Beaver Creek

We had a great day skiing at Beaver Creek today. It was my first time at Beaver Creek, and I really liked it. We spent most of the day in arrowhead where the crowds were light and the lift lines short.

I have to say though, as much as I like Colorado, the hassle of flying these days, especially with ski equipment, is just almost not worth the effort.  Mammoth is just so much easier, where we can load up the car and be on the mountain 4.5 hours later.  This year at least, snow has been better in Mammoth.

Vail!

 Vail has always been one of my favorite ski mountains. I particularly like the back bowls and blue sky basin.

Weekday Impromptu Mammoth Trip

That's me

We took off to Mammoth for two days of skiing last week on a whim.  It was great; there was tons of snow, almost no crowds (in two days, we shared a chairlift with other people at most five times), and we got a cheap rate at the Westin Monache, which is our favorite place to stay for a one night trip.  We left at 5:15am Thursday, got to Mammoth by 9:45 and were on the slopes shortly thereafter.  Day 1 was a beautiful bluebird ski day; we went all over the mountain and got our ski legs back.  It was snowing on Day 2, but fortunately wasn't too cold, so we had another great day, totally different, in the fresh powder.  The Westin is so convenient; just across the street from the gondola with overnight ski storage and lockers so that you don't have to lug heavy gear around.  We were able to check in early, and although we weren't able to get late checkout, we still were able to change and shower in the Westin gym before our ride back home.  Looking forward to a great ski season, it's going to be great snow this year!

Whitebark Restaurant at the Westin has decent apres ski specials

Macaroni and cheese with taleggio and truffle oil

Kobe beef cheddar sliders

It's a comfortable and interesting 300 mile drive from LA to Mammoth; well-paved, mostly flat highways and not too much traffic.  The only slowdowns are the various small towns that you pass through, like Mojave, Independence, Lone Pine, Bishop, where the speed limit drops to 25 mph.  We usually make the drive in about 4.5 hours.

Population: 574

Bishop is the last small town before reaching Mammoth, about half hour away.

Getting close

Mammoth!

Top of Mammoth where the gondola drops off

I love weekday skiing, snow is great and no crowds!

Ski Season

Can't wait...Mammoth has a base of 50-94 inches, just insane for early December! I just dropped my skis off for a wax and tune up at Sports Chalet, I'll be ready soon for ski season.

Spring Skiing Fun

The weekend between NYC and Santa Barbara, we drove up to Mammoth for some spring skiing (and snowboarding) with S. and Jon. We had a great time; there is still a ton of snow up in Mammoth (10-14 foot base) with fresh snow earlier in the week. By the time we got there, conditions were varied, with some slushy snow at the base and hardpacked, almost ice, snow in the more challenging areas. Nevertheless, both our new skis (the 09 K2 lotta luvs and 09 k2 apache recons) performed awesomely. We had so much fun going fast through all the various conditions and it seemed like we had the whole mountain to ourselves a lot of the time. The Westin Monache was great again; perfect for an apres-ski hot tub session and ordering dominos pizza for dinner in the suite. It was our third trip to Mammoth this year; can't wait for next season!