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Wow, that was a day.
Started with Ch2 and 10 being delayed. Ch2 didn't open till after noon, thank goodness I aborted and caught the parking shuttle to Main. Couple of ok runs playing off 1 and we see this:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/g5oGUwMyChWhKdbr7
After waiting at ch12 for a while, we got some lovely mellow untracked over there before heading to 14. We get to the top of 14 and no one has been to the Noids. Schwing!!!
I will confess after Squaw yesterday and watching P1 slide and hearing them then bomb the shit out of the rest of the upper mtn for the next 2 to 3 hours it was more nerve racking than your average inbounds pow run. Let's be honest, if one of the Noids slides and you are in the gut, goodnight Eileen. Even wearing my beacon...
Aftermath of Scotty's and Noids slides:
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The afternoon continued amazing. No line on Gondi or 23, freshies everywhere, you just had to dodge the rather significant slide paths. We still got freshies off the G at 345!
Cheers to a great day. One of those days I'm stoked to be a skier!
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Actually now that I look at that picture, this was before round 2 and 3 of bombing. They got nearly the whole thing between the Scotty's slide in the above picture and the P1 slide to go. Sorry, no picture of that as I was waiting over at 12 while that was all going on. Be carefull on the above and Climax for a while. the debris and slide paths are significant. They won't be completely covered from the Sat. storm in bound...
Great to be back out on the hill today (Thursday) after almost four weeks away. After skiing nothing but groomers all of Nov & Dec I was ready for a change of scenery and headed up to the PNW and hung out at My Moms house. Hard to believe but until this past week OR, Wash, and BC had the same or even less snow than the Sierras. It wasn't a lack of storms, it was a lack of cold storms and it was to warm to make snow as well.
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Here's a pic of Mt Baker, the snowiest ski area in North America, on Jan 2. Not good. My kid, who is attending Montana St U in Bozeman joined us for Christmas and said Montana was dry as well.
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Staring out at Puget Sound from Mom's living room, pounding down Rainier's (Ron-yay if you want to sound classy).
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I took the ferry over to the mainland and made a pilgramage to the OG REI store in Seattle. It's huge, multi level and it's worth a look if your in Seattle. Easy to run up the credit card there. With rumors of snow in the Sierra's I headed South and got to Reno on Tuesday.
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By Wednesday it was nuking down snow in Reno so the decision to head for Mammoth today was an easy one.
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I was in line early at ch 4 which opened around 8:45. I got a good run in some blower pow in the tree's by old chair 10 and then got trapped down at the Mill for 45 minutes as nothing was running until ch 21 opened. Wasn't real happy about that.
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Check out the wind chill at the top of G2 at 10:30 this morning. That's cold.
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Spent much of the morning skiing safe, low angle powder lines in the tree's on the lower mtn. It is still very shallow out there with just enough new snow to hide some of the bigger land mines.
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More of the same. It was two years ago in the early season on a pow day like this that I put myself in Mammoth Hospital for two nights with shattered ribs, internal bleeding, a bruised kidney when I impacted a log just under the snow. Super dumb, self inflicted and I should have know better. Never again.
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Here's an almost indentical pic I took of the Climax slide that was posted earlier. Upper lifts started opening sometime after noon and eventually 23 and the Gondi did as well.
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Dave's from the top of ch 5. It didn't open today. Although it looks good some of last years snow is lurking just under the new snow.
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West Bowl looking inviting. Beware of hidden "reefs" in it. In 2007 a longtime Mammoth skier Dave Ebben died in West Bowl skiing early season pow after crashing and suffering blunt force trauma. http://https://sierrawave.net/skier-dies-after-fall/
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Another good sized slide in the Scotty's, Monument and P1 area.
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Late in the day the skiing got really good in places off the top as the wind start to buff out the snow in places. Drop 2 line was sweet as well as under Wipeout 2.
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To get here I had to click out and hike into Scotties over rocks and ice. Good skiing after that.
I skied opening til close and it was easily my best day of the season. Still a chance to find some untracked snow tomorrow as one big zone didn't open Thursday. See you on the hill Friday and ski safe.
Headed out solo today but wouldn’t mind some company. Light blue pants, navy blue jacket, Bibby tour skis w shifts.
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Edit: double post. Anyway, so far so good! The wind buff machine is in full swing and no crowds (walk on gondola is nice to stay out of that wind).
It’s amazing what mammoth can do with just 65 inches. Like they say, it’s not about the size but what you do with it.
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Hey! Just saw your post. It’s noon and I’m still out. Lights a little flat at times but there’s some good wind buff off the Top. If you’re still out shoot me a text at 775-224-9755 and we’ll hook up.Quote:
Originally Posted by GKWood
Christian
Friday was an excellent day at Mammoth. No crowds, wind buff was on point, and it wasn’t as cloudy as I expected (sun peaked out on several occasions). Favorite part was lapping the avvy chutes after the top closed for wind. Chute 2-3 were both delightful and kept filling in every run with the wind. Avvy 3 has a fun choke where you can channel your inner Nikolai Schirmer. Ended the day with last chair on 5 and skiing dry creek top to bottom, which was soft, rippable and deserted the whole way.
Groomers were soft and delightful too. My favorite was skiers right on stump alley where the wind deposited snow provided a consistent smeary surface all day.
Sorry I missed you ESS; hopefully next time!
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Showed up this morning around 10:00 after early morning departure from North County San Diego. Parking wasn’t horrible and just tucked in near chair 4. Lapped chairs 4 and 5 until a late lunch. Pretty standard 10 minute wait. App was showing 10-20+ waits out of Mill to get over to Main. Another 20” on the hill since we were here two weeks ago has really helped. The top popped and crowds dispersed and lines were easy unless you wanted chair 23 or the top. Five inches of heavy snow that was wind whipped didn’t get us excited. Wind buff machine was refilling off chair 5 nicely. Impressive jumps being built in the park out of main.
Back on the hill tomorrow.
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They opened Dave’s yesterday. There are two big slabs of blue ice on the face, assuming last years snow. I found some of that the hard way on the skiers left of Cornice and took a tumble. Be careful. Chair 22 is running now too. The wind buff machine was on and filling in Avy 2. The entrance is sketch and you need to piece together a line, but fun runs for sure. Upper dry creek was a lot of fun too.
Didn’t wait in a line more than 10 chairs or so yesterday. Sun was shining, somehow they have 75% of the terrain open on 70” ytd snowfall. Surface was packed and wind buff with a sprinkling of low tide obstacles.
Sorry no pics.
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Skied from 12:00 to closing yesterday. The mtn emptied out with no lines anywhere. Skiing was good with some fun lines off the Top. Temps went up in the afternoon and the wind died so some of the wind buff stated to get rippled by the end of the day.
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Monday was opening day for Dave's this winter. Snow was really good with the exception of one spot, the "Glacier." It's a reef of rock hard snow left over from last year located just off the top on the skier's right. Hit that at high speed and you'll be in for a surprise.
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Last laps of the day on ch 23. No one in sight. Good stuff. Heading up to the hill now.
We drove up Thursday am and skied through Sunday.
Thursday was fun, great laps in the lower dropouts were the call. Climax was also fun, once you got in.
Friday we pretty much lapped the Cornice to lower dropouts route until they shut down the top. We also got fun laps on Chair 3.
Saturday was a bit more of a storm day, but chair 12 and chair 3 were fun.
Sunday we did a lap in that skier's right gulley on chair 22, which was okay, then went to chair 5. Chair 5 was a blast under the chair, great windbuff if you avoided a few rocky areas. We ended up leaving right when they popped the top, saw a couple of guys coming down Climax, which looked nice. My buddy who stayed later said the top was fun, but not all-time. Of course, he might have been trying to soften the blow :)
No footage as gopro was forgotten, but the mountain did ski very well despite the low snowpack.
