In one of the more puzzling marketing decisions I’ve seen, Mammoth management announced on Tuesday May 28 that it would remain open through… Saturday June 1. Despite numerous queries on Mammoth Forum (note amusing "poll" here: http://forums.mammothmountain.com/viewt ... 14&t=16185), that decision held. From a personal perspective, current conditions fall into the category of “ski one day at Mammoth, then do something else,” so it worked OK for me. Friday was a marathon for Liz, though, as she arose in NYC at 5AM, had a delayed flight and we didn’t get to Mammoth until after 11PM, a 21 hour day for her.
The stated reason for the one day ski weekend was predicted warm weather. Lows on the mountain were in the 40’s. With our late arrival we got to the main lodge parking lot about 8:15. If this had been last weekend we would have been parked at least halfway down the road to chair 2. I have been to a few Mammoth closings, and it’s interesting to see how much effort it takes to keep strip(s) open to Chair 1. In the worst case scenario like last year it’s just Broadway and maybe one other strip. So I was pleased to see 6 lower runs this time. Here are the narrowest points of Broadway, the Unbound park and upper Stump/Mambo/St. Moritz.
On looker’s right 2 of the race course runs plus a strip from St. Anton were open. If available the former runs have best snow to get down the lower mountain midday and St.Anton allows a path to the base from the upper runs looker’s right of chair 23.
Note the grooming/salting machine at work to maintain the snow surface. With the warm night temps, all of the skiing down here would have sucked without the intense maintenance.
We skied Broadway, Powder Bowl, the Unbound park and upper Stump/Mambo/St. Moritz first because the snow rated to deteriorate quickly. Then we took a couple of laps on Cornice.
We looked up from St. Anton to see mostly severe suncups with just a few skier packed lines.
Next run on Climax was good on the upper part but the apron was suncupped so we followed a traverse line out. The route to the top of East Bowl and around to the face of 3 was still open.
Chair 23 was not open, but upper Roadrunner was maintained around to the top of Scotty’s. I had noticed people traversing out to Paranoid 1, so we followed that track, lower than the one tseeb and I skied 2 weeks earlier. Views of a group ahead of us skiing there:
If you strayed from the skier packed line down below, those suncups would punish you. Liz on P1:
Next we took an easy cruiser linking the best late morning groomer snow on Saddle Bowl, World Cup and Fascination. Back up top at noon I was surprised to see for the first time in my experience live music up there.
Liz on the narrow slot low on skier’s left Climax.
Liz was done after we finished this run on Gremlin’s and Andy’s Double Gold.
I went back up top at 12:45. The mountain closed at 1PM. The musicians had left and the gathering of celebrants was 20-25 people. I’m not sure whether this was a closing day costume or a candidate for admin’s fashion police.
For my last run I traversed from Cornice to Drop Out 3. The smooth snow converged upon the bump zipper line.
In past late seasons I’ve tried the West Bowl zipper line a couple of time with almost instant failure. These bumps had better spacing and perhaps weren’t so deep after a quiet week. So I actually skied 10-12 of them before running out breath at 10,000 feet.
I skied down the race course again and met Liz on the deck for a beer. My total for the day was 17,400 vertical. Here’s what’s left of Broadway at 1:30PM.
It was great for Mammoth to extend the season, barely in time for Liz' return to California. =D> The lack of traffic contributed to the snow holding up better later in the morning, so all the better for the few of us that were there.
Judging from that last pic, could Broadway have lasted one more day? I have been at Mammoth on several closing weekends.
These were worse:
May 26, 2007, 2 days before closing day.
May 27, 2012, day before closing day. Notice no strips coming from the left side of chair 1.
A couple were better
June 13, 2009, day before closing day. I was also there closing weekend of May 31/June 1, 2008 which had much more coverage I've usually seen at closing, but all my pics from that one are on the upper mountain.
Then there are the July closings.
July 2, 2005, 2 days before closing day.
July 1, 2006, 3 days before closing day.
By July 4, 2006 closing day Broadway looked quite similar to last Saturday.
Yes it's a lot of work to maintain those strips, but perhaps there are a few more customers if you're open both Saturday and Sunday.
The stated reason for the one day ski weekend was predicted warm weather. Lows on the mountain were in the 40’s. With our late arrival we got to the main lodge parking lot about 8:15. If this had been last weekend we would have been parked at least halfway down the road to chair 2. I have been to a few Mammoth closings, and it’s interesting to see how much effort it takes to keep strip(s) open to Chair 1. In the worst case scenario like last year it’s just Broadway and maybe one other strip. So I was pleased to see 6 lower runs this time. Here are the narrowest points of Broadway, the Unbound park and upper Stump/Mambo/St. Moritz.
On looker’s right 2 of the race course runs plus a strip from St. Anton were open. If available the former runs have best snow to get down the lower mountain midday and St.Anton allows a path to the base from the upper runs looker’s right of chair 23.
Note the grooming/salting machine at work to maintain the snow surface. With the warm night temps, all of the skiing down here would have sucked without the intense maintenance.
We skied Broadway, Powder Bowl, the Unbound park and upper Stump/Mambo/St. Moritz first because the snow rated to deteriorate quickly. Then we took a couple of laps on Cornice.
We looked up from St. Anton to see mostly severe suncups with just a few skier packed lines.
Next run on Climax was good on the upper part but the apron was suncupped so we followed a traverse line out. The route to the top of East Bowl and around to the face of 3 was still open.
Chair 23 was not open, but upper Roadrunner was maintained around to the top of Scotty’s. I had noticed people traversing out to Paranoid 1, so we followed that track, lower than the one tseeb and I skied 2 weeks earlier. Views of a group ahead of us skiing there:
If you strayed from the skier packed line down below, those suncups would punish you. Liz on P1:
Next we took an easy cruiser linking the best late morning groomer snow on Saddle Bowl, World Cup and Fascination. Back up top at noon I was surprised to see for the first time in my experience live music up there.
Liz on the narrow slot low on skier’s left Climax.
Liz was done after we finished this run on Gremlin’s and Andy’s Double Gold.
I went back up top at 12:45. The mountain closed at 1PM. The musicians had left and the gathering of celebrants was 20-25 people. I’m not sure whether this was a closing day costume or a candidate for admin’s fashion police.
For my last run I traversed from Cornice to Drop Out 3. The smooth snow converged upon the bump zipper line.
In past late seasons I’ve tried the West Bowl zipper line a couple of time with almost instant failure. These bumps had better spacing and perhaps weren’t so deep after a quiet week. So I actually skied 10-12 of them before running out breath at 10,000 feet.
I skied down the race course again and met Liz on the deck for a beer. My total for the day was 17,400 vertical. Here’s what’s left of Broadway at 1:30PM.
It was great for Mammoth to extend the season, barely in time for Liz' return to California. =D> The lack of traffic contributed to the snow holding up better later in the morning, so all the better for the few of us that were there.
Judging from that last pic, could Broadway have lasted one more day? I have been at Mammoth on several closing weekends.
These were worse:
May 26, 2007, 2 days before closing day.
May 27, 2012, day before closing day. Notice no strips coming from the left side of chair 1.
A couple were better
June 13, 2009, day before closing day. I was also there closing weekend of May 31/June 1, 2008 which had much more coverage I've usually seen at closing, but all my pics from that one are on the upper mountain.
Then there are the July closings.
July 2, 2005, 2 days before closing day.
July 1, 2006, 3 days before closing day.
By July 4, 2006 closing day Broadway looked quite similar to last Saturday.
Yes it's a lot of work to maintain those strips, but perhaps there are a few more customers if you're open both Saturday and Sunday.
:-({|=