Conditions Report
Report from opening weekend. Friday, November 10 to Sunday, November 12.
Mammoth Mountain, California, opened for the season last Friday, November 10, for skiing and riding. Open daily, Mammoth is currently spinning Broadway (chair 1), Unbound (chair 6), Face Lift (chair 3), and the Panorama Gondola to the mid-station. Available terrain will expand as conditions allow.
We arrived on opening day with good friends and high stoke. With all lift operations currently based out of Main Lodge, we parked down on State Route 203 and took the heel-toe express up to the lifts. We spent most of the day on Face Lift, which has only one run, Saddle Bowl, open. The snow had a fine layer of soft, sugar-like snow on top and was firm underneath. I skied where people had pushed around the soft snow and was able to make smooth turns. On the skier’s right of the Saddle groomer, a few side hits formed, and some fun walls could be slashed and slarved.
With primarily man-made snow, venturing off the groomed runs was a sharky and rocky experience. This made the groomed runs fairly crowded, and we had to keep our heads up to avoid people. The end-of-day run back to the lodge was the most packed, as everyone had to take one run, Broadway, back down. We skied with our eyes up to avoid collisions and a smile on our faces from the fun day we had.
I spent Saturday and Sunday hot-lapping the park with friends. The Unbound Parks are a community that pushes each other to throw down each lap and celebrates everyone’s successes. There is no better spot to hot lap than Chair 6, Unbound Express. The park was crowded this weekend, but vibes were high as everyone knocked the rust off their park skills.
The Unbound Terrain Park crew has seven features in Lower Main Park for everyone’s jibbing enjoyment. These features include an A-frame rail, a couple of down rails, a box, and a tube-to-box. The features are set up in a line so riders can hit each one every lap.
Opening weekend was a success at Mammoth Mountain. It’s one of my favorite places to ski, and I can’t wait to see how long it stays open this year. Mammoth continues to impress me with its early opening and late closing dates. In addition to its long season, it typically has a park set up every day from opening to closing. Thanks, Mammoth!
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