Mammoth for Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving weekend. America's expression of "thankfulness", for an extended weekend of sanctioned gluttony spent either on the couch watching football, or at America's arenas of bloodsport consumerism (Walmart and ilk). As for the football, it seems that Romo should just get paid by the opposing team, and Go Irish! the 18 year knight is over. As for Black Friday (now Thursday it seems), I will only ask a question of my own...What would an alien race think of America and Americans if they only stayed with us through the Thanksgiving Day weekend? The coup d'grace would be if the ETs thought they'd give us a second chance but returned to America on Super Bowl Sunday. We, as a nation, would be immediately vaporized, the charges read would include the galatic equivalent of "extremely bad taste".

Having no obligations (familial, traditional, occupational or otherwise) on this four day weekend gave us a chance to maybe start a little tradition of our own. If that turns out to be the case and this getaway to Mammoth was actually the "first annual", then we set the bar high on the fun meter. A few hours after we checked in at the Village we headed back down the road to The Restaurant at Convict Lake. Charmingly rustic, with fantastic food and outstanding service, this is one of our favorite places to eat anywhere. Dinner did not disappoint. Afterward we drove to the lake and enjoyed the moonlight on the snowy peaks ringing Convict. It was a very nice Thanksgiving.

Friday and Saturday we boarded. We had good early season conditions, brilliantly sunny skies with temps in the high 40's. Things got a little icy off the groomers, especially in the AM. We boarded all day both days, and like I said earlier, the crowds weren't as bad as I had anticipated. Besides, Mammoth is a huge place and it was fairly easy to find less populated areas. Ruth was boarding really well. She is a black diamond boarder for real, and she chased me down the East Bowl gully without blinking. It was just an all around awesome weekend.

To watch the above video in HD, Click this link. 

And that's a wrap for this lovely weekend in Mammoth. I'll be back in the SLP this week, though the forcast for my day off is reminiscent of my last outing to Samon Peak, low clouds and rain. Let's see if I can find the summit of my intended target on this one. Got me a little adventure lined up for Wednesday. Hope you all had a nice holiday.

Left to right: The Minaretes, Mt Ritter (did in '05), and Mt Banner.

Mammoth Getaway

Mammoth: where to start? It's big, real big. It has an epic amount of every type of terrain for every taste. Most of the runs are easy, and short, which kind of bugs me. A fair amount of logistics are required to link up several runs into one nice, long ride. As for the terrain, Mammoth has an abundance of steeps and trees and miles of cruiser runs. As you can see in the photo below, this is spring which means that the steeps and the summit are as hard-packed as concrete. The spring conditions also kept me out of the trees until late in the day as the snow is all chunked up and coated in a layer of fast and hard ice. Early attempts at tree riding were a reeducation in ice-boarding.
By late morning the snow was loosening up and the day got better. The temps were strictly a spring climate: warm with breezes at the top. As the ice softened we were able to get off the runs and into the trees. Fun stuff.
I am impressed with the system of lifts that make getting around the mountain very straight foreword. By the end of 2 days we had ridden every lift that Mammoth operates, which means that Ruth and I: a.) rode hard, and b.) rode most of the mountain. Also, the scenery, which includes Mt Ritter, Banner Pk, and the Minarets (below), rivals Mt Baker WA and Copper Mountain CO.


I have to admit that not coming up here to board has been a bit stupid (there, I said it Rob). It's a drive, and expensive, but it is relatively close to home and I will also say that I liked Mammoth better than any of the Tahoe resorts, which makes this the place to be if one stays in California. Also, I could tell immediately that this is the type of place that really shines after a good powder dump. The amount of tree terrain that would need tracks really got me thinking about how it would be to ride this place in knee-deep pow. We'll be back.
By the way, as you can see in the pictures below, Ruth and I were able to find runs that were weekender free.