Mammoth, Jan. 4-9, 2026
- Thread starter socal
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ChrisC
Well-known member
It looks like you could work your way over to Main Lodge and back to Canyon by 10 am or so. Was the lower mountain just jammed with holiday crowds?
Despite the Sierra getting nice snow, Mammoth and Tahoe areas all had operational issues with upper mountain lifts and stormy, windy weather. And Tahoe had unfortunate, detrimental rain at elevations up to 8.5k ft on some days. Kirkwood looks like it had the best holiday period of any Tahoe-area resort.
Thought about it but just figured we would tough it out today. Wife wasn’t feeling well on Friday so we planned to drive up Sunday but she felt better yesterday and we toughed it out and got in later in the evening. Today was a bonus day. I got a handful of fun laps off eagle under the closed chair 25 that were fun. Skiing off Rollercoaster was fun but the line for Schoolyard coupled with so many stops got everyone really cold by the time we got over there.
Family trip. I did 4 laps of the untracked over by 25 to end the day with no line for Eagle, where we are staying , video below.
Link to a video
I meant to reply to this yesterday. I think Canyon Express was close due to avalanche danger from Lincoln. They had everything on that side closed, you couldn't even go that direction off of Rollercoaster. Seems like they're being really conservative with stability on Lincoln which makes sense. Unfortunately no 3, 5, 22, or 23 again today which is disappointing given it's sunny and blue skies, but a bit windy. I'd have assumed they'd get them open later today.
Making the best of our trip, but the family doesn't want to head to June today....hopefully a lot of the crowds went home yesterday.
Inertia. I get it. I have 7 days lifetime at June vs. 479 at Mammoth.
snowtrekker
Member
Enter the often-overlooked Chair 7, which we used to access Rollercoaster and beyond while Schoolyard (17) had 20 minute lines Sunday.
This was a good move, particularly once 10 opened. Without that, the return to Canyon takes 3 lifts, which makes the trek quite time consuming if you have commitments at Canyon (ski school, meet-ups, etc).
snowtrekker
Member
End of day conditions were quite good. This storm had a rare combination (for mammoth) of consistent heavy snowfall and relatively light winds.
Glad to hear they got all of Lincoln open. Hopefully the pace continues and you get some terrain expansions each day.
We drove Tuesday afternoon, hit Sherwin Grade around sunset. Cloud bank below White Mountains:
About 10 minutes later, view of Mammoth, Minarets and another cloud bank:
SoCal was far from the only one on a school holiday week at Mammoth. The town was very busy at dinnertime, and when we got to the hill at 9AM Wednesday we had to park at chair 4. Another holiday trademark was that base area lifts like Eagle and Stump Alley had lines while upper lifts had few.
The weather may had some influence on the lines. Wind blasted in your face (maybe 40mph) the entire rides of chair 3 and 5, with similar gusts near the top of chairs 2 and 16. However only chair 9 was closed.
From 4 we rode 5, starting with China Bowl.
This was the first of several pockets of deposition from those strong SW winds.
Back up 5, we skied Quicksilver to 25. Ungroomed snow in this south facing area felt a bit crunchy. Nonetheless Liz opted for the Sunshine glades, which took her awhile in those conditions. I traversed farther to east facing Grizzly, where snow was softer but also bumpy from being worked over after last weekend’s storm. View from Grizzly down to Crowley Lake:
I needed a few suck wind breaks and my legs were fatigued by the time I got down to the top of chair 8. Liz and I never connected the rest of the day aside from texts. I skied a quiet cruiser down to chair 15 which had as much of a line (only 5+ minutes as a single though) as I’ve ever seen there when Mammoth is fully open. I skied to Canyon, rode 16 and 5 to get to the upper gondola.
Up top I tried Climax, where you can see a long fracture line from last weekend’s storm.
Snow under that was smooth, but there were hardpacked patches so I had to ski defensively.
I continued down into Triangle, which had outstanding windsift, then to the Mill, planning to return to the top. But chair 2 was stopping and running slowly (I suspected wind based on my rides on 5 and 16), so I used Gold Rush and 5 to return to the gondola. First I skied more windsift on Face of 3 and West Bowl. Cornice was firm at the top but wind refreshers kept its mid and lower sections smooth despite skier traffic. I skied to 23 via Gremlin’s which I knew would have more windsift.
From 23 I tried the Paranoids, hoping for powder leftovers. The steep upper part had been heavily blasted and so had chunky snow. The mid-section was smoother, and below the rocks Bark Bowl had wind deposition.
