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We stayed in Visalia Wednesday night and drove to Mineral King Thursday morning. I had been up there for a quick look in 2006, but we were committed to most of a day this time because 7 miles of the road is closed for repairs 10AM-4PM weekdays. We were escorted one way at 9:25AM after about a 15...

On the evening of June 3 our Visit Visalia hosts took us to a Single A minor league baseball game, where the Visalia Rawhide (Diamondbacks affiliate) defeated the Inland Empire 66ers (Angels affiliate) 2-1. Visalia mascot: This lady umpire was busy around the bases. Single A games have only...

I was invited to the Outdoor Writers Association of California Spring 2025 Conference, hosted by Visit Visalia. Visalia is in the Central Valley between Bakersfield and Fresno and is the gateway to Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks. There is minimal lodging in the parks, and the only...

Today's weather was similar to but perhaps a bit warmer than April 30 last week. It was sunny with a weak overnight freeze, though I suspect Mammoth has been salting more groomers overnight. There was a glitch today. Chair 2 was down from about 7:45-11:30AM. Fortunately neither Tseeb or we...

Since he's not bothering to post the links himself: What’s up? Eastern Closing 2025 – Week 1 April snow – Eastern Closing 2025 – Week 2 Late Easter, late skiing – Eastern Closing 2025 – Week 3 Late April : Eastern Closing 2025 – Week 4 May it! –...

I should have known when Tseeb declined my invitation to join us at Mammoth that we might get a primo corn day. :icon-razz: This has happened 3x before. We got out at 8:30 Tuesday morning to clear skies and a solid overnight freeze. What got my attention first was a race course starting at the...

Weather indicated we should do something other than ski on Friday and Saturday April 25-26. So we visited: Lake Shasta Caverns Redding's Kool April Nites classic car cruise Empire Mine State Historic Park We stayed in Emigrant Gap Saturday night, half an hour west of Sugar Bowl at 5,100...

We took our best shot at clear weather to come here this week. Next week looks unsettled and May 4 is the last day Cloudchaser and Northwest lifts will be open. Forecasts were in general correct for overnight freezes in the mid-20s and high temps in the mid-30s. After the long two day drive we...

Weather is full on spring this week, but with the clear skies there was still an overnight freeze. So like most spring days at Mammoth we could find pleasant snow conditions as long as our legs could hold out. We got on the hill 9AM, met Elissa and skied was partially softening Stump Alley...

The Sierra storm this week was first predicted to last most of the week, but when it was revised to wrap up by Wednesday we decided to ski Mammoth Thursday/Friday. An unexpected bonus was that the top did not open Wednesday. We were not up there as soon as we should have been. We parked across...

We landed at 7AM, but had delay in rounding up ski bags and connecting with our hotel pickup driver. After checking in, we got a cab for our 10AM reservation at Burj Khalifa, the tallest building in the world. The Burj Khalifa is not approachable by vehicle. You need to walk through the 13...

We decided to spend two nights and ski the last days of our trip here. Saturday’s storm only snowed 1-2 inches at Snowmass and today was the first predicted warm up day: sunny and high 32F. Accordingly I thought we should spend much of Sunday on lower and mid-mountain terrain that will likely be...

We drove from Eagle to Aspen Saturday morning. The weather warmed up from the unseasonably cold prior week, and it rained in Glenwood Canyon and maybe up as far as Carbondale. It was snowing in town in Aspen but not sticking on the roads. We parked at the free Buttermilk lot and took the...

Paul and his son Justin went with us to A-Basin. As we had never skied the new Beavers lift, we spent most of the morning there. There is a picnic deck off the Loafer groomer, where we took some pics. Profile of the Beavers lift: View down and across the road: There are two Gasex...

Vail reported 5 inches new snow overnight, but the day far overperformed that stat. 1) We had expert local guidance. Paul probably has more ski days at Vail than I have ski days lifetime. 2) The 14-16 inches that fell March 14-16 might not have consolidated everywhere. At the very least it...

The object lesson of altitude/exposure in March was demonstrated in the opposite extreme today. In my snow preservation formula (altitude/latitude and exposure distribution) for North American ski areas Steamboat ranks #89 and Copper Mt. #5. There was zero spring or melt/frozen snow anywhere...

On Saturday we left Iron Blosam as the next storm was moving in. Here's Al Solish getting ready to load his car while a substantial slab of snow from Friday remains on his left front fender. Liz and I decided to drive to Steamboat because, like Tseeb earlier this month, it was sort of on our...

In recent years we nearly always ski the opening day Sunday of Iron Blosam week at Alta with former admin. The big news this year is that the Mineral Basin chair is down, and it looks like that happened when Tseeb was there Feb. 27. I have not inquired myself, but word of mouth was that it...

On Monday 10+ of our Iron Blosam group started with a Gadzoom warmup. Next we moved to Gad 2, a few of us by an interesting line through tight trees to skier’s left of Organ Grinder. Ed Meisner there: After a couple of Gad 2 laps, I followed Mark Meisner to Great Scott, which he had curated...

In my travels I've been getting persistent reminders to use my Mountain High season pass. The free senior pass age was bumped from 70 to 75, but existing ones are grandfathered if you renew at the area. I had to squeeze that in this week, because if the SoCal season continues as it has, Mt...