My California - Mammoth Mountain Storm

derekrichardson (67)adminin SoCal Steemit • 2 years ago

For this weeks Show Us Your California contest by @socalsteemit I end up stuck in the...

Mammoth Mountain Storm!!

Every winter I try to get up to Mammoth Mountain with my mom and my uncle for a week or two of skiing/snowboarding and with all the snow we've been getting this season I was excited to get up there. Unfortunately it turned out to be too much snow! We got up there pre-storm and were able to get out on the mountain the first two days. Day one was cold and really really windy. And the wind caused a lot of the lifts to be closed so only a small portion of the mountain was accessible and eventually all the lifts closed. The final lift closure actually left me and my mom stranded on the wrong part of the mountain and we ended up having to catch a couple of the public transit buses to get back to the condo.

Arriving at the condo

A busy first morning on the mountain

Riding up chair 8

Mom at the top of chair 8

Selfie with my mom and my uncle

Overlooking Canyon Lodge

Riding Canyon chair

Views at the top of Canyon chair

More views from the top of Canyon

In line for the Roller Coaster chair

Riding the Roller Coaster chair

Views from Roller Coaster chair

More views from Roller Coaster chair

Skiing down to The Mill

Views from Gold Rush chair

Watching the weather get worse quickly

Getting blasted with chucks of snow and ice from the high winds at the top of Gold Rush chair

Chair closure

Day 2 started out nice. No wind and even some blue skies. And the storm overnight had dropped a couple inches of fresh powder making the slopes really nice! Without the wind there were more chairs open as well, but unfortunately the nice weather didn't last long and pretty soon the storm had moved back in and started snowing on us. We were able to ski a little past lunch and it ended up being our best day.

Mom ready to start day 2

Blue skies over the Canyon chair

Blue skies over Canyon lodge

Riding up chair 8

Watching the storm move in over the bottom of Gold Rush chair

Getting snowed on at the bottom of chair 1

Selfie in the trees

Off trail in the trees

Digging out the truck to go out for dinner

Pizza at Giovannis... Yes, pineapple DOES go on pizza.

For the next few days the snow never stopped. It just kept falling, and coming down hard, piling up quickly. So we were pretty much stuck inside the condo just hanging out and watching the storm bury everything. Only going outside to dig out the walkway and the trucks. They even had to close down highway 395. Essentially trapping us there for an extra day. Luckily there was a small break in the storm and we were able to get out and get home only one day later than planned.