Mammoth Ski and Tioga Drive, July 30, 2017

Tony Crocker

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Our main objective for this trip is to raft the Tuolumne River in the high water from the 2016-17 snowpack. But we go through Mammoth on the way in and way out.

Overall Sunday's skiing (16,900 vertical) exceeded expectations. Spring snow surfaces in particular were good, with snow becoming sticky only at the immediate approaches to chair loading areas. Overview as the gondola approached McCoy Station:
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Only Climax is skiable from the upper gondola.
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View down:
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Liz skiing Climax:
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The upper part of Climax is wide open, but there are 4 narrow slots through a reemerging rock band about 2/3 of the way down. I skied three of those.

Cornice is only accessible from Chair 23. Viewed from the lift, Upper St. Anton and Gremlin's Gulch are wide open groomers from the blow-in and avalanche deposition during the winter.
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Saddle Bowl is wide until the merge with face of 3. Below that is a strip past the base of chair 3 and McCoy Station.

Skiers on Drop Out 3:
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I skied 3 runs there plus one on Drop Out 1.

Looking down Drop Out 3 toward McCoy Station:
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From the same spot, here's the view down St. Anton, where a strip to chair 1 was maintained until July 16.
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Liz at top of Cornice:
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The traverse beyond leads to a couple of skier packed lines bordered by deep suncups.

The most WROD-like strip is at the top of the Face of 3.
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But there is plenty of elbow room below that.
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We skied from about 8:15-11:45. I'm fairly hopeful that these same runs will still be skiable when we return next Thursday.
 
Inn the afternoon we drove over Tioga Pass to Groveland, which is the base for Tuolumne River trips and which conveniently has had a Tesla supercharger since late 2016. The buildings at the Tioga resort just east of the pass sustained structural damage from last winter's snow and thus the resort is closed this summer.
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We took a short excursion out the mostly gravel road to Saddlebag Lake. The small resort there was also damaged by the winter. Here is what's left of the dock and boathouse.
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They used to ferry hikers 2 miles to the far end of Saddlebag Lake.

There are ski tracks on this easy access snow patch on the far side of the dam.
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There is much more backcountry snow west of the dam.
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We walked across the dam. The reputed 17-foot snowpack bent these rails.
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Zoomed backcountry viewed from the dam.
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We had another quick stop in Tuolumne Meadows. Wildflowers there:
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There was heavy overcast in the Yosemite high country. We had a thundershower around 5PM driving through the Yosemite Creek/White Wolf area.
 
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