tseeb
Well-known member
Mammoth 5/13/21
Leaving Squaw on 5/12, I contacted Tony Crocker who wished I’d let him know my plans earlier, but decided to meet me at Mammoth on Thursday vs. waiting until next week. Mammoth was losing ~5 inches per day, day to day losses and discoloration of snowpack are noticeable and they only report base of 16-24” so there is not a lot to lose.
Mammoth Snowman estimates chair 2 has about a week left. Based upon past history an educated guess would be that they will maintain a strip to the weekend of May 22-23. Mammoth Snowman thinks a strip on Broadway will be the only lower run open Memorial Day, though that prediction may be a little conservative.
A strip is being maintained in front of the Mill to allow a return from chair 5 and they were removing snow from Old Comeback trail and pushing it to top of new Comeback (which looked a lot different the next day). Solitude was groomed and had the best corn on the mountain as it was accessible only from Dave's Run after probably being used by racers early. But that grooming means chair 5 will run this weekend and may not after that.I left So. Tahoe in the dark and after filling up in Minden for $3.24 (at place where credit is same price as cash and they do not have alcohol in fuel) was heading S on 395 about 5 AM.
I skied from a few minutes after 7:30 AM opening until 2 PM close with a longer than usual break at the Mill where a large group of people from SkiTalk took a long break (and some were done for the day), even though they started hour(s) later. My watch counted 28K. First picture from chair 2 at 7:45 and shows a lot more brown than usual for mid-May at Mammoth.
We had two good laps on Dave's leading to the corn on 5 and were going to do a third, but gondola was having issues so we spent afternoon on chair 23 with a few race course runs to the Main Lodge. Next three pictures are Tony Crocker in Wipe Out 3 where entrance was soon going to require removing skis. Snow was great there about 130.
Mammoth 5/14/21
Started the day about 8:15 with FlowSki demos. See SKI AT A HIGHER LEVEL | all terrain : safety : performance (floskis.com)
First run on Stump they seemed like regular skis as no adjustment was needed.Second run I started feeling the natural arc as bindings are only attached to a couple of inches in the center of the ski.We took them to one of the Race Course runs on Broadway were they also worked well on firmer snow. On the way back to the Mill we took Face Lift where skis also worked well although I uncovered a football sized rock that rolled all the way down the hill. I still feel bad about base damage I did, even though it was unavoidable and I ski demos liked they are my own skis.
We rode 23 and skied Cornice about 9:30 and found it was already softer than later on previous day. We next skied Climax where snow was good where steep, but flatter apron was too soft and best exited by traversing towards Saddle Bowl. Next time up we skied Dave’s where it was sticky requiring more pole-ing than previous day getting to it, and on the exit, although steep was good as was the part of Solitude we skied. The route from base of 5 to the Mill looked a lot different that previous day and was getting sticky. Next time up after repeating Dave’s I hiked to the top of 5 to ski all of Solitude that Racers had been on early.
Other highlights were Road Runner, which looked groomed way past where we turned to Scotty’s;
Wipe Out 2 that we skied just before 1 PM
where as predicted you could no longer get to 2 or 3 without removing skis and Gravy Chute, our last good run of the day and probably the season, which we probably should have done a couple of hours (or days?) earlier as entrance was rotten. I was on the road home at 2, and after a stop to confirm that Tioga was still closed and to take a couple of pictures of always amazing Mono Lake and in Oakdale for fuel and fast food, was home about 7:30.
Leaving Squaw on 5/12, I contacted Tony Crocker who wished I’d let him know my plans earlier, but decided to meet me at Mammoth on Thursday vs. waiting until next week. Mammoth was losing ~5 inches per day, day to day losses and discoloration of snowpack are noticeable and they only report base of 16-24” so there is not a lot to lose.
Mammoth Snowman estimates chair 2 has about a week left. Based upon past history an educated guess would be that they will maintain a strip to the weekend of May 22-23. Mammoth Snowman thinks a strip on Broadway will be the only lower run open Memorial Day, though that prediction may be a little conservative.
A strip is being maintained in front of the Mill to allow a return from chair 5 and they were removing snow from Old Comeback trail and pushing it to top of new Comeback (which looked a lot different the next day). Solitude was groomed and had the best corn on the mountain as it was accessible only from Dave's Run after probably being used by racers early. But that grooming means chair 5 will run this weekend and may not after that.I left So. Tahoe in the dark and after filling up in Minden for $3.24 (at place where credit is same price as cash and they do not have alcohol in fuel) was heading S on 395 about 5 AM.
We had two good laps on Dave's leading to the corn on 5 and were going to do a third, but gondola was having issues so we spent afternoon on chair 23 with a few race course runs to the Main Lodge. Next three pictures are Tony Crocker in Wipe Out 3 where entrance was soon going to require removing skis. Snow was great there about 130.
Mammoth 5/14/21
Started the day about 8:15 with FlowSki demos. See SKI AT A HIGHER LEVEL | all terrain : safety : performance (floskis.com)
First run on Stump they seemed like regular skis as no adjustment was needed.Second run I started feeling the natural arc as bindings are only attached to a couple of inches in the center of the ski.We took them to one of the Race Course runs on Broadway were they also worked well on firmer snow. On the way back to the Mill we took Face Lift where skis also worked well although I uncovered a football sized rock that rolled all the way down the hill. I still feel bad about base damage I did, even though it was unavoidable and I ski demos liked they are my own skis.
We rode 23 and skied Cornice about 9:30 and found it was already softer than later on previous day. We next skied Climax where snow was good where steep, but flatter apron was too soft and best exited by traversing towards Saddle Bowl. Next time up we skied Dave’s where it was sticky requiring more pole-ing than previous day getting to it, and on the exit, although steep was good as was the part of Solitude we skied. The route from base of 5 to the Mill looked a lot different that previous day and was getting sticky. Next time up after repeating Dave’s I hiked to the top of 5 to ski all of Solitude that Racers had been on early.
Other highlights were Road Runner, which looked groomed way past where we turned to Scotty’s;
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