As expected, the 19 inches of snow Dec. 12-15 completely resurfaced the mountain. But it was even better than that, as both upper steeps and the aprons below them had soft and smooth windbuff. In addition we had delightful weather, sunny, calm with highs in mid-40’s. Only south facing areas near chairs 15 and the lower half of 9 softened in the low December sun.
After 4 warmup cruisers on chairs 1 and 2, we went up top to Cornice. Next lap we went out to Dave’s. The mystery of Rockgarden continues, view here.
The last storm removed rather than added snow, and it’s no longer worth skiing. Every time I’ve skied it has been in November or December, and by midwinter it looks like this or worse. I’m taking a SWAG that once Dave’s builds up a big snowdrift, it enhances the wind tunnel effect during storms to Rockgarden’s detriment.
Liz had no issues with Dave’s Run with this week’s conditions.
Chair 22 opened last weekend.
I skied upper Shaft, then under the lift in this part.
Then I moved over to Viva.
View from top of chair 22 to Dave’s left and stripped out Rockgarden at center.
Last week we avoided firm moguls on chair 5, but that’s all smooth windbuff now, Liz on Sanctuary.
We moved to Chair 23, and these skiers on Wipe Out 1 enticed me to ski it later in the day.
The Hulk has survived a decade on the chair 23 rocks and is joined by El Chapulin Colorado this year.
With the good snow I ventured out to Monument.
This is an example of a run that I will only ski in primo conditions at age 72. When I took my suck wind break below the steeps, this skier followed through the stunted trees that are usually buried by midwinter.
Profile of Chair 23 from top of Monument:
Next I rode a bottom to top gondola and skied Climax.
Liz and I skied a couple of runs on Chair 14 and rode the newly opened 13. Here’s Liz in the trees near the upper chair 12 liftline.
She took two runs down Rodger’s Ridge and called it a day with 25,500 vertical. But I had to go back up 23 one more time to ski Wipe Out 1. From the top of 23, the afternoon sun illuminates clouds over the Central Valley on the horizon.
I skied Gravy Chute under chair 1 plus the liftline and West Bowl on chair 3, finishing my day with 29,200 vertical.
Friday was supposed to have some wind, but it was in fact almost identical to Thursday. Upon Liz’ recommendation we tired Rodger’s Ridge for our second run.
When we moved to Chair 1, we were pleasantly surprised to see the race course runs wide open after they had been closed off for the racers all day Thursday.
This is the first time we have noticed the Andrea Mead Lawrence plaque at the top of Andy’s Double Gold, renamed after her passing in 2009.
We skied 2 runs there plus one on Fascination before moving to Chair 3 and Coyote. Returning to McCoy Station we passed by the fumarole.
As on Thursday we then skied Cornice and Dave’s. These guys got Liz to take some view pictures at top of Dave’s. This is the view south to Lake Mary.
This was about 11AM and we again skied Gold Hill, where the lower half had turned to corn during a second warm day. We skied Blue Jay to Canyon, then from 16 skied the runs below the catwalk to top of 8. This east facing area is often unpleasant in spring but all winter snow in December.
We crossed the mountain to reach chair 23. As on Thursday I skied the illuminated bowl skier’s left of Cornice. This is another area that gets usually beaten up in spring but was great on this trip.
Liz cruised more corn over to Eagle while I remained around chair 23. I decided to check out the Paranoids. Looking over the edge I saw lots of rocks and crevasses. Fortunately a skier came by dropped in and made one turn to hit a clean traverse line I couldn’t see. So I followed suit and skied P1, good snow but a bit narrower than later in the season. I needed a 3 minute suck wind break below the steeps and took pics up and down from there.
I then loaded the gondola at the bottom to get a rest break. I skied a smooth line farther skier’s right on Climax vs. Thursday, then moved via chair 3, World Cup, Terry’s and chair 1 to one last top run on the Hump.
I moved over to chair 3 and skied off the back to Sliver and met Liz for a last run on Face of 5 and Lower Dry Creek.
On Friday I skied 26,200 and Liz 21,500 vertical.
Last week I wondered how much of the challenge was due to age, first day of the season or conditions. In retrospect I’d say 5% first day, 15% age and 80% conditions.
The last couple of seasons I’ve been dialing back to 3-5 runs off the top on many Mammoth days. On this trip it was 7 and 6, a testament to the excellent conditions. I also needed to stop and catch my breath only once on upper steep runs vs. 3+ times last week and on some other trips over the prior two seasons. I always said the sign of best conditions on the upper steeps was if I could ski them nonstop. 5 years ago these would have been among those days. 20 years ago this week I skied a then record 44,500 vertical under similar conditions.
