In terms of snow, 2003 was not shaping up to be a very good year. By mid-January, Powder Mountain had a base of only 53″ or so, and other big resorts like Whistler/Blackcomb, Jackson Hole, and Big Sky didn’t have much more. Strangely enough, the California resorts were actually faring quite well with Mammoth having over a 9 foot base. Typically not one to want to go to Mammoth for snowboarding (being the snow snob that I am), I decided that riding in Mammoth would be better than not riding at all so a trip was put together.

By chance, the particular weekend we decided to go turned out to be a holiday weekend. Specifically, it was Martin Luther King’s birthday weekend. Nearly all lodging accommodations required at least a 3 night stay during holiday weekends. If we wanted to go, we had to oblige. Reservations were made at the Mammoth Ski and Racquet Club for a condo that slept 8.

On January 17, 2003, we headed up to Mammoth. Judy and I picked up Ryan at around 1:30 and headed up. About an hour and a half later, the rest of the group left San Diego. Aaron, Kate, and Sean rode up in the 4-Runner while Dave and Patty drove up in their Audi. Three cars were necessary because Judy, Patty, and Ryan were planning to stay for only 2 nights while the rest of us would stay for 3 nights.

Cheap Shoes
Our group decided to leave a bit earlier so that we could stop by the Five-Ten outlet and check out the climbing shoes. They actually had some good stuff there. Judy got herself a pair of Sapphires, Zlippers, and a Southern California bouldering guide, Ryan also bought a pair of Zlippers, and I took home a pair of Mocassyms. After our brief shopping stint, we grabbed dinner. Judy outvoted Ryan and myself and we ended up at Yoshinoya, where the food was pretty tasty, but also pretty fatty. Ryan and I wanted to hit the El Pollo Loco, which we all agreed afterwards would have been better (though one of us wouldn’t openly admit it).

The drive to Mammoth was relatively uneventful and we arrived in Mammoth at around 9 PM. We went straight to the Vons in town to get some food and then headed to the condo. Since we were arriving late, we had to get the key from the lock box at the front office. We quickly found our unit #6, parked in the garage, and lugged our gear up.

Not long afterwards, the rest of the gang arrived. The parking spots near our condo were all taken so Aaron ended up parking his car down the drive a bit while Dave parked the Audi in front of the office.

Pretty Board, Pretty Bindings, Pretty All Around
The condo was fairly nice, but by Judy’s standards, it wasn’t quite new enough. Kate remarked that we had stayed in an identical condo several years back when we had come up with Sue. Everyone took some time to admire Kate’s new setup: an owner-proclaimed “very pretty board” with “very pretty bindings”. Aaron and Ryan got engaged in a mechanical analysis and comparison of the different ratcheting mechanisms between Kate’s and my bindings (which were also new though arguably not as pretty as Kate’s).

Patty and Dave took the king-size bed upstairs. In the adjacent room, Judy and I took the queen. Sean and Ryan took the bunk beds with Sean on top (the bunk bed, that is). Aaron and Kate took the pull-out sleeper in the living room.

Two Permits!
We awoke to sunny blue skies with nary a cloud to be seen. Dave, Aaron, and I went to the front office to try to secure parking permits. I was told on the phone that we would only be guaranteed two parking permits, but that it might be possible for us to get three. Unfortunately, the girl at the front desk was pretty stubborn on the issue.

“Is it possible for us to get 3 permits? After all, we have 8 people in our condo.”
“Two permits - no exceptions!”
“How about if we parked inline - there’s plenty of space in some of the parking spaces to be able to do that.”
“Two permits!”
“But there’s plenty of room . . . ”
“Two permits!”

Oh well, two permits it is. She did let us leave all three cars there for the day while we hit the slopes, but we had to move one of them when we got back.

Lots of People in Line, Not Many on the Slopes
We weren’t quite sure if we should walk to the lifts or catch a shuttle, but the lifts looked like they were close enough that we should walk. After getting to the Canyon Lodge, it was pretty clear that taking a shuttle would have been pretty lame. Some of us went to get lockers while others got in line for lift tickets. There were massive amounts of people and around 15 people taking orders. Lift tickets were a whopping $60 and being a holiday weekend, the typical 3 out of 4 day special was not in effect.

Although the weather was very warm (it probably hit the mid 50’s), the snow actually turned out to be pretty nice. It wasn’t fresh powder, but the snow was still pretty good, certainly better than I had expected. We were afraid that it would be icy in the mornings and late afternoons and slushy the rest of the time. We spent most of Saturday around Chair 25 on the west side of the mountain. Later we decided to go to Chair 9 which was somewhat to Kate’s dismay because the off-ramp from the lift was somewhat steep. Along the way to Chair 9, we found a nice little jump.

