Mammoth, CA May 10-11, 2023

tseeb

Well-known member
Wednesday (corrected) 5/10
@Tony Crocker gave me another great Spring tour of Mammoth although conditions were not what he expected in a few places. Our first time down Dave's, snow turned very abruptly from never been melted Winter to soft Spring. Dropout Chute skied well although flatter area at bottom needed to be skied more and smoothed out while Wipeout was great in most places but had been scraped down to very firm and shiny old layer in some places. Gravy Chute is so filled in that big rock usually at bottom cannot be seen. Tony Crocker in Gravy.
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Run of the day that I repeated a few times was Andy's Double Gold. Fascination next to it was also good. Best snow of the day was the apron below the choke on Hangman's which along with Climax, we skied once. After afternoon break, we skied Dave's again and conditions had changed. It was sunny, then it looked like clouds had covered the sun for the rest of the afternoon, then sun came out again. And it had re-frozen. Tony Crocker was waiting in sun for Liz to get in then ended up skiing it when shaded by clouds.
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Liz had partial then full sun. She traversed across Daves to well covered Rock Garden. We planned to do face behind her the next day.
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While getting my skis off the rack after a short break on Main Lodge deck, Glenn Plake started taking to me about Mustang Powder after seeing the sticker on my helmet. I almost didn't recognize him with a hat covering his Mohawk. Then I noticed guy sitting on one pole
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while standing on his ski tips. He did it for 10 mins. Not sure I could do it at all. I skied from just after 830 until 320 and SkiTracks counted 7’ under 30K.


Thursday (corrected this one too) 5/11
Tony Crocker, Liz and I started not much after 830 and skied chair 2 runs at least 4 times as they had some firmness even though it was warmer than previous day and there was no wind. We moved to chair 3 and planned to ski Coyote, but I missed it twice. The first time I stopped at a tree to left of run where I ended up on a steep face that skied OK as long as I stayed out of shade from trees. On next lap I found mdf at base of chair 3 and led him and Liz too far right and we ended up skiing sunny left side of Dry Creek which was softer earlier than on previous day. We went up upper Gondola with him and ran into Kirk/mountain_monster and Bob Yoder, who skied Mustang 35 times and sold me Blizzard Spurs that I could have used there this year, but didn’t as binding had not been adjusted and checked. We all skied steep face between Rock Garden and Huezos Grande (from previous days photo) except Bob skied Huevos from top. mdf/Mike from Boston area on Climax.
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The middle of the rest of the day is somewhat of a blur, especially without SkiTracks to review where I went, skiing fast on race course runs once they opened to public, plus skiing Wipeout 2 and Paranoid no. 2, Gravy Chute with Liz and a few laps on lower race course runs. @Tony Crocker entering and in Hangman's
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Tony and I skied Hangman’s then he got me into the top of Huevos Grande, something he said I should try to do as it’s rarely got coverage. He took easier entrance, then after skiing it had a crash in soft snow in flats getting to chair 5 which was stopped. Then, after a few false starts, chair 5 where we were headed, and which still had very good snow, went on maintenance hold, so he quit for the day. I rode chair 10 and did not find very good snow as it was mostly too soft although lower Dry Creek was OK. I rode chairs 2 and 23 and skied Drop Out 2 that still had good snow with some firmness. I quit at 330 with 31K, counted by new to me Avocet Vertech watch. Tony in Huevos at 240.
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I broke up my return to So. Tahoe with stop at Travertine Hot Springs, 1.5 mostly dirt miles E of 395 just S of Bridgeport. I went into what I was told was only developed spring without mud bottom. It was very warm, probably over 105 degrees. After soaking up to my waist, I got out and was soaking my feet when most of the water drained out of it as drain plug must have been dislodged by new guest. Then I walked about 1000 ft to where there were about 3 more pools (they continue around corner to right) with even better views.
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Tomorrow will be Liz' 42nd ski day, 11 days before the knee replacement.
although conditions were not what he expected in a few places.
Wednesday was a close to ideal spring transition scenario. On the first warm and sunny day after new snow, many areas with winter snow ski well all day even though they may be refrozen the next morning. This usually happens within a week of new snow anytime in SoCal, but is generally an April scenario at Mammoth. In May the sun is more intense, so we enjoyed smooth corn groomers below along with the winter snow on the upper steeps. As for those upper steeps: Climax was packed powder upper half, a short section still firm, then soft spring snow on the lesser pitched runout, about what I would expect.
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Dave's midday, as Tseeb said, had the steep packed powder, with no firm section before the spring snow. Drop Out was great on the steeps but slightly crunchy on the entire runout. Wipe Out an hour later had a smoother runout but there were patches of frozen granular on the steeps where last week's 10 inches had been scraped away. Hangman's had its usual intimidating ledges and bumps above the choke, but below the choke was the best snow of the day.
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Dave's, which had no hard snow midday, was entirely in partial refreeze mode at 3PM. Liz traversed the entire width of Dave's and found Rockgarden's snow still soft.
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As for the corn, there were a lot of runs used by racers in the morning: Gremlin's, St. Anton, World Cup, Terry's, Andy's, Fascination, Ralphie's. The racers were done about 11:30, and with a high around 40F and light breeze, those runs sustained prime corn well past 2PM.

