http://www.insidemammoth.com. At the last minute my friend Richard decided to go with me and fortunately there was still a spot available.
I remember from Mammoth's glory days of the early 1980's how I would try to get in a weekend or two between Thanksgiving and Christmas to beat the heavier crowds later in the season. With all the new lifts there were no lines at all and by 10AM Saturday I knew I had a chance at some vertical foot records.
Saturday's weather was perfect, similar to Sunday 5 weeks ago. It had not snowed for 10 days and the prior weekend had been unseasonably warm. Therefore some lower and sunny areas had hardpack or crusty snow where ungroomed. But the 2/3 of the mountain that faces north (and includes nearly all the steeps) was in excellent condition. The top runs had smooth faces of chalky snow that hold an edge easily and which can be almost effortless with some dry wind sift on top of it. This snow condition does intimidate what Marc Guido calls "western wusses." At 35+ degree pitch the snow is firm enough that you will slide a long way if you screw up and there are enough rock outcroppings below to focus your attention.
As you come off the steeps the runouts often have unconsolidated snow that can be quite exhausting. But this weekend that snow was also the smooth wind buff that could be skied almost like the groomed runs. I did about 10K of warmup cruising Saturday morning, if you count freshly groomed Cornice and Scotty's. Then Drop Out, Dave's over to 9, Eagle and then Viva on chair 22 before an early lunch. After lunch and both Avalanche Chutes Chair 5 was outstanding, then I went back up for a few laps on Climax, Wipe Out 2 and Chair 14.
By 3:15 the light was pretty flat up top and I could smell the record so worked high speed Chairs 1 and 3 (including Wall and Gravy Chute) for the waning hours. I hit chair 3 right at 4PM closing and headed down to the Main Lodge, as I hoped Chair 1 might go later as there were regional races still going on at 3:45. They had put a rope in front of the loading area but the chair was still moving and I skied over the rope, telling the liftie, "I have to get to my car at Chair 2." She didn't stop the lift and make me take the shuttle bus but she called up the hill so the top liftie could chew me out. He threatened pulling a season pass (fortunately I didn't have one) and then I skied off, with new record 44,500 vertical safely in hand.
Sunday the weather was warmer in the base areas but with some wind on the mid-mountain chairs, surprisingly stronger than up top. I needed to pace myself a bit more, but I did manage to get around a couple of sketchy entrances to Wipe Out and Paranoid, the latter much scarier than in November. I left at 2:30PM with a new 2-day record of 72,900 vertical.
- If you compare this pic to November you can see that wind and warm weather have stripped some snow from exposed areas.
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- Before I picked my way into Paranoid I took this pic looking back at Chair 23 with sheltered Wipe out chutes near the lift. The sunglazed slope towards Chair 14 on the backside softened in mid-afternoon.
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- Here's a view down a long wind buffed pitch on Climax, typical of upper mountain conditions this weekend.
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- Here's the view of Climax from just below. Far left in the pic had the smoothest snow
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- As you can see from Sunday's lunchtime temperature, you needed to stay on the groomed around the sunny Canyon and Eagle Lodges
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- Before I started to ski an Avalanche Chute I took this picture across the entrance with the top of Chair 1 and the Minarets in background.
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- Here's the view down Avalanche 1, which is the run of which Tuckerman's Left Gully reminded me in 1990.
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