Mammoth 16/17

[Ottime]

I skied last June with fantastic conditions. Fresh snow, in general, is really sticky when it warms up to 50F plus right after the storm. Give it a day or two, and it transitions well.

[hutash]

Just a weird weather pattern that brought some funky conditions. Normally when the corn cycle is going conditions are amazing...corn, hero snow. You just have to move around to find the best snow. As others have reported, there are some great turns to be had. It is just a bit more work then usual to find them. That said, find the sweet stop can be challenging, and have consequences. I dropped into Wipe Out 1, had several good turns, then I hit what I swear was the equivalent of a rat glue trap. My skis just stopped, but I kept going. I thought I was royally fucked. Took a couple of tumbles, but must have hit the next glue trap and stopped. First 1/3 of Wipe Out 1 is not where you want to tomahawk. I soon realized it was the bottom of each bump that sucked you in, so I just skied tops and faces of bump and was fine (until I fucked up and hit a bottom and summersault again)

All in all good times, and no crowds. Found lots of good turns today.

[hutash]

What is the correct wax for Whelmer's glue?

Another afternoon of thunder showers and a pretty steady rain in town around midnight. Another 1/2 of flue deposited. Fun if you catch it just right, rat trap sticky if you dont.

[Long duc dong]

I dropped into Wipe Out 1, had several good turns, then I hit what I swear was the equivalent of a rat glue trap. My skis just stopped, but I kept going. I thought I was royally fucked. Took a couple of tumbles, but must have hit the next glue trap and stopped. First 1/3 of Wipe Out 1 is not where you want to tomahawk. I soon realized it was the bottom of each bump that sucked you in, so I just skied tops and faces of bump and was fine (until I fucked up and hit a bottom and summersault again)

.

I almost did something similar in P1 on Sunday. Midway down I hit some absolute glue. I thought I was going to go over the bars, but I somehow pulled out of it.

Like others have said, Mammoth May slush is usually pretty great, although when the top is awesome that usually means the groomers down below are pretty sticky.

When I used to live in Tahoe I loved April/May at Squaw. They go to the big 5 in May, or at least they did back then, meaning you take the tram up, and only a couple of beginner lifts and Shirley and Granite are open. Granite Peak is great because it is high enough up that it usually freezes at night, but it faces east so it slushes up early. I would usually hike the peak 4-5 times and hit up Direct Chute, which is a great place to make slush turns. After a few hikes it would get pretty grabby, so I would hit up the Corkscrew area, which would be soft by that time. To end the day I would sometimes hike the Palisades, a long hike from Shirley, drop the Tube or Extra, then head skier's right and hike into the Headwall area and hit up the Light Towers. The hike out at the bottom was still pretty solid, but worth it. In late May of 2002 it snowed about 2 feet, and we had a sneaker powder day right before Memorial Day. I was going to Vegas to meet college friends and I was pretty done with the year, but Thursday morning was really fun. I hiked Granite Peak three times, hitting Patrol Chute twice and then Direct Chute. After a couple of Corkscrew laps I took the Palisades and Light Towers home. It was truly a memorable day, most people were gone so it did not get tracked out all that fast. I left for Vegas that afternoon with a smile on my face. Spring storms are really special, it just has to snow enough and stay cold enough that it does not turn to glue.

The route from Reno to Vegas on the 95 is really interesting. About an hour outside of Vegas I saw a ranch with a sign that said 'truckers welcome' out front. I did not venture in and I shudder to think of what the women working there must have looked like. I could be wrong, but I don't think truckers are the client base for high end brothels.

[Ottime]

Squaw now runs the tram, Funi, Siberia, Gold
coast and Shirley. No More Granite Chief in May. Kind of sucks, as there is no real steeps, although the Pali and Reverse Traverse are right there off Sibo.

[Barnballs]

Who's doing Memorial Day Wknd?
Skiing am, Golf pm, Mule Days, Mountain Rambler Brew, Tioga Pass, Mobil Mart, Mono Cone, JLB, etc.
Exhausted thinking about it.

[Long duc dong]

Squaw now runs the tram, Funi, Siberia, Gold
coast and Shirley. No More Granite Chief in May. Kind of sucks, as there is no real steeps, although the Pali and Reverse Traverse are right there off Sibo.

That truly sucks. I like hiking the Palisades in the spring, but Granite is awesome. It's not just Granite Peak, the Corkscrew area is really fun too. I always thought they had spring pretty dialed back then. Sibo doesn't make sense to me, I love hucking the ridge on a pow day, but I would rather make slush turns in the Granite area, far more options. Another reason I'm not thrilled with the new management. I'm glad I lived there when I did. We used to complain plenty, as white college grads without real jobs working in a ski town we were truly disenfranchised, but my guess is things are worse now.

