Check out this new Corona commercial, partially filmed at Mammoth Mountain! The close-up shot near the beautiful house is right above Eagle Lodge on the slope under Chair 15. The commercial then cuts to a fantastic panorama view of the Minarets, likely filmed near the top of Chair 23 – hard to tell with the ridge to the left though. The house is photoshopped in – would be an epic spot to build a place though if you had a bazillion dollars!

Super cool to see commercials shot locally. Go Mammoth!

The clock is ticking for the opening of the season, just nine days to go! Unfortunately there is not really any natural snow to report at this time although there is storm in the forecast for Friday so things could change. Temperatures are also meant to drop considerably by the end of the week allowing snow making to resume. Personally I’ve enjoyed the warmer weather in Mammoth especially after such a short summer but I am really getting excited about skiing now. Since I didn’t head back to Mount Hutt this summer this has been my longest break from skiing for a long time.

Here’s a photo showing the snow making to date. What you can see is commonly refered to as the White Ribbon of Death (WROD) meaning man made snow with dirt on either side. Lets hope mother nature gives us a little more of a helping hand soon!

Broadway aka WROD

Another one of the summer projects this year has been to do some earth works for the super pipe. Previously the pipe was built purely out of snow which took a huge amount of snow and groomer hours. Now with the shape made out of dirt it should take less resources and snow to get the pipe up and running.

Bulldozer doing some earth works for the Super Pipe

After some unseasonably warm temperatures and lots of sun for October the temperature has dropped in the last few days allowing snow making to begin. The mountain also received a light dusting of snow overnight to help kick things off. Mammoth is expected to open on November 10th and according to operations staff is on track for that. I remember last year that it dumped on queue just before opening making for an excellent start to the season, fingers crossed for that again this year!

Snow making by Chair 1

Since the snow we had in early October things have warmed up considerably in Mammoth. Most of the 2 feet of snow that fell has melted off. This has allowed the Mountain to work on some projects ahead of the winter. These projects include installing Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) gates at Chair One and other locations. The gates will allow people to move through the lift lines without having their ticket being physically checked. Hopefully this will mean lift lines move more smoothly. You’ll see in the photo that the gates are suspended off an arm allowing them to be moved for grooming.

RFID gates at Chair 1

The RFID system will also allow guests to purchase passes on line or on their smart phone without having to visit a ticket counter making the days skiing more convenient.

There are a few changes and improvements coming to Mammoth this season.

A new Chair 5!

This is the one I am most excited about. The old Chair 5 is being replaced with a modern high speed quad cutting the ride time in half. The bottom has been realigned to link up with Coyote making things safer and easier in general. It will be interesting to see what impact the new lift will have on traffic around the mountain but it provides a quick option for skiing from Canyon to Main Lodge and avoids the Stump Alley (Chair 2) bottle neck. Purists might argue that chair 5 will get tracked out super quick but it does now anyway. The new Chair 5 will be called the High-Five Express.

Electronic RFID Gates

Electronic RFID gates are being installed at all access points on the mountain. If you have skied in Europe you will be familiar with these but essentially you have an  RFID pass that opens a gate allowing you onto a lift – no more waiting for a liftie to scan your pass. They introduced these at Mt Hutt in New Zealand last year. One great use for them at Mt Hutt was that it tracked your skiing so you could log on to a website and see how much vertical you skied for the day. Unfortunately not all lifts at Mammoth will have the gates so this will not be possible at Mammoth – at least this season. However, you will be able to load up new days on your pass over the Internet.

Purchase of Sledz tube park

Mammoth  Mountain has purchased Sledz Tube Park located halfway up Minaret Rd. I’m not sure what improvements are in store for this season but it will definitely something to keep your eye on for the future. It has been renamed Woolly’s Adventure Summit Tube Park.

New Flights

Mammoth has done a great job to secure additional air service into Mammoth for the winter. You can now fly from Orange County, San Diego as well as San Francisco, San Jose and of course Los Angeles. Flying to Mammoth is a great option as you don’t have to worry about a car and you can be skiing within an hour of landing. The downside is that some flights get cancelled during storms.

Repaint of Terrain Park

The traditional pink features of Mammoth’s terrain park are gone. They have been repainted for some reason.

Different Food?

