Cheese
New member
Date(s) Skied: 3.15.2012 - 3.20.2012
Resort or Ski Area: Mammoth, CA
Conditions: Freakin' NAILED IT!
Trip Report:
I hang my head in shame as I was never more negative about a ski trip in my life. This was originally scheduled for February but postponed due to an obvious lack of snow. When it went from a Saturday to Saturday in February to Wednesday to Wednesday in March I was thinking, "why don't we just cancel the whole trip, bank the cash and try again next year?"" Well, I couldn't have been happier that my long time ski buddy convinced the 6 of us that we should go for it.
Flying into Mammoth lakes airport it was obvious that the area hadn't seen snow in a long time. There was only snow in the mountain ravines. Everything else was bare dirt or rock. The weatherman was mentioning hope for the weekend and the resort was a dozen miles away so we kept our hopes up.
Thursday morning we were surprised with 2-4" of fresh snow. We tracked it out while we basically scouted the resort knowing visibility could decrease substantially if the storm really hit. East of chair 22 was supposed to be pretty low on snow according to a friendly ski patrol so we avoided that area. Chair 14 had 4 - 6" in the trees and was the best skiing. We tracked that out then grabbed lunch at the base lodge. After lunch the wind picked up but we kept on touring the resort and finished day 1.
The wind picked up substantially Thursday night and woke us up frequently overnight. Friday the wind was still howling and the lift status showed only the lowest of lifts were operating. Since we had 5 of 6 day tickets we decided to avoid the wind hold day. Instead we hit the hot springs and made the best of a non-ski day. While bathing in a natural pool in the middle of a pasture we witnessed Mammoth become completely engulfed in a storm.
Saturday morning we awoke to 2' of fresh snow. Mammoth's website was calling for a snorkel day and they weren't kidding. Walking down the stairs of the condo I quickly found myself up to my waist in drifted snow. To my initial disappointment wind still had the top of the mountain on hold. It turned out there was plenty of powder to be had on the lower mountain and with snow still falling at 3" an hour tracks filled in quickly. Hard as we tried we couldn't track it all out before the end of the day.
Sunday, the upper bowls were still closed but the extra foot of overnight powder made for another amazing powder day. 1' everywhere and 3' if you caught the secret stashes no one else had found. Did I mention it was still snowing?
After another foot of snow and 150 charges had been detonated, Monday they opened the upper bowls. 4' of fresh powder was released to all of us that waited for first tracks. Absolutely epic runs off chair 22, 23 and 14. Later in the afternoon we ventured over to chair 9 and still found deep untracked lines through the trees.
Tuesday the sun popped out for a bluebird day in the 50s. It was great spring skiing, but just didn't compare to the 3 powder days before. By 2:30 we were down at The Mill for taco Tuesday with $1 tacos and $2 tequila shots reminiscing about the prior days.
All I can say is, don't give up on those trips. Eventually you will nail it!
Resort or Ski Area: Mammoth, CA
Conditions: Freakin' NAILED IT!
Trip Report:
I hang my head in shame as I was never more negative about a ski trip in my life. This was originally scheduled for February but postponed due to an obvious lack of snow. When it went from a Saturday to Saturday in February to Wednesday to Wednesday in March I was thinking, "why don't we just cancel the whole trip, bank the cash and try again next year?"" Well, I couldn't have been happier that my long time ski buddy convinced the 6 of us that we should go for it.
Flying into Mammoth lakes airport it was obvious that the area hadn't seen snow in a long time. There was only snow in the mountain ravines. Everything else was bare dirt or rock. The weatherman was mentioning hope for the weekend and the resort was a dozen miles away so we kept our hopes up.
Thursday morning we were surprised with 2-4" of fresh snow. We tracked it out while we basically scouted the resort knowing visibility could decrease substantially if the storm really hit. East of chair 22 was supposed to be pretty low on snow according to a friendly ski patrol so we avoided that area. Chair 14 had 4 - 6" in the trees and was the best skiing. We tracked that out then grabbed lunch at the base lodge. After lunch the wind picked up but we kept on touring the resort and finished day 1.
The wind picked up substantially Thursday night and woke us up frequently overnight. Friday the wind was still howling and the lift status showed only the lowest of lifts were operating. Since we had 5 of 6 day tickets we decided to avoid the wind hold day. Instead we hit the hot springs and made the best of a non-ski day. While bathing in a natural pool in the middle of a pasture we witnessed Mammoth become completely engulfed in a storm.
Saturday morning we awoke to 2' of fresh snow. Mammoth's website was calling for a snorkel day and they weren't kidding. Walking down the stairs of the condo I quickly found myself up to my waist in drifted snow. To my initial disappointment wind still had the top of the mountain on hold. It turned out there was plenty of powder to be had on the lower mountain and with snow still falling at 3" an hour tracks filled in quickly. Hard as we tried we couldn't track it all out before the end of the day.
Sunday, the upper bowls were still closed but the extra foot of overnight powder made for another amazing powder day. 1' everywhere and 3' if you caught the secret stashes no one else had found. Did I mention it was still snowing?
After another foot of snow and 150 charges had been detonated, Monday they opened the upper bowls. 4' of fresh powder was released to all of us that waited for first tracks. Absolutely epic runs off chair 22, 23 and 14. Later in the afternoon we ventured over to chair 9 and still found deep untracked lines through the trees.
Tuesday the sun popped out for a bluebird day in the 50s. It was great spring skiing, but just didn't compare to the 3 powder days before. By 2:30 we were down at The Mill for taco Tuesday with $1 tacos and $2 tequila shots reminiscing about the prior days.
All I can say is, don't give up on those trips. Eventually you will nail it!
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