I took a lot of pictures of the still record snowpack, even though it's 4-5 feet less deep than on our last trip April 2-4.

View up chair 3 to the top:
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Liz and Tseeb on Upper Dry Creek:
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The open slope (lots of buried trees, usually narrower) dropping in from the left is Triangle, consistently good every day on this trip.

We took the front view of the guy sitting on his ski pole.
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Mammoth's electronic map in the background was almost buried in April.

Third floor sundeck at Main Lodge:
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This is 4+ feet lower than in April but still a foot or two higher than I've seen in past big seasons.

Competition halfpipe in Unbound park:
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A few blocks above the village this sign couldn't handle the weight of the massive snowpack.
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I finally found the Mammoth storm summaries online from the Sesame snow plot near Main Lodge. Hit the plus sign on the "Snow and Avalanche" line on this page.

2022-23 had max snowpack of 281.5 inches on March 30. Snowpack is now 183 inches.
2016-17 had max snowpack of 210 inches on Feb. 20 but it was still 200 on Apr. 19, 159 on May 8 and 102 on May 31.
2010-11 had max snowpack of 213 inches on Mar. 25 and 149 mid-April. But May was cold with 3 feet new snow and a May 30 base of 115 inches.
 
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Thursday was a full on spring day but a very good one. Snow softened about 1.5 hours earlier than on Wednesday, but never got sticky where we were skiing until close to 3PM. There was no more winter snow so timing of runs was based upon altitude/exposure. Tseeb is here in Rockgarden which we skied late morning via the broad east face looker’s left of the top rock.

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Huevos Grande is the steep north face looker’s right.

Midday Tseeb observes as mdf drops into Climax.

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Upper Climax was good but about halfway down most the snow turned to mashed potatoes. Sign Line skier’s left was skier packed and skied well.

When we came out of Climax the racers were done so we skied Gremlin’s and St. Anton in smooth corn to chair 1. We seized the day for 4 more runs ther2453e on freshly opened Terry’s, Andy’s, Fascination and Ralphie’s.

Tseeb and I then went up top to Hangman’s.

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We moved to chair 23 where I was curious to check out the Paranoids.

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The Paranoids are the most sheltered top runs for collecting powder and windsift, but they are difficult skiing right after a warmup and need several days to settle out into corn.

While riding chair 23 we noticed this total eclipse snowboard.

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It is made by a Canadian company Yes.

Tseeb and I took a final gondola. Here he is dropping into Huevos.

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It was about 2:45 and Tseeb’s turns there were a bit noisy. My legs were a bit cooked so I decided to be prudent and ski the same east face as in the morning and cut back under Huevos, which is how it is skied in most seasons when the steep entry is not covered.

As Tseeb mentioned I crashed cutting a flat ungroomed corner too fast on the way to chair 5. So after a nice finish on Triangle I called it a day with 27,700 vertical. Wednesday I skied 25,900 vertical, and these were 2 of my 3 highest vertical days of this season, the other one being 27,100 on our last day at Serre Chevalier.
 
Nice pictures from Mammoth guys!

Lots of snow here in Utah still, but conditions have not really set up for ideal spring ski conditions. It's almost too cool or too hot, rather than that perfect medium. Still, today 5/15/23 at Solitude was quite nice from 9 AM to noon. Then I took an apres-ski photo in honor of @tseeb .
This is from the top porch of the Moonbeam Lodge:
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I've skied 8 out of the last 12 days. Kind of going into my finishing kick. Expecting to return East in early June. The trio of ski areas staying open extra late this spring in Utah; Snowbird, Solitude and Brighton worked out very well for my combination of passes (Snowbird and Ikon base). While Snowbird went to weekends (Fri-Sun) only starting today, Soli and Brighton are still offering limited, but daily skiing until May 21 (Soli) and May 29 (Brighton). So I have some options seven days a week through May. Snowbird is likely to do some June weekends and there's a good bet they will aim to be open for 4th of July. But I don't plan to stick around that long.
 
I broke up my return to So. Tahoe with stop at Travertine Hot Springs, 1.5 mostly dirt miles E of 395 just S of Bridgeport. I went into what I was told was only developed spring without mud bottom. It was very warm, probably over 105 degrees. After soaking up to my waist, I got out and was soaking my feet when most of the water drained out of it as drain plug must have been dislodged by new guest. Then I walked about 1000 ft to where there were about 3 more pools (they continue around corner to right) with even better views.

Was not aware of these springs. Who maintains or fills the pools?

I have only been to a few around the North Tahoe basin.
 
Travertine Hot Springs is on Forest Service Land. There is a bathroom and signs saying no overnight camping at springs. A lot more info and some better pictures at https://www.wedreamoftravel.com/travertine-hot-springs/

This is where hot spring comes out of ground. Rocks are placed to control the flow.
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You can see some of the channels with rocks directing the water.
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This is after water level went down, probably because somebody knocked out a drain plug. My wife and I spent a night in Bridgeport many years ago after a few nights camping at very warm Lake Tulloch. No way would she have gone into these hot springs. I felt like I needed a shower after it this time. Sunrise may be best time to avoid crowds.
 
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