Mammoth Mountain, CA (Tuesday, January 3, 2006) -

Mammoth Mountain skiers dig their cars out from a stowstorm that blanketed the California ski and snowboard resort with eight feet of snow in a 36-hour period. (photo: Mammoth Mountain)

Mother Nature started the New Year off with a bang at Mammoth Mountain Ski Area. A total of eight feet of snow fell on Mammoth in a 36 hour period. The powerful storm brought light, dry snow in enormous quantities to the California ski and snowboard resort.

The storm came to an end late Monday evening. At it's heaviest, snow was falling at a rate of four to six inches per hour. Mountain operators worked around the clock to clear roads, dig out chair lifts and pack down the snow.

"The biggest challenge with this storm is the fact that the snow is light and very deep," said Clifford Mann, Director of Mountain Operations at Mammoth Mountain. "We use snowmobiles and snowcats for mountain access but it has been difficult to drive machines on this light snow." Mammoth's grooming fleet of 15 snowcats, along with Ski Patrol worked together to get the slopes prepared for skiers and snowboarders on Tuesday. Sixteen lifts are expected to operate today.

It looks like all that fresh snow will stay light and dry with temperatures in the low 20's on Tuesday morning under blue skies. The New Years Storm, along with other recent storms have set Mammoth up for incredible conditions and another long season. Mammoth currently has a ten- to twelve-foot base, currently the deepest base of any ski area in the United States.