MAMMOTH CONDITIONS REPORT | Monday 6″, Wednesday 6″, Thursday 6″… and more snow expected this weekend. If you haven’t been paying attention, yeah, Mammoth is in its prime right now. A little refresher here, a little refresher there has made for powdery turns all week.
Yesterday the top remained closed and the snow continued to fly. Yet still, Patrol and Mountain Ops gave the “okay” to open Chair 9 yesterday around 2:30pm. If you were lucky enough to be out on the hill at the time (and your legs had the stamina), you were rewarded with some rather deep turns out on Dragon’s Tail.
Today the Top was pretty much ready to launch right from the get-go. The snow was wintery soft (I’ll keep the word “powder” in reserve here) and the coverage was superb. Even with very light crowds on hand the snow did track out quickly but this did not matter. A south/west wind was on hand helping to keep the snow cool and dry, almost making turns better and better as the day wore on.
THE CONDITIONS
The PROS:
- More snow makes the riding mo’ better. Between yesterday and early this morning Mammoth probably got a foot of fresh.
- Once again, coverage is the best it’s been all season. It’s fair to say 100% of Mammoth is open. We now have unabated access to all upper mountain runs.
- A light south/west wind did a great job of keeping the snow fresh all day long.
- There was very little wind presence out at the Hemlocks, which translated into some of the deepest, lightest snow on the Mountain.
- All-in-all, today’s snow was a bit heavier set, which made for fun, fast turns and big, stomp-able airs.
The CONS:
- A few zones on the upper mountain were adversely affected by the wind. In some spots the snow was slightly more wind-boarded than wind-buffed. On the plus side these spots were limited.
- Clouds rolled in and out all day long. The up-side: this helped protect the snow from the sun. The down-side: occasionally the light was a bit flat.
- Sunny, lower elevation aspects did see the affects of the warmer temps, resulting in some “mashers.”
- Temps are expected to spike in to the 50s tomorrow, which may adversely affect the wintery-ness of the new snow. I am optimistic that with enough of a breeze the upper mountain will remain soft.
PARK REPORT:
- New features are popping up in Main and South Parks daily.
- There was a fair bit of activity in the parks today, especially considering how good the mountain riding was today.
- Main’s Superpipe is perfectly shaped. NOTE: having some sort of presence of edges on your board(s) will definitely help in the pipe right now.
- The continual addition of snow means more building material with which the Park Staff may construct bigger, better features.
The STATS:
- New Snow: 12″ in the last 24 hrs. Nearly 2.5’ this week.
- Base: approx. 7’+
- Weather: Forecasts show a rain/snow mix for Saturday, followed by sun and temps in the 40s. It will be interesting to see what comes of this weekend’s hit.
- Conditions: Powder, packed powder.
- Lifts: All lifts except for Chairs 20, 21, and 25.
- Runs: 100% of the Mountain is still open!
Bottom line: What a great week to be at Mammoth. How would you ever be able to predict this? You can’t. That in part is why so many of us choose to live so close.