As expected last week’s storm extended decent coverage across the mountain, and essentially everything is open with 90+% packed powder surfaces. We also had cooperative weather, clear Tuesday and Thursday with wind in some places, and high overcast Wednesday with almost no wind. There is some evidence that this is not a normal midweek. Prime parking fills early, slopes near the lodges are busy and midday lunch is crammed. But with everything open the only lift line of consequence was about 8 minutes at gondola mid-station Tuesday at 10:45AM.
Tuesday we got started a bit late. I had to drop Liz at Main Lodge to get her 3rd free day on Mountain Collective. Mammoth’s IT Dept. sadly lags most of the other areas in supporting Mountain Collective. She had to go the window on the other two days for half price also. We did hear that Mammoth intends to catch up with the other places and support direct-to-lift later this season.
After a couple of warmup runs I met Liz at Main Lodge and we soon encountered that line at gondola mid-station. So we headed for Dave’s to get away from the crowds, meeting Rainbow Jenny at the top.
We hit good groomers on chairs 9 and 25, then dropped into chair 5 via Sliver.
We then moved to chair 22 for the first time this season. Riding 22 we saw this cliffed out snowboarder.
On subsequent rides we saw a patroller set a bootpack down to her. We did not see where she went after being escorted up the bootpack.
Jenny and I skied Viva, Avy1 and Grizzly. Avy1 still has some early season choke points halfway down. After one run on Grizzly Liz had some foot pain and took a break. After a run on face of 5, we met at the Mill for lunch.
After lunch the snow on 23 was the highlight of the day, smooth and fairly soft windbuff, almost skied like a groomer on the apron under the lift. The low winter sun backlit the blowing snow on top.
Here’s someone ripping the windbuff on Wipe Out 1.
We skied Drop Out 1, Wipe Out 1 and 2 and Paranoid 1. Jenny there:
Liz skied Drop Out 3 twice before her feet bothered her again.
Jenny and I skied Gravy Chute/Fascination, then Coyote to end the day. I skied 25,700 vertical.
Liz' foot problem was a new one, not related to the ankle pain and cold foot issues which Corti Lawrence at Footloose fixed last spring. So on Wednesday Liz went to see him again at 8:30AM while Jenny and I took the shuttle bus to Main Lodge.
After a Broadway warmup we took the gondola to ski Cornice.
After the storm the natural cornice formed, and the groomers only knocked half of it down for a groomed entry. The entire cornice formed in 2006 when it snowed 280 inches in 40 days in March/April.
We then skied Climax, Dave’s and a couple of runs each on chairs 9 and 5. We first descend into 5 via Triangle, which is more constrained than usual by stunted trees that will be buried after a couple more big storms. After riding chairs 2 and 23, Liz called to say she was finally on the mountain. We skied Wipe Out 1 and met Liz at chair 1. We all returned to 23 and skied Drop Out 3 and Wipe Out 3. Liz and Jenny there:
The chair 23 terrain was still smooth windbuff but a bit less soft than on Tuesday. When we got down to the gondola base this time, Jenny spotted her friends Kara and Peter, who had just arrived in Mammoth, at another lift. Liz and I went up the gondola and traversed past Dave’s to Roma’s, which still had a layer of soft snow on top of the windbuff. Coming back through 5, we also found good snow under the lift on Sanctuary.
I took an extra run on 23 to Paranoid 2 before meeting for lunch at the Mill at 1:30. Snow there was excellent though light was bit flat it was overcast when I was there.
Here’s our lunch group:
Peter, Kara, Barbara (skibum4ever), Liz, Jenny and me
After lunch we took a couple of cruisers on Mambo and Andy’s Double Gold. Peter and Kara live in New York and took up skiing two years ago. They buy Mountain Collective and take a couple of weeks each season among those resorts. Jenny had skied with them on Scotty’s, so I figured they were good for a repeat of the route Liz and I had done at noon. Roma’s:
Next run on Face of 5:
I finished the day with 28,400 vertical.
On Thursday we finally got a car up in time to park in our usual area by Stump Alley. The prior days the lot had been full so we parked at 10. The day started similar to Wednesday,with a couple of groomers, then Cornice and Climax. Jenny and Liz on different lines in Climax:
We took another gondola to Dave’s and Gold Hill, skiing to chair 25. From there we traversed to Shaft. Jenny and Liz on the upper section:
Lower down I had the camera out again but inadvertently dropped its case. It rolled a long way into the trees and I never found it. Not as lucky as Patrick at Big Sky in 2006, but fortunately the case was small and just protective and had no accessories inside.
Jenny left to meet her friends for lunch, while Liz and I skied down to 16 then to 22 again. She skied Viva while I skied Avy2, rejoining for lunch at Canyon Lodge.
After lunch we crossed the mountain to 23, skiing Face of 5 on the way. Chair 23 was windy, but a pleasant side effect was some blown in snow where we skied on Wipe Out 3. We went to the bottom, took the gondola up to ski the backside, where we had not yet skied this season. The direct drop behind the gondola had variable snow with a lot of wind effect. The groomers were the place to be on chair 14 so we took a second lap there before climbing up to Scotty’s and Monument, both of which were excellent like most of the chair 23 runs. Liz was up for an encore so she skied Scotty's again from 23 while I skied Wipe Out 1.
