Mammoth 16/17

[SchralphMacchio]

Saw your post regarding your trip plans and calendar. Just wanted to give you a heads up regarding the dates you are planning to be in Mammoth. Those dates of Feb 18th-20th also happen to coincide with "Presidents Week holidays." Traditionally that time period ranks right up with Christmas to New Years as one of the busiest ...

Certainly don't want to scare you off by any means, and if you know all of this already just ignore my post.

mntlion, can you move your trip +/- one week? If ESS is being polite, I won't be - you ought to be scared.

Think downtown-Banff-like weekend crowds from last year's free National Parks cele-branza, then multiply by 2. President's Day at California resorts, in years where the US economy is doing well, is usually the worst time to visit ... even busier than XMas-New Years in my opinion.

Even if you can't move +/- by one week, see if you can get in and out of California before or after Sat/Sunday 2/17 and 2/18. The ski resorts in other states will be a junkshow as well but not nearly as bad as Squaw and Mammoth. Bend will be a junkshow too but still nothing compared to Tahoe and Mammoth ... there just are so many more people in California who think they enjoy skiing than in Oregon. Vegas is always busy on weekends but it's set up to handle crowds well and I doubt Pres Day would be any more busy there than a typical weekend, I'd suggest moving your start time forward if possible so that you hit Vegas during the holiday period.

Regarding snow patterns in the Western US ... the early season temps have just been too warm and only high-elevation resorts have gotten real "base-building storms" yet. We are all used to snowpack depths changing from zero to hero with just 1-2 storms out west, but the blocking ridge pattern does not look great for the next few weeks for building a solid base while the sun angles are low in January.

[whitekingsalmon]

Yawnnnnnn..... Eastside isn't gonna happen this season...head to the alps... it's Goin off.

[jorion]

I’d highly encourage you to do the 15 minute drive out of town to go to the nearby hot springs. There are a bunch of undeveloped ones near each other. If you google pulkey’s pool or crab cooker those are good ones to check out. Nothing at all like the banff hot springs, I think for the better.

Also, June lake brewing has great beer, and the Hawaiian truck parked outside is also great. It’s worth the drive, especially if you want to get away from the hordes at mammoth.

[liv2ski]

mntlion, can you move your trip +/- one week? If ESS is being polite, I won't be - you ought to be scared.

I ski Mammoth every year that week and yes, the weekend is crowded down low with the unwashed masses BUT I am fairly certain they will be skiing off the top and doing laps on 23 is never that bad of a shit show IMO.
Just sayin in case his dates are locked in, it isn't that bad if your skiing the top.

[SchralphMacchio]

^ fair enough, just make sure to pull up at 8 for a parking spot!!!

[hutash]

^ fair enough, just make sure to pull up at 8 for a parking spot!!!

...or take the bus, just avoid the red line. Blue line to Canyon is usually the best, but all depends on where they stay.

Agreed about the crowds. Yes it will be busy, but there are lots of options to avoid them. Best to hook up with a local mag when there for inside beta.

Weather and snow conditions pending, a day at June can be fun as well, and second on June Lake Brewing.

[TEXASS]

Or bring your skins. Hopefully stuff up high will have something. But you may have a bit of a dry hike up

[liv2ski]

^ fair enough, just make sure to pull up at 8 for a parking spot!!!

Right you are sir. Get to the Mill by 8am and you're good to go.

[clausen]

Its Snowing!

[Idyllwild]

Storm hype

[Boomer28]

Saw some pics from today that looked almost like winter....foot + at upper elevations but more importantly per Howard:

"A winter storm watch has been issued by the national weather service for elevations above 7500 feet beginning at 8:00pm Monday night and continuing through Tuesday night. Between 2 and 3 feet of snow is expected by Tuesday night.

Amounts Over the crest are expected to be 4 to 5 feet."

/takes pants off....

[Barnballs]

Today was fun. Full on return of winter. Snowed till about 3pm.
Most holiday crowd bailed. Tomorrow should be decent.

[Eastern Sierra Skier]

The McCoy cam is showing some wind buff action in effect off 23 in the wipe out 2 area.


