Bluebird skies, cars parked past Chair 2, hot cocoa, Woolly, music… and amazing snow! Epic opening day! More photos to come, and if you happen to be up, champagne toast on the Tusk’s sundeck at 11am!

That’s me, geared up and ready to go!

Tomorrow this time the mountain will be open! After a bit more snow fell last night, plus the storm Sunday and almost non-stop snowmaking, the coverage is incredible. Chairs 1, 3, 6, 11 and lower and upper Gondi will be running. Dust off your skis and boards, it’s going to be a great day!

Here’s some updated pictures as promised of the snow at Mammoth. It looks really good especially when compared with last week. As I drove up the hill they were packing the snow down at Stump Alley (Chair 2) with groomers so that may open for the weekend. They were also bombing cornice bowl so I’ll start a rumor that the Gondola will open!

Main Lodge

Broadway

Chair 1

I’ve added more pre-season pictures in my photo gallery. Two days to go to opening day, get your skis and snowboards ready!

There were some familiar sights and sounds around Mammoth today after we got a few inches of snow in the town and a foot or so up the Mountain. From last week where it felt like summer I now feel it’s definately winter. Mammoth opens on Thursday and the word on the street is that chairs 3, 6 and 11 in addition to 1 will be open. I’m excited to have chair 11 open in particular as that is the bread and butter lift for ski school. Bring it on!

I apologise for the lack of photos today, I was preoccupied with sitting my Californian drivers test.

This is the first post in a series I am going to write called Kids and Skiing 101. Taking your children skiing can be daunting, especially for the first time, but it can also be very rewarding. Skiing should be fun for the whole family so hopefully if you take your children skiing you will find this series of posts helpful.

When to Start?

This is an age-old question (excuse the pun) and really depends on the child, but as a general rule of thumb a big three-year-old or four-year-old is the earliest I’d recommend. Most kids younger than that  just don’t have the size, coordination and strength to ski. I have seen people out with two-year-olds just to get them used to snow and the environment which is fine, just don’t expect them to ski downhill.

The main thing is that when you introduce a child to skiing it needs to be fun. For this reason I highly recommend putting children into ski school until they have the basics and can stop and turn by themselves at the least. Mammoth has a morning half day program for three and four-year-olds (3 hours) and full day (6 hours) programs for five years and older.

One consideration for ski school is that it can be the first time children are away from their parents. In general, I like it if parents drop their children off and then make a break for it. This way the parents get to go skiing and 95% of the time an upset child will perk up once they get moving and are distracted by skiing rather than distracted by well intentioned parents!

Another thing to be aware of is the amount of time that your child is capable of going skiing. Obviously it is common sense that the younger they are the shorter the duration should be. For some three-year-olds, three hours skiing is a very long time. When first starting to ski a lot of energy and concentration is required. Once the basics are mastered though it gets easier and so the child can start skiing for longer.

Lastly on the flip side I don’t think there is an age when children, or adults for that matter, are too old to learn. I learnt to ski when I was sixteen and I’ve taught first timers in their seventies.

Other topics to keep an eye out for that Kids and Skiing 101 will include are; where to go, equipment, ski school and lots of cool stuff.

Good luck and have fun!

Just drove back from Reno to Mammoth tonight in a bit of a snow storm. There is about an inch outside my house and it is snowing reasonably heavy. Will post a further update tomorrow, exciting!

Broadway is groomed and ready for opening day by the looks of it! Some snow is in the forecast this weekend so hopefully more terrain will be ready for November 11. Bring it on.

Over the last few weeks I’ve (with the help of my wife and friends) been putting the finishing touches to our wood stack for the winter. A $26 permit from the Forest Service allows you to collect up to 5 cords of wood, more than enough for a winter. The whole process reminded me a bit of my younger days, when some mates and I would collect wood for the family hut (cabin) back in New Zealand. Except then it had to be done with a two man saw, and we used a metal wedge and a mallet to split the wood – no chainsaw or hydraulic splitter back then!

So now I can look at the wood pile with satisfaction knowing that we will be warm this winter. Unfortunately there might not be much use for the wood this week with temperatures in the mid-sixties. With just over a week to official opening day, Mother Nature is not really playing ball. It’s early days yet of course so no need for panic about a lack of snow. But it will be good to put all that wood to good use after a day of skiing once the snow does come.

Most people that pick from my accent that I don’t come from America will ask me where I’m from. Others will ask if I’m Kiwi or Aussie whilst a few are brave enough to guess where I’m from right off the bat. It seems people are reluctant to offend me and those that guess I’m from Australia are quick to apologise. So what is it between Aussies and Kiwis and our relationship?

I think of Aussies as my cousins. In fact, I have some Australian cousins and my brother and his family live in Sydney. The two countries are close with economic ties too, with Australians able to live and work in New Zealand and vice versa. We have fought and died alongside each other in world wars in places like Gallipoli, Turkey.

But when it comes to sport the friendly relationship sours somewhat. Unfortunately I have to report that Australia beat the mighty All Blacks in rugby last night, ‘stealing’ the game with a last minute try to win 26-24. This ended the 10-game winning streak of the All Blacks versus Australia running back a couple of years. It also ends the All Blacks 15-game winning streak against all teams. However, if there is one incident in sport between Australia and New Zealand that sums up our relationship it is the under arm incident in 1981.

Kiwis like myself love to go on about this moment in sport almost 30 years ago to prove a point, that Aussies sometimes are very good at sport but sometimes the words ‘unsporting’, ‘arrogant’ and ‘cocky’ are used to describe their teams.

Here’s a video of the incident. For countries that don’t play cricket the sport is a little unusual. But watch the clip, my favourite part is when Brian McKechnie throws his bat away in disgust. You have got to love the old uniforms too.

In a rematch played years later this happened:

The piece of sporting equipment used by the batsman is called a box. It is used to protect the family jewels from the cricket ball which can be bowled as fast as 150km/hour (90 miles/hour).

Then what do Australians think of New Zealanders? I expect that they think of us as their poor relatives and a country where sheep outnumber people 15-1. I found this clip on you tube that I thought was quite funny. 100% pure NZ refers to a marketing campaign to attract tourists to New Zealand. We do actually have an army and navy although it amounts to about 6000 soldiers and our air force has about 6 helicopters and two transport planes!

So in truth it comes down to a friendly rivalry. I don’t mind when I’m called Australian (when I’m overseas that is). I have friends and family in Australia, just they had better not win the rugby world cup next year!

Yippee, it’s always so fun to wake up to snow on the ground! Mother Nature added some white stuff last night, and the guns are going again today.

Chair Two