Mammoth, May 23-25, 2009

[Tony Crocker]

I decided to return to Mammoth for Memorial weekend rather than sometime in June. Mammoth runs both the gondola and chair 23 for the holiday weekend, while 23 was closed from April 20 - May 22 and the gondola is down for annual maintenance starting today. Chair 2 is also done for the season starting today even though it has enough snow to run another week or so. So there are some signs of the economy dictating fewer lifts running than is some past late seasons, but I'm confident this will not apply to Memorial weekend. There were lots of people there, as some of my pics will show, and while I never waited for more than a couple of minutes in a line, there were few empty chairs going up the hill.

The other question was how much damage a week+ of sustained heat had done to the snow. In terms of surface conditions the smooth packed surface of 2 weeks ago held up quite well. The aprons below the top runs were still decent though they would of course soften faster than the steeps above them. There was not much suncupping on the upper mountain. The face of chair 5 did get suncupped except for one skier packed fall line down Sanctuary.

The heat has taken down the snow depth quite a bit though. The sign at the top of the gondola has lost 3-4 feet of base in the past 2 weeks. The choke of Hangman's is now blocked, somewhat surprising as I've skied it in mid-June or July a few times. They groomed Scotty's and maintained Roadrunner through this past weekend to reach it. But the direct route from 23 to Scotty's down Skyline ridge has lost its snow, and the entrance to Hump/Wipe Out 2 was getting rock-exposed yesterday. So from now on Wipe Out 1 will be the only access to any upper runs on the skier's left of chair 23. So even though this weekend's skiing was great, I see almost no chance for July 4th this year.

The heat wave as predicted moderated some going into the weekend. But some of that was due to thunderstorm activity Friday and Saturday. I heard that on Friday the storms got going midday and forced the mountain to close around noon. On Saturday there were some clouds near the ski area, but the storms were farther southeast, where Andrew and I encountered them on an afternoon hike above Rock Creek Lake.

Saturday morning I was on the mountain before 8AM and the NE exposures had already softened. I hit Cornice at 8:30 and Climax to face of 5 just after 9AM. Then Dave's/5 again and another Cornice before meeting SoCal while I was skiing chair 23. I tried Monument about 11AM but it was already past its prime. Since this was the first day in over a month for chair 23, most of those runs started out smooth, with Drop Out 1 and Wipe Out 2 skiing nearly as well as 2 weeks ago. Drop Out 2 was somewhat unconsolidated Saturday, but skied better Sunday after some skier packing. Wipe Out 1 had the most bumps up top Saturday. I finished at 11:30AM with 20,800 and then left for the Rock Creek hike.

With the opening of chair 23, quite a few people skiing Drop Out here:

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Also both Wipe Outs:

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[socal]

Not much to add, Tony summed it up pretty well. Some pictures below:

Me on Wipeout 1 at about noon or so on Sunday. Things softened considerably later on Sunday. There was a pretty good breeze and it some stuff actually seemed to have frozen over night. We got out at about 8am on Sunday but things down low were just too hard to ski, we hung out in the lodge for about an hour and everything skied great later in the morning/afternoon


Think this is the ride up Stump Alley [that's St. Anton, TC] first thing on Saturday


Some thuderstorm clouds that never quite made it to Mammoth on Saturday


View of Mammoth from 395


Still good coverage down at Main Lodge


Looking up from the bottom of Chair 23


Made it out to Yosemite on Sunday afternoon. Pretty sure this is Half Dome

[Tony Crocker]

I got a later start ~8:35AM Sunday as Andrew was with me, snowboarding for the only time this season. The weather was the most cooperative of the 3 days. It was a clear night so some freezing, and a light but steady breeze similar to May 9 to spread out the softening process. Andrew looked comfortable right away snowboarding on Stump Alley, and he got in 3+ hours on chairs 1 & 2 before stopping around noon.

Meanwhile I met about 11 Mammoth Forum people at mid-station at 9AM. This was a large group because 20+ people met that afternoon/evening for a potluck barbecue hosted by a Forum couple living in Mammoth. About 6 of us took another warmup on Stump before heading up top. After Cornice we moved to chair 23 and ran 2 laps choosing either groomed Scotty's or Monument, which I knew would be good with the morning sun exposure.

Here's Miles (with whom I skied some of the May 7 powder day 4 years ago) on the upper part of Monument.

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And here's Elise farther down with the Sierra north of chair 12 in background.

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Next up the gondola to Climax, where we're regrouping here.

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Miles waiting farther skier's right on Climax with view to Crowley Lake and the White Mountains.

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We moved on to the skier packed line on the face of chair 5, which has been closed since April 20 but they were still grooming the Comeback Trail and part of Solitude.

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View from the top of chair 2. Lots of people on Cornice, Saddle Bowl and waiting for the spring halfpipe. The small rocks in the choke of Hangman's don't show up well at this resolution.

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View from mid-station where we got a quick snack around noon.

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After one run on Drop Out only Miles and I of the Forum group continued skiing until about 1:45. But with the overnight freeze and breezy morning the upper steeps were at their best midday. Here's Miles in Drop Out 2.

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Along with Wipe Out 1 & 2 we skied Gravy Chute to Fascination before calling it a day. 21,700.

[Tony Crocker]

Monday I was on the hill by 8:15. It was sunny like Sunday but no wind, so softening occurred closer to Saturday's timetable. 7 Mammoth Forum people met at the sign at 9AM. We skied Broadway, face of 3, Cornice, then up 3 again to Christmas Bowl and Coyote, which also have that NE tilt into the spring morning sun. Up 23 to Scotty's/Monument about 10:15AM. After the next lap through Climax, face of 5 everyone else was done by 11AM. I persisted with Drop Out, which had good snow but was more work after considerable bumps had grown with 3 days of traffic. Last run up top I dropped in at Monument but traversed over to Paranoid 1. This line was smooth and skied very well despite only a little bit of skier packing.

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I was getting tired but I knew it would be worth running 2 easy laps through the race courses which had been roped off until 11AM. World Cup had perfect ripe corn and the lower runs on Far West and Ralphy's were still in good shape too. I quit at noon with another 21,200.

[snowboard247]

this weekend was great fun up on the mountain. Skied cornice/mjb's & climax most of the weekend. Face of 3 wasn't too shabby either.

[skibum4ever]

Today was quite nice at Mammoth. We started about 8 am and the mountain was pretty firm. Only Chairs 1, 3, and 23 were running and we got a parking spot very close to Main Lodge. Went immediately from Chair 1 to 3 and the back of 3 was bullet proof for the first half where it is in the shade. Skied a couple of runs down to 1 via the various race courses which were open. Then the Face of 3 which was already getting pretty soft. Up to Cornice for about 4 runs. No moguls due to lack of people but by 10 am it was already softening.

Gremlin's Gulch into St. Anton and World Cup into Terry's were closed in the morning and made for a couple of fairly firm hours of skiing once they opened up. Not too many people riding out past Scotty's toward the Noids. Not too many people anywhere. Makes me wonder how many tickets were actually sold today!

It was fun being the only 2 people on some of the runs! Quit about 12:30 as everything was pretty soft by then.

Tomorrow we will (hopefully) get on the mountain earlier and get up to Cornice when it is in prime condition.

[snowboard247]

Not too many people anywhere. Makes me wonder how many tickets were actually sold today!

380 people on the hill today, 214 of those people being ticket purchasers.

[Tony Crocker]

380 people on the hill today, 214 of those people being ticket purchasers.

Would you have those figures for Sunday, probably the busiest day of the weekend?

[socal]

A bit off topic, but on the way back from Mammoth on Monday we rented some ATV's just north of Mojave in Jawbone Station. $80 for 2 hrs, lot's of fun and not too hot. Well worth missing some time on the slopes.



The aqueduct runs right through the area you ride.

[Tony Crocker]

Jawbone is one of the canyons where the aqueduct must be enclosed so that pressure from descending the canyon will force it up the other side. I have not seen any of those places before.

I suspect next year the green light that seems to follow Tony wherever he goes will disappear.

Hopefully some progress today. I had been reluctant to part with the camera since it was gone over a month last time. But this time I was referred to a repair shop in Pasadena instead of sending it to Canon in Illinois. The repair shop says the CCD needs to be replaced, and it will be back in a week. The CCD was damaged by impact, and it is somewhat of a mystery since the China pics last summer were OK yet as soon as I started ski season the green/yellow tint problem started. The repair guy thought the camera might have had a second impact sometime but I have no idea when that might have been.

I have also ordered a new Canon SX10 IS for this summer's Far East trip. The 20X zoom to 560mm film equivalent is exactly the right size for eclipse pics. We'll see how good the IS is, since both this year's and next year's eclipses will be viewed from cruise ships but are long eclipses (6+ and 4 minutes) allowing time for pics as well as viewing. The ultracompact camera will continue to see most duty for skiing, hiking, etc. Before going to the repair shop I verified that there are still no new ultracompact cameras with wide angle and viewfinder.

[Admin]

I have also ordered a new Canon SX10 IS for this summer's Far East trip. The 20X zoom to 560mm film equivalent is exactly the right size for eclipse pics.

I could be wrong, but I thought that digital camera CCDs were prone to damage from anything more than momentary exposure to pointing directly at the sun.

[Patrick]

I have also ordered a new Canon SX10 IS for this summer's Far East trip. The 20X zoom to 560mm film equivalent is exactly the right size for eclipse pics.

I could be wrong, but I thought that digital camera CCDs were prone to damage from anything more than momentary exposure to pointing directly at the sun.

D'oh... Back to the drawing board.

* I'm just kidding, I haven't looked into the pros and cons of digitals camera.

[Admin]

Details:
http://www.panoramio.com/forum/viewtopi ... 6e090e9428

[socal]

Jawbone is one of the canyons where the aqueduct must be enclosed so that pressure from descending the canyon will force it up the other side. I have not seen any of those places before.

Yeah, I assume that it's so they can pressurize the water to get up and over the hills in that area. There's actually 2 pipes, white and black that you can see out there (and go under or over). Both say something on the side that tells you to be careful that there's extremely high pressure.

[snowboard247]

380 people on the hill today, 214 of those people being ticket purchasers.

Would you have those figures for Sunday, probably the busiest day of the weekend?

Saturday 3052, 936 tickets
Sunday 3802, 878 tickets
Monday 1990, 552 tickets.

Really is true that its mostly pass holders as the season starts to wind down.

As for the 3-day weekend
The mountain budgeted for 5601 skiers/riders, and 8844 showed up, 58% more than expected!