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This weekend has to go down on record as the best weather I’ve ever seen in Mammoth!  It was beautiful bluebird conditions, sunny and near 50 on the mountain.  But still the snow stayed good, it was not slushy at all in spite of the warmth.  No new snow fell, but what was in place was kept nicely groomed, and we didn’t even encounter any ice.  All in all a great weekend.  We arrived during the Olympics opening ceremonies and caught the 2nd half of it, and were inspired by the athletes and the excitement.  We rode all 3 days and were all over the mountain including the back side on Sunday, and checked out Hyde, Lakanuki, and Whiskey for dancing and happy hours.  (writeups to come separately.)  Fun people and great conditions, chalk another good one up for Mammoth…

We stayed at Mammoth Estates condos, right in the neighborhood where the gondola passes over

The sky stayed like this all weekend, no new snow but we didn’t care!

Posing with Shayboarder.com stickers

This lifty at Chair 23 was rocking the dookie chain old skool style

Headed down to Dave’s Run

Never seen it this warm and NOT windy at the top

The crew about to head down Upper Road Runner on the back side

On Sunday we met the “Mammoth Monkey” handing out Valentines at Steeps Bar at McCoy Station

This weekend’s Mammoth trip was another fun one.  I went with a completely different group of folks than I usually do.  We had 2 condos and 14 people!  For 2 straight days, I was snowboarding with a group of guys, all of whom were better and a lot faster than me so I really had to step up my game to keep up with them and to “represent” for us women.  I don’t have a lot of pictures from the slopes because it was all-business, no-nonsense riding for the most part and I was so exhausted!

They took me through some deep powder tree runs; with all the recent snow there was still a few stashes to be found.  They also knew the mountain really well and so we went on some hidden little trails and secret spots..

Roger’s, runs under Chair 21, tree stashes way off the far side of Chair 5, the high side of China Bowl… lots of fun hidden and empty trails that I hope I remember how to get to another time.

The trip was also fun because I broke out of my usual routine and we checked out some new places for apres ski, dinner, and nightlife:  Hyde Lounge, Lakanuki, Gomez’s… I’ll be posting details on those separately.

The weather was great (except for some clouds on Fri and then snow showers on Saturday afternoon)… we had almost NO wind, and mostly blue skies.

It was also cold enough that the show stayed fresh feeling and there was not a lot of ice or crust on the runs.  Except for Chair 23 going down to Scotty’s.  Joana and I played a little human bowling with one another on that one.

But the weekend highlight for me - we ran in to Woolly, the Mammoth Mountain Mascot, TWICE this weekend!  Great photo ops at the top of Gold Rush and at McCoy Station.

(read the Day 1-2 Recap here)

Mikey and George arrived late on Thursday evening and had actually met us out the night before at the Town Square Tavern.  The next day, the two of them and I took the shuttle over to Jackson Hole again and enjoyed the most amazing day!  As noted, it was a little snowy the night before and the temperatures kept the snow at the perfect consistency, so we tracked some amazing powder!  There was about 6 fresh inches from the previous night.

Jackson Hole apparently doesn’t really get crowded, so even though we didn’t get on the mountain till around 10:30, we still got some fresh tracks in areas.  This day’s weather turned out even better than the day before - there was no wind and the sun peeked out for most of the day.  Absolutely perfect conditions.

We started the day going up the gondola and doing a few runs over to Thunder chair again.  From there we branched out and hit a lot more of the mountain today.  Lots of great snow under the tram, and hit some tree runs around the edges of Lander Bowl.  After 2 hours of exhausting powder riding, stopped for a quick lunch at “Cowboy Cafe” at the base of the mountain then we boarded the tram.

The tram is a brand new feature - it opened on Dec. 20, 2008.  It holds 100 people and takes you all the way up to the summit at 10,450′.  And believe me, they really pack you in and fill that car to capacity.  I couldn’t move my arms to put my camera away after taking this pic!

From the summit, you can hit the insane well-known run called Corbet’s Couloir  - a 55-degree drop with rocks on either side!  I think I will pass!  We opted for the easier route down, via Rendezvous Bowl.  It was a little bit icy up here due to the colder temps and blowing wind, so it wasn’t as enjoyable as the rest of the mountain.  But Rendezvous starts off black and ends up blue, so it’s not bad.  From here we dumped back into Lander Bowl then cruised over to the gondola again.  Best choice of the day - dipping into the run directly under the gondola.

We found the best, deepest powder back here.  You can pop into tree runs all along the edge of the trail.  It’s wide and just steep enough to give you some decent speed to push through the deep powder.  At one point I did fall into powder that was probably up up to my mid-thigh, so I had to dig a bit and unstrap the board to get out.

