Christmas Cruising at Mammoth

This year we headed to Mammoth Mountain in the eastern Sierra for a snowy Christmas with Mike, Ingrid, and Stefan. Turns out it’s only a hour flight from SF, instead of a six or seven hour drive. So if the weather lets you in, it’s definitely an option to consider. We got lucky and arrived without issue.

Main takeaway: the mountain is amazing. Huge vertical, great terrain. Here’s the frontside and backside. Our favorite areas were Chair 22, Chair 23, and the Panorama Gondola. We even found some powder 4 days post-storm off of Chair 14 in the Hemlocks area. Apparently there are some folks at Mammoth who like a bit of fun as well – riding up Chair 23, we found a Hulk action figure hanging out on a large rock formation just next to the lift!  Mammoth also has a nordic ski and snowshoe center, which we happened to be staying right next to. So we took a couple hours before our return plane flight to do a lap through the trail system, visiting Panorama Dome for a huge (panoramic!) view to finish off the trip.

Fun facts:

• Looking back at Ritter and Banner (the two prominent, pointy mountains in some of the photos), you see the terrain that we hiked through when we visited Ediza Lake this past September!
• This is our second Christmas out of town spent with Mike and Ingrid! Last time was in the lovely little town of Te Anau in NZ, where “Christmas” meant Santa in board shorts, bbqing in the sunshine with a beer in hand, and water skiing on the lake. We were happy to return to a more “traditional american” type of holiday.  : )  It was also super fun to get to hang out with Mike, Ingrid, and Stefan for a few days. The cabin we stayed in was TV-less, which lent itself to lots of reading and great conversations.
• Looking east from high up on the mountain, you can see all the way to Nevada – check out the photos below where you see a long valley (the Long Valley Caldera) and then a wall of white mountains. The left most of that chain is Boundary Peak, which is just across the border, over 40 miles away. (I added a map of the area, because it’s fun to visualize!)