Skiing

 
For an extra $200 to the IKON base for next year you get 5 days at Jackson, Sun Valley, Aspen/Snowmass and Snowbasin (which is a very underrated hill). Also get 5 days at Alta and Deer Valley which is getting dropped from base pass.

If you haven't done so check out the Kings and Queens Corbets videos on youtube...insanity.
 
That qualifies as "Jerry of the Day" (or Jerrys) which is skiing's equivalent of surfing's "Kook of the Day". Google "Jerry of the Day" and you'll find some good stuff.

I was sitting at the bottom of Scotty's at Mammoth feeling good about getting all the way down without falling or stopping when I saw a young lady fall near the top. Her rear-entry boots popped open and released from her foot. Since the boot was still firmly in the bindings, the brakes did not deploy and the ski made an almost-straight run down the hill. People were shouting warnings and heading out of the way except for one ski patroller who intercepted it and knocked it over before it got to my level. Lots of cheering and laughter at that point, and I swear she shouted "Can you bring it up to me?"
 
I was sitting at the bottom of Scotty's at Mammoth feeling good about getting all the way down without falling or stopping when I saw a young lady fall near the top. Her rear-entry boots popped open and released from her foot. Since the boot was still firmly in the bindings, the brakes did not deploy and the ski made an almost-straight run down the hill. People were shouting warnings and heading out of the way except for one ski patroller who intercepted it and knocked it over before it got to my level. Lots of cheering and laughter at that point, and I swear she shouted "Can you bring it up to me?"
My favorite are those people who must have just said "F it" and come stumbling down the hill with ski and poles in arms all askew. I skied Snow Summit for the first time in nearly 40 years a couple weeks ago and saw a few of those.
 
Got lucky and hit Mammoth on Friday with 15' of new snow. Opened top around noon. Crazy how fast it got tracked out but if you hunted you could find some fresh. Opened Dave's on Saturday, followed Plake down the hill. Quads were burning by Saturday. The powder was surprisingly not that heavy for late spring storm. Not Utah light but no Sierra Cement.
 
Got lucky and hit Mammoth on Friday with 15' of new snow. Opened top around noon. Crazy how fast it got tracked out but if you hunted you could find some fresh. Opened Dave's on Saturday, followed Plake down the hill. Quads were burning by Saturday. The powder was surprisingly not that heavy for late spring storm. Not Utah light but no Sierra Cement.

"Surprisingly not that heavy" is about the best that can be said for Mammoth versions of powder. In the 40+ years I skied at Mammoth, I can only remember 2 days that I would call "powder" in the Utah sense of the word.
 
Got lucky and hit Mammoth on Friday with 15' of new snow. Opened top around noon. Crazy how fast it got tracked out but if you hunted you could find some fresh. Opened Dave's on Saturday, followed Plake down the hill. Quads were burning by Saturday. The powder was surprisingly not that heavy for late spring storm. Not Utah light but no Sierra Cement.
Ummm... "followed Plake down the hill"
Dude! I hope you shot some pics of that.
 
I stumbled across a pair of old wool ski pants in my folks ski stuff, I think they were my grandfather's. He passed in the 70's. Wonder what year this lift ticket is from. Figured Espola would have the best chance of knowing. Mammoth opened in '53. I'm guessing late 50's early 60's.

Resized_20220424_172916001.jpeg
 
I stumbled across a pair of old wool ski pants in my folks ski stuff, I think they were my grandfather's. He passed in the 70's. Wonder what year this lift ticket is from. Figured Espola would have the best chance of knowing. Mammoth opened in '53. I'm guessing late 50's early 60's.

View attachment 13396

When I started skiing there (November of '70) they had punch tickets like that. One punch hole negated any chance of a refund; the rest were just a ritual the lifties went through to prove that they were doing their jobs of checking to see that you had a ticket. I remember there was a date stamped on them as well, but I didn't save any that old. Sometimes on the upper lifts (like 3 and 5) they didn't bother to check and punch, apparently operating under the theory that if you got there you must have had a ticket.
 
