Richard and I drove to Mammoth Sunday afternoon, arriving at Roberto’s bar late in the 2nd quarter of the Super Bowl. No snow was forecast for the entire week (last snow 10 inches Jan. 30) but it was expected to get colder and possibly windier starting Tuesday.
Monday was very windy, coming from the NW and a blast in the face on chairs 2, 3, 5 and 16. However the wind was blowing some welcome sifted snow onto some of the upper mountain. Otherwise the ungroomed was generally tight chalk, with some moguls left over from the prolonged January dry spell. Dave’s Run on Tuesday here was a good example.
Mammoth grooms intensively in these drought situations and does a very nice job of it. Here’s Richard on a seldom groomed area under chair 9.
Richard only skied one day in 2010, so we were mostly cruising the groomers on 1, 2, 3, 9 and 25 Monday morning. I only diverted to Climax while Richard was on Cornice and skied Avalanche 1 on my last run before lunch.
After lunch we skied a couple of runs on chair 5, where the wind sifting was in action.
Then we parted company and I had a high energy afternoon. I skied Drop Out, Wipe Out and Paranoid 2 (pic here).
Then Hangman’s, where small rocks are emerging in the crux which I needed to ski very deliberately vs. a month ago. I took a quick survey run down to 14, back up to Scotty’s, down to Main where I skied a couple of Gravy Chute variations. Richard had quit at 2PM and gone back to Adam’s ski house, so I located and skied down the village run so he could pick me up there. Adam knows how to ski directly to the house but I wasn’t going to go looking for it in month-old crusty snow.
At any rate it was an excellent day, 31,200 vertical despite a leisurely 9:30AM start. Some Mammoth regulars are spoiled and call the ungroomed icy, but ~2/3 of the mountain has not been through a melt/freeze and no doubt Patrick would laugh at the “icy” description. And by noon the sunny side of Mammoth around chairs 9 and 25 was skiing very well. Thankfully that mid-January rain from the PNW that also hit Tahoe and Utah did not get to Mammoth.
Tuesday’s skiing was not as good as Monday. Overnight the wind must have shifted to upslope and blown away all the sifted snow. There was minimal wind during the day Tuesday but the base area high temps fell from the upper 30’s to the low 20’s. Thus sun exposed areas mostly remained firm. A few Tuesday pictures, first the Paranoids and groomed Scotty’s mid-morning.
I skied Paranoid 3, trying to link the smooth chalk sections. It was a bouncy ride if you strayed into sastrugi or traverse tracks.
Richard and I met at lunch, skied a couple of runs on chair 9, where upper Gold Hill was one of the few runs that still had some loose blown-in snow. Then we moved to chair 5, where there were 2 new groomed tracks down the face.
We skied past the sulfur vent,
and then down Coyote to the car at chair 2. I skied a couple of extra runs and finished with 26,000 vertical.
At the spa Tuesday night I found out from some shop reps and coaches from Squaw Valley that there was a huge demo event Wednesday and Thursday in the chair 2 parking lot. As many of you know much of next year’s gear was introduced at SIA in Denver 2 weeks ago. So this is when the California ski shops test new equipment to decide what to order next year. I was able to participate in this event Wednesday thanks to my NASJA press credential.
We knew to drive up to Canyon Lodge due to the demo takeover of the chair 2 lot. There was a dusting of snow overnight, but conditions and weather were just slightly improved from Tuesday. Looks great here early morning on groomed Ralphy's.
Later on Climax this may look like powder but it's about 1/4 inch deep and skied pretty much the same as Tuesday.
With the clear weather forecast we had driven Richard’s RWD Lexus LS460, and fortunately the minor amount of new snow was not enough to give it any trouble.
We skied over to chair 2 and Richard went on his way while I spent over half an hour going through registration at this very large event.
I had no luck finding any AT boot demos, which would be my most immediate need. So I just demoed skis to see what’s new. With the packed and firm conditions I figured I would try new all mountain skis that run wider underfoot than my Recons at 78mm and see how they compared.
First up was the 178cm Armada El Rey, which is 90mm underfoot. They are very lightweight and skied like a dream on the groomed Broadway, Face of 3 and Cornice. Then I went up chair 23 to Wipe Out. They turned fine on the steep chalk but the tail usually chattered at the end of the turn. I skied a similar run on Dave’s on the way to ripping 2 groomers on chair 9. I came back via 2 chair 5 runs, totaling 11K vertical on the El Reys in a little less than 2 hours.
I called Richard to meet me at noon as I had picked up a guest pass for him and thought he would like the El Reys. The Armada rep was great and agreed to let Richard try them once we tracked down the registrar to sign off on his DIN setting. The El Rey is an intermediate ski, attractively priced at $399, and the rep was not surprised by my mild complaint when I subjected them to the demands of 35+ degree firm chalk.