Tried to get a pic from the McCoy cam of it. Texted a co-worker and got confirmation that it's good. Tomorrow is looking good for Mammoth, and with rising snow levels in Tahoe and a more Southern storm track I'm making a dawn patrol run down from Reno. Hopefully I'll time it just right. Squaw lost snow on the lower mountain from the last storm as it was mostly a rain event for them. 11053 ft is a game changer these days.

[Barnballs]

Yep, wind machine + 12 new = hero snow all day!

West Bowl - delivered non-stop!


China Bowl


Drop Out 1

[Eastern Sierra Skier]

Yep, wind machine + 12 new = hero snow all day!

West Bowl - delivered non-stop!


China Bowl


Drop Out 1

Looks sick. My favorite Mammoth condition. Just gets better all day long. Rarely if ever see it anywhere else but here.

[comish]

Wow, that 12-18" really helped a lot! Spent Friday at the Doc for Mrs. Comish making sure she only had just a concussion, rallied to Tahoe for U-10 GS's at Alpine only to sit and watch it fricken pour rain. They barely got that race off on Saturday, but conditions were pretty awful. They crammed both U10 GS's into Saturday, so by 3:30 when Mini Comish had has 4th run the luge track that was the course had frozen over with sun going behind the mtn. It was a wild ride that I'm glad I didn't have to negotiate. Had 1 or 10 Marg's at the River Ranch Saturday night for old times sake and bailed back to Mammoth to score schweet windbuff on Sunday afternoon.

Mini Comish and I more or less lapped the Wipe Outs. We made one trek out to the Noids, which are skiable, but the wind wasn't buffing them out like the Wipe Outs. That Cam shot of the Wipe's shows it pretty well. Thank you Ullr, Mammoth is game on! Sorry Tahoe, still don't miss ya.

[KillerMonkey]

Was 2nd chair on 23 on Sunday. Was pretty decent until the bottom of the rocks. Got pretty heavy and worked your legs the rest of it. Paranoids and hemlock were very good as well.

Sent from my SM-N950U using TGR Forums mobile app

[Eastern Sierra Skier]

Wow, that 12-18" really helped a lot! Spent Friday at the Doc for Mrs. Comish making sure she only had just a concussion, rallied to Tahoe for U-10 GS's at Alpine only to sit and watch it fricken pour rain. They barely got that race off on Saturday, but conditions were pretty awful. They crammed both U10 GS's into Saturday, so by 3:30 when Mini Comish had has 4th run the luge track that was the course had frozen over with sun going behind the mtn. It was a wild ride that I'm glad I didn't have to negotiate. Had 1 or 10 Marg's at the River Ranch Saturday night for old times sake and bailed back to Mammoth to score schweet windbuff on Sunday afternoon.

Mini Comish and I more or less lapped the Wipe Outs. We made one trek out to the Noids, which are skiable, but the wind wasn't buffing them out like the Wipe Outs. That Cam shot of the Wipe's shows it pretty well. Thank you Ullr, Mammoth is game on! Sorry Tahoe, still don't miss ya.

You still up, or did you head back to So Cal? I bailed out of Galena this morning and am at Canyon. Snowing moderately. It’s wet and heavy. Hoping it gets a little colder and accumulates a bit more and I’ll be headed out.

[comish]

Back south till Saturday.

Here is Mini Comish in the Noids around 2:30pm Sunday.

[~mikey b]

Sweet

[Dkla52]

Nice

[406]

Might be useful for someone:

[jacob_dbu]

Skied today. Vis was terrible, but some clear pockets opened up later on. 12 and 22 were decent for the heavy snow that dropped. 5 and 3 had some ok snow, but got tracked pretty fast and had no vis.

Hoping upper mountain opens up before midday tomorrow (no idea on when, this is my first time here) because I've gotta leave by early afternoon tomorrow.

[Boomer28]

Skied today. Vis was terrible, but some clear pockets opened up later on. 12 and 22 were decent for the heavy snow that dropped. 5 and 3 had some ok snow, but got tracked pretty fast and had no vis.

Hoping upper mountain opens up before midday tomorrow (no idea on when, this is my first time here) because I've gotta leave by early afternoon tomorrow.

Best of luck but I've found they tend to keep the upper shut in advance of a holiday weekend like we got coming up after a dump this early on in the week but I could be wrong...

[morphintoskittle]

Atleast good coverage...