[tahoearmada]

the no granite this year is a special shituation
there were climax slides that exposed large sections of rock/bush/creek so patrol called it at that point

[tahoearmada]

looking forward to mammoth next weekend...

[Long duc dong]

the no granite this year is a special shituation
there were climax slides that exposed large sections of rock/bush/creek so patrol called it at that point

That makes sense. Granite is a pretty ideal lift for May, if you are going to limit operations.

[comish]

Be there the next 2 weekends. Had a blast last weekend and looking forward to more.

[Ottime]

the no granite this year is a special shituation
there were climax slides that exposed large sections of rock/bush/creek so patrol called it at that point

Good to know. My son and I have hit Squaw the last three springs and he was bummed there were no real steeps to be had this year. We did ski the Sibo lift line and traversed from Shirley to a shot. But other than that, blue and green groomers/bumps most of the day was kind of slow.

Looking forward to a Mammy day.

[skier666]

Looks like Mammoth extended their season until 'at least' June 17th. One of my perks of Father's Day is to ski, so I'll be there on the 15th for sure. Stoked.

[mcski]

the no granite this year is a special shituation
there were climax slides that exposed large sections of rock/bush/creek so patrol called it at that point

Not sure where or when these slides occurred, but they were unstringing the chair 3 or 4 weeks ago and I didn't see anything slidewise like that that would necessitate closure. Looked to be more of a mechanical or maintenance white flag being thrown. Either way, it's been done for a while. Not the first time they opted for sibo instead of granite though

[hutash]

Looks like Mammoth extended their season until 'at least' June 17th. One of my perks of Father's Day is to ski, so I'll be there on the 15th for sure. Stoked.

Good to know, we will be there for the Mammoth 1/2, so ski Saturday, run Sunday AM, drink and/or ski Sunday before lifts close.

Hit me up if you (or anybody) needs BAF invites. I don't know how useful they are, but if anybody has info about them for spring post it up.

[~mikey b]

Word

[comish]

Same on the BAF as we have a bunch.

Team Comish is pumped for a slalom camp this weekend and then another camp the weekend of June 16th. Apparently they have 16 camps booked for the 2nd w/e in June so they were rather motivated to keep it rolling through then.

Nothing like pink shin guards to get a 7yr old fired up for her first time running stubby slalom! Pretty funny as that is all she has talked about this week since I borrowed the pink shin guards last weekend.

[hutash]

It's well know on the 7 year old race circuit that pink makes you go fast.

Kind of like red boots among the dental sect.

[~mikey b]

Krystal and Owen and I will be rolling thataway soon.

[CrystalMountainSkier]

Heard Chair 16 (Canyon Express) is being replaced with a six-pack this summer?

[hutash]

Sounds like something they would do, instead of something important, like replace chair one, since it breaks daily. Replacing 2 would also be a better idea, since that is a much bigger bottle neck on the mountain. Don't ever go near The Mill at lunch time, the back up on 2 can be insane.

[comish]

16 breaks almost as often as 1 and is a colossal bottle neck for most getting on the mtn. in the morning. Doesn't affect me anymore as we are out of Main w/ kids Team, but I get it.

Agree on the line at 2, but stump alley can't handle any more people as it is. The Village gondi / 15 need to be extended like in their current plan. Chair 1 does need to be fixed so that it doesn't get F'd by wind since its never windy at Mammoth.

Pretty awesome to watch the American Downhiller camp this weekend. Getting stopped by Nyman cross St. Anton back to 23, that dude is tall! Good to see him back on skis. Pretty ridiculous crew of coaches (Nyman, Rahlves, Johno, Marco Sullivan, etc. etc.) and the kids were hauling ass!

[snophoto]

I just about gave up on Chair 2 this year and opted for the parking shuttle to main on the busiest days. They tore out the first two towers I believe on Chair 2 last summer to fix the intermittent stopping issue, but it doesn't seem to have fixed it. Chair 2 needs to be a 6 pack or at least add another chair up towards main.

[pman]

Going up this weekend and was planning on skiing bloody couloir on Sat but weather looks to be less than ideal. Anyone up there know if it will be worth going into the backcountry this weekend. Looks like there was a bit of rain this wee and lots of thunderstorms in the forecast.

[Ottime]

What’s the weather doing there? Got a pretty good rain at about 36F in the Kirkwood Valley. Any chance of dust on crust for the morning. Forecast looks improved with possible thunder and rain gone. Wondering if it will have the glue effect in the afternoon.

Anyway, headed down in the morning with my son to get one last day in. Hopefully parking at the Mill.