California/Nevada 2017-2018 Mammoth Mountain

[Mothertucker]

Groomergasm this morning, super soft corduroy and off-piste soft with lots of wind buffed around to fill tracks.

 

[Mothertucker]

#14 was open today.

 

[MountainMonster]

Fantastic early season conditions.
Groomers were exceptional all day.
New ski purchases passed the test.
R & T all day

 

[Pat AKA mustski]

We will be skiing tomorrow and Saturday. Is anyone else going to be around?

 

[Mothertucker]

Leaving today, but conditions are prolly as good as anywhere in the western hemi. From yesterday.

 

[MountainMonster]

We will be skiing tomorrow and Saturday. Is anyone else going to be around?

It's been really good, I decided to stay one more day, so I will be here tomorrow.
Can you say wind buff.....

 

[soulskier]

The wind machine turned on from the right direction today and there was a lot of excellent wind buff to be had.

 

[soulskier]

 

[luliski]

I need to go ski this Mammoth wind buff the Mammoth skiers are always talking about.

 

[Mothertucker]

I need to go ski this Mammoth wind buff the Mammoth skiers are always talking about.

When the buffed is dry and consistent it can be an ethereal experience, as it was yesterday. Skiing perfect groomers with snow blowing across a surface that you cannot see, with clear vision above is a ton 'o fun, and tracks refill quickly. Dave's opened Wednesday, shot this phone vid Thursday. I don't often gush about conditions, but Mammy right now is money.

 

[luliski]

Looks really nice. I'll be in Tahoe on Sunday/Monday. Maybe I'll make the commute to Mammoth.

 

[Mothertucker]

I remarked yesterday that it was like skiing the Moors with tilt. I rode the lifts this week with more than a few Tahoe skiers so take that FWIW. Might be one pass open? 89?

 

[luliski]

There's a way. I'll be staying at Northstar, so maybe just 80 to 395.

 

[Pat AKA mustski]

It's been really good, I decided to stay one more day, so I will be here tomorrow.
Can you say wind buff.....

Drat. I didn't See this until now. I thought I saw you on chair 3 today but I wasn’t sure it was you. There is another local guy with a crazy beard! We just knocked off for the day. Boy oh boy you are not kidding about the conditions. That was my first day for the season and the best first day I’ve ever had!

 

[John Webb]

I'll be around tomorrow and Thursday. Any one else. Do Santa Ana winds arrive this weekend?
Ventura is in flames from a fire that exploded overnight.!

 

[Mothertucker]

We have had Santa Ana winds for two days already. For us in the SoCal mountains it's a godsend for snowmaking, but brings the highest fire danger of the year. Mammoth isn't affected too much by easterlies, but you would probably want to be around when it shifts back to the west cuz it usually means great wind buffed conditions. Here is a shot from inside the summit station during upslope winds on 11/27. You didn't see or feel it much until you got close to the ridge, then you got the barrage, Small price for 12-24" of cold smoke.

 

[Pat AKA mustski]

Yup. I am not a wind fan usually .. but for wind buff or SoCal snow making... yup, I'll take it. I don't like the fires though. I don't know about his round of 3 ... but, in San Diego, more often than not they are arson started.

 

[TonyC]

Mammoth isn't affected too much by easterlies

Unfortunately it is. I did not take pictures today but I will tomorrow or Thursday. All that soft loose snow in those pictures from last week was stripped off by 100mph winds last night. There are more rocks showing at the top of Wipe Out now than two weeks ago, and the hardpack from then is now exposed too. The winds on top wee 30-35mph today so I only skied two runs up there. The other one was Drop Out 3, which at least had firm chalk instead of hardpack, but the traverse in there from Cornice was over stiff and variable sastrugi. Most of my skiing was on the groomers, which were excellent. The best ungroomed snow was on chair 5, sort of in a bowl so the wind stripping was not as extreme. There were clear skies and minimal wind other than on top, temps in 20's. Snowmaking was going all day on the Unbound Park and toward Canyon Lodge. Rumor is that Canyon/Eagle may open earlier than expected.

 

[John Webb]

Met up with Tony Crocker,Liz,and 2 others. Found good tree skiing with Liz off lift 12.

 

[TonyC]

I took a few pictures today to illustrate Mammoth's current status vs. two weeks ago. The good news is that the extra snow has enabled Mammoth's world class grooming to expand. Examples are the Face of 3 and Coyote.


Neither of these runs were groomed two weeks ago due to not quite enough snowpack. And it was spring conditions then due to the Nov. 20 drizzle. Now it's all in winter packed powder mode. It's wide open ego cruising with the usual low crowds for this time of year.

The best ungroomed snow is on chairs 5 and 12. No pics from those, as I skied those areas yesterday but not today. I did take this pic of Rodger's Ridge, which was very good below that rock band at the top.


I spent a fair amount of time exploring variations off the top to find the best snow. We chatted with a patroller up top who said the Monday night winds peaked at 130mph. Thus at the very top entries all of the snow that fell after Thanksgiving has been stripped away. Dave's Run and the top entry to Drop Out 1 have been roped off. Some of us could ski them safely, but there's enough hard snow and rock exposure that patrol made a not unreasonable decision to rope them off.

The best snow up top is under the Drop Outs after traversing in from Cornice, which I've skied 3x over the past 2 days. Everyone who skied Cornice said it was frozen solid top to bottom. On the Wipe Out side of chair 23, the upper third or quarter of vertical is frozen granular before transitioning to dry chalk. There are some sectors of stiff and irregular sastrugi which need to be avoided. Here's some of that below the Wipe Outs.


I took 3 exploratory runs on the Wipe Out side. In the pic below I've drawn yellow around the worst sastrugi, red on the frozen granular and blue on the chalky packed powder.

So if you're willing to ski some steep DFU "snow that's good for you" there's some decent snow below that.

It is surprising that with Dave's and Drop Out 1 closed that the Paranoids are shown as open.

I haven't been over there yet, may check it out on my last day tomorrow.