May 24th-26th, 2012

Location: Sierra but Mostly Mammoth…

Weather: Cold, snowy, frozen bulletproof snow, some pockets of sun…

Riders: Skier666 (losing hair, adding children, & skiing less)

Photographer: Skier666’s alter ego – grandma monkey!

POV VIDEO – N/A..are you kidding?

Music: S.P.Y – ‘Love & Hate’

Synopsis:

After a busy May filled with birthdays, baptisms, mother’s day, events, school functions & charities, the Family finally got a reprieve to head to the Sierra. I headed out two days prior to ski some Mammoth groomers and then to deliver most of our ski gear up to the Tahoe house. Of course, after a month of stunningly warm weather, the morning I arrive to ride, the top of the Gondola is reporting 16F and light snow. After that report, I decided to walk up to the mountain with an extra pair of GS race stocks knowing fair well that it was going to uber firm. The temperatures continued to drop throughout the day and a much needed thaw was never going to occur. Ultimately, due to the temps, the off-piste was frozen coral reef and the corduroy kept its signature vertical lines all day. The bonus? About 9 people were skiing on this day. so it was as if I rented out the mountain.

After skiing, it was time for a leisurely drive up to Tahoe. With no schedule, I decided to take a quick drive up to Ellery Lake on Tioga to see the snow followed by a nice walk around Mono Lake. The following morning, I met the family at a friends house at Northstar.

SNOW!:

With my car in the shop, I took my Nissan Versa rental on a whirlwind traverseing trip across Northern California.

Front seat down? Check. All the family ski gear? Check!

I left from work around 1pm to drive over Sonora Pass on HWY 108….

With no chains or snow tires, I wanted to beat the storm and commuter traffic out of the Bay. Lower Sonora hairpin looking dry….

However, above the hairpin, Deadman area looked quite tasty…

If only I could have got here in the morning…oh well.

Leavitt Meadows looking spectacular with the Sawtooth Range in the distance….

Closeup…

Leavitt Falls was flowing….

After a sleep in Mammoth Lakes, the next morning I arrived to Chair 1 to see this:

So I whipped out these….(I did have 10 pair of skis in the car)

Looking up to Chair 3….

The contrast of cloud, sun, cold, and snow sure made it pretty!

Descended this a few times…

Then switched to something a tad wider…you know, to limit the chance of flying off the run.

I told you I rented this place out right?

Fast and Furious….

I felt bad for this snowcat…

I told you it was cold…

They finally opened up the upper gondola so I hiked over to 23 (shut for the day)…

The snow was ‘variable’…

nice pitch though…

Climax was in and out of the clouds all day….

At least I found another fellow human to take a picture of me ‘having a blast.’

Chair 23 looked pretty grim…and it skied the same way

But I did manage to get the snow to move up there….

And then on Climax, things got REALLY DEEP!

On my departure, it started to snow more consistently…

As I made my way out of town toward highway 395, it felt like winter…

I drove up to Ellery Lake to see the accumulation. Time to get back down to 395 in my little car….

Just down the hill, the sun was poking out on Mono Lake…

Brisk, salty yet sunny…

The next morning, Hwy 267 up to Northstar looked like this…

That afternoon the lake looked like this…

The following day we headed to Brockway Summit for a hike with the kids…

…and there I saw this tree…