Mammoth 11'053'. Get high not covid 20/21

[Ottime]

Firmer today for sure. Lapped 5 from 3:15 till 4:01, and it was actually in softer shape than it was at 11am.

We took 23 around 1pm and my 9 year said no more. Too cold. Headed to gondola and was told too was closed as we climbed the stairs. Fuck. Got on anyway and 3 was a cluster fuck. Headed to 11 to 12 and then played around the backside and 12 until 12 closed. Actually found really good snow off 12.

For sure busier today and when G2 closed 1 and 3 got big lines.

Way more nose dicks hanging out today as well. And weird stupid shit in the contras like waiting near the front for some one, people going the wrong way, some mom and two kids falling as they tried to suck ropes to change lines.

It’s funny. Seems like Mammy has a perfect mix of absolute rippers and big time kooks.

Another super fun day out there. Best part was logging 10k after 3pm.

[Ottime]

To get that pic of my kid at AM off the front page


This area has been skiing well.





And this area of Climax, tho better on Tuesday.



And we’ve been finding nice spots on the hill to have lunch.

[gimpy]

Yer kid looks super stoked

[comish]

You did better than I today. Tried to get a few runs in at lunch. mini comish was slow and late, then dropped him at team, got pole position at ch2 and get right to the chair and it apparently broke. Argh. Take the bus to Main only to see Mini Comish had pulled the ripcord from tweaking his knee on Sunday and my day was done. 1 run day back to the car. Argh...

OTT, your not wrong on the Mammoth crowd. There is a distinct knucklehead factor here unfortunately. Makes me yearn for JH or the Alps, but it's still a pretty stellar place and you just get good at ignoring it..

[Ottime]

Hope his knee recovers. That is a bummer.

Yer kid looks super stoked

Yeah. I caught that pucker face. He was actually having a blast but made a sour face for the pic

[TWINS]

Another day of great packed snow. Wind was a bitch as day went on, though. Left early for Squaw. Looking forward to returning come spring time.

Sent from my motorola edge plus using Tapatalk

You got it pretty good.
Good planning
Spring turns are the best


Sent from my SM-N960U using Tapatalk

[TahoeJ]

Makes me yearn for JH or the Alps

JH has a pretty high kook factor these days.

That actually just reminded me, the Jaded Local (Mt. Shredly = Mammoth) is back. https://mountaingazette.com/blogs/mo...cal-the-return

From that link...

A conversation I had this week with a friend in Jackson Hole, an iconic Jackson skier with actual terrain named after him, who tells me he’s done with skiing, that Jackson is “all trusties and rich fucks now,” and “Everyone figured out we were having a lot of fun. Now it’s fucked.” I’ve been suppressing those feelings for so long it made me wince to hear it from a genuine ski hero.

[Ottime]

There is always March. When all those folks pull out their boats and wake boards.

My son and I currently plan on being here the last week of March/ first week of April. And if there is snow again in May.

Only line I’ve been in so far today was a 5 minute was at G1. Headed back over toward Lincoln now as Main is starting to get lines.

Don’t go to Stump right now. Looks 50 chairs deep.

[John_B]

That actually just reminded me, the Jaded Local (Mt. Shredly = Mammoth) is back. https://mountaingazette.com/blogs/mo...cal-the-return

That is the best news I've heard in months!

[gimpy]

Soooooo........did the high elevation rain event that fucked Tahoe not hit down there? Methinks some east slidin is in order in the weeks ahead. Don’t worry I won’t be adding to mammoth lift lines.......never ridden a lift there and no plans to start

[comish]

It was a slush at my place which is between Canyon and the Village. Super wet snow, but not rain. We also got some wind, surprise surprise, so you gotta factor that into your route choice.

[SkiHick]

Soooooo........did the high elevation rain event that fucked Tahoe not hit down there? Methinks some east slidin is in order in the weeks ahead. Don’t worry I won’t be adding to mammoth lift lines.......never ridden a lift there and no plans to start

Mammoth is usually higher-enough elevation to avoid those events that plague Tahoe.

