Mammoth Update!
The big Mammoth recap, under a cut b/c it's huge. Includes photos!
Our spring break excursion to Mammoth was fantastic. Left on Sunday around 1, checked into our luxurious suite at the Motel 6 Mammoth Lakes at around 6-ish. Our room was TINY, esp. for four people (me, Katie, Mike, and Katie's brother John), but whatev, it was cheap. Got dinner, enjoyed the effects the altitude had on our alcohol tolerance levels (and on our ability to walk up a flight of stairs without getting winded), Mike and I watched Grey's, went to bed. Got up Monday morning, got dressed, headed to the mountain. Conditions were PERFECT - some fresh powder, sun, not too cold, not too warm, not too windy. Took the gondola up to the top of the mountain for our first run. Here's where things got fun for me - the beginning of our first run was down a little packed powder slope, and it was great, and i'm thinking, "wow, this powder thing is great! I love the west coast!" So we traverse a little and head down the backside of the mountain, where I encounter real powder for the first time. About a foot of it, largely untracked. Katie and John take off, then I head down, and promptly realize that this is a very, VERY different animal than the hard granular surfaces I'm used to on the east coast. Skiing in powder requires a much different technique and a lot more leg strength (which feels especially good when you're panting to begin with because you're the highest above sea level you've ever been without the aid of an airplane). So my run down the backside mostly consisted of the following pattern:
Turn
Turn
FACEPLANT
Cursing.
At least it's a nice soft landing when you fall. Eventually I made it to the bottom, albeit entirely covered in snow. So yeah, a bit of a learning curve there.
So we ski some more and then head over to another side of the mountain, where we take the longest chair lift ever up to the top. There were a lot of options from there - the easiest of which was to just head down where the lift ended, into a nice big bowl with some trees that eventually diverged into trails that all led back to the lift. Mike (who hadn't skiied in 11 years) and I chose to follow Katie and John (who are really good skiiers) and traverse the upper face to a run a bit further on which I was told shouldn't be too hard. This was my first major traverse, and it was pretty much terrifying. You're following this little narrow makeshift path across the face of the mountain. One side is feet of loose powder, the other is a precipitous drop down the side of the mountain. So if you fall, you're fucked. It's not just a little slide - you'll tumble down the mountain and break all of your bones. So Katie and John had initially pointed to a rock outcropping they were going to go past before dropping down. They were way ahead of us, largely because Mike hit a lose patch and started sliding down the side a bit, so I stayed back to wait for him to get up. So Katie and John are out of sight now, which is fine b/c we'd agreed to meet back at the chair. Mike gets up and we continue to traverse until we hit the spot where I think Katie and John probably went down. I peer over the edge and am just like, "Um, no." It's a nearly vertical drop down into a whole bunch of trees, and way beyond my and mike's level. But at this point we'd gone down hill a little, so our only option is to take off our skiis and hike back up, then traverse back to the place where Mike had started sliding, which, though steep, was at least manageable. So we finally get back and start down the steep part, which is essentially a controlled series of falls and switchbacks. The hill is so steep at this point that to lay down you just kind of lean back a little. Our legs are totally shot. We finally make it down the hill to find that Katie and John had left, which isn't surprising being as it just took Mike and I at least 45 minutes to pick our way down the mountain. So we waited awhile, and spent the next hour, hour and a half trying to find Katie and John again before giving up and heading back to the main part of the mountain. We didnt' have cell phones on us, and Katie was our ride back to the Motel, so we just kind of had to hope we'd run into them. And it's a big fucking mountain. Getting back to the main part was kind of an adventure, but fun. We passed through a series of peeks at the top of the mountain that created this bizarre, snowcovered, treeless mini-valley that looked like you were in Antarctica, a feeling that was exacerbated by the lack of any other human beings in the space. So we make it back to the main lodge and try to get food, cause we're exhausted and starving and it's like 3:30 and we haven't eaten yet, but pretty much everything that serves food is closed. Naturally, we ran into Katie and John in the bar. So we called it a day. Got dinner, went to bed.
