My son has always talked about the beautiful powder conditions at
Mammoth Mountain Ski Resort, but I never had the opportunity to go there. However, with his high school ski week vacation from February 17-22, I decided to see if it would be possible to visit Mammoth Mountain.
At first, I thought about driving there, but the 6.5-hour drive from San Jose would be tedious and undesirable. The drive would be much farther than Kirkwood, Northstar, or Heavenly. Looking at airline flights, I discovered that a United Airlines 5905 flight flies directly from San Francisco to Mammoth airport (in one hour) daily! It seemed a very convenient way to visit Mammoth and avoid the long drive there (if the ticket price was reasonable).
Looking at Google Flights, I found reasonably priced roundtrip tickets to Mammoth ($239/person roundtrip) and purchased them. (The $239 ticket price from SFO to Mammoth is too high, given that one can fly to Seattle for $160 roundtrip).
On Saturday, February 16, we woke up at 5:30 a.m. to check in at the San Francisco airport by 7:00 a.m. Our flight #5905 was scheduled to depart at 8:30. After dropping off my snowboard bag (with 2 snowboards) and a ski bag (with our warm weather ski gear), we waited patiently for the plane and boarded it right on time.
While waiting for the plane, we ate breakfast at SFO's
Sankaku Asian restaurant. Alex ordered Ramen, which was terrible, and my chicken teriyaki bowl was not much better. Avoid
Sankaku!
Our United Bombardier
CRJ700 small regional jet took off right on time at 8:30 a.m. and attempted a landing at Mammoth Lakes at around 9:30 a.m. However, the pilot aborted the landing, citing very gusty conditions (not making any further landing attempts). He said the plane lacked sufficient fuel for additional attempts and decided to return to SFO. We were disappointed with the decision but could understand the pilot's predicament.
When we landed in San Francisco, we collected our luggage and had Inna pick us up at the SFO Terminal 3. I waited an hour at the United Airlines Customer Service to find another flight (none were available for Saturday or Sunday) and then requested a refund. It took a seemingly endless amount of time to do something simple.
We returned home and decided to drive to Mammoth via the Bakersfield route (which would avoid the new snowstorm-pounding Lake Tahoe ski resorts). I was worried that US-50 or US-89 would be closed, and I didn't want to get stuck on the road.
The road to Mammoth via Bakersfield (the southern route) was long and tedious. It took me 8 hours to drive from San Jose to Mammoth, using Hwy 101, 5, and 395. Fortunately, the road was mostly empty, with no snow evident until we reached Mammoth, so I made excellent progress. However, I suffered from a horrible headache, and my stomach felt a bit upset after eating at Chipotle in Bakersfield. It made the long drive very unpleasant, though listening to my new Audible audiobook - "
Alone Together: Sailing to Hawaii and Beyond" by Christian Williams - helped me take my mind off the pain. In his book, Christian talks about sailing from San Diego to Hawaii and the lessons this trip has taught him.
We arrived at our
Sierra Lodge around 11:00 p.m. - exhausted and tired. After a quick unpacking of our snowboarding gear, we went to bed.
Sierra Lodge offers lockers for skiing and snowboarding equipment to avoid bringing wet gear into the room (which we used extensively) and an excellent underground parking garage.
Sunday, February 17, 2019
After waking up at 6:30 a.m. (still with a slight headache), I showered and dressed for snowboarding. We also spent some time preparing Alex's Jones Ultra Mountain Twin snowboard - the bindings had to be attached with particular settings: 15 degrees for the front foot and -6 degrees for the rear foot.
After a short continental breakfast of hot oatmeal and English muffins at our Sierra Lodge, we took our snowboards and headed for the nearby bus stop. The free Mammoth bus shuttle arrived at around 8:30 (mostly complete), but we could board the bus, stepping off two stops later at Mammoth Village. From there, I picked up my pre-purchased 6-day lift tickets for Alex and me and headed for the Village gondola to whisk us away to Canyon Lodge, where most ski lifts were operating.
It was pretty cold, and we wore all our heavy-duty thermal underwear and another layer of fleece. We took the first chair lift -
Canyon Express - to mid-mountain and started our fantastic snowboarding day.
Here is a GoPro Hero7 Black
video of the first day of snowboarding at Mammoth Mountain:
While it was very windy and freezing then, the snow was light, fresh, and powdery! We had a couple of fantastic runs through the powder, surfing on the light, fresh snow. This is why we came here! It was the best powder we have experienced, making the tremendous effort to get to Mammoth worthwhile.
After many great runs, we ate an early lunch at Canyon Lodge, a cafe on the 4th floor. Despite being quite large, it was already quite full of people. We selected a few slices of pizza and hot chocolate to warm up. The resort food was expensive but also high quality (though not at the same level as Verbier or Whistler).
We continued snowboarding different parts of Mammoth, trying many other chair lifts:
- Canyon Express
- Chair 22 (one of our favorites, due to powder and shorter lines)
- Roller Coaster Express
- Gold Rush Express
We had a fantastic day and finished with 11 runs, 12,417 feet downhill, with a top speed of 25.6 mph. While slower than our 34 mph in Verbier, we enjoyed gliding through powder much more!