We managed to head over to the Apres Vous side of the mountain today also, but the conditions weren’t as good as the whole gondola area was.  A little bit crunchy and icy, and not quite as deep of powder as we had earlier in the day.   All in all though, a great day, and some of the best riding in powder I have ever had!  We called it a day to get back on the shuttle about 3:45pm and luckily beat some of the crowds.

After a nap to refresh, we went to dinner at the Snake River Brewery.  Great local brew house with large food portions.  We all tried pretty much all the beers they brew since we each shared Leila’s beer sampler.  The shock of the night was the “Ned Flanders” brew, which we though tasted like crap - this weird, sour, vinegary taste - but once we read the description it made sense because it was called a SOUR ale and was made with 50 lbs. of cherries!

Jess and I shared a yummy heart-attack-maker of a sandwich called The Roper, which was a half-pound of brisket topped with some applewood bacon and cheddar cheese and horseradish cream sauce.  MMMMM it was good though!

Being exhausted from our days (I forgot to mention, Jess, Leila, and Leland did a sled-dog tour all day long - we need a write up of that!) we called it a night and were pretty much all sleeping by 11pm.

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.

Woke up to a pleasant surprise on the first full day of the conference I was in Park City for.  There was actually snow falling - a welcome sight considering the near-total lack of snow on the ground otherwise.

After the conference sessions were over about 1pm, I went up to the room and threw on my gear, then boarded the shuttle for the Park City Mountain Resort.  PCMR was the only resort open out of the three in Park City.  It only had 1 lift operating, the Payday.  From Payday, only a green run was open (I forget the name, Home Run?)

By the time I had rented boots and a board, it was already 2:30 pm and the mountain closes at 4pm.  By this point I had also lost all the other people who came on the shuttle from the conference to go skiing or snowboarding.  But I figured the crowds were so thin - after all it was a Thursday with no snow - and there was such limited terrain to cover, that I’d easily be able to find them.  No such luck though.

I ended up doing about 6 runs that day in that hour and a half.  It was good to get back out on the mountain and at least start to get my “snow legs” back before our trip to Jackson Hole in a month.  The conditions were not great but not as bad as I thought they’d be.

They had made a bit of snow - the machines were pumping the whole time I was out, and probably had  been blowing snow all day long, so there was good coverage on the trail.

It was slightly icy in spots but overall the snow was pretty soft (not too hard packed) and fast.  I did end up taking a header on my 2nd run of the day because I started bombing a steeper portion of the run and wasn’t used to the rental board, so I caught an edge and went flying.  Yard sale! My goggles and hat were about 10 feet down the hill.  If I saw myself do it, i probably would have thought “ouch!”  I did hit my head pretty good, :-(  (dammit, I didn’t bring my helmet so of course I crashed my head!)

The board I rented was a 155 Burton Cruzer.  I wasn’t too impressed with it - it didn’t have those deep side-cuts that make it way easier to link turns, and the board didn’t have much pop.  Overall I got used to it pretty quick though and was just cruising most of the time anyways.

The crowd mix was about 60/40 skiers to boarders.  I’m used to Mammoth where it’s definitely a majority of boarders. Is that because Park City and Utah in general are more “ski snobby?”  I mean, two of the remaining resorts that don’t allow snowboarding, are Alta and Deer Valley in Utah!  The resort did have a fun little terrain park set up, which I did not go through because honestly I was a little gun shy having fallen and not having my own safety gear on (helmet or wrist guards.)  Seemed like a lot of folks would cruise through and hit that up given the otherwise somewhat boring run, time after time.

All in all a fun and enjoyable day, good to get the confidence back and see that I hadn’t gotten that much out of boarding shape since my last session in April.  And now I have another pre-Jackson trip planned:  hitting Mammoth on 12/20!   Now that trip will NOT be a disappointment in snow, considering Mammoth already has as much as 48″ base in places.  Can’t wait!

p.s.  I did not catch up with my conference peeps on the hill, but they ended up having my camera (hence the crappy blackberry pics above) and here they are mid-trail!

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!

Bright and early on Friday, Feb 15, we got on board our 7am flights to Denver for our weekend in Vail. I had a rough flight that was very delayed which resulted in basically a 13-hour travel day when I finally arrived!

Wanted to make it an early night that night because of our very early flights, and because we wanted to get on the mountain and get a full day in. But on our shuttle bus back to the hotel from Vail Village, we met the fabulous Tina and Todd, a really fun couple also from Southern California. With their help, we persuaded Joe, our shuttle bus driver, to stop at the liquor store and get some beers! We relaxed w/ a few beers in the hotel but still went to bed pretty early.

