2016-17 Mammoth/"Calif4nia" Conditions/Meetups Thread

[skibum4ever]

Mountain says Aug. 6.

 

[Eleeski]

Mammoth was featured on the Weather Channel this morning. Ski in the morning, golf in the afternoon. Cool to see skiing get mainstream coverage. And it's cool that Mammoth is doing so well with their snow.

Eric

 

[Mothertucker]

Quite windy out there, I wore a long sleeve sweatshirt 'til noon. I only took one pic today, just after I discovered this hole by nearly landing in it, it's a much larger abyss than it looks. It is at the dogleg, bottom of Center Bowl on #3, I went back later and jumped it.

 

[TonyC]

This week's update from Mammoth Snowman: http://mammothsnowman.com/

Broadway is history. A strip is maintained down lower St. Anton to chair 1 because Gremlin's/mid St. Anton still have abundant snow for the racers.

Mammoth has given up on the strip from the top of the gondola to Cornice. Skiing from the gondola is Climax only. Chair 23 is open daily to serve Cornice and the Drop Outs. The Drop Outs look great at the top but their mid-section might get severed within a week, which would be earlier than in 2011.

Snow is receding down the face of 3 but a strip is being maintained up top to retain access to the still deep mid-section.

 

[Paul Lutes]

Just got home from a 5 day sojourn to the land of smokey mammoths. Had a great time, enjoyed the complete experience, as did my dog. Definitely windy on Tuesday and Wednesday, but while the wind created havoc on the other side of the crest for the Detwiler fire, it seemed to keep the smoke from settling in at Mammoth .... until yesterday afternoon. Re-routed my return drive - Yosemite seemed unwise. Just saw TonyC's info above - makes sense: Broadway almost looked like it never had snow on it this AM as I drove out - I think I got on of the last runs on it Tuesday (closed on Wednesday). I thought the wind helped slow the mid-morning softening a bit T/W - Yesterday seemed to soften faster.

 

[Mothertucker]

Left at 11:00 today, it was a tad frozen early, race camps loved it, I went for a coffee.

 

[TonyC]

Chair 1 and lower St. Anton are done, but chair 23 remains open. I hope it stays that way when we return in a week.

 

[Mothertucker]

I nearly ate on lower St.Anton the other day, the road was groomed differently than the day before and I was of course, going way too fast.

 

[TonyC]

Overview of Mammoth July 30:

Overall yesterday's skiing (16,900 vertical) exceeded expectations. Spring snow surfaces in particular were good, with snow becoming sticky only at the immediate approaches to chair loading areas. So if you want to check August off your to-do list I'd recommend it. The one caveat is that if a lot of people try to do that next weekend (also Bluesapalooza in Mammoth, the town will be packed), the skinny strips will not stand up to a lot of traffic, so if you can get there August 1-4 (we will be there Aug. 3) it should be much better skiing. That said, yesterday was Sunday, town was busy but the mountain not so much.

The most wide open skiing is Cornice from chair 23, leading to St. Anton or Gremlin's, then back to 23. You ust up and download the gondola,and if you take the gondola up top you must ski Climax. Upper 2/3 of Climax is wide open, then there are 4 narrower slots through a riock band, two of which are plenty wide to last another week.

Face of 3 has a long entry strip at the top; this is the run which might not make it another week. Back of 3/Saddle Bowl will be wide open for sure.

The pleasant surprise for me was that Drop Outs 1 and 3 were still skiable. The exit is visible far upper right of the pic. That exit might get shut down before next weekend, but my guess is it will still be narrow but skiable.

 

[Mothertucker]

Thanks @TonyC , I'll be up Wed/Thu, see you on the hill! Really would like to stay or return for the closing weekend though.

 

[Mothertucker]

Shot a shootload of video today, here's one from about 11:30am, 1/2hour before closing. It's really more like spring skiing in the summertime, still good... just less of it.

 

[TonyC]

The town of Mammoth is hopping with the Bluesapalooza music and beer festival starting tonight. We suspect each day on the mountain will get busier as the weekend develops, so we are probably done with skiing even though we will remain here through Friday’s music. Today Thursday was slightly less busy than Sunday. We got going earlier by 8:15, and in general the groomers (Saddle Bowl, Gremlin’s, St. Anton) remained smoother and skied better than on Sunday. Cornice was excellent too, and I skied that 4x before 10AM.

Overview pics show some loss of snow since Sunday. Chair 23 area:

The exit below the Drop Outs is getting rocky and probably won’t make it to the weekend.

On the gondola side, the Face of 3 was abandoned after Monday. You also have to walk across dirt from McCoy to the base of chair 3. Saddle Bowl is the only chair 3 run open.

Cornice is wide open and you can see a couple of skier packed lines to looker’s left that were in good shape when I skied them late morning.

Detail reports and many more pics:
July 30: http://www.firsttracksonline.com/boards/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=12453
August 3: http://www.firsttracksonline.com/boards/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=12457

 

[Mothertucker]

Her one and only day of the entire season, but a good one.

 

[Stev]

View from 23 on Aug. 4th.

 

[Mothertucker]

Look for the marmot family living right under the liftline.

 

[Stev]

Look for the marmot family living right under the liftline.

I just saw a marmot on my last ride up.

 

[VickiK]

Only 90 or so days until we can start the 2017-18 thread.

 

[Tricia]

Are there any tricks to get a room for just one night? We plan on doing a day trip Tomorrow but want to be prepared for an over night if needed.

 

[Rainbow Jenny]

Shot a shootload of video today, here's one from about 11:30am, 1/2hour before closing. It's really more like spring skiing in the summertime, still good... just less of it.

Does Lonnie know he's in the most watched Pugski video this summer? Lol. Looks like your videography skill is still very sharp, @Mothertucker.

Cannot believe I didn't cross paths with either of you 2016-17. And how @chemist took a sabbatical from skiing.

Until next season...

 

[Stev]

FYI - When I went to get my half-price ticket today on a Mountain Collective Pass I was told that they ended this on the 31st of July. Fortunately I had my Epic Pass with me and was able to obtain a half-price ticket that way (using a season pass from another resort.)