We both skied 24,100 vertical. Liz looked much more on her game today and also took no boot breaks. The Wednesday morning boot fix seems to be settling in, so she’s feeling much better about our extended trips later this season.
Tuesday we got started a bit late. I had to drop Liz at Main Lodge to get her 3rd free day on Mountain Collective. Mammoth’s IT Dept. sadly lags most of the other areas in supporting Mountain Collective. She had to go the window on the other two days for half price also. We did hear that Mammoth intends to catch up with the other places and support direct-to-lift later this season.
After a couple of warmup runs I met Liz at Main Lodge and we soon encountered that line at gondola mid-station. So we headed for Dave’s to get away from the crowds, meeting Rainbow Jenny at the top.
We hit good groomers on chairs 9 and 25, then dropped into chair 5 via Sliver.
We then moved to chair 22 for the first time this season. Riding 22 we saw this cliffed out snowboarder.
On subsequent rides we saw a patroller set a bootpack down to her. We did not see where she went after being escorted up the bootpack.
Jenny and I skied Viva, Avy1 and Grizzly. Avy1 still has some early season choke points halfway down. After one run on Grizzly Liz had some foot pain and took a break. After a run on face of 5, we met at the Mill for lunch.
After lunch the snow on 23 was the highlight of the day, smooth and fairly soft windbuff, almost skied like a groomer on the apron under the lift. The low winter sun backlit the blowing snow on top.
Here’s someone ripping the windbuff on Wipe Out 1.
We skied Drop Out 1, Wipe Out 1 and 2 and Paranoid 1. Jenny there:
Liz skied Drop Out 3 twice before her feet bothered her again.
Jenny and I skied Gravy Chute/Fascination, then Coyote to end the day. I skied 25,700 vertical.
Liz' foot problem was a new one, not related to the ankle pain and cold foot issues which Corti Lawrence at Footloose fixed last spring. So on Wednesday Liz went to see him again at 8:30AM while Jenny and I took the shuttle bus to Main Lodge.
After a Broadway warmup we took the gondola to ski Cornice.
After the storm the natural cornice formed, and the groomers only knocked half of it down for a groomed entry. The entire cornice formed in 2006 when it snowed 280 inches in 40 days in March/April.
We then skied Climax, Dave’s and a couple of runs each on chairs 9 and 5. We first descend into 5 via Triangle, which is more constrained than usual by stunted trees that will be buried after a couple more big storms. After riding chairs 2 and 23, Liz called to say she was finally on the mountain. We skied Wipe Out 1 and met Liz at chair 1. We all returned to 23 and skied Drop Out 3 and Wipe Out 3. Liz and Jenny there:
The chair 23 terrain was still smooth windbuff but a bit less soft than on Tuesday. When we got down to the gondola base this time, Jenny spotted her friends Kara and Peter, who had just arrived in Mammoth, at another lift. Liz and I went up the gondola and traversed past Dave’s to Roma’s, which still had a layer of soft snow on top of the windbuff. Coming back through 5, we also found good snow under the lift on Sanctuary.
I took an extra run on 23 to Paranoid 2 before meeting for lunch at the Mill at 1:30. Snow there was excellent though light was bit flat it was overcast when I was there.
Here’s our lunch group:
Peter, Kara, Barbara (skibum4ever), Liz, Jenny and me
After lunch we took a couple of cruisers on Mambo and Andy’s Double Gold. Peter and Kara live in New York and took up skiing two years ago. They buy Mountain Collective and take a couple of weeks each season among those resorts. Jenny had skied with them on Scotty’s, so I figured they were good for a repeat of the route Liz and I had done at noon. Roma’s:
Next run on Face of 5:
I finished the day with 28,400 vertical.
On Thursday we finally got a car up in time to park in our usual area by Stump Alley. The prior days the lot had been full so we parked at 10. The day started similar to Wednesday,with a couple of groomers, then Cornice and Climax. Jenny and Liz on different lines in Climax:
We took another gondola to Dave’s and Gold Hill, skiing to chair 25. From there we traversed to Shaft. Jenny and Liz on the upper section:
Lower down I had the camera out again but inadvertently dropped its case. It rolled a long way into the trees and I never found it. Not as lucky as Patrick at Big Sky in 2006, but fortunately the case was small and just protective and had no accessories inside.
Jenny left to meet her friends for lunch, while Liz and I skied down to 16 then to 22 again. She skied Viva while I skied Avy2, rejoining for lunch at Canyon Lodge.
After lunch we crossed the mountain to 23, skiing Face of 5 on the way. Chair 23 was windy, but a pleasant side effect was some blown in snow where we skied on Wipe Out 3. We went to the bottom, took the gondola up to ski the backside, where we had not yet skied this season. The direct drop behind the gondola had variable snow with a lot of wind effect. The groomers were the place to be on chair 14 so we took a second lap there before climbing up to Scotty’s and Monument, both of which were excellent like most of the chair 23 runs. Liz was up for an encore so she skied Scotty's again from 23 while I skied Wipe Out 1.
We both skied 24,100 vertical. Liz looked much more on her game today and also took no boot breaks. The Wednesday morning boot fix seems to be settling in, so she’s feeling much better about our extended trips later this season.