After 4 warmup cruisers on chairs 1 and 2, we went up top to Cornice. Next lap we went out to Dave’s. The mystery of Rockgarden continues, view here.
The last storm removed rather than added snow, and it’s no longer worth skiing. Every time I’ve skied it has been in November or December, and by midwinter it looks like this or worse. I’m taking a SWAG that once Dave’s builds up a big snowdrift, it enhances the wind tunnel effect during storms to Rockgarden’s detriment.
Liz had no issues with Dave’s Run with this week’s conditions.
Chair 22 opened last weekend.
I skied upper Shaft, then under the lift in this part.
Then I moved over to Viva.
View from top of chair 22 to Dave’s left and stripped out Rockgarden at center.
Last week we avoided firm moguls on chair 5, but that’s all smooth windbuff now, Liz on Sanctuary.
We moved to Chair 23, and these skiers on Wipe Out 1 enticed me to ski it later in the day.
The Hulk has survived a decade on the chair 23 rocks and is joined by El Chapulin Colorado this year.
With the good snow I ventured out to Monument.
This is an example of a run that I will only ski in primo conditions at age 72. When I took my suck wind break below the steeps, this skier followed through the stunted trees that are usually buried by midwinter.
Profile of Chair 23 from top of Monument:
Next I rode a bottom to top gondola and skied Climax.
Liz and I skied a couple of runs on Chair 14 and rode the newly opened 13. Here’s Liz in the trees near the upper chair 12 liftline.
She took two runs down Rodger’s Ridge and called it a day with 25,500 vertical. But I had to go back up 23 one more time to ski Wipe Out 1. From the top of 23, the afternoon sun illuminates clouds over the Central Valley on the horizon.
I skied Gravy Chute under chair 1 plus the liftline and West Bowl on chair 3, finishing my day with 29,200 vertical.
Friday was supposed to have some wind, but it was in fact almost identical to Thursday. Upon Liz’ recommendation we tired Rodger’s Ridge for our second run.
When we moved to Chair 1, we were pleasantly surprised to see the race course runs wide open after they had been closed off for the racers all day Thursday.
This is the first time we have noticed the Andrea Mead Lawrence plaque at the top of Andy’s Double Gold, renamed after her passing in 2009.
We skied 2 runs there plus one on Fascination before moving to Chair 3 and Coyote. Returning to McCoy Station we passed by the fumarole.
As on Thursday we then skied Cornice and Dave’s. These guys got Liz to take some view pictures at top of Dave’s. This is the view south to Lake Mary.
This was about 11AM and we again skied Gold Hill, where the lower half had turned to corn during a second warm day. We skied Blue Jay to Canyon, then from 16 skied the runs below the catwalk to top of 8. This east facing area is often unpleasant in spring but all winter snow in December.
We crossed the mountain to reach chair 23. As on Thursday I skied the illuminated bowl skier’s left of Cornice. This is another area that gets usually beaten up in spring but was great on this trip.
Liz cruised more corn over to Eagle while I remained around chair 23. I decided to check out the Paranoids. Looking over the edge I saw lots of rocks and crevasses. Fortunately a skier came by dropped in and made one turn to hit a clean traverse line I couldn’t see. So I followed suit and skied P1, good snow but a bit narrower than later in the season. I needed a 3 minute suck wind break below the steeps and took pics up and down from there.
I then loaded the gondola at the bottom to get a rest break. I skied a smooth line farther skier’s right on Climax vs. Thursday, then moved via chair 3, World Cup, Terry’s and chair 1 to one last top run on the Hump.
I moved over to chair 3 and skied off the back to Sliver and met Liz for a last run on Face of 5 and Lower Dry Creek.
On Friday I skied 26,200 and Liz 21,500 vertical.
Last week I wondered how much of the challenge was due to age, first day of the season or conditions. In retrospect I’d say 5% first day, 15% age and 80% conditions.
The last couple of seasons I’ve been dialing back to 3-5 runs off the top on many Mammoth days. On this trip it was 7 and 6, a testament to the excellent conditions. I also needed to stop and catch my breath only once on upper steep runs vs. 3+ times last week and on some other trips over the prior two seasons. I always said the sign of best conditions on the upper steeps was if I could ski them nonstop. 5 years ago these would have been among those days. 20 years ago this week I skied a then record 44,500 vertical under similar conditions.
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Old age I guess? But it's slowly improving and I hope to ski a few times locally in the East before heading to Utah in about a month.
