Mammoth 16/17

[Ermine]

I was posting about the Eastern Sierra.
No bombs here in the backcountry
Maybe one hut operation and third activity is limited to getting you up to a yert in Virginia Lakes Snomo activity is limited to a couple of small areas
Ski Patrol do their own assessments based on what they see everyday accumulated over the seasons snowfall and do take in info from the Avalanche center

Yep, I'm sure it's different there and all the snow safety teams all do their own thing (DOT's, Ski areas, avie centers, guides, tourers--along with some cross-knowledge transfer).

IBut the two snowpacks are very different
As different as apples and oranges

:-) With THIS snowpack THIS year, and THIS storm, I still maintain they CAN be similar similar, more like McIntosh & Red Delicious.
E. Sierra Avie Center rpt for Mar 4: http://esavalanche.org/content/avala...day-mar-4-2018
Avalanche Problem 3: Deep Slab
Likelihood: Possible
Size: Very Large -> Historic

"Deep in the snowpack in the old snow there are layers of weak sugary snow which have been sitting around for most of the winter season. Up until now there hasn’t been a significant enough snow load sitting on top to make these layers very threatening. Now there is. While these layers are buried deeply, making them hard to trigger, if they are triggered a resulting avalanche would be very large and destructive. The avalanche on Mammoth Mountain yesterday that made national news is a great example of this."

Some nice shots from mammothsnowman.com (looks like a beautiful day @ MM).

http://www.mammothsnowman.com/wp-con...8_n.jpghttp://

http://www.mammothsnowman.com/wp-con...42380444_n.jpg

Well, your storm finally made it to Oootah, still some Lake Effect squalls, time for my dusk patrol with the dogz.

[TEXASS]

It’s was a shitshow. Everyone that bought a ticket yesterday got in line to get a voucher or a ticket for today
Because of yesterday’s slide only lower terrain was open ( can’t blame patrol)
Half of Los Angeles and most of San Diego came up this weekend
We were at Eagle lodge and waited 30 minutes for a ticket exchange and then after 40 or so
Minutes in line decided to bail
They may open the top by noon but the crowd is uuuge
Decided to cut our loses and come up mid week in spring corn
Haven’t been to a resort in at least a year.
Most likely won’t go back to Mammoth unless it’s a Tuesday non holiday
I’m more in line with Convict Canyon or Lundy Lake

[TEXASS]

And yeah. The Eastern Sierra is a whole lot different than the Wasatch.
More like the Cache Creek area
Haven’t had a heli op here since the mid 80s

[1000-oaks]

The line at Stump was just over an hour, 12 was 35 minutes, gondola was down to 35 min late in the day... Those who got first tracks off 23 waited 1:40.

Remind me not to come back on pow weekends....weekday pow only. After all the hours of waiting in line, we got only one 5 min run that was awesome.

[TEXASS]

Best day in a long time. Took my two year old grandson and three year old granddaughter to the ski lessons Hill at 3 pm.
With rented skis
Me and my Son in Law became the lift and stayed over an hour
Their first time on skis
Both loved it and had a great time
The weekend was worth it

But I’m with you Thousand Oaks. Never at Mammoth on a powder weekend again

[Eastern Sierra Skier]

It’s was a shitshow. Everyone that bought a ticket yesterday got in line to get a voucher or a ticket for today
Because of yesterday’s slide only lower terrain was open ( can’t blame patrol)
Half of Los Angeles and most of San Diego came up this weekend
We were at Eagle lodge and waited 30 minutes for a ticket exchange and then after 40 or so
Minutes in line decided to bail
They may open the top by noon but the crowd is uuuge
Decided to cut our loses and come up mid week in spring corn
Haven’t been to a resort in at least a year.
Most likely won’t go back to Mammoth unless it’s a Tuesday non holiday
I’m more in line with Convict Canyon or Lundy Lake

The line at Stump was just over an hour, 12 was 35 minutes, gondola was down to 35 min late in the day... Those who got first tracks off 23 waited 1:40.

Remind me not to come back on pow weekends....weekday pow only. After all the hours of waiting in line, we got only one 5 min run that was awesome.

Repeat after me, "Mid week, Non holiday." Skied Thur & Friday during the brunt of the storm. On Thursday ch. 22 ran until late in the day (3:15) when wind gusts over 85+ finally shut it down. All day it just got deeper and deeper, with less and less people. Friday not quite as good as the winds we up as well as the skier numbers, but not even a fraction of what this weekend looked like.

On the return to ch 22 Thursday, never say another skier in here all day. Steeper and deeper than it looks.


Chair 21 last run on Thursday. Note- no one on it. After 22 closed I got back out for one more. Broke trail out to the chair line of "Old Chair 10." Deep and untracked.


Drive North on 395 Friday night was hellish. Bailed Mammoth back to Reno on Friday as people were flooding into town. From Bridge Port North to Reno it was blizzard conditions with total whiteouts at times.


