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My first visit to Mammoth this season!   I’ve only made it to Mammoth before Christmas, once before, for Thanksgiving.  Usually it’s still somewhat “early season” conditions with not a lot of snowfall until January.  This year, we were lucky in that there was that huge Western US snowfall earlier in the week which benefited Mammoth with an additional 2-3′ of snow for our weekend.

We were nervous that we were going to have to use chains once we got off the 395, but lucky for us, the roads in town were clear.  We arrived LATE on Fri night/Sat morning and gingerly made our way into the hotel parking lot (being careful to back in to the parking spot in case we needed chains to exit town on Sunday.)

We awoke on Sat. to the sound of avalanche blasting crews up on the hill - a good sign, this means fresh powder!  We enjoyed the empty carbs and coffee provided by the hotel’s “continental breakfast” and headed over to the Village to rent Stacy some skis.  Got on the mountain, finally, at about 11am, and it was amazing!

Now other Mammoth faithfuls will recognize this as looking up from Canyon Lodge towards Chair 22, with Chair 8 over to the left.  What’s missing you ask?  ALL THE PEOPLE USUALLY ON THIS RUN!! Because this run is the “collector” for all those other runs accessible from higher up the hill, this run usually looks like there’s a bunch of ants scampering around on the snow because it gets SO crowded.  We could not figure it out - the conditions were perfect (as you can see, totally blue skies), fresh snow, and no wind- was it the economy making people stay home?  Well, enough questions, let’s go riding.

I cannot remember a more perfect day than this.  No crowds, new powder, no wind - we were all riding confidently and fast. We stayed mostly over in the Chair 5, Gold Rush, & Stump Alley area.  Did not do the Upper/Lower Dry Creek run because it was still pretty un-covered this early in the season.  This is how empty the mountain was as we rode up Gold Rush.  What a perfect day!

Around 12:30 it was time for a Bloody Break at the Mill Cafe by Stump.  I can’t decide between McCoy and Mill, who makes them the best!  The crew enjoyed a little down time before we finallly decided it was time to go up in the gondola.

Cornice was in pristine condition.  A few little bumps, but otherwise incredibly soft snow and super easy to make turns even on the steepest part at the beginning.  I ended up bombing down most of it and continuing to get my “snow legs” back.  Feeling good about Jackson!  Here is the view looking down Cornice - again, NO crowds, love it!

The obligatory top-of-Mammoth shot, with Stacy wearing the “Save Trestles” t-shirt (which got a lot of attention later that day at happy hour!)

 We finished off the day, enjoying the conditions and riding all the way till closing time, and hit Whiskey Creek as usual for our happy hour.  Half price apps and $4 off all pitchers till 5:30, you can’t beat it!  It is the perfect way to wind down after your day on the hill.  Check out the sunset as we took the gondola back to the village:

Later that night we checked out the Night of Lights, which packed ‘em in at Canyon Lodge with a fireworks show and live music from Pinback.  It was really cute, they had rigged up red flares on the chairlifts so there was this cool effect of red lights heading up the mountain into the darkness.  Part of the show even had Red Bull parachuters that came down and landed right in the middle of the Canyon run.  Here’s a video snippet of the fireworks that I took (you can see the flare chairlifts at right).

Sunday was overcast and a lot more windy, and a lot more crowded!  It wasn’t the greatest conditions, flat light and it even started snowing around 12:30. We still got in a near full day of riding though.

We left the mountain about 2:30 to begin our drive home, and try to beat the snow from making us put on chains. Phew, luckily no chains were required and we were rolling down the 395 into sunlight before too long.  A great weekend, and a fun precursor to our soon-to-come Jackson trip!  By the way, inbetween snowfalls on Sunday, there was a rainbow over McCoy station.  What a great way to end the trip.