Philadendron
New member
We made the decision on Sunday to drive up Monday night. We figured Monday would be crazy good in SLC, but Tuesday would be crazy good in Mammoth, and we needed to get back to work for a day. So we drove up Monday night. From Vegas, we took the 95 through Tonopah, then the 6, then the 120, then Benton Crossing, then the 395 to mammoth. We prefer this so we can skip the 168. We hit no weather until we got to the 395, then it started puking. Thankful for 4wd with snow tires.
Woke up this morning to mammoth reporting 16-20 overnight. Wasn't expecting much wind. When we finally hit the hill (wife had a work commitment until 8:40), 23/upper gondola/22/3/5 were all closed. Fine by us, we had this view of a lightly tracked Broadway with no lines:
We hit Gravy and Baby Gravy a couple times, and when the lift became a ghost town, we figured 3 opened up. It did, but we decided to lap the empty Broadway a few times. This was the deepest snow of our season. Fresh lines the whole way.
Moved over to 3 about 45 minutes after it opened. It was still riding well, but we decided to move to 5 which had opened about 45 minutes earlier. The run from 3 to 5 ("Waterfall") was great, and we found fantastic wind buff all over the top of 5. Take a run, by the time you get back up, everything is all chalky and smooth.
After constantly checking to see if the top would open with no luck, we moved over to 22 where Shaft, Tuttles, Stope, and Viva were well traveled but the snow was still great. Shaft in particular was lovely. Avalanche 1 was surprisingly neglected and was great.
Lunch at Canyon, thank you to Mammoth for providing ample seating. No issues finding a seat during the busiest lunch time.
After lunch, we went back to 22 because it had been so good. And it still was. Moved on to a circuitous route to get to Cloud 9, but by that time weather had moved in and Cloud Nine was a complete whiteout. Shame, because it looked good. We stumbled our way back to the base of 3, debating on whether to ride it up into the whiteout to enjoy the wind buff or head lower to better visibility.
I suggested seeing what's doing on Broadway because I love the Gravy area so much, and my instinct was right. By this time it was so windy and enough snow was falling that my tracks in Baby Gravy were erased after each run, and I was doing quick laps on the now empty lift.
I did 5 laps before I called it. 30200 vertical.
For tomorrow, I have hopes of getting to the top, exploring the 13/14/Hemlock area, and maybe even checking out the Dragon area over by 9.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Woke up this morning to mammoth reporting 16-20 overnight. Wasn't expecting much wind. When we finally hit the hill (wife had a work commitment until 8:40), 23/upper gondola/22/3/5 were all closed. Fine by us, we had this view of a lightly tracked Broadway with no lines:
We hit Gravy and Baby Gravy a couple times, and when the lift became a ghost town, we figured 3 opened up. It did, but we decided to lap the empty Broadway a few times. This was the deepest snow of our season. Fresh lines the whole way.
Moved over to 3 about 45 minutes after it opened. It was still riding well, but we decided to move to 5 which had opened about 45 minutes earlier. The run from 3 to 5 ("Waterfall") was great, and we found fantastic wind buff all over the top of 5. Take a run, by the time you get back up, everything is all chalky and smooth.
After constantly checking to see if the top would open with no luck, we moved over to 22 where Shaft, Tuttles, Stope, and Viva were well traveled but the snow was still great. Shaft in particular was lovely. Avalanche 1 was surprisingly neglected and was great.
Lunch at Canyon, thank you to Mammoth for providing ample seating. No issues finding a seat during the busiest lunch time.
After lunch, we went back to 22 because it had been so good. And it still was. Moved on to a circuitous route to get to Cloud 9, but by that time weather had moved in and Cloud Nine was a complete whiteout. Shame, because it looked good. We stumbled our way back to the base of 3, debating on whether to ride it up into the whiteout to enjoy the wind buff or head lower to better visibility.
I suggested seeing what's doing on Broadway because I love the Gravy area so much, and my instinct was right. By this time it was so windy and enough snow was falling that my tracks in Baby Gravy were erased after each run, and I was doing quick laps on the now empty lift.
I did 5 laps before I called it. 30200 vertical.
For tomorrow, I have hopes of getting to the top, exploring the 13/14/Hemlock area, and maybe even checking out the Dragon area over by 9.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk