These 2 days were classic Mammoth wind effect. There were strong prevailing winds over the Sierra Crest, keeping the top closed until noon Monday and 11AM Tuesday. Riding chairs I was blasted in the face most of the rides on chairs 2 and 16, and with intermittent wind exposure on chairs 1, 3 and 5. The Canyon Lodge side was sheltered from the wind, and with east exposure and temps in the 30's that area was mostly spring conditions. The good news is that the wind combined with a couple of inches new snow to produce widespread soft, dry windsifted conditions over most of the alpine terrain. So I spent most of the morning on chair 3
and chair 5.
From 5 I had a nice view of the enticing but not yet open upper mountain.
I moved to chair 22, where it was warmer. Snow was bumpier but soft and did not feel like it had been through a melt freeze above the catwalk leading to the top of chair 8.
I was going to head for lunch when I noticed the top had opened, so postponed that for an hour. First skiers up top:
I first skied the less tracked area between Cornice and the Drop Outs, then Paranoid 2.
After lunch I skied Hangman's. The part above the throat has ledges, so it was survival skiing, but it was soft and smooth past the crux. Then over to Dave's, which was good, and chair 9, less so. Ricochet had inconsistent wind-affected snow reminiscent of my recent Chugach experience.
I did not realize Garry Klassen was at Mammoth this week until I called him Monday night. We met at chair 5 Tuesday morning after I had a few warmups on the Main Lodge side, and he advised me that the windsift was exceptionally good in Avalanche 2. So we skied that 3 times.
With the deep snowpack I took the opportunity to ski variations, the chute center left in the second picture (soft snow blown off) and the chute upper right in the third picture (very soft where it opens up). FYI the Main Lodge snowpack is now at sundeck level, a preliminary indicator that Mammoth might have another July 4 closing date.
Garry has a new GoPro camera. I'm not sure how long before he'll try editing/posting online.
After lunch we skied Climax, Drop Out 2 and Wipe Out. An exploratory foray down Roadrunner was sandblasted by 50+ MPH winds at the top. So we returned to the frontside via chair 13.
My cold was on the downside and still bothering me at at night, but minimally while I was skiing. I skied 25,400 on Monday and 25,300 on Tuesday. The windsifted snow was very forgiving and required not that much effort. At full strength I could have run up some big verticals with that snow midweek.
and chair 5.
From 5 I had a nice view of the enticing but not yet open upper mountain.
I moved to chair 22, where it was warmer. Snow was bumpier but soft and did not feel like it had been through a melt freeze above the catwalk leading to the top of chair 8.
I was going to head for lunch when I noticed the top had opened, so postponed that for an hour. First skiers up top:
I first skied the less tracked area between Cornice and the Drop Outs, then Paranoid 2.
After lunch I skied Hangman's. The part above the throat has ledges, so it was survival skiing, but it was soft and smooth past the crux. Then over to Dave's, which was good, and chair 9, less so. Ricochet had inconsistent wind-affected snow reminiscent of my recent Chugach experience.
I did not realize Garry Klassen was at Mammoth this week until I called him Monday night. We met at chair 5 Tuesday morning after I had a few warmups on the Main Lodge side, and he advised me that the windsift was exceptionally good in Avalanche 2. So we skied that 3 times.
With the deep snowpack I took the opportunity to ski variations, the chute center left in the second picture (soft snow blown off) and the chute upper right in the third picture (very soft where it opens up). FYI the Main Lodge snowpack is now at sundeck level, a preliminary indicator that Mammoth might have another July 4 closing date.
Garry has a new GoPro camera. I'm not sure how long before he'll try editing/posting online.
After lunch we skied Climax, Drop Out 2 and Wipe Out. An exploratory foray down Roadrunner was sandblasted by 50+ MPH winds at the top. So we returned to the frontside via chair 13.
My cold was on the downside and still bothering me at at night, but minimally while I was skiing. I skied 25,400 on Monday and 25,300 on Tuesday. The windsifted snow was very forgiving and required not that much effort. At full strength I could have run up some big verticals with that snow midweek.