Saturday: Today we hit the hill by 10am. It was a beautiful sunny day, and the snow was in great condition - although a little icy at first it softened as the day progressed.

We took a few mellow runs to warm up, and began making our way over towards the section above Vail Village. After a few hours on the runs around Chair 11 and Chair 4, we took a lunch break and I ended up meeting with James, my friend from college and current Vail Mountain employee. He was great to ride with - as a snowboard instructor, he helped me a lot with some turn techniques. It’s like a free lesson! I also like riding with him because he flies down the mountain with great style, and it was really fun and challenging to follow his lines as we carved huge S’s over in the China Bowl. I was stoked to ride with someone better than me, cuz like I always say it makes me step up my game. He even said I had improved drastically since my last trip to Vail last March.

We stayed out till the mountain closed that day! For apres ski we hit Garfinkel’s in Lionshead Village for a few pitchers of Blue Moon and some chili fries (so healthy!)

That night, we were surprised to learn that DJ Z-Trip, the mashup dj who mixes in fun stuff like “I Love Rock ‘n’ Roll” with Tribe Called Quest, and just kills it on the turntables, was playing in a small bar that night about 5 miles outside of Vail. I had seen him perform in front of thousands at New Years Eve Giant Maximus, and now he was playing to a 400-person club in Avon, CO? We promptly made plans to head over there, and rode with Jonathan from Hummer Taxis of Vail - he kept us very entertained about single life in Vail and offered us healthy advice such as “keep your legs closed” - um, thanks… Anyways, we got to the Agave bar in 15 minutes, and found a table to use as our home base. Z-Trip came on at 11 after DJ Troublemaker, and got the crowd moving.

We danced like crazy till we had to leave. We had such a great time! Had Jonathan pick us up again before the bars closed, so we were back to the hotel by about 1:30am.

Sunday we got up late and aimed for a half-day because we were tired from the Z-Trip show and plus it was snowing so we figured the visibility would be crap. By 11ish it was only snowing intermittently so we got our afternoon tix and headed up to Lionshead after our breakfast of Snack Wraps from McDonald’s. Bad mistake! I ended up getting what I thought was food poisoning from (I think) a packet of mayonnaise that I ate with my Micky D’s, and was doubled over with stomach cramps the entire afternoon. I couldn’t even ride that day… bummer! I took one run and then had to go lie down in the Eagles Nest lodge, and finally made my way back to the hotel where I spent the rest of the afternoon in bed. The other two stayed out and rode the Chair 26 side of Vail all afternoon; they had a good day hitting the Bwana run a few times.

With the help of some Gas-X my stomach pains went away by 6pm and I felt much better. We booked reservations at Terra Bistro and enjoyed a wonderful dinner and some awesome wine (K Syrah, out of Walla Walla Washington of all places!)

After dinner it was back to the Red Lion where it was definitely the mountain town ratio in full effect - probably 8 guys to 1 girl. As I learned in the Virgin Islands though, “the odds are good but the goods are odd.” So true. Lotsa randoms out there and I even witnessed quite a few cougar women. Fun though! We found Antonio, a guy we met at Z-Trip, and hung with him and his friend Nate. I also met a lot of new Hotties on the Hill, who I’ll be posting over the next few days.

Red Lion closes at midnight every night, because they want the drunks out of their bar according to our waitress, so next we headed to Samana. I hung out with some fun guys from Dallas who promised me they’d meet me at 8:30am for a morning of riding before I had to go to the airport. After some dancing, we closed that bar too, and I took the “drunk bus” (nickname for the free city bus in Vail) back to the hotel, with the help of new friends Taylor and Dave.

Monday - I got up at 7am to finish packing my suitcase and get ready to take the 8am hotel shuttle. I was at Lionshead buying my ticket and waiting at 8:30 for those Dallas guys! They ended up flaking out, so I rode the entire morning by myself. I spent the bulk of the day over in the back bowls - hitting China and Teacup over and over. There was about 8″ of new powder from Sunday’s snow showers in many sections of the bowls.

Not hard to find untouched runs! I am not that used to riding in powder, so my first run down a super thick powder section had me falling 3 times in a row. If I was a skier I probably would have yard-saled. But then I got the hang of it again, and was cruising with the bright the blue sky above me just floating through the powder with wide and fast turns. I found a cool tree section and powered through right under the Orient Express chairlift. Watch this YouTube video I took going thru the tree section, complete with a fall caught on tape… haha!