[mr. hankey]

Gimpy, I've been watching the east side too. From the Esac and Bridgeport avy sites, sounds like no rain down there, but tons of wind scouring. Great pics/condition report from Twin lakes yesterday https://www.bridgeportavalanchecente...-sawmill-ridge
as well as dunderberg/Va lakes https://www.esavalanche.org/content/...ld-and-windy-0

[altacoup]

JH has a pretty high kook factor these days.

That actually just reminded me, the Jaded Local (Mt. Shredly = Mammoth) is back. https://mountaingazette.com/blogs/mo...cal-the-return

From that link...

A conversation I had this week with a friend in Jackson Hole, an iconic Jackson skier with actual terrain named after him, who tells me he’s done with skiing, that Jackson is “all trusties and rich fucks now,” and “Everyone figured out we were having a lot of fun. Now it’s fucked.” I’ve been suppressing those feelings for so long it made me wince to hear it from a genuine ski hero.

That article really hit home with me. However it really misses the irony that Powder magazine played a huge role in blowing the sport up into what it is now. As someone who’s skied everyday the lifts were running and often beyond that I wasn’t injured for the last 20 years. I’ve taken a bunch of days off this year. The experience just sucks. It’s been headed this way but Covid amplified it all. Don’t know where to go. The same forces ruined surfing for me years ago. Now days even cold water breaks are packed in marginal conditions. In an attempt to make money off of what they love, some people have destroyed their life’s passion for them and the rest of us.

[TahoeJ]

Hmm. Honestly, I'm not so sure the masses that blew the sport up even subscribed to Powder. For example, I've subscribed for years and the same for my friends who are dedicated skiers... but amongst my friends who only go several times per season (people who ski vs. skiers), none of them subscribe or follow much of that stuff. I really think most of it comes down to cheap mega resort season passes, and then the pandemic and remote working ability poured gasoline on the fire. Mammoth is certainly a different place since IKON. Tahoe too between IKON / EPIC.

[Long duc dong]

Hmm. Honestly, I'm not so sure the masses that blew the sport up even subscribed to Powder. For example, I've subscribed for years and the same for my friends who are dedicated skiers... but amongst my friends who only go several times per season (people who ski vs. skiers), none of them subscribe or follow much of that stuff. I really think most of it comes down to cheap mega resort season passes, and then the pandemic and remote working ability poured gasoline on the fire. Mammoth is certainly a different place since IKON. Tahoe too between IKON / EPIC.

I like the delineation between people who ski and non-skiers.

I read somewhere that 95% of skiers (not sure how they are categorizing what a skier is) ski less than 5 days a year. One of the differences between skiing/snowboarding and surfing is that surfing takes more work to simply be competent. This is partly because in surfing you spend very little time actually riding a wave when compared to skiing and snowboarding. If you surf for an hour and you actually spent 3 minutes actually riding, that is a pretty amazing hour for most surfers. Skiing/boarding is essentially surfing a very long wave where you are put in the proper spot already standing. The issue of getting in position to ride is taken out. I know this is a simplification, but it means that people can perform the sport casually and be able to cruise down a groomer. That doesn't exist to the same extent in surfing.

The result is that surfing tends to be crowded by people who are actually into the sport. I would say far more surfers know who Rob Machado is than skiers (however you define a skier) know who Henrik Windstedt is. Obviously the skiers who have done big things in the Olympics ( Moseley, Bode, Vonn et al) become household names, but the vast majority of 'skiers' probably don't know who Shane McConkey was. I would say there are far more surfers familiar with Surfer magazine than skiers familiar with Powder. The nature of the sports is just different. I spent more time skiing the mountain (I mean actually skiing, not waiting in lifts) this weekend at Mammoth in three days than I would spend actually riding waves in months of surfing several times a week. the ratio might be even worse than that, I haven't really thought about it.

Both sports have been blown up by the people wanting to make a lifestyle out of it, but they have been blown up in different ways.

