very flat) were open to access the bases of chairs 9 and 25. They blew snow at the base of 25 and also on the ridge above Gold Rush's top station, so I think they may want to open 25 by Christmas. Chickadee is open to get from Eagle to Canyon and only Easy Rider is open to get from the Canyon side of the mountain to Chair 2. Also, when exiting Gold Rush the only open trail is around the knoll to Solitude. When 5 opened Friday with only upper Solitude, lower Solitude was pretty intense for skier density combining all of the traffic exiting 2 high speed chairs.
The good news for snowmaking is that Mammoth's weather is very reliable to do it 24/7, so a couple of new runs may open each day. In addition to Solitude, Avalanche between chairs 4 and 16 plus a small connector trial opened Friday. The South Park terrain features were getting final touches Friday and will probably open this weekend. They are blowing snow on the beginner chair 7 so it should be available for the holidays.
Surfaces were at least 75% "normal" packed powder. There were scattered firm spots, inevitable with skier traffic over manmade, but with Mammoth's midwinter temperatures and exposure nothing anyone could call a melt/freeze. Temps were below average, probably upper teens most of the time, but the one time I got up top midday Thursday it was 8F.
We were teased with a few flurries around 2PM Thursday and there was a trace of snow overnight. This did nothing to improve coverage but certainly made the upper mountain look nicer.
In the early morning thin clouds and perhaps snowmaking mist contributed to a sunbow.
The official opening of the new chair 5 was at 1PM Friday. People start to gather as we ride Gold Rush.
Lots of us there by the time it opens.
Woolly giving High Fives (the official name of the new lift) at the top.
The new location at the base of Dry Creek/Coyote will offer better fall line skiing plus Coyote as alternate access. You better be there when 5 opens on a powder day, because it will be pillaged in about half an hour though. When chair 3 went high speed, increased traffic seemed to reduce the late season (mid-May onwards) coverage some. 5's terrain is more expansive so I expect less of an issue there. Time will tell.
This report perhaps overemphasizes the negative. There are 450 acres of skiing, far more than anywhere else in California, and surfaces are good. Without snowmaking Mammoth would not even be open, as was the case in Decembers of 1976 and 1986. The mountain was empty Thursday and only a few spots like that Solitude merge were congested Friday, and of course 5 had just opened and was temporarily running at full capacity. It's fun skiing for a couple of days, although for more than that I would find it a bit repetitive since it's all groomers. I'll make my usual editorial comment about early vs. late season by noting that last July 4 (or an average Memorial Day) offers far more diverse, challenging and comfortable skiing than what's up there now.
Going forward I think Christmas "zoo week" will be horrendous when you put huge crowds on ~500 acres of manmade. But based upon the last bad season in 2006-07 I expect ongoing snowmaking will fill in the entire lower mountain by mid-January. There were 38 inches natural snow between Dec. 9-21 that season, which also means this Christmas will be worse. But January 2007 had only 11 inches, and I was pleasantly surprised by the lower mountain coverage and surface conditions over MLK weekend that season.
