Mammoth: January 2024 - the Continuum

Mammoth

January 2024

Chris grilled galbi and shishito peppers for dinner #1.

Shrimp, too.

Gotta love fresh snow.

Canyon Express (Chair 16) is brand new.

So fancy.

Going up Canyon Express.

Selife time. Not a good angle.

Chris' brand new skis took a core shot. Ouch. :(

Siva's helmet for the day.

Celebrating the fresh snow.

Siva stuck on the ski back trail.

Some kind passers-by helped him.

Chris made sinigang (Filipino sour soup) for dinner #2.

Lucas clamoring for attention from his dad.

Proud owner of a Burton Family Tree Hometown Hero 152 snowboard.

Siva's fancy new Burton Step On bindings.

Shiny new Canyon Express (Chair 16).

Lower Dry Creek full of fresh powder.

Looking downhill. There was surprise dip further down you had to keep your speed up for.

Mike and Chris at the top of Cornice Bowl.

Gondola operator built a snowman.

Chris making adobo for dinner #3.

Chris' famous adobo.

Lucas' pancakes for breakfast at the Westin on day 4.

French toast is huge.

All-American breakfast.

Spinach omelete is huge.

Taking Lucas up Schoolyard Express (Chair 17).

Lucas going down the mountain.

Thanks for the broken dishwasher, previous guests at the Westin Monache.

Chris looks very excited.

Dinnertime.

I don't know how Chris sleeps with all the lights on.

Lucas speeding down the last day of the trip.

Getting shots from the front is tough, Lucas is too fast now.

Needs to work on those turns.

Door handle still works but clearly needs repair.

Pulled pork burger, pork ribs, tri-tip, and chili at Copper Top BBQ.

Ribs deserve a close-up.

As does the tri-tip, especially as the final meal of the trip.

Smokers are very busy.

First trip of the 2023-2024 season to Mammoth lucked out with bunch of recent storms the preceding two weeks, and added on two days where it snowed a little more while we were there.

The entire mountain was open, although some areas were still pretty thin. The race course at Main Lodge was not yet open due to inadequate snow, and the upper cut-over from Solitude to the area above Canyon Express (Chair 16) had plenty of rocks at the entrance, although it was technically open and skiable. Lower Dry Creek was in great shape considering how early it was in the season. Every other day of light/medium snowfall meant two bluebird days in-between, which was generally very exciting for everyone-- enough snow fell that the groomers couldn't keep up, and that left Cornice an ungroomed but very soft and fun run all the way down on day 3 of the trip.

Madison, Siva, and their friends' trip overlapped with ours as well, although the imperfect overlap meant we only caught Siva on the mountain. Turns out the snowboard Siva rented this trip totally sucked, but he dug through the previous trip's rental info and was able to purchase the exact same board he rented (and liked!) the last time. Was a huge score as his one attempt down the ski back trail on the rented board was, shall we say, more unpleasant than expected, even by snowboarder standards (aka: not pleasant!).

With Chris finally picking up an Ikon Pass, he decided to come up as well. And being Chris (and Lan Lan being Lan Lan), he ended up doing all the cooking. Galbi and grilled shrimp the first night, sinigang (Filipino sour soup) with salmon and shrimp the second night, chicken adobo the third night, and so many leftovers the fourth night. All delicious-- Lan Lan and Mike said it was like having a personal chef. Almost made the final meal of the trip, on the road home at Copper Top BBQ, almost anti-climactic. Copper Top BBQ was excellent on this visit with pork ribs that were spot-on and mostly superb tri-tip, easily some of the best in California when they're having a good day.

Sadly as well as the trip went overall, including Lucas showing increasing amounts of skill, there were a few hiccups. Will have to see if they get resolved the next trip, especially with management at Alterra increasingly looking like a bunch of money-grubbing ***holes...