Mammoth, December 1-2, 2025

[tseeb]

I skied Mammoth Dec. 1 from 830 to 3 with a short lunch break for a slice of pizza. Garmin watch counted over 31K and SkiTracks had almost 32K. Some very good snow with many rocks to always watch out for and avoid.

Best challenging runs:
Dave's - I skied it twice exiting via Solitude both times as I did not like exit towards chair 3 that I did after skiing Rock Garden earlier
Drop Out 1 - I twice entered from Cornice as top was very rocky, Chutes had some good snow and was challenging in PM.
Fascination - see below

I made it to So. Tahoe in 3 hrs 40 mins yesterday afternoon, my fastest trip in years (or maybe ever). Tomorrow is supposed to be a little warmer. After skiing I'll do the long drive home via Monitor and Carson passes. Burnt trees from fire last May and sunrise over Mono Lake on my early drive today.

Cornice run is in shade top left and Drop Out chutes are in shade below chair 23. There was a lot of bright sun and deep shade, not usually where you needed them.

Race Course runs drop to right off Rusty's which is run on left. I only skied Fascination (middle of the three runs 5x?) as Andy's looked bumped out. Left side and bottom to right had very good snow.

I also skied chair 14 three times, Arriba too early and too late and also skied and exited via Road Runner. They closed chair 14 at 2:30, but only opened chair 13 from 3-4 to exit without hiking to Scotty’s which I did in AM

 

[Sbooker]

Impressive that there's a bit of advanced terrain open given the relatively lean start. It's a great looking ski hill isn't it.

 

[Tony Crocker]

Impressive that there's a bit of advanced terrain open given the relatively lean start.

Not uncommon with warm early season storms that are still mostly snow above 10,000 feet. The October 2021 storm put down more snow than this one. Coverage now is in the close call range for whether I would make the trip from L.A.

 

[tseeb]

There is a lot of advanced and expert terrain available (the most in the Western US and Canada?), but there are also a lot of rocks.

Ski damage happens. I was on the demo Heads with 15.9 turn radius that I bought for $50 when I had a binding problem that was due to ice. They will eventually need a tune. But a fall on steep, firm snow with a slide into rocks would quickly become serious. There were a lot of people, mostly boarders, taking slides for lift on Cornice on Monday. Cornice on Tuesday was much more dangerous as it was firmer and steeper at top.

Not ready to write up Tuesday as I have not unpacked after skiing 830-330 on Tuesday with only about a 10 minutes break at car to add some charge to my phone and pickup a drink for my last gondola ride, then driving 5 hrs and 45 min to get home.

More photos from Monday.
This was from gondola when I was trying to show rocks on exit from Rock Garden and Dave's to chair 3 that I only took once on Monday.

Rocks on St Anton that I skied twice each day.

 

[Tony Crocker]

Tseeb may have seen the best of the upper mountain for awhile with no new snow likely the next two weeks. I would expect snowmaking to fill in some more lower groomers though.

Whistler surely has the most advanced terrain with good coverage but I don’t know when its upper lifts will open.

 

[tseeb]

As I posted above, I skied 830-330 on Tuesday with only about a 10 minutes break at car to add some charge to my phone and pickup a drink for my last gondola ride, then drove 5 hrs and 45 min to get home. Then after unpacking Wednesday, my wife and I attended holiday lunch with former co-workers, then I visited my 95 year-old Mom and my wife and I went to Sharks game on very good tickets given to me by SkiTalk ski buddy who works there.

I did not take as many warmup runs on chair 2 on Monday and never rode chair 1 although I skied Broadway once early to get to Gondola base. I only rode chairs 2, 23 and the gondola, that I rode 7x from Main Lodge to top as the walk to loading seems shorter there than at mid-station. SkiTracks had almost 31K. Not sure why it says 6 hr 56 min when it also shows 8:30-3:30. Chair 2 started loading a couple of minutes before 8:30.

The first two times from top I took Rock Garden which gets good sun early.

Dave's had very good and smooth snow. I skied different lines 4x including my last run.

I never exited towards chair 3/mid as you miss some of the smooth snow at bottom, have to traverse through a lot of rocks and the main road towards 3 is not yet skiable. Instead, I went past row of these signs, twice leading guy from Laguna Beach who was skiing his first day of season.

I skied Solitude, which had some long smooth lines, but got harder to avoid floating rocks by end of day, then groomed and lightly skied Easy Rider to chair 2. I did the short hike to top of Solitude chair 3x, once going under the chair and skiing some of Sanctuary before crossing under chair back to Solitude. My last run I took off skis to get through gap in fence that got me the best part of Solitude run without the uphill hike.

Looking up and down some of Solitude from same place. Skiers left was good, but it was hard to find place to cut back to middle of main run without floating rocks while avoiding rock bands. And the center of the run, along the snowmaking poles, had a lot of floaters on my last run.

On Monday, I saw a few people, mostly boarders, taking slides down Cornice. On Tuesday, the top of Cornice was more treacherous as there was a very steep and firm rollover. I only skied Cornice run once instead traversing into Dropout 2 where snow was great, but it was steep enough that some of the sluff I was kicking up would build up and pass me. My last run on 23 I dropped/traversed from Skyline into Wipeout 1 that was also very good. Photo of Dropouts

My last gondola ride. I only drank half of this canned margarita as I poured the other half into my water bottle.

As I said yesterday, my drive back to Bay Area took 5 hrs 45 min. Going through Lee Vining the overhead sign said 120W was open, but when I stopped and checked Tioga Pass through Yosemite remained closed. I passed a great sunset over Sonora Pass. This was taken through windshield.

Next one taken in selfie mode

While researching something else, I found out this morning that Sonora Pass re-opened Wednesday at 10 AM. It would have saved me many miles and a little time. Instead, I took Monitor Pass, which save some miles, but not much if any time, and it was after dark so no views. Then I went through Markleville and over Carson Pass and past Kirkwood, which opens tomorrow with one slow intermediate lift, to get home.

I saved screen prints from SkiTracks of my route off top to Solitude - the top is at the bottom. The three black rectangles(16, etc) at right are hikes.

These are routes off chair 23. My one Cornice run is at right. Again the top is at bottom of screen print.

Last screen print is routes I skied to Main Lodge. The left edge Fascination was very good.

 

[Tony Crocker]

It is uncanny how Rockgarden is skiable after the first early season storm but gets wind stripped to the rocks when the cornice at the top of Dave’s Run builds up.

Considering what the rest of the western US is like now, this is an attractive TR. I would not want to be around with a holiday crowd on the current snowpack though.

 

[takeahike46er]

Looks like some fun terrain and decent enough coverage for early season. I’ve never been to Mammoth, but it looks like the mountain and its lift network allow for lapping high alpine terrain even when coverage further down is limited.

Whistler surely has the most advanced terrain with good coverage but I don’t know when its upper lifts will open.

Alpine lifts in Whistler usually start opening by the second week of December, regardless of whether it has been a big early season like we had in 2021. At least, that’s how it’s been since I moved to BC five years ago. Coverage in the alpine is about average for this time of year. Below treeline is a different story.

Harmony has now opened for the season.