MAMMOTH 22/23 - LIFE'S A BEACH

[Boomer28]

Maybe. Wind is gonna be an absolute whore from the looks of things. Getting out early tomorrow but it looks like rest of week could be a blowout…

[Boomer28]

Let’s go to our man on the ground Boomer! “We’ll Susan it’s a grade A+ shit show at the fuck factory out there! 8 is a 30+ wait and 16 doesn’t look like it’s going to spin. Wind is howling and looks like it’s coming in earlier than forecasted. Put on your day drinking helmets!

[supermodel159]

Let’s go to our man on the ground Boomer! “We’ll Susan it’s a grade A+ shit show at the fuck factory out there! 8 is a 30+ wait and 16 doesn’t look like it’s going to spin. Wind is howling and looks like it’s coming in earlier than forecasted. Put on your day drinking helmets!

Put on your day drinking helmets

Love it.

[hutash]

I will be up on Thursday and hope I won't be eating burgers.

[hutash]

BTW, anybody have a line on housing or at least advice? My nephew will be working for USGS and wants to base out of Mammoth come April. He currently is living in El Portal and working on a NPS project. He livid last summer at the Valentine Preserve (what a great little setup that is.)

He is looking for either a room in a house/condo or a small apartment. Something for the summer would be a start, but likely stick around until he goes back to finish his Ph.D.

[liv2ski]

I will be up on Thursday and hope I won't be eating burgers.

Reading the weather report on the Mammoth site didn't really inspire me today. Wind = blizzard for the next few days. I may blow off my trip again

[Ottime]

Head to June. Last time I was at the hill, with similar reports, all of June was spinning, with moderate winds. Crazy how much less wind there is over that way.

[406]

Drive north with three kids 7 and under went surprisingly smoothly Monday, so rolled into main at noon and spun Disco laps with 7 & 5 yo until last chair. Really an impressive amount of snow.

June today and rest of week. They went down to J1/2 by 1pm. More evidence they closed lifts to sell burgers, truck load of product to move:

No way it was the >80mph winds.

[Boomer28]

About 6" of ultra light blower so far. Skied till about 2pm and was 8th to last chair on 16 a winds were sustained 30-40+. Driving to Vons had whiteout conditions before dinner but now it's consistent light snow and no wind and the forecast tomorrow is looking more promising but who knows.

This weekend is going to be a spicy meatball tho...Friday looks like blizzard conditions and I'm hearing snow levels could plummet to the valley floor and even affect the 14. Over 3 inches of rain north of LA in the forecast could just crush anyone trying to drive up Friday so please be safe and check the forecasts....

[liv2ski]

Weather Gods were fuck no L2S, so they made sure I came down with my wife's cold last night. I feel like shit today. Thanks honey.

[hutash]

I was looking at the trail status and saw a run I don't recall having seen before called Walter's. It is a double black and I.assume is somewhere.off the too, maybe on.of the TOTW runs??? Anybody know about this one?

[Boomer28]

I was looking at the trail status and saw a run I don't recall having seen before called Walter's. It is a double black and I.assume is somewhere.off the too, maybe on.of the TOTW runs??? Anybody know about this one?

It's right below Christmas / China bowl above 5 on the ridge line, one of those boarderline "trails"...

Hit 8th chair on 16 this morning for warmup laps down Acts/Encore which had filled in nicely. Made way over to mill for few laps off 10 & 2 and then hit first chair on 5 as it opened for a few laps there. Snow was great but more exposed areas had super hard/crunchy/icy bumps and areas that put me on my ass a few times...call of the day was taking gold rush up and skiing down far skiers right to the glades between 9 & 25 which held some knee deep snow and were deserted. Ended on griz/shaft which were also super nice.

All in super solid day and back in condo to do some work and rest up. Mountain needs another 12-18" to really get back to primo levels and cover up all the hard shit but I'm worried the wind will blow off some of the more exposed areas but wind today was actually far more manageable than yesterday.

And again, if you think you are driving to mammoth from the south/395 on Friday, you aren't. Stay safe!

[bodywhomper]

Amazing to read about how most of the hill has quickly changed since the weekend. Many of the moguls encountered off 5, 3, and the top were partially/mostly sastrugi-ish. Treed area between 25 and 9 didn’t thaw on Sunday. Best snow quality was hemlock bowl.