I was quite tired and so took the gondola, planning perhaps to ski off the backside where Liz was considering. But in the gondola one person raved about how good his runs on Dave’s and Rockgarden had been, and warned that predicted upslope winds might degrade them tomorrow.
So I thought I should ski those. One of the big storms built a drift requiring a steeper uphill to reach Dave’s, so I started with Rockgarden. It had surprisingly good coverage for the current snow pack level, but the surface was stiff chalk with some sastrugi patches to get around. I returned to the upper gondola, then persisted to Dave’s, which lived up to its billing with soft snow. Gold Hill’s snow was good too, so I diverted there, then rode 25 to get to 5. Riding the lift I could see that Sanctuary was the longest windsift run on the hill, so I had to do that before on more run on part of Face of 5 before cutting off to reach the top of 4 so I could get to the car. From there, here is the 3:15 view to the top.
That cloud was on the top of Dave’s when I was there but visibility was adequate where I dropped in. When Liz was in the gondola it looked worse so she bailed out at McCoy Station. I skied 22,700 vertical.
The only part of Thursday’s weather forecast that was correct was the colder temperatures. It never got over about 15F. Meanwhile the forecasters said there was a weak storm but that it was unlikely to get south of Tahoe. We were pleasantly surprised by the report of 3-7 inches, and with SW winds it was more than that in many places.
In the morning the catch was the top was completely socked in. Lower groomers like Stump Alley were of course much softer than Wednesday, particularly since we were on the hill just before 9AM. Parking was much easier because chain control probably deterred some drivers. We skied similar snow on Mambo and Forest Trail, then a bit deeper on Terry’s and Agee’s from chair 1.
This was a surprising sight.
I have never seen snowmaking on at Mammoth once a typical winter snowpack has formed. There were maybe 6 or 7 of them and they were all aimed at the Unbound terrain park and ran all day long. Mammoth has in the past hosted Olympic snowboard trials, so that’s my guess: they need to build some huge jumps by later this month.
The cloud lifted a little bit so we moved to chair 3. Even though the new snow looked choppy, it skied very soft due the wind deposited base below it. It was worth 3 runs on the Face, West Bowl and under the chair. I wanted to move to 5 and was surprised to see back of 3 still roped off. But we still got there via Rooster Tail.
We had good powder in Triangle but needed a break at the Mill, arriving 11:15 to beat the lunch crunch. Heading out via Gold Rush we noticed that people were diverting off Solitude and skiing toward still closed chair 9. We next did that but did not stop with Gold Hill as I had done Tuesday.
We got this nice stash of stunted trees.
Liz is barely visible in this zoomed pic but fresh tracks had higher priority than the photo op. After another traverse we got under chair 9 and got more powder starting with the area looker’s left of the rock band.
We took 25 and cruised around past the top of 15 to Canyon. This was the time I thought I should take socal’s advice and try an Avy chute. The snow in Avy2 was so forgiving that I was able to ski the steeps nonstop and traverse in to the lower bowl between Avy2 and Avy3 before taking a suck wind break. Powder in that lower bowl was good. View of Avy2 and 3 from chair 4:
From Canyon we noticed that the clouds had broken, so maybe the top might open. Liz was ahead of me while I was skiing chair 22. She checked at McCoy, saw a big line and skied to the gondola at the bottom. By the time I got down there, I could see the line down the stairs and outside, so I used 1 and 23 (10-minute singles line) to get to the top.
With the clearing skies the upslope winds finally arrived, fortunately confined to the top of the mountain. So I prefer to drop in ASAP to get out of that. In the case of chair 23 I hit the jackpot choosing Wipe Out 2. It was smooth and sufficiently effortless that I only needed one rest stop before the merge into St. Anton down below.
My final run was bottom to top gondola. I got out if the wind up there dropping into Climax. It had been skied quite a bit by 3PM but turns in the clumps of now snow were still pretty good with one conspicuous exception concealing rocks. Fortunately neither the skis nor I sustained damage. I skied to the car via another soft Triangle/Dry Creek run. My total Thursday was 24,900 vertical, about 5K of powder.
Pics are a bit sparse as I was not often inclined to remove gloves. I had liners on by 10AM. Meanwhile Liz was trying out her battery gloves Christmas present, a worthy experiment that only lasted 4 hours Thursday. So when she got up top, it was 2:30PM and the batteries were exhausted. She skied to top of Cornice where more people were bailing out than dropping in. So she skied Roadrunner all the way down. She would have liked Scotty’s but the blowing snow obscured her visibility of its entry.