Honestly though, I don't know how different Mammoth really is with the Ikon pass. Mammoth has been offering cheap season passes for around 20 years, with the MVP pass and all. They started offering it for around 400 back in the spring of 2000 if you bought in April and May. I actually bought one that year thinking I was done with ski bumming in Tahoe. I ended up spending a couple more years in Tahoe, but Mammoth has had a huge crowd of season pass holders who don't live there for a VERY long time. The fact that passes are cheap has made it easy for people from socal to buy one and get in a couple more trips than they otherwise might have. There is nothing different about that. When I left Squaw (after the 03/04 season) a full pass was around 1600, or 1200 if you bought it in July. The result was that it was only the more serious weekend warriors (think 30 days and up) who bought them. I have a cousin who is a bit older than me who is a pathologist at Stanford hospital. Until he got married and had kids he used to take about 10 weeks off a year. He would take a month off in the summer to windsurf and a month off in the winter to ski. He also skied just about every weekend. Obviously it was worth it to him to buy a full Squaw pass, but lots of my weekend warrior buddies who were in the 15-25 day range at the time bought Sugar Bowl/Alpine passes. It just didn't make sense for them financially to buy the full Squaw pass.

From what I hear from my friends who live up north (both in the bay and in Tahoe) the cheap passes have made Squaw much more crowded. I don't get there much anymore, but it would not surprise me. I would think Ikon would make that worse, because obviously you have people from other resorts who have Ikon passes, but also because Tahoe is very easy to get to by flying into Reno.

Mammoth is different. Mammoth is very remote, and a nuisance to get to for anyone except socal folks. The drive down from Reno is beautiful, but it can be interesting in a storm to say the least. Ikon has brought more Tahoe people down, but at certain times Mammoth actually feels LESS crowded to me than it used to. Lots of people buy the base pass, and can't use it during the blackout periods. I remember skiing on MLK (or pres) weekend one of the last years before Ikon came along. I was doing laps off the upper gondi, hangman's was in prime condition, but the lines were around 1/2 hour at least. Now those weekends are much less crowded because so many people who previously would have purchased full Mammoth passes just go with the base pass. Pres. and MLK weekends are now a really good time to go. The lines were not bad this weekend considering it's covid.

That's just my 2 cents on Mammoth and Ikon. Granted, I'm there two weeks and maybe 10 weekends a year, so I might be missing something. The locals might feel more of a difference due to Ikon. But Mammoth has had cheap passes that are worth it for people that ski 10 days a year for a long time. It has been part of their business model for two decades.

What I do hear is that remote working has caused Mammoth real estate prices to shoot up, which makes sense. Our landlord wants to buy his brothers out of the condo we ski lease from him every winter. He likes renting it to our group for six months, so I hope he is able to do it as that makes it easy for us, but he says this is just about the worst time to be buying. I don't really know just how accurate that is, I'm just taking his word for it. My wife and I have thought about buying a place, so I do check the real estate prices and things do seem to have jumped in the last couple of year.

[comish]

I like the delineation between people who ski and non-skiers.

I read somewhere that 95% of skiers (not sure how they are categorizing what a skier is) ski less than 5 days a year. One of the differences between skiing/snowboarding and surfing is that surfing takes more work to simply be competent. This is partly because in surfing you spend very little time actually riding a wave when compared to skiing and snowboarding. If you surf for an hour and you actually spent 3 minutes actually riding, that is a pretty amazing hour for most surfers. Skiing/boarding is essentially surfing a very long wave where you are put in the proper spot already standing. The issue of getting in position to ride is taken out. I know this is a simplification, but it means that people can perform the sport casually and be able to cruise down a groomer. That doesn't exist to the same extent in surfing.

The result is that surfing tends to be crowded by people who are actually into the sport. I would say far more surfers know who Rob Machado is than skiers (however you define a skier) know who Henrik Windstedt is. Obviously the skiers who have done big things in the Olympics ( Moseley, Bode, Vonn et al) become household names, but the vast majority of 'skiers' probably don't know who Shane McConkey was. I would say there are far more surfers familiar with Surfer magazine than skiers familiar with Powder. The nature of the sports is just different. I spent more time skiing the mountain (I mean actually skiing, not waiting in lifts) this weekend at Mammoth in three days than I would spend actually riding waves in months of surfing several times a week. the ratio might be even worse than that, I haven't really thought about it.