12:00 a.m. at the Arco in Miden. Never seen it snow that hard there. My normal 3 hour drive at 60 mph turned into 6 hours at 25-30 mph. Oh well, it was worth 2 days of uncrowded and intracked conditions.

Remember, "Mid Week, Non Holiday." They hype the shit out of this last storm and results are as expected, a shit storm of epic porportions this weekend. Interested to hear predictions on crowds now that they have added Mammoth to the base (lower cost) IKON pass and that regular Tahoe skiers can use it at Mammoth for limited days or upgrade it for unlimited. Mammoth runs way more lifts in worse conditions than those areas, and will those skiers impact Mammoth on what were quite strom days? Flying out to BC tomorrow morning for a 2 week RV trip around the Powder Hwy. Stoke meter is pegged!

[Nevada29er]

The Ikon pass will not be kind to Mammy locals.

[comish]

wow, interesting weekend.

Timed Saturday all wrong with kid ski team drop off at Main, and little opening out of Canyon for early ups. So my <5hr of sleep rally w/ the 9yr old for early ups was a bust. He called it "early wait". Finally riding 16 by 22 and seeing how delicious it was going to be was tough, but Mini Comish wanted to go to team... So got a bunch of fun, but not epic, runs on ch 1 in the snow until it shut down for the Avi.

Thought they did a pretty good job on the communications via Facebook/Twitter. Basically every 1/2 hour there was an update. My kids and wife got stuck at Main. They finally got a parking shuttle to ch 4 and then had an "adventure" hiking and skiing back to Canyon.

This morning skied from Canyon to Main relatively uneventfully. Slightly crowded, but not bad. By 9am drop off, most things had solid lines but the lower gondi. Rode it up and found people already in line for G2. We decided to wait...

We waited for 3 hours at Mid. Cool group in line, made new friends, heard more details on the Avi. Once it ran, I was prolly 3rd down P1. Skiers right line was totally untracked. Likely the best run I have ever had off the top. Super deep, over the head blower the whole way down the Noids. I'm still stoked about that run! Basically a heli ski run, albeit after a 3hr wait, but with cocoa, chicken fingers, capuccino, and good conversation. Part of the calculation on this wait was the clusterf*ck that was happening everywhere else for basically skied out snow. I'm about quality over quantity at this point. We rolled the dice and won, at least from our perspective.

Then 2 more runs out ch9 that was just ridiculously deep! Deepest I have ever skied it out there. Played leapfrog your buddy the whole way down as drowning in it or a tree well was serious concern.

So, grand tally of 4 real runs, 6 if you include skiing from Canyon to Main in the morning w/ Team Mini Comish. 3 of the most epic blower Mammoth pow runs I will ever have. Its just never that deep, light, and un wind effected. Ever.

Check out some videos of Tahoe this weekend and crowds on a pow day are not just a Mammoth "feature" these days...

[hutash]

Today was an unusual day. Weird line up of events, storms, weekend, school holidays, etc. I have never seen crowd like this before. Longest waits so can remember in the last twenty years. While the hill was insanely crowded, town didn't seem to be that bad. I'll be curious to see occupancy figures if anybody has them.

That said, even through I got the fewest runs with a full day skiing, I got so.e amazing runs. I had to wait in a lot if lines to get terrain as it opened, but when it did open it was great. Probably the deepest, lightest snow off the top I have skied. I managed to turn horrid lines into good runs. While I hope I never see such crowds again, I made the best of it.

As for inbounds avi conditions vs back country, there is one blaring difference, and that is skier traffic, so the two are always foing to be so.ewhat different. Sure there are similarities, the both get the same snow fall (more or less), but one sees thousands of skiers and the other see none to a few, so compaction, facets and such can be radically different.

[m69dad]

Big weekend, but very frustrating at times. Didn't get up for early ups on Saturday as I had a couple of non-pass holding buddies. Couldn't bring myself to "no friends on a pow day" as it was both of their first times on the mountain. We took a gamble and headed out to the mountain early on Sunday. Made it to Gondy around 7:45 and were fourth in line. Chair 1 would've been a better bet, but we still got some great fresh turns at Rodgers Ridge. We did a couple quick laps there and only got 2 more runs in before 11, and the bombs were still going till then. Was feeling pretty frustrated and I know my friends were as well. It sucks when you spend more time waiting than skiing, and get scared the top won't even open. Couple of early morning line pics:

Stump: https://imgur.com/a/DL4rl

22: https://imgur.com/a/bkYOh

After waiting an hour at 25, we took a break for a quick snack and some hydration. We came back out to a completely different mountain, and managed to make it over to chair 3 just after it opened. Top popped shortly thereafter, and instead of messing around with the lines at 23 and mccoy, we managed to catch them opening backside of three chair, and they opened up the 5 area even though the chair wasn't spinning. Some of the deepest turns I've ever had there and we were able to run two laps of freshies there despite running down to mill and back up three.

