A unique combination of conditions I have never seen before at Mammoth in 24 years. Saturday: cold ~10F, occasional flurries of big floating flakes, fog closed top, but absolutely no wind. Sunday: blue skies, a little wind on top, would have been one of the all-time greats except the top had been open Friday and most of it was tracked out.

Mammoth has had about 7 feet of snow this month, 3 feet last week and 4 feet two weeks ago, and all of it has been light and dry. There is very little base underneath, so entrances to runs such as Wipe Out and Paranoid are strewn with rocks, though the runs are great once you get in. Intermediate trails have no coverage problems and an excellent packed powder surface. We still need that 4-foot dump of Sierra Cement to build the base and ensure Mammoth's usual long spring season, though.

The outlying areas of Climax and Paranoid Sunday were outstanding despite being partially tracked because of the excellent snow quality. We did get first tracks on Chair 9 Saturday: consistently knee to thigh deep with the occasional face shot, right under the lift. There was no base under January's freshies around chairs 9 & 25, so the skis got dinged up some with a couple of core shots: an acceptable price for that much quality powder.

The real problem with Chair 9 was constant stopping of the lift. We know it's mechanical because of the length of delays, no wind, and no beginners getting on and off. Our first deep powder run was executed with fingers and toes in intense pain after 25 minutes stopped on the lift. We did not ski there Sunday, but we heard the lift was still having problems.