About 10 minutes later, view of Mammoth, Minarets and another cloud bank:
SoCal was far from the only one on a school holiday week at Mammoth. The town was very busy at dinnertime, and when we got to the hill at 9AM Wednesday we had to park at chair 4. Another holiday trademark was that base area lifts like Eagle and Stump Alley had lines while upper lifts had few.
The weather may had some influence on the lines. Wind blasted in your face (maybe 40mph) the entire rides of chair 3 and 5, with similar gusts near the top of chairs 2 and 16. However only chair 9 was closed.
From 4 we rode 5, starting with China Bowl.
This was the first of several pockets of deposition from those strong SW winds.
Back up 5, we skied Quicksilver to 25. Ungroomed snow in this south facing area felt a bit crunchy. Nonetheless Liz opted for the Sunshine glades, which took her awhile in those conditions. I traversed farther to east facing Grizzly, where snow was softer but also bumpy from being worked over after last weekend’s storm. View from Grizzly down to Crowley Lake:
I needed a few suck wind breaks and my legs were fatigued by the time I got down to the top of chair 8. Liz and I never connected the rest of the day aside from texts. I skied a quiet cruiser down to chair 15 which had as much of a line (only 5+ minutes as a single though) as I’ve ever seen there when Mammoth is fully open. I skied to Canyon, rode 16 and 5 to get to the upper gondola.
Up top I tried Climax, where you can see a long fracture line from last weekend’s storm.
Snow under that was smooth, but there were hardpacked patches so I had to ski defensively.
I continued down into Triangle, which had outstanding windsift, then to the Mill, planning to return to the top. But chair 2 was stopping and running slowly (I suspected wind based on my rides on 5 and 16), so I used Gold Rush and 5 to return to the gondola. First I skied more windsift on Face of 3 and West Bowl. Cornice was firm at the top but wind refreshers kept its mid and lower sections smooth despite skier traffic. I skied to 23 via Gremlin’s which I knew would have more windsift.
From 23 I tried the Paranoids, hoping for powder leftovers. The steep upper part had been heavily blasted and so had chunky snow. The mid-section was smoother, and below the rocks Bark Bowl had wind deposition.
I was quite tired and so took the gondola, planning perhaps to ski off the backside where Liz was considering. But in the gondola one person raved about how good his runs on Dave’s and Rockgarden had been, and warned that predicted upslope winds might degrade them tomorrow.
So I thought I should ski those. One of the big storms built a drift requiring a steeper uphill to reach Dave’s, so I started with Rockgarden. It had surprisingly good coverage for the current snow pack level, but the surface was stiff chalk with some sastrugi patches to get around. I returned to the upper gondola, then persisted to Dave’s, which lived up to its billing with soft snow. Gold Hill’s snow was good too, so I diverted there, then rode 25 to get to 5. Riding the lift I could see that Sanctuary was the longest windsift run on the hill, so I had to do that before on more run on part of Face of 5 before cutting off to reach the top of 4 so I could get to the car. From there, here is the 3:15 view to the top.
That cloud was on the top of Dave’s when I was there but visibility was adequate where I dropped in. When Liz was in the gondola it looked worse so she bailed out at McCoy Station. I skied 22,700 vertical.
The only part of Thursday’s weather forecast that was correct was the colder temperatures. It never got over about 15F. Meanwhile the forecasters said there was a weak storm but that it was unlikely to get south of Tahoe. We were pleasantly surprised by the report of 3-7 inches, and with SW winds it was more than that in many places.
In the morning the catch was the top was completely socked in. Lower groomers like Stump Alley were of course much softer than Wednesday, particularly since we were on the hill just before 9AM. Parking was much easier because chain control probably deterred some drivers. We skied similar snow on Mambo and Forest Trail, then a bit deeper on Terry’s and Agee’s from chair 1.
This was a surprising sight.
I have never seen snowmaking on at Mammoth once a typical winter snowpack has formed. There were maybe 6 or 7 of them and they were all aimed at the Unbound terrain park and ran all day long. Mammoth has in the past hosted Olympic snowboard trials, so that’s my guess: they need to build some huge jumps by later this month.
The cloud lifted a little bit so we moved to chair 3. Even though the new snow looked choppy, it skied very soft due the wind deposited base below it. It was worth 3 runs on the Face, West Bowl and under the chair. I wanted to move to 5 and was surprised to see back of 3 still roped off. But we still got there via Rooster Tail.