Tuesday we woke up to snow showers that have already dumped about 6 inches of fresh powder in the parking lot. We check out of our room and head up the mountain, watching conditions get progressively worse. Walking to the lodge, it's impossible to look up b/c of the heavy snow. We get our gear on and head out to, like, 0 visibility. The top of the mountain was closed. The wind is crazy, gusting up to like 40mph (which is AWESOME when you're in a chair lift w/ no bar in front of you), the snow is so heavy, it's biting cold. The slopes are entirely covered with about a foot of fresh powder, but you literally can't see ANYTHING in places - I actually fell a few times because I would literally start skiing back up the hill - all you could see was white, everywhere - no sense of up or down, no contrast on the snow (you can't even see the snow you're skiing on), nothing. You'd be going along and all of a sudden realize you were literally knee deep in powder. It was horrible. We went to a side of the mountain that was somewhat less windy, but still pretty bad. We then proceeded to do about 100 mogul runs, except the moguls were entirely buried in snow, so you couldn't really see them, and I can't ski moguls anyway, and my goggles are so fogged up at this point that any visibility I did have was gone.... So pretty much I fell for a few straight hours. And was the most exhausted I think I've ever been in my life. But at least I'd gotten the hang of skiing in powder (which is acutally awesome once you get the technique down). Eventually we got lunch, did a few more mogul runs, and headed back to the main part of the mountain, where conditions had gotten even worse. We went down a few more times, runs that should have been fun but weren't at all because of the shit conditions, before calling it quits (they were starting to shut down even more lifts, and it just wasn't fun anymore). We packed up the car and ended up leaving the mountain at about 3 to head back to LA.
So Mammoth was lots of fun, albeit very physically taxing. Sadly, I didn't take any pictures until the car ride home, mostly cause I didn't feel like carrying my camera (and didn't want to break it tumbling down the mountain. Which is a shame, cause on Monday the views from/on the mountain were SPECTACULAR. Seriously, it was unreal.) So here's what I did get:
Katie driving in goggles. I love this picture, especially the frosted effect that resulted from the camera lens fogging over in the cold.
Mike and I,exhausted, self portrait.
A few Mike snapped of the conditions on the way out of Mammoth Lakes. Mike was endlessly fascinated with the snow and its many properties, having never lived anywhere other than LA and the Bay Area.
Our spring break excursion to Mammoth was fantastic. Left on Sunday around 1, checked into our luxurious suite at the Motel 6 Mammoth Lakes at around 6-ish. Our room was TINY, esp. for four people (me, Katie, Mike, and Katie's brother John), but whatev, it was cheap. Got dinner, enjoyed the effects the altitude had on our alcohol tolerance levels (and on our ability to walk up a flight of stairs without getting winded), Mike and I watched Grey's, went to bed. Got up Monday morning, got dressed, headed to the mountain. Conditions were PERFECT - some fresh powder, sun, not too cold, not too warm, not too windy. Took the gondola up to the top of the mountain for our first run. Here's where things got fun for me - the beginning of our first run was down a little packed powder slope, and it was great, and i'm thinking, "wow, this powder thing is great! I love the west coast!" So we traverse a little and head down the backside of the mountain, where I encounter real powder for the first time. About a foot of it, largely untracked. Katie and John take off, then I head down, and promptly realize that this is a very, VERY different animal than the hard granular surfaces I'm used to on the east coast. Skiing in powder requires a much different technique and a lot more leg strength (which feels especially good when you're panting to begin with because you're the highest above sea level you've ever been without the aid of an airplane). So my run down the backside mostly consisted of the following pattern:
Turn
Turn
FACEPLANT
Cursing.
At least it's a nice soft landing when you fall. Eventually I made it to the bottom, albeit entirely covered in snow. So yeah, a bit of a learning curve there.