The snow was thick and deep but not heavy, it was cold so it didn’t melt and have a chance to ice up; it stayed flaky and soft! It was a great morning, and totally worth being so tired! I definitely made up for not riding on Sunday. Explored the back side more than I ever had, but I still didn’t make it to Blue Sky as there wasn’t enough time. It was so empty, hardly anybody was riding/skiing that day! I had to cut the day short and meet the girls at noon so we could drive back to Denver and catch our flights home.

We’re all exhausted but agree it was an amazing weekend, and we are going to make it an annual thing! Maybe next time we’ll actually get you-know-who on a few runs

View more pics on our Flickr page.

This past weekend, Jessie and I were in Mammoth again. We drove up EARLY Saturday morning, mostly at my insistence. In spite of a rough start to the weekend, we ended up having a blast!

We left my house in Los Angeles at 5:30am and made it to our condo by about 10:45. By the time we unloaded the car, changed into our gear, and walked up to Canyon Lodge, it was almost 11:45. So we decided to wait the extra hour-ish, and save $20 by doing the afternoon pass.

Well, we found a way to spend that $20 we each saved… “let’s pass the time by drinking some bloodies & beers!” We were at the Canyon outside bar till about 1:30 when we finally motivated to the mountain… but not until after we met some new Hotties on the Hill (more on them later!)

The snow conditions were great - it was about 40 on the mountain and beautiful blue skies on both Saturday and Sunday. It got a little mushy/sticky near the end of the day on Saturday, but we were determined to stay on the hill til the lifts closed, considering we got out so late that day.

It was definitely best at the top, where it stayed coldest - the snow was nicer up there but by the late hour we got up there it was pretty chopped up and mogul-ey. But even on top, on Saturday it was 20 degrees with only 10 MPH winds… a far cry from a few weeks ago when it was gusting as high as 75 MPH!

Saturday night we made it a mellow one… we did apres ski at the Austria House (not the greatest… decent beers but the food selection was crap… we missed Whiskey Creek!) We barely had any time to nap after returning to the condo, doing the jacuzzi, and then cleaning up and heading out to eat. We had dinner at Angels BBQ with the rest of the gang from the condo, and then went out for a beer at the Auld Dubliner. We were sleeping by 11:30 that night! It felt great after 4 hrs of sleep the night before due to our early drive.

Sunday was another bright, beautiful day - thankfully, today we were on the hill by 9am and enjoying the freshly groomed, uncrowded runs. I guess everyone kinda leaves Mammoth early morning for the long drive home, so Sundays stay pretty mellow. Great for us! Luckily, today we went straight to the top, and enjoyed the most amazing snow on Cornice & Scotty’s Run. Once again it was about40 on the hill, and very little wind, with bright sunlight (perfect conditions.)

Midway through the morning, we met up with Chad, Bob, and Wade from the condo and got to do a few runs with them before they had to leave.

It’s always so fun to ride with guys, they make us step it up and ride that much harder just to keep up with them! We did a few runs from Cornice and Climax down Lower Dry Creek… I had my most spectacular wipeout of the day with them. Let’s just call it an “on the mountain 720″ - I did 3 full somersault rotations coming down Climax and hitting a mogul wrong

The guys had to leave at noon; Jess and I headed up Chair 23 and took Road Runner down to Chair 14.  We did a few runs on the backside but agreed that top was better so we headed back up there for a few more Scotty’s and Cornice runs.  The  snow stayed pretty good through the day - we were on the hill until 2:15 then we decided to come down, get changed, and hit the road for our long drive. We both agreed that today (Sunday) was the best day of the season so far! All in all in spite of a rough start to the weekend (the 4:30am alarm clock on Saturday), we had a GREAT time and thanks to Dave for inviting us. Great people, great snow, and all in all great fun! Can’t wait for the next one.

Oh, I almost forgot! We even got to see WOOLLY, the Mammoth Mountain mascot, skiing down to Canyon Lodge as we took the chair up. We love Woolly! Seeing him is always a silly fun highlight of any Mammoth snowboarding trip. We’ll see you again soon Woolly!

Check out the full set of this weekend’s Mammoth photos on Flickr.

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Introducing our first female Hottie on the Hill - Morgan! It’s high time we also showcase some of the hot female snowboarders we encounter! (And some of my guy friends have been asking about that too.)

(Leila and Morgan)

We met Morgan in the “lodge” at Baldy (more like a cafeteria, blech) near the end of the day. Morgan has not been riding in a while, this day was her first outing in two years, but she’s a trouper and made it through… and is ready for more!

She was a super cool, down to earth, fellow snowboarding woman, and luckily lives here in LA, so we will definitely be taking more snowboard trips with her in the near future… plus I’m going to add her to our Hotties on the Hill Recruiting Team. We can never have too many eyes for that job!