Mammoth, Presidents' Day 2008
The annual President's Day Weekend ski/snowboard trip gets two new twists this year-- a majority of skiers (6 to 3) and the fact that almost everyone on the trip is new this year.
Michael and I loaded up most of the gear and were in Mammoth by 11:30am on Friday (~4:45 to drive up). Stopped by Good Life Cafe for brunch, then planned to do a half day on the slopes. However, we'd both been pulling long hours at work and Michael was getting over being sick.... so after getting the condo and unloading, we decided to veg and run errands, such as picking up everyone's lift tickets, instead of spending 4 hours on the slopes.
Alan, Carley, Betsy, and David left about 12:30pm or 1pm and arrived about 6ish if memory serves-- in time for us to wander over to the brewery above Whiskey Creek for food and beer. Sophia, Dan, Shen, and Stanley didn't leave til 3:30pm and hence didn't get in til late... but they stopped off to grab coffee, a toothbrush for Carley, and other supplies on the way up.
David and Betsy made pancakes (plain, chocolate chip, and with strawberries/bananas for toppings) the next morning, then 9 of us ran off to the slopes! (David did cross-country skiing) Rode fairly well with Michael, Alan, and Dan most of the day, doing Cornice Bowl a bunch of times, Scotty's, The Acts, and making it all the way from Canyon to McCoy Station to Chair 14. Compared to last year's low-snow-narrow-holy-crap-I'm-scared-icefest, Cornice was very enjoyable this time around. Even did a surprise meet up with Dave, Alan's brother, towards the end of the day, after Michael met up with some of his friends and we parted ways. I think Alan got lost once-- he skiied right past the bottom of the lifts we were supposed to meet at and ended up at the bottom.
Struggled across the mountain with Dave to head back to Canyon Lodge. FWIW, if you're on a beginner pass, trying to traverse across Mammoth is a royal pain. Alan and I then ran up and down Canyon Express a few times to finish the day, hitting The Acts, Downhill, and a few others. Nice way to end the day, even if those runs are awfully short.
Sophia, Shen, and I checked out some condos for sale down the block at the Westin ($680k for a hotel room. No thanks.) instead of hitting the hot tub. Dan made some awesome pasta for dinner and a-whole-mess-of-people-who-had-never-seen-the-new-Transformers movie fixed that deficiency. It's better with a big TV and nice sound system, but this made do just fine. =D
Alan did breakfast burritos the next morning (note: hashbrowns take forever... not the best meal to get-going-in-a-hurry, even if it is yummy), more sandwiches were made by our helpful sandwich makers (even if we did run low on non-moldy-bread...) then more skiing and snowboarding for everyone.
Due to some morning SNAFUs on the part of people who shall remain anonymous, we ended up meeting up at Canyon Lodge in the morning. Alan, Dan, Michael, and I ran over to Eagle Lodge, got bored of the crowds, then started running laps up Chair 22, via Quicksilver and Redwing/Redtail, then up and down Chair 5 via Goldhill/Solitude. Did Spook a few times then through the Acts and Downhill/Slideshow/Avalanche for fun. Met up with (most of) the rest of the group and headed over to McCoy Station, then down to Main Lodge for bathroom breaks and lunch. Just for good measure, we lost Alan again and had to run laps for a while-- it worked out though, as we were able to meet up with everyone else at the top of Chair 22 and head over to Main Lodge as a group.
Alan met up with his brother again, while Shen, Dan, and I ended up separated from everyone else, found a nice spot to sit outside, and then Shen refused to move again til after lunch. =P Carley, Shen, and Sophia did look a little beat-- cutting sideways across East Bowl/Center Bowl looked like it was a bit much to handle so late in the weekend for them.
Eventually we collected Sophia, but by then, Dan and I headed back up via Panorama Gondola to meet up with more people at Chair 14. What had been a beautiful morning of swish swish swish under our skis turned into a serious pain in the *ss coming down Upper Road Runner. The narrow trail crammed with people left no room to manuver unless you liked falling off the edge or onto the rocks, and snow was melting and refreezing again as the 65F (!) high down below all weekend dipped back into the 30s at the top.
Alan made it to the backside later, we did a bunch of runs and lost Dan in the process, then I made the mistake (or perhaps saved myself a lot of effort and pain?) of not going down Scotty's again and instead took Road Runner back, then cut down Stump Alley, then down Spook and The Acts back to Canyon Lodge. Awesome day aside from the last two hours where my legs decided they'd been used enough...
Michael did pasta for dinner-- more tasty pasta, more carbs, but when you're skiing all day that's exactly what you need!-- and then people sorta died. Shen, Dan, and I wandered around The Village, had a crepe and cider and hot chocolate, while Alan met up with his brother again. We played a Japanese variation of Big 2/Thirteen while breaking out the vodka, then Mafia and had some incredible beating-the-odds luck: I was mafia twice in a row, and people chose to kill Dan three times. What should have been a reasonable bedtime turned into watching Castaway til something like 2am.
Taiwanese breakfast the next morning courtesy of Sophia, then we loaded up and got out reasonably early (for us). Well, after losing Carley down at the recycling bins. Much like people getitng lost on the slopes or Alan running off to meet up with his brother, it's just random crap that just seemed to keep happening on this trip,
Stopped by Manzanar on the way back and did the driving tour, then met up for lunch at the world's slowest Carls Jr. in California. Michael and I had finished our food before the next set of people got theirs. o_0 Everyone headed home from that point-- Michael and I were getting impatient, and Michael wanted to get home before he turned back into a pumpkin or something. =P
Oh, yes... one major plus from having 6 skiers and only three snowboarders, plus (generally) avoiding flat parts: I didn't have to do very much towing. Woohoo!
Friday:
in Mammoth! |
mmm french toast |
p1440290.jpg |
gas = ouch |
want to buy a plane? |
inside the condo |
p1440302.jpg |
balcony |
$1264 of lift tix |
dinner! |
p1440320.jpg |
steak sandwich |
Alan |
Betsy |
Carley |
Shen |
Saturday:
Sunday:
Monday: