Date: 05/27/00
Days: 2
Resort: Mammoth Mtn.
Hours: Day
Equipment: Alpine
Rating: 7
Primary-Surface: Granular
Secondary-Surfaces: Slush
Gender: Male
Age: 47
Ability: Expert
E-mail: crockeraf@aol.com
Loved: Lots of corn snow on Monday
Hated: Too warm Saturday: not frozen overnight
Closed: Ch. 1,2,3,5,6,11 and both gondolas open
Liftline-Waits: 1-2 minutes max.
Moguls: very good

We skied Saturday and Monday, went to Yosemite Sunday. Saturday was extremely warm, overnight low 45F. Therefore off-trail snow was wet and sticky even early in the morning. The upper half of Wipe Out & Drop Out had excellent skier-packed bumps, and gravity overcame the wet snow for some good turns. Cornice was groomed, and Scotty's had been groomed a few days earlier. The lower mountain was intensively goomed and salted (during the day as well as overnight) to keep the snow manageable. 5/27 rates a 6.

Monday was cooler with overnight freezing. Both days had occasional gusty winds riding the chairs, stronger on Monday. The chair 1 runs were hard at 8AM Monday, but Stump Alley had excellent corn when it opened at 8:15. By 9:30 everything had softened up some, and ungroomed areas like Climax had good skiing where they had been slop on Saturday. The real pleasure was in cruising the corn. With about half the crowd as Saturday, the groomed areas didn't get chewed up much, and most of St. Anton was corn perfection from about 10:30-12:30. 5/29 rates an 8.