We had good powder in Triangle but needed a break at the Mill, arriving 11:15 to beat the lunch crunch. Heading out via Gold Rush we noticed that people were diverting off Solitude and skiing toward still closed chair 9. We next did that but did not stop with Gold Hill as I had done Tuesday.
We got this nice stash of stunted trees.
Liz is barely visible in this zoomed pic but fresh tracks had higher priority than the photo op. After another traverse we got under chair 9 and got more powder starting with the area looker’s left of the rock band.
We took 25 and cruised around past the top of 15 to Canyon. This was the time I thought I should take socal’s advice and try an Avy chute. The snow in Avy2 was so forgiving that I was able to ski the steeps nonstop and traverse in to the lower bowl between Avy2 and Avy3 before taking a suck wind break. Powder in that lower bowl was good. View of Avy2 and 3 from chair 4:
From Canyon we noticed that the clouds had broken, so maybe the top might open. Liz was ahead of me while I was skiing chair 22. She checked at McCoy, saw a big line and skied to the gondola at the bottom. By the time I got down there, I could see the line down the stairs and outside, so I used 1 and 23 (10-minute singles line) to get to the top.
With the clearing skies the upslope winds finally arrived, fortunately confined to the top of the mountain. So I prefer to drop in ASAP to get out of that. In the case of chair 23 I hit the jackpot choosing Wipe Out 2. It was smooth and sufficiently effortless that I only needed one rest stop before the merge into St. Anton down below.
My final run was bottom to top gondola. I got out if the wind up there dropping into Climax. It had been skied quite a bit by 3PM but turns in the clumps of now snow were still pretty good with one conspicuous exception concealing rocks. Fortunately neither the skis nor I sustained damage. I skied to the car via another soft Triangle/Dry Creek run. My total Thursday was 24,900 vertical, about 5K of powder.
Pics are a bit sparse as I was not often inclined to remove gloves. I had liners on by 10AM. Meanwhile Liz was trying out her battery gloves Christmas present, a worthy experiment that only lasted 4 hours Thursday. So when she got up top, it was 2:30PM and the batteries were exhausted. She skied to top of Cornice where more people were bailing out than dropping in. So she skied Roadrunner all the way down. She would have liked Scotty’s but the blowing snow obscured her visibility of its entry.
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Nice pix. Isn't it interesting how decades later battery duration in cold weather is still something that hasn't been sorted out by manufacturers? Has anyone had good experiences?
ChrisC
Well-known member
We drove Tuesday afternoon, hit Sherwin Grade around sunset. Cloud bank below White Mountains:
Mammoth and the Eastern Sierras really have some unique mountain scenery. You typically do not see such arid and desolate vistas on the drive to most ski resorts. Maybe on the way to Mt. Bachelor/Bend, Sun Valley, and parts of Colorado's Western Slope.
The drive from Tahoe is also hauntingly beautiful with hot springs, high desert, and Mono Lake. I am a bit surprised that more people don't fly direct to Reno and then drive. It's just less than 2 hours additional vs Heavenly, and the snow quality, mountain size are better - and the aesthetic is almost as good. (Heavenly loses a few points due to Stateline's haphazard development).
snowtrekker
Member
Not that unusual for the terrain parks in my experience. The features needed for modern high-level competition are so large, it's hard to get there with natural snow alone.
I've been using Outdoor Research heated gloves. If you manage the use, high to warm up then go to low or off for periods of time they last the day. The issue and why i'd say don't buy them is the button to control them has broken on 2 pairs for me within a year. Even though they warranty them, it's an issue and I can't recommend them.
Tony, nice pics, you got lucky on Thursday, looked good. I had lot's of family ski time but we did end Wednesday at around 1130 with a run down the Dropouts. It was really heavy mounds of snow which I could have skied ok but it was my 11 year olds first time down and he mostly sideslipped the top of the chute. He was proud to be able to say he made it and I think will be more confident next time. Pic is from below the huge mounds of snow up in the top.
Friday was clear, started cold at 12F, warmed to low 20’s midday. The upslope wind was still confined to the top. Mammoth typically does superb and extensive grooming for day 2 after new snow. We were skiing by 8:40 with two quick runs on Stump Alley corduroy. We skied Broadway past the snowmaking, again on all day. After runs on Face and back of 3 we boarded the lower gondola, assuming we would go to the top since chair 23 was running. But the upper gondola was closed all morning.
Exiting at McCoy we shlepped around the building to Rodger’s Ridge.