[406]

Another nice day at June with the kids, really is the best kids ski area I have visited. Little cold, but sun popped out a few times, so that helped.

Will be interesting how forecast plays out.

[KillerMonkey]

What are the chances 395 closes friday night? Should I prebook a place in bishop...

[liv2ski]

I am thinking closes Thursday night thru a lot of Friday and maybe into the evening. A lot of snow is forecast then. Maybe I will come up Sunday if the storm is backing off yet.

[406]

I'm thinking I15/I5 will be closing too. Little nervous about our planned trip south on Sunday.

[Boomer28]

What are the chances 395 closes friday night? Should I prebook a place in bishop...

As said above I think it’s 100% and probably earlier in the day and possibly even later today/tonight.

Snowed almost a foot overnight here and visibility is shit with pretty gusty winds where I am just off canyon. Heading out in a bit but not optimistic about openings.

Edit: To be clear on the weather/drive situation: it's going to snow all the way down to Lone Pine and beyond tomorrow. This probably won't be one of those "just get to Bishop" storms. Years back I got caught in one of these and ended up with a 12 hour drive and I lost count on the number of dipshits I saw off the road in ditches.

Rolled up to Canyon and talked to few people and am now back in condo. 8 is only thing open and looks to stay like that...

[liv2ski]

I'm thinking I15/I5 will be closing too. Little nervous about our planned trip south on Sunday.

Looking at the below NWS forecast for Bishop, if you can make it down the hill, I think you're good to go.

[406]

In the lodge at top of J1 waiting for patrol to open something. ..too early for burgers, so not sure what is going on :-)

Nuking out!

[Boomer28]

395 closed from Pearsonville to Independence. 14 pass sounds like nightmare.

[406]

That was awesome.

[PowerWhore7]

ground hog day

[406]

Hanging in ticket office waiting on J1 to load public. Almost bought $35 hat.

[Long duc dong]

Git some PW7!!

For any of you guys that are up there have fun and be careful. When the Owens Valley is getting this much snow you know it's quite a storm.

Last weekend we did a nice trip up through Mammoth to Tahoe. We skied Mammoth for one day on either end, and skied Friday-Monday at Palisades. It was great to hit my old stomping grounds again.

If you have a spot to stay in Mammoth it's actually a cool way to do things. I drove up Wednesday night, got some work done Thursday AM and skied Thursday afternoon. I then hit up the 395, picked my wife up and Reno, and headed to see our friends in Incline. The 395 between Mammoth and Tahoe is amazing, but dangerous during storms like this as it closes a lot. If you get good weather this is actually a really cool road trip if you can take a few days off. Love the Ikon or hate it, the pass does allow one to ski some great mountains.

Mammoth was fun last Thursday. Palisades is my old ski bum stomping grounds, so I always love going back there. The conditions at both mountains were fun, some good edgable windbuff although it was also crusty in spots.

It's always interesting going back to your old mountain. I forget just how bumped out Palisades gets compared to Mammoth. You can find stuff that's not too bumped out, but I did lots of Nose to Alternates laps, that was one of my favorite day to day laps when I lived there, and the bumps on the nose are pretty rutted. I guess that's the penance for the fun snow in the Alternates. the C2 area was fun too, Hourglass and Classic Chute were skiing well. I did one hike, I couldn't have lived with myself if I didn't, and Mainline was fun for two turns. If I still lived up there I wouldn't have hiked it, but I had to do at least one hike.

It's always interesting feeling out a mountain that you used to know well. I had to remind myself that I don't ski this mountain everyday, so I don't know where the snow is getting sun-softened, crusty, or where it is getting blown.

I was actually amazed at how NOT crowded Palisades was. The lines were really not bad all weekend.

Here is a video with some lines at both mountains. It starts with a Climax, then a couple of P3 laps. After that it's a couple of alternates laps, then some turns on the skier's right area of Silverado, accessed from the Broken Arrow lift, then two turns and a view from the top of Mainline.

I imagine things will be a bit different after this storm. We'll be back up next weekend, but I'm currently making up for the fun I had last weekend. I did about one day's worth of work over six days, so I'm behind the eight ball now. The snow is pounding down here, Baldy should be great when they eventually open.

We're going to do this trip again in early April. It's actually a great trip, as long as the 395 stays open.