I stumbled across a pair of old wool ski pants in my folks ski stuff, I think they were my grandfather's. He passed in the 70's. Wonder what year this lift ticket is from. Figured Espola would have the best chance of knowing. Mammoth opened in '53. I'm guessing late 50's early 60's.

View attachment 13396
Dude..you are so lucky to have that. If you ever wanted to sell it let me kmow. My media room is filled with wooden skis, poles., leather boots and snow shoes. I have an older poster of Mammoth framed and a pair of wooden skis around it.

I actually still have my black "stretch " pants that I wore back in the day. They still fit so I wore them at Summit this year.

I think the first time I skied Mammoth it was around $14 and recall when it went up to $25 and I thought I was priced out. Had to save my birthday money to ski.

Best powder for me was when we went up for Thanksgiving. The third day there it dumped and my wife knew I wanted to hit up Grizzly, Viva, Shafter and the Ava Chutes so she let me play till noon then we regrouped with the kids.

A number of years ago we spread my bro-in-laws ashes on top of Lincolns.
 
When I started skiing there (November of '70) they had punch tickets like that. One punch hole negated any chance of a refund; the rest were just a ritual the lifties went through to prove that they were doing their jobs of checking to see that you had a ticket. I remember there was a date stamped on them as well, but I didn't save any that old. Sometimes on the upper lifts (like 3 and 5) they didn't bother to check and punch, apparently operating under the theory that if you got there you must have had a ticket.
Yep, my first was probably 1973-74. We tried to get our ticket punched every ride so we could count them at the end of the day. Bragging rights when we were kids.

Dude..you are so lucky to have that. If you ever wanted to sell it let me kmow. My media room is filled with wooden skis, poles., leather boots and snow shoes. I have an older poster of Mammoth framed and a pair of wooden skis around it.

I actually still have my black "stretch " pants that I wore back in the day. They still fit so I wore them at Summit this year.

I think the first time I skied Mammoth it was around $14 and recall when it went up to $25 and I thought I was priced out. Had to save my birthday money to ski.

Best powder for me was when we went up for Thanksgiving. The third day there it dumped and my wife knew I wanted to hit up Grizzly, Viva, Shafter and the Ava Chutes so she let me play till noon then we regrouped with the kids.

A number of years ago we spread my bro-in-laws ashes on top of Lincolns.
I'll probably hold on to it as keepsake. I should get it framed. Wished I had kept some of my dad's old stuff like the first Head fiberglass skis.

I'm actually just getting reacquainted with Mammoth. Grew up with family and HS Ski Club trips to Mammoth. Other than one July 3 in 2017 I hadn't skied Mammoth since '91. I don't recall the price when I was a young kid, but in high school it was $20.
 
Yep, my first was probably 1973-74. We tried to get our ticket punched every ride so we could count them at the end of the day. Bragging rights when we were kids.


I'll probably hold on to it as keepsake. I should get it framed. Wished I had kept some of my dad's old stuff like the first Head fiberglass skis.

I'm actually just getting reacquainted with Mammoth. Grew up with family and HS Ski Club trips to Mammoth. Other than one July 3 in 2017 I hadn't skied Mammoth since '91. I don't recall the price when I was a young kid, but in high school it was $20.

I tried to pile on the vertical. I hit over 40,000 one weekday skiing alone with only a short break early afternoon for lunch. Somewhere in my memory box I have the trail map that I kept track on that day.
 
Yep, my first was probably 1973-74. We tried to get our ticket punched every ride so we could count them at the end of the day. Bragging rights when we were kids.


I'll probably hold on to it as keepsake. I should get it framed. Wished I had kept some of my dad's old stuff like the first Head fiberglass skis.

I'm actually just getting reacquainted with Mammoth. Grew up with family and HS Ski Club trips to Mammoth. Other than one July 3 in 2017 I hadn't skied Mammoth since '91. I don't recall the price when I was a young kid, but in high school it was $20.
Definitely frame it. