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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.

I will recap our Mammoth trip this weekend soon (recovering from slight bug I picked up) but wanted to make a quick post of our first Mammoth Hottie this year.  This is Steve - we met him on the gondola up to the top on Saturday.

He was a really good sport when I broke the ice in the gondola by saying I wanted to take a picture of him for my blog.  He was probably like, get away you internet stalking freak!  But then I explained about this site and I guess I convinced him I’m not a weirdo because he let me take his picture with Stacy. 

Super cool guy, lives in Malibu and comes to Mammoth almost every weekend.  He was riding a giant 168 Burton Canyon.  He rides regular and has been riding for over 14 years!  Steve told us his wife has now gotten into riding in the past two years, good that he has convinced her to share one of his passions.

Nice meeting you Steve, if you use that card I gave you to come check out this site, be sure to stop in and say hi!

Rate Steve:  (6 votes, average: 3.17 out of 5)

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I am really looking forward to this weekend even though I feel busy and somewhat stressed with the holidays!  Nonetheless, it should be a great weekend with all the new snow.  (However, I hope our drive up is clear, wish us luck!)

Real quick post because I’ve yet to pack!  Looking forward to:

•  72″ base (2′ of new snow earlier this week!)
• riding with Stacy and meeting new friends from SoCal Outdoor Adventurers group
• 3-7″ of new snow predicted for Friday!
• Night of Lights holiday lightshow on Sat. night
• and of course… hopefully some Hotties on the Hill… 

Have a great weekend everybody and I hope to have some great stories and photos from my first weekend on my favorite mountain when I return.

Did you hear?  This weekend, Mammoth had a snowfall of about 18″, which prompted the mountain to open early!  They had expected to open on Nov. 13, as I had previously mentioned, but with this winter storm, they are officially open NOW!

According to the LA Times,  they only opened Broadway, but this bodes well for the rest of the season.  Anyone buy a season pass?  Looks like an extra long season for you!

Bringing the blog out of off-season hiatus for this story…  from an email I received today:

Mammoth and Horizon Air proudly introduce non-stop flights from LAX to MMH (Mammoth Yosemite Airport.)  That’s right, the wait is over. Horizon will offer daily flights departing LAX at 2:20pm and landing at MMH at 3:25pm. The planes will depart MMH at 4:05pm and return to LAX at 5:10pm. Once at MMH, you’re only fifteen minutes from the mountain*. So you can make more turns, get more air and have more hot tub time than ever before.

Looks like the flights will start on Dec. 18 this year, and they’re kicking off the service with introductory fares. Very excited at the prospect to not drive for 5+ hours any more! Read more here…  now the countown begins till snowboarding season is back again!

Well, this weekend was pretty bittersweet - it was my last trip to the mountains for the season.  The conditions were really bad at Mammoth - very windy and icy on pretty much the entire mountain.  I had probably the worst fall of the entire year on Sunday, with a fist-sized bruise covering my entire right elbow to show for it.  Not the greatest way to end the season, but oh well.  It was a fun one, and I look forward to next year!  I may possibly continue to post through the spring/summer, but since I won’t be doing any boarding, I doubt it.   I’ll pretty much be putting the blog into hibernation.

Now it’s time to focus on biking, hiking, BBQing, and surfing for the summer!

Well, our most recent Mammoth weekend was somewhat bittersweet. We were so excited because there was 21″ of new snow from earlier in the week, and we figured with the grooming that Mammoth Mountain does every day, and continuing cold temps, the conditions would still be good.

We drove up late afternoon on Friday, and saw some amazing light in the mountains and high desert as the sun set.

Little did we know that by Saturday morning, winds in town were 40+ MPH and on the top they were reported to be nearly 80MPH! Our condo-mates headed up to the hill right at 8am so they could be in line when the lifts opened, while Jessie and I did our usual, wake up after 8 and relax a bit with a good breakfast and some coffee. This turns out to be for the best… Mammoth only opened 3 of the “beginner” chairs due to the winds all over the mountain - bummer. So basically you could pay $79 and only access the beginner chairs.

With this in mind, we didn’t go up to the mountain until 12:30 - we bought a half day and snowboarded all afternoon on Sat. They still didn’t open half the mountain (the higher chairs) due to the continued winds, so we were more or less restricted to the Canyon Lodge runs and occasional Chair 5 and Gold Rush.

It wasn’t a great day - overcast with flat light, crunchy conditions, freezing wind, and crowds because all the people were clamoring for the same chairs and runs. Check this out… you couldn’t even see the top!

We did Whiskey Creek for half price food and $10 pitchers for apres-ski on Saturday afternoon when we got off the hill, then Saturday night we went out to Hennessey’s where they had a dance floor cleared and a DJ in there. It was pretty fun, definitely an older crowd than our former haunt, Lakanuki. We danced and met some cool people (yes, some hotties on the hill!)

On Sunday we were on the hill by 10:30, and by then conditions had vastly improved!

