tseeb
Well-known member
I left South Lake Tahoe before 5, had too long fuel stop in Gardnerville and arrived chair 2 base at Mammoth a little before 7:30 early opening and loaded about 7:40. Sunrise over Mono Lake got much better coming down hill as most of Lake lit up red.
I skied much wider and smoother than anything at Alpine on previous day Stump into very smooth and sunny Patrolman’s. Then from top of 2, I skied Rusty’s and Ralphies (race course runs closed all day AFAIK) to chair 1 which was upgraded to 6-pack with gated moving loading ramp inside building. I rode chair 3 twice before going in for free breakfast, skiing too dark with my goggles Saddle Bowl, then not that wide and smooth Center Bowl. Breakfast line was about 10 minutes. Fruit also included honeydew melon and pineapple and there was coffee and orange juice.
I had short wait for upper gondola where line did not go down all day. I skied Dave’s finding great smooth steep windsift, then good light and snow all the way down to Eagle Base. I rode chair 16 and skied smooth and empty Antin Alley/Chickadee to Canyon Base where I rode chair 15. Next I chair skied chairs 3 and 5 and Dave’s a couple of times each finding good snow and a couple of rocks and bumpy areas in places on Sanctuary. Daves (top to right) from top of Eagle.
Triangle and right side were better; Dry Creek looked very thin. I went to car before 11:30 and dropped my mid-layer and swapped to brighter googles that went into jacket pocket while I wore sunglasses for a few runs.
After break, I moved to chair 23 that I skied 6x. I started with Cornice where groom was narrow and it looked like had found dirt. Snow was much better to lookers left of Cornice and light was good at noon so I skied that a couple of times, moving to higher entrance.
I also skied Drop Out 1 where light was bad even though I’d changed from sunglasses to lighter goggles, but snow was good. Next I skied Wipe Out 2 where snow (and light) was so good that it looked like a lot of people had seen me in it as it had a few people in it my next time up chair. My last run on 23, I skied past top of Scotty’s and came down what I think was steep and narrow Paranoid 1, snow was smooth but some big rocks were still showing. I drew line where I skied.
Exit from there to gondola base is boring, but steep smooth snow was good enough that I repeated it after skiing all of Road Runner to chair 14 and hiking up a little to get into it again. It started snowing before 1:30.
After riding whole gondola again, solo on lower half, full on upper half, I repeated Dave’s skiing steep and still smooth and steep entrance to left, then cutting over to Roma’s where I’d found smooth snow on left edge earlier. I finished my day about 2:40 skiing Patrolman’s again finding right side still smooth.
My watch counted 24 runs and 30.2K vertical. SkiTracks seemed to have problem early undercounting runs and vertical by almost 3K before breakfast, then was OK the rest of the day. Not sure what or why that happened. Scenic Route from 395 to Mammoth was mostly snow-covered and had many vehicles parked partially in road in the AM and a few in PM including this truck tent camper and a couple of snowplayers.
There were more vehicles going N on 395 than I had going S. I braked hard down from over 70 in a 55 zone when I saw CHP going other way, but he did not turn around. I re-fueled in Gardnerville, NV ($3.18 credit, 10.3 gallons for 240 miles/23.3 mpg, my highest in a long time - Bridgeport 65 miles S was $5.99 cash), had a great sunset over the Sierra and got back to South Tahoe a couple of minutes before 49ers game started at 5:20 PM. Photo taken out window of moving car.
I skied much wider and smoother than anything at Alpine on previous day Stump into very smooth and sunny Patrolman’s. Then from top of 2, I skied Rusty’s and Ralphies (race course runs closed all day AFAIK) to chair 1 which was upgraded to 6-pack with gated moving loading ramp inside building. I rode chair 3 twice before going in for free breakfast, skiing too dark with my goggles Saddle Bowl, then not that wide and smooth Center Bowl. Breakfast line was about 10 minutes. Fruit also included honeydew melon and pineapple and there was coffee and orange juice.
After break, I moved to chair 23 that I skied 6x. I started with Cornice where groom was narrow and it looked like had found dirt. Snow was much better to lookers left of Cornice and light was good at noon so I skied that a couple of times, moving to higher entrance.
Exit from there to gondola base is boring, but steep smooth snow was good enough that I repeated it after skiing all of Road Runner to chair 14 and hiking up a little to get into it again. It started snowing before 1:30.
After riding whole gondola again, solo on lower half, full on upper half, I repeated Dave’s skiing steep and still smooth and steep entrance to left, then cutting over to Roma’s where I’d found smooth snow on left edge earlier. I finished my day about 2:40 skiing Patrolman’s again finding right side still smooth.
My watch counted 24 runs and 30.2K vertical. SkiTracks seemed to have problem early undercounting runs and vertical by almost 3K before breakfast, then was OK the rest of the day. Not sure what or why that happened. Scenic Route from 395 to Mammoth was mostly snow-covered and had many vehicles parked partially in road in the AM and a few in PM including this truck tent camper and a couple of snowplayers.