I will probably be rolling up there again this weekend, most likely Saturday morning, skiing through Monday, although I might do Friday through Sunday. Let's hope this storm finally gets a solid bit of base snow down.
Anyone been to June yet?
Thursday morning and the winds have dropped and temp has gone up from Wednesday’s bone chilling 0 deg windchill.
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Grey bird conditions this morning.
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Hoping the sun can burn through the clouds.
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Snows a little more on the punchy side today vs the wind buff earlier this week. Needs some skier traffic or wind.
Back out.
Thanks for the pics as always ESS!
Having only looked at Dave's from a ways away, that shot of the 'glacier' is striking. It's always interesting to see this happen after big years. It could make it an interesting Dave's season. That section will need quite a bit of snow to get covered.
I'm probably heading up Saturday AM, skiing through Monday. It's not quite definite, but let me know if any of you guys are going to be around. It would be nice to finally link up.
Why do the "glaciers" from big snow years at Mammoth seem to have so much trouble holding cover, while all the major fall ice climbs in the region fill in as good, snow-filled winter couloirs?
..because they're not couloirs??
Sun exposure.Quote:
Originally Posted by lcs
2nd half of the day on Thursday turned out not to bad.
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Afternoon rush at ch 2. The Mtn was quiet mid week.
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Afternoon Stump Alley with the sun starting to shine through the clouds.
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Got some Top laps in as the light got better. Afternoon Daves.
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Skied the lookers right side of Climax. Coverage was good. Snow was chunky and thick.
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I picked my way across Climax to the far skiers right. This is under Balls/Juevos. It skied really well on Tueday. Snows still smooth but it's easy to punch thru it if you let the speed build.
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View from below. Snow looks better than it really was.
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Temps were much warmer Thursday and by the end of the day dirt was starting to surface in places. Hoping the weekend storms produce. Back out on Friday,
Hopefully the snow from this coming cycle sticks.
Just got back from the Mtn. On the plus side the sun was out and visibility up Top was much improved from Thurs. On the minus side, it was much busier today vs Mon-Thurs.
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Sun came out early today and stayed out for most of the day.
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Mid morning Cornice Bowl.
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Gondola line was never to bad so I got in a bunch of Top runs. Under Climax had some good snow.
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Best snow off the Top was in Dave's this afternoon. The patch of old snow (ice) is visible mid ohoto on the right side.
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Lot of chairlift hype for the storms over the next couple days, i.e. "2ft+!" OpenSnow saying for likely just over a foot. Have a safe weekend.
Conditions have improved greatly over the weekend. Saturday and Sunday had great snow all day. Operations were questionable with not opening the top yesterday despite clear weather...but, all the better for those who can ride after today's storm clears.
Looking for a little beta from the collective. Oldest and I are likely gonna do a road trip for spring break this year (first week in april). He's pretty into the park scene right now so obviously Mammoth on the top of his list. I'm fine following him around some while checking out a new mountain and spending some qt w him for a week. driving from slc. maybe a night around vegas to break things up. likely ski 4/5 days mon-fri.
starting to look into lodging/lift tix. no ikon etc so looks like the best ticket deal would be the quad pack? that and a rental w a kitchen to cook some meals. other option looks like a ski and stay package which might end up being a little cheaper than the former depending on where lodging is.
i guess my main questions are:
1. any reason not to just wait till march to book lodging/tickets to see what conditions are like? i know it's been a slow start there but assume there'd be enough terrain to ski regardless? assume rentals would be readily available as well for that time of year?
2. any advantage to being closer to the village gondy vs the eagle lodge for lodging? figured we'd want to just walk to/from skiing. is there always access to get to the lodge on skis even in a low snow year (this is prob a dumb question but...)
any other intel appreciated. Thx ya'll.
Would an ikon pass be useful for you for next season? If so, if you can time your trip until they offer next season's pass (2024-25), you can use it for spring of this season (2023-24) at Mammoth.
Anyone remember when that date was for last spring?
Second week of April.