While Richard was being set up on the El Reys, I went over to the K2 booth to find the successor to my Recons. They gave me the Aftershock, which is ~86mm underfoot and has tip rocker. Unfortunately my 174 size was out and I had to take a 167. The 167 still carved rock stable on the groomed but bounced around more than my Recons when I took them up to Climax. Both reps politely informed me that my 2 hours on the El Reys was longer than they wanted per demo, so Richard and I just skied Broadway and Face of 3 before heading up top for a last run. Richard was getting tired didn’t like the looks of Cornice but wound up a similar groomed Scotty’s and thus an extra ride on chair 1 before returning the demo. He liked the El Rey as I suspected but says he would drop a size to the 171cm.
By now it was 1:30 and Richard wanted a lunch break and then headed back to the ski house. I dropped by Volkl, discussed a few of their skis and decided to try the new Mantra, which has a rockered tip so they thought it would be less work for me at 177cm than the 170cm 2008 version I owned for a couple of years. After the usual Broadway warm-up I put them to the test by skiing Gravy Chute and Drop Out. They were definitely more enjoyable than I remember the 2008’s though I suspect from this trip overall I’m in a little better shape this year than 2 years ago. This Mantra would make a great one-ski quiver IMHO, but since I have a powder ski I slightly prefer 85-90mm underfoot for packed snow skiing to the Mantra’s 98mm.
At 2:30 I headed over to Salomon, where they were looking for feedback on a blank topsheet version of the BBR ski they are testing for next year. It has a very wide and and rockered tip but conventional waist and tail.
With the very rockered tip they recommended 186cm, and I would agree after skiing it that you want to be ~10cm longer on that ski than a more conventional design. This was the only ski of the day where I needed to concentrate on the groomed. The BBR is definitely a soft snow ski IMHO and needs to be skied with an even more gradual touch on the groomed than my Head Jimis. For my run up top I took it to Paranoid 2, where the chalk is smoother with less irregularities than most upper runs.
The BBR skied just as well as the Recons or the other demos up there even though the chalk was mostly firm.
The 3 afternoon demos were each about 4,200 vertical with one steep ungroomed run up top, completed in about 45 minutes. I finished with the demos ~3:30, then took Gold Rush over to the village run so Richard could pick me up close to the ski house. FYI I never saw another person on that village run either Monday or Wednesday. Total 27,500 vertical Wednesday.
Monday was very windy, coming from the NW and a blast in the face on chairs 2, 3, 5 and 16. However the wind was blowing some welcome sifted snow onto some of the upper mountain. Otherwise the ungroomed was generally tight chalk, with some moguls left over from the prolonged January dry spell. Dave’s Run on Tuesday here was a good example.
Mammoth grooms intensively in these drought situations and does a very nice job of it. Here’s Richard on a seldom groomed area under chair 9.
Richard only skied one day in 2010, so we were mostly cruising the groomers on 1, 2, 3, 9 and 25 Monday morning. I only diverted to Climax while Richard was on Cornice and skied Avalanche 1 on my last run before lunch.
After lunch we skied a couple of runs on chair 5, where the wind sifting was in action.
Then we parted company and I had a high energy afternoon. I skied Drop Out, Wipe Out and Paranoid 2 (pic here).
Then Hangman’s, where small rocks are emerging in the crux which I needed to ski very deliberately vs. a month ago. I took a quick survey run down to 14, back up to Scotty’s, down to Main where I skied a couple of Gravy Chute variations. Richard had quit at 2PM and gone back to Adam’s ski house, so I located and skied down the village run so he could pick me up there. Adam knows how to ski directly to the house but I wasn’t going to go looking for it in month-old crusty snow.
At any rate it was an excellent day, 31,200 vertical despite a leisurely 9:30AM start. Some Mammoth regulars are spoiled and call the ungroomed icy, but ~2/3 of the mountain has not been through a melt/freeze and no doubt Patrick would laugh at the “icy” description. And by noon the sunny side of Mammoth around chairs 9 and 25 was skiing very well. Thankfully that mid-January rain from the PNW that also hit Tahoe and Utah did not get to Mammoth.
Tuesday’s skiing was not as good as Monday. Overnight the wind must have shifted to upslope and blown away all the sifted snow. There was minimal wind during the day Tuesday but the base area high temps fell from the upper 30’s to the low 20’s. Thus sun exposed areas mostly remained firm. A few Tuesday pictures, first the Paranoids and groomed Scotty’s mid-morning.
I skied Paranoid 3, trying to link the smooth chalk sections. It was a bouncy ride if you strayed into sastrugi or traverse tracks.
