The warm weather has at long last arrived at Mammoth, and today was probably 10 degrees warmer than optimal. There was not a hint of overnight freeze, even up top. This is the first time I've been here in June midweek, and grooming on the public runs seemed less thorough than on weekends. So you needed to stay in a tighter line on Broadway than the usual wide open cruising, and the snow was fairly heavy even when I started at 8:10AM. So as admin would say, an uninspiring start.
Mammoth's efforts were no surprise put into the numerous race camps. Far West, Fascination, Terry's, World Cup, Gremlin's and most of St. Anton's were roped off for racers.
I saw jackets from Winter Park, some Rocky Mountain ski clubs, but of course I found this one most ironic.
Mt. Bachelor, which will likely be covered 3,100 vertical top to bottom until August, had to send its racers to Mammoth for June training, thanks to Powdr Corp.
The impressive coverage has evoked comparisons to 1983 and 1995, when Mammoth stayed open to July 28 and August 13. Financial circumstances are different now, but in 2005 and 2006 the stated criteria for staying open was that Broadway be skiable to Main Lodge. Patrol plot depth near Main Lodge is still 79 inches, noticeably more than in June of 2005 and 2006. There's 7-page thread on Mammoth Forum http://forums.mammothmountain.com/viewt ... 14&t=10675, as yet not commented upon by management. One good example of lower mountain cover is that the Unbound Terrain Park is still going.
The Saddle Bowl half pipe is now open too.
Left of that is the West Bowl zipper line for the bumpers.
There's now a short upper section of bumps under the top part of Chair 3. In background are Hangman's and what's left of Varmint's Nest up top.
The gondola is still closed for maintenance but will reopen this Saturday June 18.
I loosened up some and finally ventured up top. The steeps skied quite well, as gravity overcomes the heavy spring snow. Here in Drop Out the spring snow has been gouged into fairly deep moguls.
Usually by this time of year you have to stay in skier packed lines because low traffic areas develop huge suncups. But this year that process has barely started. Observing smooth snow outside the bump lines of Drop Out 1&2, I decided to check out Paranoid.
Paranoid 2 just left of the scattered rocks at center ski skied surprisingly well all the way down to the lower angle apron far below. Knock about 10 degrees off so the snow could set up overnight and it would be corn perfection.
Wipe Out skied better than Drop Out with more bump spacing. I headed out to Paranoid one more time to inspect Philippe's.
I'm wimpy about these runs if there's any hard snow around, as evidenced by my sideslip through Varmint's May 30. But I was fine with confined jump turns in the spring snow here. Looking back up about 3/4 of the way down.
Apron below the rocks was good here too. By now it was 11:30 and the racers were done. So my last 2 runs were from back of 3 through their courses. Good, but not as consistent as usual due to no overnight freeze. It would be corn where they had salted the most, but every once in a while I would find a grabby spot. I finished 12:15PM with 21,800 vertical.
From the car, I could see my tracks illuminated below Philippe's, just right of the groove below the rocks. Philippe's is visible as a upper left to lower right diagonal through the rocks.
My tracks just right of the scattered rocks in Paranoid 2 were also visible but hard to see in the picture.
Mammoth's efforts were no surprise put into the numerous race camps. Far West, Fascination, Terry's, World Cup, Gremlin's and most of St. Anton's were roped off for racers.
I saw jackets from Winter Park, some Rocky Mountain ski clubs, but of course I found this one most ironic.
Mt. Bachelor, which will likely be covered 3,100 vertical top to bottom until August, had to send its racers to Mammoth for June training, thanks to Powdr Corp.
The impressive coverage has evoked comparisons to 1983 and 1995, when Mammoth stayed open to July 28 and August 13. Financial circumstances are different now, but in 2005 and 2006 the stated criteria for staying open was that Broadway be skiable to Main Lodge. Patrol plot depth near Main Lodge is still 79 inches, noticeably more than in June of 2005 and 2006. There's 7-page thread on Mammoth Forum http://forums.mammothmountain.com/viewt ... 14&t=10675, as yet not commented upon by management. One good example of lower mountain cover is that the Unbound Terrain Park is still going.
The Saddle Bowl half pipe is now open too.
Left of that is the West Bowl zipper line for the bumpers.
There's now a short upper section of bumps under the top part of Chair 3. In background are Hangman's and what's left of Varmint's Nest up top.
The gondola is still closed for maintenance but will reopen this Saturday June 18.
I loosened up some and finally ventured up top. The steeps skied quite well, as gravity overcomes the heavy spring snow. Here in Drop Out the spring snow has been gouged into fairly deep moguls.
Usually by this time of year you have to stay in skier packed lines because low traffic areas develop huge suncups. But this year that process has barely started. Observing smooth snow outside the bump lines of Drop Out 1&2, I decided to check out Paranoid.
Paranoid 2 just left of the scattered rocks at center ski skied surprisingly well all the way down to the lower angle apron far below. Knock about 10 degrees off so the snow could set up overnight and it would be corn perfection.
Wipe Out skied better than Drop Out with more bump spacing. I headed out to Paranoid one more time to inspect Philippe's.
I'm wimpy about these runs if there's any hard snow around, as evidenced by my sideslip through Varmint's May 30. But I was fine with confined jump turns in the spring snow here. Looking back up about 3/4 of the way down.
Apron below the rocks was good here too. By now it was 11:30 and the racers were done. So my last 2 runs were from back of 3 through their courses. Good, but not as consistent as usual due to no overnight freeze. It would be corn where they had salted the most, but every once in a while I would find a grabby spot. I finished 12:15PM with 21,800 vertical.
From the car, I could see my tracks illuminated below Philippe's, just right of the groove below the rocks. Philippe's is visible as a upper left to lower right diagonal through the rocks.
My tracks just right of the scattered rocks in Paranoid 2 were also visible but hard to see in the picture.
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