There was no measurable new snow at the patrol plot near Main Lodge but probably a couple of inches up high. I decided to wait for the mid-morning warmup before heading up top. Some people explored to make tracks but it took serious effort to get there.
Nice weather and the weekend produced a respectable crowd. Liz and I arrived before 9AM but were parked between the A and B shuttle stops. Eventually cars were parked down to chair 2. We took a couple of Broadway runs but after it became like this ~10AM spent the rest of the time on the upper mountain.
Note strategic location of 2 seated snowboarders.
After a couple of runs on 3 and Cornice we headed for Climax. As I had observed coverage on Friday, there were still plenty of varied lines to choose vs. more constricted cover in 2007. We moved skier's right for smoother snow.
The people behind Liz here had hiked over to Dave's Run. The traverse to Christmas Bowl was still covered, as were a few routes back to chair 3.
At ~11AM we ran into our one big liftline at gondola mid-station, perhaps 15-20 minutes. This was aggravated by Mammoth not letting skiers fill up gondola cars coming from the bottom with 1 or 2 scenic riders, allegedly for "safety reasons???" So we moved on to Chair 23, first traversing into the apron below Drop Out from Cornice.
View down to 23 shows the strips to maintain access to the lift and that the snow is gone if you continue down lower St. Anton or toward the race courses.
Entry to Drop Out observed while riding 23.
There were quite a few rocks up there so Liz declined. Most of them were avoidable if you came in as low as possible, but it was also bumpy and somewhat scraped by skier traffic. So I traversed across to Wipe Out.
The middle part viewed here was fine, but at the bottom it thinned out and a very short step across mixed gravel and snow was necessary to continue skiing the apron.
Next time up I skied Drop Out, staying skier's left near the lift through a couple of narrow spots.
Liz wanted to ski the West Bowl zipper line for her last run.
I took one more gondola run, just missed a wedding ceremony up top.
Yes, the bride and groom were going to snowboard down in their wedding clothes later.
The final run down Broadway.
With the previous 2 cold days and moderate warmup into the high 40's snow surfaces were quite good. Even this last run at 1:35PM was not sticky, though the snow at the bottom was quite thin. This was clearly the best ski day of the final week, so worth putting up with the occasional congestion. 16,400 vertical.
Nice weather and the weekend produced a respectable crowd. Liz and I arrived before 9AM but were parked between the A and B shuttle stops. Eventually cars were parked down to chair 2. We took a couple of Broadway runs but after it became like this ~10AM spent the rest of the time on the upper mountain.
Note strategic location of 2 seated snowboarders.
After a couple of runs on 3 and Cornice we headed for Climax. As I had observed coverage on Friday, there were still plenty of varied lines to choose vs. more constricted cover in 2007. We moved skier's right for smoother snow.
The people behind Liz here had hiked over to Dave's Run. The traverse to Christmas Bowl was still covered, as were a few routes back to chair 3.
At ~11AM we ran into our one big liftline at gondola mid-station, perhaps 15-20 minutes. This was aggravated by Mammoth not letting skiers fill up gondola cars coming from the bottom with 1 or 2 scenic riders, allegedly for "safety reasons???" So we moved on to Chair 23, first traversing into the apron below Drop Out from Cornice.
View down to 23 shows the strips to maintain access to the lift and that the snow is gone if you continue down lower St. Anton or toward the race courses.
Entry to Drop Out observed while riding 23.
There were quite a few rocks up there so Liz declined. Most of them were avoidable if you came in as low as possible, but it was also bumpy and somewhat scraped by skier traffic. So I traversed across to Wipe Out.
The middle part viewed here was fine, but at the bottom it thinned out and a very short step across mixed gravel and snow was necessary to continue skiing the apron.
Next time up I skied Drop Out, staying skier's left near the lift through a couple of narrow spots.
Liz wanted to ski the West Bowl zipper line for her last run.
I took one more gondola run, just missed a wedding ceremony up top.
Yes, the bride and groom were going to snowboard down in their wedding clothes later.
The final run down Broadway.
With the previous 2 cold days and moderate warmup into the high 40's snow surfaces were quite good. Even this last run at 1:35PM was not sticky, though the snow at the bottom was quite thin. This was clearly the best ski day of the final week, so worth putting up with the occasional congestion. 16,400 vertical.