We usually chip in to rent a condo with friends going at the same time. This time our group was Fran, Marc, Sung, Kim & Phil. Sung stayed a whole week and the rest of us were there for 2 days.
Mammoth is high up in the Sierra Mountains, where the extra altitude provides ski-able snow all the way into early summer. The mountain is tall and wide, offering a large variety of runs. You can ski up and down the face all day and not have to do the same runs over and over.
There are several lodges on the mountain. Most at the base, but McCoy Station is in the middle so you have to ski to it. That makes it a great place to stop for lunch or a quick snack.
We usually ski out of Canyon Lodge. There are a number of condos nearby so you can walk right in instead of driving. If you're too far to walk and don't want to drive, a free shuttle makes its rounds through town and the lodges.
We'll start on the Canyon Express lift, and take one of the runs down to The Mill Cafe. Then take Gold Rush up, and ski down Solitude which is challenging, but not too difficult.
After a few runs, we'll take the Stump Alley lift to move over to runs like Broadway. If the weather is nice, we can move all the way to Chair 12, which has a number of fast runs to choose from. There's always Outpost 14, a small restarant/bar on the snow, if we get tired.
This year, we have all switched to snowboarding. But as good as we are at skiing, we're beginners at boarding. So we scrapped our usuall routes and stayed on the easy runs from Canyon Lodge (Schoolyard Express).
Here's Fran carving the snow...
...and showing the most popular snowboard position:
When you're learning to snowboard you spend a lot time on your bum. It takes time figuring out how to stay up and moving with both your feet fastened to a 3 foot board. I really took a beating the first day. I was in pain for at least a week after. By the end of the second day, though, I had mastered the basics and was ready to move up to more complicated maneuvers. That's better than I did while learning skiiing!
Check out the Mammoth Website:
http://www.mammothmountain.com/
The Flash interactive trail map is really useful. No need to print out the map-- they're available everywhere, even at the ski lifts. It's also fun to watch the web cams.