Richard and I met at lunch, skied a couple of runs on chair 9, where upper Gold Hill was one of the few runs that still had some loose blown-in snow. Then we moved to chair 5, where there were 2 new groomed tracks down the face.
We skied past the sulfur vent,
and then down Coyote to the car at chair 2. I skied a couple of extra runs and finished with 26,000 vertical.
At the spa Tuesday night I found out from some shop reps and coaches from Squaw Valley that there was a huge demo event Wednesday and Thursday in the chair 2 parking lot. As many of you know much of next year’s gear was introduced at SIA in Denver 2 weeks ago. So this is when the California ski shops test new equipment to decide what to order next year. I was able to participate in this event Wednesday thanks to my NASJA press credential.
We knew to drive up to Canyon Lodge due to the demo takeover of the chair 2 lot. There was a dusting of snow overnight, but conditions and weather were just slightly improved from Tuesday. Looks great here early morning on groomed Ralphy's.
Later on Climax this may look like powder but it's about 1/4 inch deep and skied pretty much the same as Tuesday.
With the clear weather forecast we had driven Richard’s RWD Lexus LS460, and fortunately the minor amount of new snow was not enough to give it any trouble.
We skied over to chair 2 and Richard went on his way while I spent over half an hour going through registration at this very large event.
I had no luck finding any AT boot demos, which would be my most immediate need. So I just demoed skis to see what’s new. With the packed and firm conditions I figured I would try new all mountain skis that run wider underfoot than my Recons at 78mm and see how they compared.
First up was the 178cm Armada El Rey, which is 90mm underfoot. They are very lightweight and skied like a dream on the groomed Broadway, Face of 3 and Cornice. Then I went up chair 23 to Wipe Out. They turned fine on the steep chalk but the tail usually chattered at the end of the turn. I skied a similar run on Dave’s on the way to ripping 2 groomers on chair 9. I came back via 2 chair 5 runs, totaling 11K vertical on the El Reys in a little less than 2 hours.
I called Richard to meet me at noon as I had picked up a guest pass for him and thought he would like the El Reys. The Armada rep was great and agreed to let Richard try them once we tracked down the registrar to sign off on his DIN setting. The El Rey is an intermediate ski, attractively priced at $399, and the rep was not surprised by my mild complaint when I subjected them to the demands of 35+ degree firm chalk.
While Richard was being set up on the El Reys, I went over to the K2 booth to find the successor to my Recons. They gave me the Aftershock, which is ~86mm underfoot and has tip rocker. Unfortunately my 174 size was out and I had to take a 167. The 167 still carved rock stable on the groomed but bounced around more than my Recons when I took them up to Climax. Both reps politely informed me that my 2 hours on the El Reys was longer than they wanted per demo, so Richard and I just skied Broadway and Face of 3 before heading up top for a last run. Richard was getting tired didn’t like the looks of Cornice but wound up a similar groomed Scotty’s and thus an extra ride on chair 1 before returning the demo. He liked the El Rey as I suspected but says he would drop a size to the 171cm.
By now it was 1:30 and Richard wanted a lunch break and then headed back to the ski house. I dropped by Volkl, discussed a few of their skis and decided to try the new Mantra, which has a rockered tip so they thought it would be less work for me at 177cm than the 170cm 2008 version I owned for a couple of years. After the usual Broadway warm-up I put them to the test by skiing Gravy Chute and Drop Out. They were definitely more enjoyable than I remember the 2008’s though I suspect from this trip overall I’m in a little better shape this year than 2 years ago. This Mantra would make a great one-ski quiver IMHO, but since I have a powder ski I slightly prefer 85-90mm underfoot for packed snow skiing to the Mantra’s 98mm.
At 2:30 I headed over to Salomon, where they were looking for feedback on a blank topsheet version of the BBR ski they are testing for next year. It has a very wide and and rockered tip but conventional waist and tail.
With the very rockered tip they recommended 186cm, and I would agree after skiing it that you want to be ~10cm longer on that ski than a more conventional design. This was the only ski of the day where I needed to concentrate on the groomed. The BBR is definitely a soft snow ski IMHO and needs to be skied with an even more gradual touch on the groomed than my Head Jimis. For my run up top I took it to Paranoid 2, where the chalk is smoother with less irregularities than most upper runs.
The BBR skied just as well as the Recons or the other demos up there even though the chalk was mostly firm.
The 3 afternoon demos were each about 4,200 vertical with one steep ungroomed run up top, completed in about 45 minutes. I finished with the demos ~3:30, then took Gold Rush over to the village run so Richard could pick me up close to the ski house. FYI I never saw another person on that village run either Monday or Wednesday. Total 27,500 vertical Wednesday.
