| Photos courtesy of
Tom Roberts |
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Gondola at Mammoth |
The Original Mammoth |
Top of Mammoth |
Lunch at June Mountain |
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| Photos courtesy of
Barb Carpenter |
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Partial Group |
Snow Banks |
More Snow Banks |
| Photos courtesy of
Tom Roberts |
||
|
Gondola at Mammoth |
The Original Mammoth |
Top of Mammoth |
|
Lunch at June Mountain |
||
| Photos courtesy of
Barb Carpenter |
||
|
Partial Group |
Snow Banks |
More Snow Banks |
Snow! Snow! Snow! Lot's of Snow (434" when we arrived), Deep Snow (12-16 ft. base), High Snow (Up to 20' along the roads), and Wonderful Snow (some of the best I've ever skied on - NO ICE!). After a long day on two planes and a four hour bus ride, the 44 ULLR's settled in at the 1849 Condos at Mammoth Mountain. The next five days were mostly clear and sunny with outstanding skiing. Mammoth Mountain is awesome, rising to over 11,000 feet, with the second largest skiable acreage in the US, with beautiful and majestic mountain peaks all around. It takes about three days just to cover the mountain. Mammoth has everything; fantastic long cruisers, bumps galore, lots of tree skiing, and incredible steeps.
The first day we split up into groups of eight, and some wonderful Mountain Hosts took us all over the mountain. We all got together that evening for a great time at the condo rec room for pizza, beer, and wine. During the week, many of us ran into each other at McCoy Station for lunch, half way up the mountain. Another favorite gathering place for coffee and lunch was the Outpost, on the beautiful back side of the mountain. On Saturday, eleven ULLR's ventured over to June Mountain, which also was great, with some outstanding views of Mono Lake. Speaking of views, the 360 degree vista from Panorama Lookout at the top of the mountain, overlooking the Sierra Mountains and the eastern edge of Yosemite, was incredible, one of the best I've ever seen. The last night we had a ball and lot's of food and wine at the left over party in the rec room.
Getting home was somewhat of a nightmare because our flight was canceled because of mechanical problems. Where was Roberts and Higgins when I needed them? We ended up on a Red Eye from Las Vegas and arrived home at 6 AM. However, Tom Gray got us all a $150 voucher from America West, which I may use next winter for a return visit to Mammoth Mountain.
Cheers, Jerry Swanberg