There is a new company looking after the food at Mammoth. The jury will be out to see if things change with what they offer. I think the food at Mammoth has been ok but there is always room for improvement. Hopefully they won’t get rid of the cheese pizza!

On a food note there is a new restaurant opening up in town next to Rafters. The Red Lantern will be open in time for winter offering  fine Chinese dining. I love Chinese food so look forward to chowing down on some soon.

Unseasonably warm temps after the snow storm are eating away at the white stuff on the mountain. However, long-time Mammoth local and Kittredge Sports owner Tom Cage – who correctly predicted the early October storm back in July – has his bets placed on the mountain being open at the end of October. We’ll see!

Mammoth Mountain Main Lodge

This is the view from the Mammoth Mountain Inn. It’s warm and sunny, but we’ve still got a bit of snow!

Mammoth Mountain Inn View

The air is getting colder and the first snow has fallen, so it’s the time of year when I start thinking about a few ideas to get into skiing shape for the upcoming season. There are already quite a few good sites on the internet with plenty of exercises that you can do so I wanted to give a little bit more background information on what areas to focus on rather than specific exercises.

I’m not a fitness expert but I do know that getting into shape for winter will definitely help your skiing. If you are going to do a preseason training program there are three areas you should focus on. Remember to pick exercises that promote balance and coordination; these two attributes are important elements in skiing.

Being Active
First, being generally fit is a good idea. If you haven’t been active recently you can’t expect to excel at skiing right off the bat. Cardio is a great place to start – running, biking, skipping rope and swimming will be beneficial. The nature of skiing means you are in the mountains at high elevations, so any activity is harder on the lungs. I can remember moving into my first place in Mammoth Lakes and getting puffed carrying stuff up the stairs; the town is at 8000 feet so that was to be expected!

You also use muscles and energy skiing, especially when you are starting out.  Someone once said to me in a class they couldn’t believe how much ‘work’ they were doing, wasn’t skiing a gravity sport?  The better you get the more efficient you get but also the more challenges you can face, for example, if you are not breathing hard after doing a long bump run then you are doing something wrong!

Suggested exercises: Running, biking, swimming, skipping rope or anything else that you enjoy doing that gets the heart rate going.

Your Legs
Second, your legs get a pretty good workout when skiing, so pick some exercises that help strengthen them. In day-to-day life we take it for granted that we use our legs a lot – we walk around on them and they hold us up when standing – simple stuff. When it comes to skiing we use our legs even more as they act as shock absorbers and we use them to turn the skis. It is those two movements that your exercises should focus on.

First, try to work the quads and hamstrings. Here you probably want to go for more endurance than pure grunt so avoid using heavy weights.

Next, pick exercises that aid the twisting movement of your legs when skiing. When people say “I used muscles skiing that I didn’t know I had” I think they are most likely referring to the inner thigh and hip flexors. These muscles help your thigh bone (femur) rotate in your hip socket which turns your skis to where you want to go.

Once adept at certain exercises you could modify them to promote balance. For example, try some of the exercises on one leg!

Suggested exercises: Single Leg Hip Flexion, Lunges, Ski Jumps, Stretches, Squats, and Inner Thigh Squeeze

Your Core
Third, as you progress in skiing your core becomes more and more important. You have mastered the easy smooth slopes and so head off-piste into the bumps or powder. Suddenly your balance and your stance is challenged; core strength will help you out in this area. Working on your core will also help your back out by having strong muscles around it to support it. Also, as I explained earlier, we use our legs to turn the skis and so having a strong stable core will help us achieve this.

Suggested Exercises: The Plank and Back Extension.

Finally, one last exercise you might want to think about is yoga. To be honest I’ve only been to one yoga session and it was hard but fun. I have a lot of friends that love yoga and rave about its benefits for skiing. Yoga helps your flexibility which will make you less injury prone. Yoga also promotes controlled breathing which I feel has applications in skiing for getting into a rhythm.

To conclude, there are lots of benefits in doing some preseason training:

• You will be less likely to injure yourself.
• You will be able to ski longer, getting the most out of your day.
• Your skiing will improve and then you will have more fun!

I hope this article gives you a few ideas for your preseason training. All the recommended exercises can be done in the comfort of your own home. For information about specific ski training equipment visit a post I wrote last year here. Good luck with your preseason training!