Despite getting direct morning sun, snow remained soft on the cold weather.
We rode Gold Rush, to meet Steve, who was staying at the same Salmon Lodge ski house we were, at chair 5. We skied Triangle, a highlight run both prior days and still excellent.
We noticed chair 9 in motion though unoccupied. So we skied down Solitude and cut over towards Gold Hill as we had Thursday.
We skied a couple hundred vertical of the cut-up powder in the foreground before merging into Gold Hill, then Slot. There was a line at 9, and as we were discussing whether to wait, a cheer erupted for the crowd as the first people loaded. This was the first day for chair 9 this season so we had to go for that. It was easy to decide where we would ski.
That Ricochet face did not have a consistent subsurface, and the skier who dropped in in front of me blew up, so my run began by retrieving a ski and pole. It was still a very lightly tracked run but needed caution to adjust to varied subsurfaces. I did not see where Liz went, but it sounded like she got more consistent powder and said it made her day.
We exited via chair 25. Here we are at the top of 25 with the still pristine Dave’s and Rockgarden above our heads in the background.
We had not yet skied the backside, so we got there via chairs 5, 3 and 23. Here are the upslope wind plumes over Drop Out and Wipe Out.
We exited left to top of Roadrunner. The slope dropping skier’s left is often windstripped but today there was nice open line of windbuff.
We took a rest break at bottom of 14 at the Outpost, which was quite busy. From there here’s the view up chair 14 to the rarely open Dos Passos left of the big rock and almost never open No Passos (which I have skied twice lifetime) to the right.
We saw 4 skiers in Dos Passos, so I gave that a try. It was an ordeal, with slabby snow above the choke and frozen granular in it. The well spaced trees below Roadrunner skied very well though, as did another lap between the marked Arriba and Santiago runs.
We exited via chair 13 and had a couple of soft snow runs near the chair 12 liftline. Riding 12 we noticed the upper gondola running, so it was obvious how we would finish our trip. Liz skied Rockgarden and I skied Dave’s. Dave’s was excellent but not quite at the level of Wipe Out 2 on Thursday.
I skied 24,500 Friday.
Exiting at McCoy we shlepped around the building to Rodger’s Ridge.
Despite getting direct morning sun, snow remained soft on the cold weather.
We rode Gold Rush, to meet Steve, who was staying at the same Salmon Lodge ski house we were, at chair 5. We skied Triangle, a highlight run both prior days and still excellent.
We noticed chair 9 in motion though unoccupied. So we skied down Solitude and cut over towards Gold Hill as we had Thursday.
We skied a couple hundred vertical of the cut-up powder in the foreground before merging into Gold Hill, then Slot. There was a line at 9, and as we were discussing whether to wait, a cheer erupted for the crowd as the first people loaded. This was the first day for chair 9 this season so we had to go for that. It was easy to decide where we would ski.
That Ricochet face did not have a consistent subsurface, and the skier who dropped in in front of me blew up, so my run began by retrieving a ski and pole. It was still a very lightly tracked run but needed caution to adjust to varied subsurfaces. I did not see where Liz went, but it sounded like she got more consistent powder and said it made her day.
We exited via chair 25. Here we are at the top of 25 with the still pristine Dave’s and Rockgarden above our heads in the background.
We had not yet skied the backside, so we got there via chairs 5, 3 and 23. Here are the upslope wind plumes over Drop Out and Wipe Out.
We exited left to top of Roadrunner. The slope dropping skier’s left is often windstripped but today there was nice open line of windbuff.
We took a rest break at bottom of 14 at the Outpost, which was quite busy. From there here’s the view up chair 14 to the rarely open Dos Passos left of the big rock and almost never open No Passos (which I have skied twice lifetime) to the right.
We saw 4 skiers in Dos Passos, so I gave that a try. It was an ordeal, with slabby snow above the choke and frozen granular in it. The well spaced trees below Roadrunner skied very well though, as did another lap between the marked Arriba and Santiago runs.
We exited via chair 13 and had a couple of soft snow runs near the chair 12 liftline. Riding 12 we noticed the upper gondola running, so it was obvious how we would finish our trip. Liz skied Rockgarden and I skied Dave’s. Dave’s was excellent but not quite at the level of Wipe Out 2 on Thursday.
I skied 24,500 Friday.
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I can't resist linking the highlight day of Adam's 11-year-old season. Reviewing that TR, I listed 15 runs off the top and chair 22, which I probably exceeded only on May 18, 2013.