April 29-30 Mammoth Powder

What a difference a day makes. On April 28, we were in the Main Lodge parking area, the winds were gusting to 50mph at the base, and the only people walking by the van were employees. No one was carrying skis or a board. We waited an hour with Hillary and Dale, and then decided it would be misery to be out there skiing. They had everything on wind hold, except the Discovery beginner chair.

OK, the forecast for the 29th wasn’t encouraging, and Hillary and Dale had to return to Seattle. This morning Jill and I were up early and the sun was shining. There was a coating of fresh powder, and the Mammoth ski report was 5 degrees at the summit with 10mph winds and 12 degrees at the base with 12” overnight. Yahoo, another powder day. It’s just hard to believe that it’s April 29 and we are lift skiing with a foot of new powder. Jill bought our senior tickets for $34 each. They were running 4 express quads and the Lower and Upper Gondola. They started loading butts at 8:30, and the locals were out in force. Every powder hound was cycling the lower lifts waiting for the opening of the upper gondola. For 2 hours we watched the ski patrol ski cut chutes and spoon powder turns down the faces and bowls. Jill and I set in a traverse below Scotty’s and skied untracked powder lines for 2 hours. Finally, a non-patrol person was descending Climax from the upper gondola, and the rush for the upper gondola was on. We entered the long line at mid-station when I heard a local tell his buddies to get out of line and go to the base and board the gondola there. We followed suit and chased them to the base where we walked onto the gondola without a wait. There were Jill and I and 6 local boarders. The testosterone levels in the gondola were extreme. When we got off at the summit, I had to checkout Jill to see if she has developed facial hair on the ride up. You know the feeling of being at your favorite ski area and waiting for the patrol to allow loading of “the public”. Wow, it was great to experience that anticipation in late April versus mid winter after a storm. We skied untracked lines once we were off the upper traverse and lower catch lines for 4 hours. During those 4 hours, the sky went from sunshine for 3 hours to flat light for the last hour. The Minarets were visible and majestic early in the day. It was a glorious powder day, and the snow quality was exceptional. Boot deep powder was present in protected areas and gullies, while some ridges were wind hammered and had a firm frozen surface. You learned very quickly why certain lines were untracked. We were planning to drive north for the opener at Alpine Meadows on Friday (operates FR, SA, and SU only), but it started to snow again lightly at Mammoth and for $34 we may have to return and ski more fresh powder tomorrow.

April 30 and the ski report is 9 degrees at the summit but 50mph winds and an inch new and 19 degrees at the base. With the sun shining and visibility excellent, we bought our senior tickets and cycled the groomers. The gullies had a few inches due to wind transport but the ridges were wind hammered. The upper gondola operated for 30 minutes during our visit and closed due to high winds. The terrain that we enjoyed yesterday was all skied out and “wind stiff”. We enjoyed the packed powder conditions for a couple hours. Then the pain in Jill’s knee and hip reached 8 out of 10 and we decided to stop, ice and ibuprofen. I’m still waiting for my cortisone shot to “kick-in”. So we limped back to the van and took a nap in the sun. Two great powder days to end the month of April.

Those are close to his-n-hers outfits!  I'll show my wife Lisa, who grew up skiing there.