So we ski some more and then head over to another side of the mountain, where we take the longest chair lift ever up to the top. There were a lot of options from there - the easiest of which was to just head down where the lift ended, into a nice big bowl with some trees that eventually diverged into trails that all led back to the lift. Mike (who hadn't skiied in 11 years) and I chose to follow Katie and John (who are really good skiiers) and traverse the upper face to a run a bit further on which I was told shouldn't be too hard. This was my first major traverse, and it was pretty much terrifying. You're following this little narrow makeshift path across the face of the mountain. One side is feet of loose powder, the other is a precipitous drop down the side of the mountain. So if you fall, you're fucked. It's not just a little slide - you'll tumble down the mountain and break all of your bones. So Katie and John had initially pointed to a rock outcropping they were going to go past before dropping down. They were way ahead of us, largely because Mike hit a lose patch and started sliding down the side a bit, so I stayed back to wait for him to get up. So Katie and John are out of sight now, which is fine b/c we'd agreed to meet back at the chair. Mike gets up and we continue to traverse until we hit the spot where I think Katie and John probably went down. I peer over the edge and am just like, "Um, no." It's a nearly vertical drop down into a whole bunch of trees, and way beyond my and mike's level. But at this point we'd gone down hill a little, so our only option is to take off our skiis and hike back up, then traverse back to the place where Mike had started sliding, which, though steep, was at least manageable. So we finally get back and start down the steep part, which is essentially a controlled series of falls and switchbacks. The hill is so steep at this point that to lay down you just kind of lean back a little. Our legs are totally shot. We finally make it down the hill to find that Katie and John had left, which isn't surprising being as it just took Mike and I at least 45 minutes to pick our way down the mountain. So we waited awhile, and spent the next hour, hour and a half trying to find Katie and John again before giving up and heading back to the main part of the mountain. We didnt' have cell phones on us, and Katie was our ride back to the Motel, so we just kind of had to hope we'd run into them. And it's a big fucking mountain. Getting back to the main part was kind of an adventure, but fun. We passed through a series of peeks at the top of the mountain that created this bizarre, snowcovered, treeless mini-valley that looked like you were in Antarctica, a feeling that was exacerbated by the lack of any other human beings in the space. So we make it back to the main lodge and try to get food, cause we're exhausted and starving and it's like 3:30 and we haven't eaten yet, but pretty much everything that serves food is closed. Naturally, we ran into Katie and John in the bar. So we called it a day. Got dinner, went to bed.
Tuesday we woke up to snow showers that have already dumped about 6 inches of fresh powder in the parking lot. We check out of our room and head up the mountain, watching conditions get progressively worse. Walking to the lodge, it's impossible to look up b/c of the heavy snow. We get our gear on and head out to, like, 0 visibility. The top of the mountain was closed. The wind is crazy, gusting up to like 40mph (which is AWESOME when you're in a chair lift w/ no bar in front of you), the snow is so heavy, it's biting cold. The slopes are entirely covered with about a foot of fresh powder, but you literally can't see ANYTHING in places - I actually fell a few times because I would literally start skiing back up the hill - all you could see was white, everywhere - no sense of up or down, no contrast on the snow (you can't even see the snow you're skiing on), nothing. You'd be going along and all of a sudden realize you were literally knee deep in powder. It was horrible. We went to a side of the mountain that was somewhat less windy, but still pretty bad. We then proceeded to do about 100 mogul runs, except the moguls were entirely buried in snow, so you couldn't really see them, and I can't ski moguls anyway, and my goggles are so fogged up at this point that any visibility I did have was gone.... So pretty much I fell for a few straight hours. And was the most exhausted I think I've ever been in my life. But at least I'd gotten the hang of skiing in powder (which is acutally awesome once you get the technique down). Eventually we got lunch, did a few more mogul runs, and headed back to the main part of the mountain, where conditions had gotten even worse. We went down a few more times, runs that should have been fun but weren't at all because of the shit conditions, before calling it quits (they were starting to shut down even more lifts, and it just wasn't fun anymore). We packed up the car and ended up leaving the mountain at about 3 to head back to LA.
So Mammoth was lots of fun, albeit very physically taxing. Sadly, I didn't take any pictures until the car ride home, mostly cause I didn't feel like carrying my camera (and didn't want to break it tumbling down the mountain. Which is a shame, cause on Monday the views from/on the mountain were SPECTACULAR. Seriously, it was unreal.) So here's what I did get:
Katie driving in goggles. I love this picture, especially the frosted effect that resulted from the camera lens fogging over in the cold.
Mike and I,exhausted, self portrait.
A few Mike snapped of the conditions on the way out of Mammoth Lakes. Mike was endlessly fascinated with the snow and its many properties, having never lived anywhere other than LA and the Bay Area.