Memorial Day Weekend at Mammoth: Day 1

Memorial Day Weekend at Mammoth

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Memorial Day weekend at Mammoth!

Yes, you read that correctly. End of May at Mammoth... they still have 10 to 16 feet of snow for their base. At the end of May. Fresh snow fell this weekend. Which meant a nice fresh surface and conditions just like the middle of March.

Absolutely incredible. It snowed and blew ice and had wind Saturday afternoon, snowed in the evening and at night, but that just meant fresh snow for the following day so we weren't complaining. Insane. Not too many lifts were open due to the wind, but it's spring skiing so you make do, and with all this snow... drooooool.

Brunch on the way up was at Tom's Place, a few miles south of Mammoth, 'cause we'd never stopped there and were actually looking for a BBQ place. Food was classic 1920s, 1950s, whatever era diner out in the wilderness. We found the BBQ place 25 miles north of Mammoth at Lee Vining for dinner-- but they were still closed for the winter (!). Given that Route 120 through Yosemite is still closed due to snow, that was disappointing but almost made sense!

Dinner ended up being at the only other place in Lee Vining, a diner called Nicely's. Food was 1950s era diner but cheap enough, and it turns out they have a 1950s era bar in the back, down to the vinyl, the stuffed deer head, the jukebox, darts, and pool table. Highly random and kind of awesome. (but no, not worth the drive up there...)