Report from April 29, 2026

I got out to Mammoth Mountain, California, at about 11 a.m. on Wednesday. Day #2.

As I was riding up, my eyes drifted to the Paranoids and I started to wonder if that line Bernie had shown me went.

Riding right on the knife-edge ridge, then dropping into Paranoid 4 and swerving into Phillipe’s…

I ran into one of our terrific SnowBrains writers, John Cunningham, and talked him into having a look with me.

When we got there, I took a moment to digest the situation. All I could see was low snow, rocks, and a modified traverse due to a lack of snow on the knife’s edge. The consequences didn’t appear dire and we dropped in.

The ridge was tricky, with mandatory sudden-rock-avoidance software fully engaged and necessary. Swerve, lift left ski over rock, step over pepper with right ski, light bunny hop over some rocky claws, and blindly drop into Paranoid 4 with speed.

Luckily, P4 was full of snow and not rocky. Brutally icy, maybe, but not rocky.

Hard left into another blind drop into Phillipe’s. Fortunate again that Phillipe’s wasn’t rocky — at first. The snow just got worse and worse as I descended the chute until it was unedgable ice with rocks strewn everywhere. I swung my arms wildly as my skis screamed heinous scraping sounds. Just as I regained control, rocks came up on both sides and I threw ugly hop turns between them before gliding into the rocky crux, where I picked the smallest air I could find and dropped into the apron.

Speed was not my friend there, but I was just able to keep it together through those first critical, grunting speed-check turns. The following two speed-check turns were easier and I was back in command of my skis.

I looked up at the chute as memories of reading “Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride” in one of my favorite books, The Wind in the Willows, echoed in my head.

Johnny ripped down behind me, showing up on the apron with a smile and good attitude. I announced that I was definitely not going to ski that again, and he agreed.

I traipsed over to the terrain park, hell-bent on pulling off a few 360s to try to get my mojo back after having been off skis so much the past month, heli-ski guiding in Alaska. On my second jump of the day, I way overshot a transition, absorbing a brutally flat landing that caused my bad knee to cry out. It recovered quickly and I was able to string together five 360s and call it good.

I cruised a few more laps, including a top-to-bottom, and called it a day around 2 p.m.

Mammoth is skiing incredibly well right now, and I’m beyond excited for what’s coming the rest of the month here.

My electric dirtbike ride home was almost as fun as the skiing 🙂

Thanks, California!

Photos