After Sunday it was not obvious we would ski another day. But it dawned crystal clear so I thought it was worth checking out. Liz, who would have had to get a lift ticket (half price with Mountain Collective) decided it was not worth it, so she dropped me at Main Lodge about 8:45AM. The clear weather had reset conditions to typical late spring mode. The snow set up overnight so the groomers, though narrow, skied very well the whole morning. With the demise of the lower race courses, I wondered where they would accommodate the racers, and I soon found out. Lots of them left their packs below the exit strip from chair 1.
World Cup in foreground is normally used for the racers but its cover is too thin now. The top beyond from Cornice to Drop Out is still well covered.
I then found out where most of the race courses were in Gremlins and St. Anton.
There are two courses in Gremlins and Upper St. Anton’s, then a break at the merge, which allows the rest of us to cross to chair 23. Below the crossing were 3 side by side courses on the midsection of St. Anton.
I wanted to warm up gradually this time and so skied Broadway and face of 3 twice and Saddle Bowl once before venturing off the groomed. Snow has been moved and groomed to provide good access to Broadway from McCoy/base of 3 as well as direct from chair 1.The groomed strip on face of 3 kept me away from the rocks I had found Sunday.
The West Bowl zipper line is still there but the days are numbered for access to it.
Here’s a profile view of chair 23 and the Minarets beyond.
There’s still snow in the Paranoids but access to it is treacherous at best.
About 9:30 I finally went up the gondola. Cornice was not groomed so still had skier packed deep bumps and some snow clumps from Sunday left over. Climax had even more clumps even though I took the more skied line to skier’s left. I cruised down Broadway again, then up chair 1 to Gravy Chute. View down Gravy Chute.
This is also a good view of Broadway. The skier’s right strip was closed off today, and I believe the two horizontal strips are snow stockpiles to replenish Broadway for as long as possible. Powder Bowl merging into Broadway from the left is being used for racing and the part above the gates is quite narrow. So I think Powder Bowl will be done after this week’s racing.
At ~10:30 I finally made it to chair 23, which had the best skier packed snow. I started with Drop Out 3, bumpy but smooth 2/3 of the way down. Below that was a lot of debris from Sunday, but also a traverse track to bail out to lower Cornice.
Riding 23 I got a good view of an elaborate photo shoot at the top of Monument.
Next time up 23 I ran into Cowboy Ted at the top of Drop Out 1. I skied this better than yesterday but still not close to Ted’s speed. I followed skier packed bumps to below the rocks. The apron below was smooth with few tracks, and surprisingly was more supportable and skied easier than on Sunday.
I skied Wipe Out 1 for my final run on 23. A rock band is emerging at its entry so I traversed in from the Drop Out side. View down Wipe Out:
Soon someone came down the skier’s left side.
The entire steep section of Wipe Out between the rocks was supportable with no chunks and skied great. Unfortunately the choke at the bottom of the rocks is narrowing and unlikely to last another week. Below the choke is a lot of debris that probably slid off the steeps Sunday.
I followed the zigzag tracks through some of this and eventually escaped left to minimally tracked snow that again skied much better than on Sunday.
This time I skied down the left side of St. Anton even though the gates had not yet been removed.
I got down to Main Lodge at 11:22 but Liz was still at Minaret Summit so I took a final chair 1. I had hoped the racers would be done with Powder Bowl, but they were not. So I repeated Gravy Chute. I skied the chute better than the first time, but in the path through the trees below I fell and slid through some of the shrubs, dropping a ski and scraping my pants.
I gathered my gear, skied down lower Broadway, still not sticky, and finished the day with 15,400 vertical. This is my final day of 2015-16, unless we are lured to the Southern Hemisphere. FYI Mammoth's closing time has been pushed back to noon, probably advisable if it gets as warm as last week. High today was predicted 49F.
World Cup in foreground is normally used for the racers but its cover is too thin now. The top beyond from Cornice to Drop Out is still well covered.
I then found out where most of the race courses were in Gremlins and St. Anton.
There are two courses in Gremlins and Upper St. Anton’s, then a break at the merge, which allows the rest of us to cross to chair 23. Below the crossing were 3 side by side courses on the midsection of St. Anton.
I wanted to warm up gradually this time and so skied Broadway and face of 3 twice and Saddle Bowl once before venturing off the groomed. Snow has been moved and groomed to provide good access to Broadway from McCoy/base of 3 as well as direct from chair 1.The groomed strip on face of 3 kept me away from the rocks I had found Sunday.
The West Bowl zipper line is still there but the days are numbered for access to it.
Here’s a profile view of chair 23 and the Minarets beyond.
There’s still snow in the Paranoids but access to it is treacherous at best.
About 9:30 I finally went up the gondola. Cornice was not groomed so still had skier packed deep bumps and some snow clumps from Sunday left over. Climax had even more clumps even though I took the more skied line to skier’s left. I cruised down Broadway again, then up chair 1 to Gravy Chute. View down Gravy Chute.
This is also a good view of Broadway. The skier’s right strip was closed off today, and I believe the two horizontal strips are snow stockpiles to replenish Broadway for as long as possible. Powder Bowl merging into Broadway from the left is being used for racing and the part above the gates is quite narrow. So I think Powder Bowl will be done after this week’s racing.
At ~10:30 I finally made it to chair 23, which had the best skier packed snow. I started with Drop Out 3, bumpy but smooth 2/3 of the way down. Below that was a lot of debris from Sunday, but also a traverse track to bail out to lower Cornice.
Riding 23 I got a good view of an elaborate photo shoot at the top of Monument.
Next time up 23 I ran into Cowboy Ted at the top of Drop Out 1. I skied this better than yesterday but still not close to Ted’s speed. I followed skier packed bumps to below the rocks. The apron below was smooth with few tracks, and surprisingly was more supportable and skied easier than on Sunday.
I skied Wipe Out 1 for my final run on 23. A rock band is emerging at its entry so I traversed in from the Drop Out side. View down Wipe Out:
Soon someone came down the skier’s left side.
The entire steep section of Wipe Out between the rocks was supportable with no chunks and skied great. Unfortunately the choke at the bottom of the rocks is narrowing and unlikely to last another week. Below the choke is a lot of debris that probably slid off the steeps Sunday.
I followed the zigzag tracks through some of this and eventually escaped left to minimally tracked snow that again skied much better than on Sunday.
This time I skied down the left side of St. Anton even though the gates had not yet been removed.
I got down to Main Lodge at 11:22 but Liz was still at Minaret Summit so I took a final chair 1. I had hoped the racers would be done with Powder Bowl, but they were not. So I repeated Gravy Chute. I skied the chute better than the first time, but in the path through the trees below I fell and slid through some of the shrubs, dropping a ski and scraping my pants.
I gathered my gear, skied down lower Broadway, still not sticky, and finished the day with 15,400 vertical. This is my final day of 2015-16, unless we are lured to the Southern Hemisphere. FYI Mammoth's closing time has been pushed back to noon, probably advisable if it gets as warm as last week. High today was predicted 49F.