Mammoth Mountain has been open for 6 days now and the snow is holding up pretty well. It’s been too warm the last couple of nights to make snow and I’d have to say conditions are rather spring-like with beautifully warm temps during the day. I took some photos today of different parts of the mountain to give you an idea of what conditions are like.

Beginner Terrain
There is some really good beginner terrain available at present. The snow is firm to begin with but softening up during the morning, there is great coverage on the two main runs.

Riding Discovery Chair

Sesame Street West

Sesame Street

Intermediate Terrain
Broadway is in really good nick and there has been some great snow off the back of chair three down Saddle Bowl. Forest Trail and Mambo are both open and offer good skiing too. Stump Alley is closed at present as is chair 10 but one more dump of snow will get things going.

Broadway from the Gondola

Broadway

Just watch out for racers on the weekend ripping down Broadway.

Advanced and Expert
Mammoth can rightly claim to have top to bottom skiing at Main Lodge. Cornice looked pretty nasty but actually has reasonable snow.  There is the odd rock so be careful.

Looking down Cornice

Looking up at Cornice

However, Cornice really is your only option of skiing down the from the Top. It is for experts only, especially in it’s current condition. For intermediates you can ride the Gondola for the view but leave your skis behind!

Climax and other black runs off the top need a lot more snow before I’d look at skiing them.

Climax

Fascination and Far West are skiing pretty good but are on the firm side. They offer some good terrain to hone your short turns or skids depending on how you ski.

Fascination and Far West

Skiing off the groomed runs is a little sketchy with variable conditions including sheet ice and rocks. However there are a few good lines to be skied at mid mountain level. The Face of 3 has some fun bumps with chalky snow. Just watch out for bits if of ice and some rocks. Still worth a look.

Face of 3

The off piste on the lower slopes tends to be hold on for life rutted crud.

There are some jumps and rails set up in a Terrain Park beside Broadway to keep park rats entertained.

Terrain Park

So that’s a run down on conditions at the moment and they are likely to stay fairly consistent through to Friday. A storm is in the forecast for the weekend. Fingers crossed we get a bucket load of snow, there is a good base in general so one big dump and Mammoth will be going off. I’ve put these photos and others I took today in my photo album, check them out..

If you are not familar with the runs at Mammoth you can check out this trail map.