A gorgeous bluebird day, but sadly, the winds on the top on Sunday were A HUNDRED MPH! Even worse than Sat.! So they still didn’t open the top gondola or Chair 23 (our fav runs) all day. Here’s a pic of the gondolas parked at McCoy; they couldn’t go higher than that cuz of the winds.

Nonetheless, we enjoyed a really nice day on the rest of the mountain - Spook off Gold Rush down to Lower Dry Creek was awesome, we did it at least 4 times in a row. The snow was nice and soft, not even hardpack in many places. A little icy on some of the runs, but we still rocked it.

And capping off the weekend, at the end of one of those runs we ended up seeing Woolly at the Mill Cafe! Sunday definitely made up for Saturday.

Juicy is headed back up for the Roxy Chicken Jam at the end of the month; I won’t be able to make it… but I expect a full report! Look for her post in a few weeks.

More pictures from the trip are available at our Flickr page.

More details on our recent Mammoth weekend to come, met lots of fun people and had a great day on the hill on Sunday, but the best moment of this trip was MEETING WOOLLY!!

We got to the bottom of Lower Dry Creek and I was bent over unstrapping my binding to get back in line, when Jess screamed out “There’s Woolly!” We both started freaking out, making a scene, and yelling “WOOLLY! WOOLLY! OH MY GOD!” like the nerds we are… everyone in the lift line was laughing and pointing, even the lifties! Woolly came over and was dancing with us and taking pics, totally hamming it up. So cute!

Highlight of the trip! WE LOVE YOU WOOLLY!

Jessie and I are headed up to Mammoth again this weekend (March 1-2) for a last-minute trip. We just decided on Tuesday night that it was time to hit the mountain again, since Mammoth has recently received another 20+ inches of snow!

After deciding that we were going snowboarding again this weekend, the next order of business was finding a place to stay. And with that came the idea for this post. Here are some of the resources that I use to find Mammoth condos, hotels, or house shares online. Or any other resort for that matter!

Vacation Rentals sites: These sites are good if you want to book a house/condo specifically for a getaway with a group of your own and you want more amenities (e.g. full kitchen, a private hot tub) than what a hotel would offer.

• VRBO.com - You can find anything from small studios for rent, up to giant 12-person houses in the Mammoth area. Typically you need to look pretty far in advance from when you want to travel, especially for the nicer places. Handy availability calendar lets you check for vacancies.
• VacationRentals.com - Their user interface is a little friendlier than VRBO; icons on the listings page let you see at-a-glance what each listing offers without a lot of clicks.

Snowboarding/Skiing Groups: Just yourself or a few people, and need to find a place to stay without the hassle/expense of renting a condo or hotel for a few nights? Check for groups/message boards of like-minded snowboarders or skiers in your area; oftentimes group members will post vacancies in their properties. (ps - That’s how Jessie and I found our place to stay this weekend!) These are some of the Mammoth groups we belong to.

• Mammoth SnowLovers - Active message board on Yahoo Groups for SoCal skiers and snowboarders; lots of rideshares, houseshares, trip planning, and advice is regularly posted.
• Mammoth Ski and Boarder Group and Mammoth & Beyond Ski and Snowboard Group - two Meetup.com groups of Los Angeles-based snowboaders and skiers. Sometimes I see special trips posted in addition to the usual carpooling, vacant condos, and other notes.
• Time-Outdoors - our friend “Uncle Krusty’s” site; the site is ‘an online community for outdoor enthusiasts.’ Fun group of members, he organizes many trips per season to Mammoth, Utah, Colorado and other snowboard/ski destinations.
  

Hotel Booking Sites: Sometimes you just want to get a hotel and be done with it, or you have a last-minute need for lodging. I recommend using metasearch travel engines to find cheap hotel rooms in your favorite ski destinations.

• Kayak.com - This site does all the legwork for you; searches 140+ travel sites at once and lists them, then you can pick the cheapest one! No need to go to other sites.

Now get out there and book a trip - it’s only the end of midseason and we’ve still got a few months of good snow left!

Continuing our new search for both female AND male hotties on the hill, we bring you Megan and Katie! We met them on Saturday morning at Mammoth in the Canyon Lodge outdoor bar enjoying noontime beers.

Megan is 24, Katie is 25. Both are from Laguna and consider Mammoth their home mountain. Megan was skiing that day, but had boarded in the past and went back to skiing. Katie has been riding 11 years and is regular foot. Both were on K2 gear.

Megan caught our eye because she was rockin’ this 686 Gaper onesie suit that was totally taking the piss out of those 80s one-piece suits. She was even wearing the fanny pack that came with the outfit… oh, the irony!

The back of it said “Totally Radical!” Love the sass of the outfit, and Megan rocked it big time. Fun girls and most definitely some Hotties on the Hill!

What do you think of these Hotties on the Hill? Rate them below - I’ve installed a rating system for our Hotties. 5 = hottest! Rate away, and enjoy!

(9 votes, average: 4.22 out of 5)

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