Mammoth,Thursday Dec 9th

[pnoom]

Hey all, had a great overnighter to Mammoth this past week. At first notification of a total dump on Mammoth from Tuesday's storm (32"), I immediately made reservations for a room and planned to drive up on Wednesday night. Since I was able to get a deal through a friend, I treated myself to one of the nicest rooms available in Mammoth, at the brand new Village at Mammoth. I got a studio room and I was more than satisfied. It had top notch everything, with all the amenities. TV, DVD player, kitchen, high speed internet access, great beds, etc. I love nice hotels, so I really enjoyed the room, even if it was only for a night.

But, of course, my trip was for the snowboarding, and let me tell you, it was fantastic. Although it wasn't the best day at Mammoth I've had, it was certainly up there. Sunny skies, warm weather, very short lift lines, absolutely NO WIND (which is very lucky at a place like Mammoth). The snow wasn't as light and fluffy as I would have liked, but there was still a nice amount of good powder. I stayed around the Chair 9 area most of the day, since the snow seemed to be best over there and the crowds seemed to be elsewhere. I got a chance to do all my favorite runs, and had a great time. Needless to say, it was a great first day of the season for me.

I had a feeling, though, that the warm weather was going to make the snow a bit slushy and heavy for the rest of the week, but I was lucky enough to get there right before that happened.

Mammoth never ceases to amaze me and I never get bored riding the same runs every year. I love that place. I took my digital camera along so I could post some pictures here.

Enjoy!

-K.C.

 

[joegm]

WHY WOULD YOU GO AND WASTE YOUR TIME SKIING THAT LAME ASS HILL:wink :wink: :wink: : .. U R ONE LUCKY DUDE... I THOUGHT I WAS HAPPY TO BE ON ICE CHIPS ON 2 TRAILS BEING AND BIENG USED AS A HUMAN SL PEG...GOD LOVE YA

 

[Tony Crocker]

New snow up top looks very wind affected, but pow on 9 looks nice. I wouldn't worry about the warm weather. I've never seen the top of Mammoth go through a melt/freeze in December/January. It's too high, too steep and mostly shaded from sun at this time of year. I'll be there to see for myself next weekend.

But the SoCal local skiing has mostly gone to spring conditions, with no snowmaking at night either. It was 80 degrees here today.

 

[pnoom]

Yeah, the day and night before, wind speeds were reaching up to 35-50 mph over the mountain tops/ridges. A lot of the snow at the top was blown off, exposing rocks and bare spots that I didn't expect to see after a 3 foot storm. But, this seemed to be concentrated near the top and disappeared as you went down towards the tree line. I was expecting at least a little bit of wind, but even right out of the gondola station at the top, there was absolutely no wind. I was very happy about that.

Even though, the snow was still pretty soft and powdery, even if it was a little choppy. I've ridden on much worse wind blown snow there, so I was still happy. Although, the Dragon's Back area above Chair 9 was pretty rocky looking because of this, so I didn't even attempt to hike over there.

And, Climax, one of my favorites, was pretty rocky as well, which I am not used to seeing (unless it's October or April). You can see this in the picture I took underneath the gondola from the top of 3.

The chair 13 and 14 area, though, didn't seem to have any wind blown snow and maintained a nice amount of untracked powder on the Hemlock bowl, which was well worth the hike.

God, I love Mammoth so much! Every year I have the chance to experience a resort I've never been to by driving to Tahoe instead (Kirkwood, Alpine Meadows, etc.), but I always give in to my Mammoth cravings. I can't help it, that place is like one big magnet to me.

 

[Tony Crocker]

I have skied 95 lift service areas now, and Mammoth ranks #3 IMHO, behind Alta/Snowbird and Whistler/Blackcomb.

It is generally not too difficult to figure out when Tahoe might be better. The areas on the Sierra Crest up there (Sugar Bowl, Squaw, Alpine, Sierra-at-Tahoe, Kirkwood) do get more snow, so sometimes they are better covered in early season. This year the big October storms centered on Mammoth and the lower Tahoe areas got some rain. Thus Mammoth had the snowfall advantage along with its usual preservation advantage and by late November had more open with far better conditions than anyone at Tahoe.

Last week's storm closed the gap some, with 4 feet along the crest at Tahoe but also 3 feet at Mammoth. If you're an expert skier/rider Squaw on an 8+ foot plus base of decent snow is a must-do. And Kirkwood is the Alta of the Sierra, with high altitude big dumps and a layout that doesn't get skied out too fast. Numerous other Tahoe areas are worthy of visits, but those are my 2 favorites, which sometimes can offer advantages over Mammoth.

 

[pnoom]

Wow, 95 resorts?!?! That's an amazing amount. You are very lucky. My numer is somewhere in the 10s ( probably around 15-18 ).

What would you say is your LEAST favorite resort out of the 95 you have skied?

 

[Tony Crocker]

A bit unusual if you live in California. Not so back east where there are a lot of small areas. There's a thread in the archives about that somewhere. My complete list is listed by region at http://bestsnow.net/vertfeet.htm .

I subscribe to the Warren Miller theory that if there's enough snow to make some turns, there's no such thing a bad ski day.

The main reason the list is that long is that part of the interest in skiing is exploring new ground. It's hard for me to relate to those who buy a second home and ski (or golf or whatever) the same place all the time, even an exceptional one like Mammoth.

So nearly every place is interesting on the first visit. And I'm usually candid here about pointing out the flaws of various areas. In general my least favorite areas are those where management overhypes and can thus mislead the public.

 

[Admin]

There's a thread in the archives about that somewhere.

It's here.

 

[pnoom]

Hey guys. Just wanted to post a picture I accidentally left out from my original post.

I was looking at my Mammoth pictures again and when I saw this particular pic it made my mouth water. During my overnighter to Mammoth last week, this run was probably the best. I love Chair 9 and this was in the morning when there was still a good amount of untracked powder left.

Check out my half of the figure 8 tracks coming from the foreground.

Mmmm, nice powder.

Hey Tony, didn't you say you were going up this last weekend? How was it?

 

[Tony Crocker]

Im going this coming weekend Dec. 18-19. Chair 9 is wildly variable depending on wind deposition from the particular storm. But I've had a couple of deep powder days there, Nov. 1981 and Jan. 2001. The area of your pic faces southeast, so it's a location you want to hit early on a sunny day.