Rode Dave's and 9 to end the day. Lots of folks were down at the cliffs midway up 9 chair and really sending it. Fun stuff. More pics from the day: https://imgur.com/a/KrnCm

[powdork]

Sure there are similarities, the both get the same snow fall (more or less), but one sees thousands of skiers and the other see none to a few, so compaction, facets and such can be radically different.

plus, and probably most importantly, avalanche control

[PowerWhore7]

June brah, June 😁

[frorider]

https://instagram.com/p/Bf7bIiInlL7/

Damn. That was a big ass slide path.

[atomicboy]

22: https://imgur.com/a/bkYOh

That could very well be the longest line I have ever seen at 22. Jesus I don't think I could wait in something like that. All of those lines give me horrible flashbacks to say a 1985 holiday weekend

[TEXASS]

Not a fan of June. Angle is too low.

[meter-man]

June brah, June ��

Face open?

[TEXASS]

The face is good. But that’s the only spot in June with sufficient angle for departure
But that’s a snowboarders look.
Your review may be different
It would have been a great place to take the kids though

And to Ermine , I get every Eastern Sierra Avalanche Center report. Fully aware of the snowpack here
Like I said. It ain’t the Wasatch. More like the Afghanistan of America. Very Desolite
I don’t even think you can get a heli rescue here mid winter
Yosemite National
park starts running one in May. But they usually won’t come this far south

[LightRanger]

Inyo County Sheriff, CHP, and China Lake Mountain Rescue Group all have air resources they can call in...

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

[m69dad]

anyone see the mammothweather update from today???

"The other change is in the timing of the main precipitation push, which now highlights Saturday Night into Sunday instead of Sunday night. This late weekend storm has the potential of bringing several feet of wetter snow to the upper elevations through Monday with nearly non stop snowfall possibly between its exit and the timing of the passage of the main mother low which may slow down through the 15th and not come through until Friday night the 16th. We could see another 5 to 9 feet over the crest should all of that happen……Miracle March anyone?"

[PowerWhore7]

Face open?

Yes face was open & it was deep. Angle was just right too

[whyturn]

Not a fan of June. Angle is too low.

Yep stay at Mammoth

[Ottime]

Ive never skied Mammy earlier in the season than April. Even on Memorial Day, I’ve always skied right on the lifts with basically no lines. Those lines look insane .

[~mikey b]

Ive never skied Mammy earlier in the season than April. Even on Memorial Day, I’ve always skied right on the lifts with basically no lines. Those lines look insane .

Yeah that’s pretty much my experience too.

[Ermine]

And to Ermine , I get every Eastern Sierra Avalanche Center report. Fully aware of the snowpack here
Like I said. It ain’t the Wasatch. More like the Afghanistan of America. Very Desolite

Yea, I'm a little slow, but I'm getting it. You guys are saying it's much more black & white there around Mammoth Lakes, whereas in the *central* Wasatch, Teton Pass, Passes in ID / CO, we have alot of gray area. Almost semi-controlled areas: Bombing for the roads, heli-guides bombing + their hoards, lots of triggers, tourers dropping cornices, ski cutting, sluffing the snow, skier compaction, sleds ALL helping to stabilize the snowpack....in our so-called backcountry. Not to say these areas are *safe*, but they're certainly safer than remote, rarely-visitied-by-humans areas. Most of my experience is in Continental and Intermountain snowpacks, not Maritime/Coastal.

It's been a shitty year though up to these last couple storms. PWL abound. That crown up on Climax looks to be over 10,000 feet and in the alpine. NNE facing (had to download a topo quad). Seems to me with high pressue, low snowpack (large tempurature gradient), even with the skier compaction and bombing, there could still be facets in the snow up there? I recall in the 80s seeing a patroller digging a pit and writing in a book right under the lift near the top of Wolf Creek ski area in CO. It's a bump run.
(but in those days Woof Crick was like a country club, on a pow day, you could spoon your tracks lift served)

[TEXASS]

Yes. Most likely facets from lack of snow and old snow sitting on the rock faces getting heat and sun. Temps before this storm were spring temps. Bright sunny days and warm nights
Then we got Utah snow. Light fluffy low water content
Pretty sure the patrollers doing control work let out a big “ Oh Shit “ when that one went

What was surprising is the fact they opened the Top Sunday

Mammoth is a strang place when it comes to the Backcountry
You don’t meet a lot of local chargers. Most people in the BC there are either from Tahoe LA or like me San Diego

And they really corral the snomo activity here.

But then again most of the terrain is very high and steep
Not a lot of trees and not much low angle

You should come over this spring and do some touring

Try Independence ( Onion Valley ) or Big Pine
(Big Pine Canyon )

But don’t look for that light Utah powder
Think spring corn