Mammoth, CA, April 30 - May 1, 2024

Tony Crocker

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Staff member
We are back at Mammoth for a couple of days. Tuesday was clear, highs in the 40’s, but windy. With the clear skies the overnight freeze was fairly hard, and the wind delayed softening. Our 9AM start on Stump Alley was not as icy as on April 17, but far more than the next two days. With Canyon/Eagle closed, Stump is one of few lower mountain runs with morning sun so we repeated it a few times, mixing in a run from the back of chair 3 to Coyote, where the lower section softens early.

About 10:30 we took Gold Rush and ran another Coyote lap via chair 5. This one was better since Coyote’s middle section was also in corn mode.
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Up 5 again, we skied a slightly firm Solitude to the chair 4 runs which had softened, as had Wall Street on the way back to chair 2. From 2 we skied around past the lower race runs which looked firm aside from partial east facing Rusty’s, which had good corn as did lower Broadway.

Surprisingly the ropes had been lifted on Gremlin’s/St. Anton, so we rode the gondola, reaching the top at noon. Cornice and Gremlin’s were still firm; only the lower part of St. Anton had corn. So we took a lunch break since late in the day conditions figured to be better.

After lunch we had to take chair 6 to chair 2; then we hit Andy’s finally in corn mode.
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It looks like the base of the old chair 1 has been completely removed now.
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The lift towers are still there and probably will be until the ski area closes.

Cornice at 1:40 had excellent corn.
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Gremlin’s and St. Anton were good too, though not as smooth as when they turn to corn before the ropes are dropped. So we took two more gondola/Cornice laps, continuing once to World Cup and Fascination and the next time to Chair 3. Face of 3 was good at 2:30, and next time up 3 we skied to chair 23. But I stopped on World Cup to commemorate a milestone.
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I have now skied 10 million vertical feet lifetime at Mammoth.

From 23 we skied Scotty’s which was in similar fine form as Cornice.
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Upper ungroomed steeps did not soften. We saw zero skiers all day on Dave’s, Hangman’s, the Drop Outs and Wipe Outs and only a couple making still noisy turns on Climax after 2PM. Ungroomed chair 5 probably remained firm also as the wind riding the lift in the morning was strong.

We skied 25,800 vertical Tuesday.
 
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Wednesday had a harder overnight freeze but it was clear with little wind so more promising for corn snow development. As on our prior trip Wednesday seems to be the quietest day of the week. We got the same parking on the road by chair 2 as Tuesday despite arriving 20 minutes later.

Our first run on Stump was about the same in terms of partial softening as our second run Tuesday at a similar time. So as on Tuesday we skied Coyote via chair 3, then 2 runs on Stump in optimal corn around 10AM. Next was Gold Rush to chair 5 and another Coyote lap. Up 5 again, we now saw our first sharp divergence vs. Tuesday. Upper Solitude was firm Tuesday but in peak corn Wednesday. So we skied just one run to Chair 4. Returning to 5, Liz took another Coyote lap while I skied ungroomed east facing Waterfall, view down that.
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We rode 2 about 11AM, 40 minutes earlier than on Tuesday and found smooth corn on Rusty’s and Lower Broadway. My Ikon Pass had stopped working despite being fine on Tuesday, so I had to go into Main Lodge to replace it. On the way into Main Lodge here’s view of the chair 1 excavation.
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We walked up to the gondola and got up top at 11:40. Cornice was already in corn mode and mostly smooth as few people had skied it yet. Again the ropes had been dropped on Gremlins/St. Anton but those runs too had ideal corn. Despite the impressive corn groomers, the upper ungroomed runs were again deserted and still hardpacked.

So this was a day to take what the mountain gives you and we thus took 4 more gondola/Cornice laps, once more finishing on Gremlins/St.Anton, then via World Cup to Andy’s and Fascination. I rarely repeat runs this often, but the perfect corn for 2,100 vertical was hard to resist. Due to the light Wednesday crowd Cornice’s 5th run was every bit as good 2 hours after our first run there.

We moved to chair 3 via chairs 6 and 2. The groomed face of 3 was similar to Cornice. I tested some ungroomed, slicing easily through the flatter areas but finding some crunch on steeper rollovers. We moved to chair 23 and another excellent run on Scotty’s.
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It was now past 3PM so I had to give Dave’s a shot as I had on April 17. Liz was more sensible and skied Cornice and Stump to the car. From the top of Dave’s I spied an intrepid skier in a narrow strip below.
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I’m not sure how he got there as Rockgarden has mostly melted out and there’s one narrow line with a lot of rocks skier’s right of Huevos Grande.

Dave’s was still frozen. I traversed across its upper part to Roma’s, which gets more sun. Roma’s had softened but it also had a lot of chunks and was tedious skiing. I continued onto Triangle, which had a bit of crunch but overall skied OK. It was not quite good enough to tempt me to take another run on chair 5, particularly since it was the end of the day and we were driving home.

We still skied 29,400 vertical and most of that was quite impressive. The hard freeze, light crowd and clear but calm weather was ideal for most of the groomers. Flat groomed areas never got sticky, even low down and near the end of the day.
 
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