Mammoth: February 2026: Days 5 and 6

Mammoth

Feb 2026: Days 5 and 6

Enjoying the fresh snow.

Skiing down Canyon Express.

Pizza for lunch. Pepperoni better than the weird hot honey one earlier.

Overcast.

Not cold, but definitely windy.

Looking down Canyon Express.

From L: Arc'teryx blackberry lager, Ski Kind lager, Hangman's hazy pale, Hop Uphill Hazy UPA, El Capitan West Coast DIPA, Elderberry Sour, Lair of the Bear imperial stout.

Mammoth Brewing's mushroom and sausage flatbread.

Cheesesteak is massive.

Children's menu hot dog.

Fish and chips.

Shrimp were actually good.

Austin, Siva, Lan Lan.

Time to head home.

Hi Boba.

Chris made an appearance.

Seaweed salad at Kura is gross.

Clockwise from top: mackerel, tuna, snow crab, live sweet shrimp, uni.

Uni is okay. Can't expect too much from conveyor belt place.

Botan ebi were quite decent.

Cucumber salad, because veggies.

Beef was ... fine.

Salmon. Not bad.

Spicy tuna jalapeno poppers. Skip these. Not good.

Hotate not bad, but not really flavorful either.

Claimed to be toro, seened more like just tuna.

Conveyor belt with toy delivered.

Hamachi for plate #20.

Done. 20 plates. That's a lot of money to spend at a Kura Sushi.

Yesterday's crazy winds had calmed down to manageable levels today, although visibility more than halfway up the mountain was still rough. Barely even halfway up-- the top of Gold Rush (Chair 10)-- was difficult enough you had to go slow, and Siva managed to lose his way entirely. Broke off from the group to take a quick lesson. Dave Mannetter, supervisor at Mammoth Mountain's ski school, was superb, and did a great job helping refine technique. I find the technique I get at each lesson (which I don't take often enough) seems to evolve as my skills/need/bad habits change, and at least in this case, felt like Dave's instructions were superb.

Caught up with Siva and Austin for lunch at Canyon Lodge, had a solid pepperoni pizza, then more skiing in the afternoon to practice the body control lessons from Dave.

Dinner was at Mammoth Brewing, where we went to down on flatbread pzizas, cheesesteak, shrimp, and a sampler flight. Interestingly I think Mike found the first beers (1-4?) in the flight more to his palate while I enjoyed the latter ones (4-7?) more, although I guess that tracks, given the former were more lagers and the latter more hazy/IPA/sours. Lan Lan had a fish and chips, Lucas had a hot dog, and both those meals included plenty of french fries. (note to Mammoth Brewing: the fish and chips was kind of skimpy on fish)

Hit the slopes the next day to practice some more. Got much faster with Dave's lessons; the day before was lots of cruising a little below 20mph to work on the form, while today with Mike, going down steeper terrain (due to better weather), was able to increase top speed up to 40mph or so. Cruising up to those speeds isn't new, but was able to sustain those speeds much more comfortably.

The drive back to Los Angeles wasn't bad, got a tad long as usual, but was good to see Chris upon our return to Burbank. Parted ways with everyone and ended up at Kura Sushi for dinner, since (surprisingly) there was almost no wait. Seaweed salad was terrible, beef was meh, what they claimed was toro was, uhhhh yeah, but the rest was the usual for Kura-- pretty okay, and the botan ebi was actually quite well priced given you get two per plate.