Both sports have been blown up by the people wanting to make a lifestyle out of it, but they have been blown up in different ways.

Honestly though, I don't know how different Mammoth really is with the Ikon pass. Mammoth has been offering cheap season passes for around 20 years, with the MVP pass and all. They started offering it for around 400 back in the spring of 2000 if you bought in April and May. I actually bought one that year thinking I was done with ski bumming in Tahoe. I ended up spending a couple more years in Tahoe, but Mammoth has had a huge crowd of season pass holders who don't live there for a VERY long time. The fact that passes are cheap has made it easy for people from socal to buy one and get in a couple more trips than they otherwise might have. There is nothing different about that. When I left Squaw (after the 03/04 season) a full pass was around 1600, or 1200 if you bought it in July. The result was that it was only the more serious weekend warriors (think 30 days and up) who bought them. I have a cousin who is a bit older than me who is a pathologist at Stanford hospital. Until he got married and had kids he used to take about 10 weeks off a year. He would take a month off in the summer to windsurf and a month off in the winter to ski. He also skied just about every weekend. Obviously it was worth it to him to buy a full Squaw pass, but lots of my weekend warrior buddies who were in the 15-25 day range at the time bought Sugar Bowl/Alpine passes. It just didn't make sense for them financially to buy the full Squaw pass.

From what I hear from my friends who live up north (both in the bay and in Tahoe) the cheap passes have made Squaw much more crowded. I don't get there much anymore, but it would not surprise me. I would think Ikon would make that worse, because obviously you have people from other resorts who have Ikon passes, but also because Tahoe is very easy to get to by flying into Reno.

Mammoth is different. Mammoth is very remote, and a nuisance to get to for anyone except socal folks. The drive down from Reno is beautiful, but it can be interesting in a storm to say the least. Ikon has brought more Tahoe people down, but at certain times Mammoth actually feels LESS crowded to me than it used to. Lots of people buy the base pass, and can't use it during the blackout periods. I remember skiing on MLK (or pres) weekend one of the last years before Ikon came along. I was doing laps off the upper gondi, hangman's was in prime condition, but the lines were around 1/2 hour at least. Now those weekends are much less crowded because so many people who previously would have purchased full Mammoth passes just go with the base pass. Pres. and MLK weekends are now a really good time to go. The lines were not bad this weekend considering it's covid.

That's just my 2 cents on Mammoth and Ikon. Granted, I'm there two weeks and maybe 10 weekends a year, so I might be missing something. The locals might feel more of a difference due to Ikon. But Mammoth has had cheap passes that are worth it for people that ski 10 days a year for a long time. It has been part of their business model for two decades.

What I do hear is that remote working has caused Mammoth real estate prices to shoot up, which makes sense. Our landlord wants to buy his brothers out of the condo we ski lease from him every winter. He likes renting it to our group for six months, so I hope he is able to do it as that makes it easy for us, but he says this is just about the worst time to be buying. I don't really know just how accurate that is, I'm just taking his word for it. My wife and I have thought about buying a place, so I do check the real estate prices and things do seem to have jumped in the last couple of year.

Agree with nearly all that.

NY, MLK, and Pres. Day w/e's are significantly less crowded post Ikon than Pre because of the base pass having those dates blacked out. I don't know about this year, but in the past the base pass was 75% of the passes sold. You hit the nail on the head with the cheap MVP passes which changed Mammoth a long time ago.

The RE market is bananas. I will share more shortly, but definitely the highest it's ever been, by a bunch, for our Condo. I also just closed on a house in Dec. It's looking like quite a good buy based on what has happened since.

The cheap passes have made a bigger difference at other mountains besides Mammoth. Places that used to have the $1600 passes ala Squaw, JH, or Alta.

