Mammoth: January 2025: Day 5: Skiing

Mammoth

Jan 2025: Day 5: Skiing

Grab-and-go breakfast at the Westin, 3 items per person, up to 6 items total.

Bacon, egg, cheese, and croissant breakfast sandwich.

Did not realize there were 2 eggs in them til now.

Waiting to go up Stump Alley Express.

Marines doing ski training from the USMC Mountain Warfare Training Center in nearby Bridgeport.

Lockheed C-130J passes nearby, 6-bladed propellor just discernible at this distance.

View from the bottom of Main Lodge.

Shiny new Broadway Express, aka chair 1.

Early lunch at Main Lodge, chili and a fat donut.

Donut is indeed massive.

Meetings ran so long today I had a second lunch. Everything was pretty good, if you don't mind ski resort pricing.

Panorama gondola as viewed from Main Lodge.

Madison's first time on skis.

Ski instructor and two other guests helped him up.

Using a balloon to keep legs in right position. Brilliant.

Madison's first day on skis.

Lan Lan and Chris discussing the nuances of goggles.

L to R: Lan Lan, Chris, Siva, Brian.

Chris at the top of Cornice.

Watched this snowboarder change into a wedding dress.

Chris has been talking about making corned beef hash for over a year.

Lan Lan decided we needed more veggies than just Mike's deep fried brussel sprouts.

Chris went with an extra large batch of cookies.

Cookie time.

More of the day's skiing videos.

Mike did his usual, getting up early to raid the grab-and-go breakfast that the Westin offers, then it was off to the slopes. As was true the past few days, we shared the mountain with a bunch of USMC personnel learning to ski from their nearby mountain warfare center in Bridgeport, plus we had a low-flying C-130J in the morning as an added bonus.

Let the rest of the group have fun as I went back to work over lunch, stopping a bit early to hit the cafeteria at Main Lodge before sitting down to meetings. Was just a hair early for lunch, so had a bowl of chili and one of the massive donuts I saw earlier (yum!). Meetings ended up running so long that Siva and Austin eventually joined me as they took a break for lunch, and with the cafeteria fully open, I took the opportunity for a slice of pizza as well. Turns out the cafeteria food is actually not bad, although it is most definitely priced accordingly for a ski resort.

Turns out today was Madison's very first day on skis, which lead to much amusement-- for a very, very beginner, he's actually pretty good, with more control than expected, but also not much stopping ability (very expected). Ditched the beginners near the end of the day and hit Cornice with Chris-- which turned out to be so smooth we did it twice before calling it a day.

After years of talking about it, I am still not quite sure what the big deal is about corned beef hash, even in the Filipino version. Corned beef in any form is still not bad tho, so was a good time hanging out one last night with the full group, especially as we got to review Madison's first day on skis.