Random Shots from a Huge Winter

[H-wood]

Had to re-size these for another project...
Last year was the biggest winter here in Mammoth since the mid nineties- I didn't shoot a lot of photos, but here's some randoms:

Climax after the season's first storm cycle 6+ feet. The first few days of the year were some of the best of the season: ultra-stable, cold powder, with all the terrain still sticking out on the hill.


Climax again after the monster storm cycle that basically lasted for two solid weeks starting around Xmas.


The end result: Upper Dry Creek in late March after over 500 inches. There's all kinds of fun terrain buried under that ballroom- good sizes ridges and cliffs, completely gone without a trace. The whole mtn was like this by January- filled in completely smooth. After that, new snow actually made the hill noticeably flatter as it piled up on the lower half of the upper mtn.


January Nukeage. I love snow, but living in Mammoth is fucked up. Lift towers were drifted over and buried after this one.


Which leads to stuff like this- go out to dinner, have a few beers, and you can't find the damn car. It will surface a day or two later when a front end loader smashes it while plowing the lot. Thanks for playing!


Fortunately it also leads to stuff like this...


And this.
Matt Schott skinning underneath the E face of Mt Morrison- at least one of the lines visible in the shot was skied last winter by maggots- proud shit. I'm amazed how many people ski the little peak in front of this mountain (previous pic) when only a little more work puts you on top of this amazing face.


My dog scopes the mandatory 10 footer into her line while Tony Dublino shreds on the E face.


What are you waiting for?


This is another chute that filled in and got skied for the first time since 98- about 5,000 vert of moderate terrain that runs right to the desert floor. Drool.


The E face of Laurel was also super stacked.
The main line below is the Mendenhall Couloir.


H-wood in the Mendenhall.


The N face of Red Slate: the definitive cooler. The backdoor line (looker's left of the couloir) was slithered by a snowboarder for the first since Chris Pondella and Todd Miller skied it a few years ago.


Meanwhile, back on the ski hill, the snow just kept piling up.


The upper mountain on April 3- stacked beyond belief- there was well over 30 feet of snow piled up on the lower half by this time.
This shot was taken the weekend of the Alpine Nationals.
In the foreground is the super G course. The race crew set up all the fencing and then the area above the course slid and buried everything. So they dug it out and set it all up again. And it snowed that night, and the upper mtn slid and buried all the fencing again.
The biggest air I saw anyone catch on the hill year belonged to some US ski teamer who hucked (at high speed) the cornice in the upper right side of this shot- on his Super G skis no less. He landed right above the highest traverse track.


Kiwi Flat same day- express elevator going down.

[ulty_guy]

holy caw caw.

[Brewski2]

Sweetness

[bklyn]

be-u-tee-full

[iskibc]

Love this pic:



Good stuff.

[baseWeldr]

supernice pics... so many mountains, so little time- but gotta get there sometime

[FollowMe]

THANK YOU for waiting until October to post these.

[SkiJunky05]

wow.

I really like the comparison shots at the beginning. I've gotta say these two stood out for me:

There is no better feeling than sipping a beer on outside with the muted sound of plows somewhere nearby...then going inside with your friends and knowing the next day is going to go off.


I look at this shot and know what I would want to do. The rockstar turn, air, straightline. But the truth of it is it would take 1/2 an hour to get my balls together to hop in, and then toss jump turns 5/6 of the way down before a halfass straightline out.

edit- upon further inspection. Look closely at the straightline tracks through the sluff/depris on the right. It kinda looks like they generate in Kiwi...then follow them down through the debris, ollie over some tracks, crank a huge turn to the right...and there's an ant looking back up to survey what just went down...looking up and shaking with all the adrenaline shooting through the veins. - but that's all a stretch of my imagination from a small picture.

Damn, H-wood. fine stuff. Thanks.

[cj001f]

Awesome!

Now if the rain would just move North, we'd be set.

[tarkman1]

and the gears are turning for this season...

[bcrider]

nice pics.

[EastCoast2835]

Really nice pics.

[FigureEleven]

This was a damn fine belated season report H-wood. You were very lucky to be where you were last year!



I am really loving this picture... Steep pow filled couloir and the finest skis ever made.

[jump]

Beautiful pics, and of course I pick this year instead of last year to move up there, hopefully the mountain will once more be blessed.

[skier0178]

Awesome pics, some very familiar lines....

[45hill]

No skiing but some around town shots.

Shoveling sucks



The Doll House



My neighbor was away for the storm



Look at the motorhome turning onto Center St.



Old Mammoth Rd.

[H-wood]

Thanks everyone- I'll see what else I can find on the hard drive...

45hill's shots do a much better job of showing what it was like in town- I'm hoping for a nice average winter where the snow doesn't reach the second story windows.

[FollowMe]

I'm hoping for a nice average winter where the snow doesn't reach the second story windows.

What!?

No, no, no - - we need more 15+ storm cycles. .

Edit for some pic additions...

1.9/04 - On the way to Bishop from Mammoth


One of the many digouts (of that day)


Of course there was finally a slight break in the weather much farthur south on the 395 (NOTE: It was so fucking stormy north of Mammoth that we had to drive south to Bakersfield and back up the 99 to return to SF.)

[Big Tim]

Officially Jonesing now.........

BT