MAMMOTH 23/24 - WE ARE READY FOR THE SNOW NOW

Well, maybe by posting this it'll actually snow this weekend.

https://www.mammothsnowman.com/

https://mammothweather.com/

https://www.esavalanche.org/

Mammoth Mountain weather:

https://mammothmountain.westernweathergroup.com/

Emergency Hotline: 760.934.0611
CalTrans Road Report: 800.427.ROAD
Lost & Found / Basket Check Canyon Lodge: 760.934.2571 ext 3367
Lost & Found / Basket Check Main Lodge: 760.934.0667
Main Lodge Security: 760.934.0697


June Mountain:

https://junelakepizza.com/index.php/loop-cam/

Emergency Hotline 760.934.0611
Guest services / lost & found: 760.648.7733 ext 0
Snow report hotline: 760.934.2224


Bootfitter recommendations:

Surefoot: Nick, Todd.
Footloose: Kevin (the older one if there are still two Kevins), Cort.
Kittredge: Preston.
Mammoth Mountaineering: Carl & JZ

Food recommendations:

Bring your own
(but also Dish Bistro, Latin Market, Rolling Chef, Skadi, Noodle-Ly, Toomey's, Mammoth Brewing)

Woot

You're a scholar and a gentleman, Sir!

I drove down to Mammoth today and spun some laps with old friends. Good snow was located. I counted ten million people. They were not riding 23 or G2, thankfully

Hopefully a new thread is what we need to get the season going!

For recommendations, I'll add doorstep deliveries. We've always had great luck using them. If you call them directly the delivery rate is lower.

www.doorstep-deliveries.com

Looks like some snow coming in later this week. I'm guessing it's not enough to bring the touring skis, but is there any worth while nordic near Mammoth? No grooming required.

Town trails and also Nordic up by the lakes. June lake loop Rd. All snow dependent. Some old guy was living in a tent near the loop Rd out by 395, ski in and check in him..

^Yes plenty of snow for nordic by tamarack up lake mary road, park at the gate. Made a snowman there last week, you can check out the gate cam off the cams on the MM website.

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Originally Posted by bry

^Yes plenty of snow for nordic by tamarack up lake mary road, park at the gate. Made a snowman there last week, you can check out the gate cam off the cams on the MM website.

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Thanks. Am I accurate about the touring conditions right now, or are there areas with a base?

Just curious, how were the crowds over the past holiday week?

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Originally Posted by Sklimber

Thanks. Am I accurate about the touring conditions right now, or are there areas with a base?

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Feels accurate. Definitely thin coverage. Where they've been blowing snow, there's good coverage.

I left town on the 23rd. Crowds weren't as bad as typical weekends imo. An employee I was talking to said last year they were making over a "million dollars a day" in late Dec, and maybe they made a couple million in all of December. But I don't know if that's a real stat. No big storms means fewer cheeseburgers sold right.

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Originally Posted by TahoeJ

Just curious, how were the crowds over the past holiday week?

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We just spent two days up - 12/31 and 1/1. I pulled up at 10:00 am on Sunday to park within site of Mill. Pretty slim crowds. There was one point that day there was probably a 15 minute wait at Stump. Besides that, you could find 5 minutes or less lift lines as long as you stayed away from beginner areas. Yesterday was front row park the Mill before 8 am. When we left, parking stretched a bit farther away than the day before. The opened chair 5 yesterday. Overall, pleasantly surprised at how well it skied and how few the crowds were.

Side note - my daughter always enjoys ice skating. The architecture sucks but the LA Kings name is on a new big ice rink in town. They should have taken notes from the town of Bend. She had a great time doing open skate for 90 minutes. A good option to shake it up with the kids.


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Fingers crossed storm tonight let's June get a few more runs open. Kids have been having fun regardless.

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Originally Posted by Sklimber

Thanks. Am I accurate about the touring conditions right now, or are there areas with a base?

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depends on your definition of base
where there is any, it is rock solid, which is also the case where there is none.
I won't leave home without them.

I need to get down there. I need my fix. I think with this thread made and even just a little more snow, it'll be time.

Washed the car, mowed the yard, etc, etc. Hoping for some snow for my week up there starting Thursday.

Anyone's crystal ball have a prediction for this sat/sun? Contemplating driving up for Sunday, but snow totals for Sat. and wind forecasts are all over the place.

June seems way to conservative opening runs. Kids don't seem to mind. Beautiful day today.

I think it worked. Sunday was a good fluffy pow day. Bluebird day, also really cold, like 5 degrees, which made for great snow. About 12" mid mountain but was still pretty low tide in most places, definitely happy to have brought the rock skis out. Bit of slow start but they popped the top around 11. There was free breakfast for early ups though. Top was refilling all day and later found lots of good laps under 9. Saw some people hike 22 and that looked really good too.

Edit: upcoming storm this week too!

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Originally Posted by KillerMonkey

I think it worked. Sunday was a good fluffy pow day. Bluebird day, also really cold, like 5 degrees, which made for great snow. About 12" mid mountain but was still pretty low tide in most places, definitely happy to have brought the rock skis out. Bit of slow start but they popped the top around 11. There was free breakfast for early ups though. Top was refilling all day and later found lots of good laps under 9. Saw some people hike 22 and that looked really good too.

Edit: upcoming storm this week too!

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They had a rather shocking morning Op's wise. On mechanical hold Sunday morning: Ch16 (new chair), Ch6 (down all morning), ch1 until 915 (typical), and ch3 (chairs wouldn't move in lower terminal, opened way after the top). They also "forgot" to groom ADG for a USSA Far West race that all the Tahoe kids were down for. Really poor to not be able to pull off a race when it dawns clear, no wind, and slightly less snow than forecast. Supposedly when Race Dept. saw it hadn't been groomed they asked but were turned down. Op's can't claim it's because they don't groom other areas as there was a cat cruising around bottom of ch3, saddle bowl, and other areas while people were skiing, plus a couple of cats pushing snow around in the park for the Grand Prix coming up. Bummed for the kids, poor form Mammoth Op's.

That said, once they got the top open (ski patrol and Avi control were typical Mammoth program, no complaints there), Upper Dry was pretty damn good. Super light pow. For some reason the line at Mid was shockingly manageable. Enjoyed that, but considering it was "early ups" and they told everyone via Insta to go to Main lodge and then couldn't get anything besides Lower G open until 915 (keep in mind people go there at 7:30 and 8:30 is standard opening) was pretty poor.

The hill is still low tide, but skiing much better after the last 2 storms.

S'up party people, that time of the year again.... Heading up tonight form LA for first laps of the year...

Today looks to be "the day" and I'm worried about the wind situation but whatever, first days I'm too old to be picky at this point in my season....

Good to see that somewhere has decent snow.

Climax slid today. Luckily not a repeat of Squaw's fate yesterday at Kt-22.

stoked on new thread...headed to Utah :)

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Originally Posted by supermodel159

Climax slid today. Luckily not a repeat of Squaw's fate yesterday at Kt-22.

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how wide and how far?

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...f39930a161.jpg


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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:
Attachment 482635

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.
Attachment 482642
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.
Attachment 482645
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.
Attachment 482646
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.
Attachment 482648
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/
Attachment 482650
Another good sized slide in the Scotty's, Monument and P1 area.
Attachment 482651
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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Originally Posted by GKWood

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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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.
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.

Attachment 483206
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.

Attachment 483209
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.

Attachment 483445
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.