After returning to our
Sierra Lodge, we took showers and rested. We decided to eat dinner at the nearby
John's Pizza Works restaurant (just across the street from our Sierra Lodge).
We ordered the following items:
- 2 tossed green salads
- 10 chicken wings (for appetizer)
- large Margherita pizza
The tossed green salads were good, with fresh lettuce, tomatoes, and onions. The chicken drumsticks were also quite delicious with the mild barbecue sauce.
The pizza was disappointing due to the thick, tasteless dough. It does not compare to New York City, Turin, Italy, or pizza.
Monday, February 18, 2019
After waking up at 7:00, I showered and dressed for snowboarding. After a short continental breakfast of hot oatmeal and pastries, we took our gear and headed for the nearby bus stop. The free Mammoth bus arrived around 8:15, and we were dropped off at Mammoth Village.
It was pretty cold and snowing (although the weather forecast called for sunshine), and we were wearing all our heavy-duty thermal underwear and another layer of fleece. I did not expect snow conditions to be excellent, but I was pleasantly surprised to see 5 inches of fresh powder on the mountain!
Here is my 4K GoPro Hero7 Black
video of our second day at Mammoth:
We took the first chair lift -
Canyon Express - to mid-mountain and started another fantastic day, laying down fresh tracks on the soft, dry powder!
We snowboarded all of the black diamond powder runs around
Chair 22: "Shaft," "Viva," "Grizzly," and "Lower Grizzly." We mostly snowboarded through the trees, looking for the freshest powder.
At around 11:00 a.m., we returned to Canyon Lodge for lunch. Alex and I ordered the traditional Mexican meatball soup with cabbage. We also purchased hot chocolate and macadamia nut cookies.
After finishing lunch, we returned to the mountain, taking the
Canyon Express and Chair 22. The weather had cleared by then, and there were no further snow flurries or gusty wind. It was pleasant.
We decided to explore other parts of Mammoth and snowboarded to
Chair 25, hoping to find fresh powder on the "Sunshine Glades" trail. We were not disappointed - we found plenty of fresh powder between the trees and had a fantastic time. We stayed there for most of the remaining runs.
After a few more runs, we became curious about the runs on the H
igh Five Express chairlift nearby. We headed over there but did not like the packed powder snow conditions. We returned to Chair 25 and spent the rest of the day.
We finished at 3:30 p.m. and then took the Gondola to Mammoth Village. We stopped by Starbucks for a hot mocha and then returned home for some rest.
At 6:00 p.m., we decided to try eating dinner at the
Smokeyard BBQ Restaurant in Mammoth Village.
We wanted to avoid a long wait, so we arrived early.
We ordered the following items:
- Mixed Green salad (share)
- Cornbread (share)
- Durban Curry (for Boris)
- Smokeyard burger (for Alex)
- Hot Tea
Dinner was quite delicious, and we would be happy to return there.
We also stopped by at a nearby General Store to pick up a bottle of Tylenol for Alex. We never used it because his headache went away.
Tuesday, February 19, 2019
After waking up at 7:00 a.m., we took showers and dressed for snowboarding. After a short continental breakfast of hot oatmeal and pastries, we took our gear and headed for the nearby bus stop. We were lucky to catch the free Mammoth bus just about to depart. We stepped off the bus at Mammoth Village and took the free
Village Gondola to Canyon Lodge.
Although the weather forecast called for frigid temperatures, we were surprised by how warm it was. We both ended up removing our fleeces in the warm sunshine. There was no wind, and it was an enjoyable sunny day.
We took the first chair lift -
Canyon Express, to mid-mountain and then quickly snowboarded to
Chair 22. From there, we snowboarded to
Chair 25. Alex was experiencing fogginess in his goggles, and we decided to return to the Canyon Lodge early to see if it could be cleared with an air dryer. After a few minutes, the goggles did clear up, but the fogginess returned as soon as Alex stepped outside. I decided to purchase Alex a new set of skiing goggles he used for the rest of the day.
After skiing a few more runs, we stopped by the Canyon Lodge for lunch. I ordered the traditional Mexican meatball soup with cabbage. We also purchased hot chocolate and macadamia nut cookies. Alex decided to try the quesadilla (which he enjoyed).
Since
Chair 9 opened up, Alex wanted to experience more fresh powder there. We rode the
Canyon Express chair and then snowboarded to the
High Five Express chair. From there, we could snowboard to all the unadulterated, fresh powder accessible to
Chair 9. (
Chair 9 chairlift
was closed on Monday, so most of the snow remained fresh).
We really liked the powder and tree skiing on Chair 9. Our favorite pistes were: "Ricochet" and "Wazoo." We had so many fantastic runs through the fresh powder in the trees! It was the main highlight of our day.
After a few more fantastic runs down "Ricochet" and "Wazoo," Alex wanted to see if it would be possible to snowboard down Dave's Run from the very top of Mammoth. This required boarding the Panorama Gondola at McCoy Station (where we also stopped by for a couple of drinks and snacks).