At the end of the day, I still just love sliding on snow. Who is around me doesn't really matter that much once I'm sliding. For some reason the stoke gets taken from me with surfing much easier through the competition for waves. Once I drop into the Noids, I'm just thinking about my turns! Love that and always will.

[Ottime]

I’d say overall the mountain has not felt crowded this week. I was out all day today and never waited in a line except when my kid wanted to take the gondola to the top for a run. And that was maybe 5 minutes. I barely know this place but had it wired today. Put in 35k. Worked my way to main and skied 23 until a line started to form. Went to the base and rolled right up to the front of the gondola line. Took Dave’s and went down to 9. Saw a line forming behind me as I left and then played with 25/22 for a few hours till my wife and kid came out. Took 22 and could see no lines on 2,3,5 and 10 at about 12:30.

Can’t really call a day like today in the middle of ski week, crowded. Sure, it was not empty and there were people around but there were also plenty of lifts all day you could roll right onto.


Great mountain. Can’t wait to be back soon. Off to June tomorrow to avoid the “new Saturday”.

[Eastern Sierra Skier]

I’ve taken a bunch of days off this year. The experience just sucks.

Dude,
You just hit the nail on the head for myself as well with that statement. I'm trying to stay optimistic that things will get better and not not let Old Timers Disease (believing that everything was way better back in the day & can never be as good again) cloud my thinking, especially at age 49.

Yes, I've gotten in some good days this year as my current ski day count sits at 49 days, but between the bigger lift lines, low snow pack until just recently, and having to reserve either parking spots or a day on the hill it sucks. Keep the faith and this to shall pass (I hope).

[gimpy]

eventually you will come to the conclusion that the resort experience isn’t for you anymore...... as many diehard skiers around the eastern and northern Sierra already have......sorry but ....it’s not gonna get better. You already know what the answer is. When you’re still shredding with your kids....ya just gotta suck it up. When you’re on your own or with friends....the wild mountains will never be too crowded

[enlosandes]

Soooooo........did the high elevation rain event that fucked Tahoe not hit down there? Methinks some east slidin is in order in the weeks ahead. Don’t worry I won’t be adding to mammoth lift lines.......never ridden a lift there and no plans to start

Hey Gimpage, we did not get rain but did get some warm temps, then another violent 24 hour NE wind event (with wind chill close to -30F). Conditions are a mixed bag at the moment.

[Ottime]

Was a lot warmer on 25 than on 23 today. Two different worlds.

[bodywhomper]

I’m 45 and started skiing mammoth when I was 4. I haven’t been there for several years. I remember huge lift lines on all the major upper/mid mtn chairs, like 23, 3, 5, and the mid mtn lodge for the gondi, especially in the 80’s and early 90’s. Long waits. Just part of the expected experience. I also remember before 23 was installed, when cornice run had a wall to wall cornice, and when there was some sort of weird bridge that you could ski over or through somewhere near the bottom is stump alley or base or chair 10. My first few trips to ski at mammoth, we stayed in the main lot across from the lodge in our motorhome.

[TahoeJ]

I guess my perception for both Mammoth and Tahoe is that yeah, there were always big crowds on certain weeks / weekends, but it's the days that used to be a little more quiet and sleepy that are now way more crowded. The Squaw parking lot filled up the other day by 9:15 on a random Wednesday. It had stormed the day before but wasn't even a proper pow day. I've never seen that before. For the past 12-13 years I've always spent a week or so in Mammoth in early to mid December, part of my routine every year when I'm down in SoCal for work for our holiday party. I always loved it because even if there was a decent storm, it was still relatively quiet and a great experience. That has completely changed since they went IKON. It's not just about the specifics regarding the access to a single resort, it's the huge marketing campaign and the idea that people can travel to all of these other places on the same pass, so way more people buy it than those who bought the MVP pass previously.

[Eastern Sierra Skier]

I guess my perception for both Mammoth and Tahoe is that yeah, there were always big crowds on certain weeks / weekends, but it's the days that used to be a little more quiet and sleepy that are now way more crowded.

Absolutely.