St. Bernard, Chihuahua, What’s the Diff?
After the day had ended, we trekked back to the condo. Patty, in a shocking display of dog identification ineptitude, boldly asserted that she had spotted a St. Bernard. This would have been cool since you just don’t see too may St. Bernards around. Unfortunately, more so for Patty than anyone else, the so-called St. Bernard that Patty saw turned out to be a beagle or something like that. Actually, we don’t know what kind of dog it was, but one thing we knew for certain was that it most definitely was not a St. Bernard. [You laugh, but do you really have the right to? Do you think you have what it takes to spot a St. Bernard? Can you walk the walk or are you just talkin' the talk? Test your mettle by taking the St. Bernard Test!]

Slocum’s and Parking
That night, we had dinner at Slocum’s where Judy met one of her favorite waitresses who graciously accommodated her many questions and ordering peculiarities. Everyone was pretty satisfied with their meals. Afterwards, we still had to figure out where to park the third car. Since Aaron, Kate, Sean, and Dave had to go to Vons to pick up some groceries, we figured we might as well just park the extra car in the Vons parking lot. While they went shopping, I drove Judy, Patty, and Ryan back to the condo and then drove back to Vons. Unfortunately, it was soon discovered that overnight parking was not allowed in the Vons parking lot. In fact, we discovered that overnight parking is not really permitted anywhere in Mammoth, contrary to what the people who worked at our condo seemed to imply. Bummer! We drove down Main Street looking for places to park and came upon a Motel 6 which would probably suit our purposes well. We pulled up, did a quick check to make sure that the cars there did not have permits, and then left Aaron’s 4-Runner there for the evening.

Trading Spaces
We retired to the condo, gathered around the boob tube, and tuned into Trading Spaces. None of us, with the sole exception of Patty, had ever seen the show before, but we all found it to be quite entertaining. Somewhat spent from the day on the slopes, we hit the sacks at around 10:30 or so. That night, Ryan, after failing in his feeble efforts to expand his comfort zone, got up in the middle of the night to turn the heat down. As a result, everyone else awoke in the morning feeling kind of cold.

Steeper Runs and Shreddin’ the Half-Pipe
The next day, we broadened our horizons a bit and went to the top of the mountain. We peered down Hangman’s Hollow which was really steep and didn’t have the greatest coverage. We went down Cornice Bowl instead and took Chair 23 up a few times. We ran into Tamberly and Jeff, took a run or two with them, and discovered that they’re both pretty good skiers.

Later that day, we checked out the half-pipe at the Unbound Canyon and the cool little jumps preceding it and along it. Most everyone took a run down the pipe, often flailing, but having fun nevertheless. Judy showed off her unique half-pipe riding technique which amazingly, doesn’t even really require a half-pipe.

Work Calls and Home Cookin’
At the end of Sunday, Judy, Patty, and Ryan, their priorities clearly screwed up, headed home in Patty’s Audi. Something about having to go to work or something like that. The rest of us stayed and were treated to Aaron’s homemade chili feast while gathered around the tube watching the football playoffs. Despite the lack of meat, the chili actually turned out to be pretty tasty. Imagine that! It was actually a good thing that a bunch of us left early, because we definitely wouldn’t have had enough chili to go around.

More Sun and Fun
The next day was more of the same - bright sun, blue skies, and warm temperatures. We tried to check out the Unbound Main terrain park. For some reason, it was closed, although there were a couple of fun little table-top jumps at the entrance. We decided to go back to that little jump on the way to Chair 9. Unfortunately for me, the snow there had gotten quite a bit more crusty and unwieldy from the day before, and I did a nice little face-plant. At midday, we pulled off to the side of one of the runs and had a nice little lunch in the warm sun. Aaron took the nice little panoramic shot that you see here.

Heading Home
We called it a day around 3 and got ready to head back. Everyone else brought a change of clothes and changed in the locker room while I headed back to the condo and changed in the stairwell. I had a close call as some dude was just about to head down the stairs right as I was pulling up my pants.

Dave rode with me back home while Kate and Sean rode back with Aaron. We stopped at the Pizza Factory in Lone Pine and had a yummy, fat-filled dinner. The ride back was relatively uneventful, with Dave and I having a lively conversation about Qualcomm and careers (what a bunch of geeks!). Being a holiday weekend, we were a bit concerned about traffic, but the traffic turned out to be no problem at all and we were able to get back to SD at a reasonable hour.

All in all, it was a great trip. Being the snow snob that I am, my expectations were pretty low, but I was pleasantly surprised at the conditions. Not a whole lot of pictures were taken (actually only the ones above in the trip report), but there were a whole bunch of movies. Warren Miller certainly has nothing to worry about, but there’s still some entertainment value in these short clips. In terms of quality, I’d say that the ones of Judy carving turned out the best. Check ‘em out, but be forewarned that some of them have a pretty severe “Blair Witch” effect. Here they are.

Posted by Roger at 8:08 pm.