After riding the Panorama Gondola to the top, we decided to try Dave's Run and traversed over there. Dave's run looked menacing, but it was really not that difficult. From there, we decided to try one more run called "Haven't The Foggiest." It was easy and fun but a little bit icy. From there, we used Chair 25 to return to the top and followed easy blue slopes to the bottom. What a great day!
At 6:30 p.m., we decided to try eating dinner at the
Smokeyard BBQ Restaurant in Mammoth Village.
We wanted to avoid a long wait, so we arrived early.
We ordered the following menu items (which we really enjoyed):
- Mixed Green salad (share)
- Bread (share)
- Durban Curry (for Boris)
- Fish & Chips (Alex)
- Hot Tea
Wednesday, February 20, 2019
After waking up at 7:00 a.m., we took showers and dressed for snowboarding. After a short continental breakfast of hot oatmeal and pastries, we took our gear and headed for the nearby bus stop. We were lucky to catch the free Mammoth bus just about to depart. We stepped off the bus at Mammoth Village and took the free
Village Gondola to Canyon Lodge.
The weather forecast called for a blizzard, starting at 10:00, with strong winds and light snowfall from 2-4 inches. It was much windier and colder than on Tuesday.
We took the first chair lift -
Canyon Express - to mid-mountain and then quickly snowboarded to the
High Five Express chairlift
. From there, we wanted to snowboard down the path under
Chair 9. However, visibility was abysmal, and the wind was extremely gusty and cold. We returned to the Canyon Lodge to warm up on hot chocolate and cookies.
After resting at the Canyon Lodge, we decided to try another run. We took the Canyon Express to mid-mountain, snowboarding back to the lodge. We decided to eat lunch to avoid rush hour at noon. Alex and I ordered our favorite Mexican meatball soup.
Alex and I ordered the Albondigas (traditional Mexican meatball soup) with cabbage. We also purchased hot tea. After lunch, we returned to
Canyon Express, followed by Chair 22 and then Chair 25. Alex found lots of fresh powder in the trees, and we spent the rest of the day hunting for fresh powder.
Although it started as a miserable day, we enjoyed many fine runs on fresh powder. Alex became very good at spotting unmolested tracks of fresh powder.
At 6:30 p.m., we decided to try eating dinner at the
Smokeyard BBQ Restaurant in Mammoth Village.
We wanted to avoid a long wait, so we arrived early.
We ordered the following menu items (which we really enjoyed):
- Mixed Green salad (share)
- Bread (share)
- Potjiekos (for Boris)
- Fish & Chips (Alex)
- Hot Tea
Thursday, February 21, 2019
After waking up at 6:40 a.m., we took showers and dressed for snowboarding. After a short continental breakfast of hot oatmeal and pastries, we took our gear and headed for the nearby bus stop. We stepped off the bus at Mammoth Village and took the free
Village Gondola to Canyon Lodge.
Since 6 inches of fresh powder were on the ground, we were eager to make new tracks in the newly fallen snow. After taking the Canyon Express to the top, we quickly snowboarded to
High Five Express, but it was closed. We decided to snowboard down to the
Gold Rush Express chairlift, which we used to reach the
Chair 25 area. We snowboarded down "Sunshine Glades" a few times before moving over to the
Chair 9 area (once we saw that Chair 9 was running).
At Chair 9, we would traverse all the way to the left area, "Dragon's Chutes," and ride in the "Wazoo" tree area, which had bottomless powder. One miraculous incident happened to Alex and me. While changing the battery on my GoPro Hero7 Black, I forgot to zip up my winter jacket's pocket, and my Amazon credit card fell out. I didn't know where this happened.
In the deep forest, with so many trails, I did not think there was any chance of recovering it. However, after snowboarding down the rune run again, Alex could spot my credit card! After retrieving the card, we had lunch at the Canyon Lodge. Otherwise, we would have to snack on granola bars and drink water.
After finishing lunch, we returned to the Chair 9 area and snowboarded down "Wazoo" some more. We had a fantastic time and encountered knee-deep powder everywhere. It was another great day!
After finishing riding at 3:30, we returned to the
Sierra Lodge for some rest and relaxation.
We decided to try the nearby
Morisson's Restaurant & Bar for dinner.
It was highly rated on both Google and Yelp, and we decided to sample some of the favorites on the menu.
I ordered the following items on the menu:
- 1 Caesar Salad
- 1 Lamb Shank (for Boris)
- 1 Pesto Pasta (for Alex)
- 2 Hot Teas
The lamb was delicious, and Alex enjoyed his pasta. It's a fine Italian restaurant.
Snowboarding Casualty Report
1 foggy Bolle goggles
1 broken GoPro tripod adapter (thankful that my GoPro Hero7 Black did not fall off)
1 broken Camera strap (thankful that my Canon G7x Mark2 camera did not fall off)
1 Gerry Ski pants (thankful that I did not lose my pants with the broken button)
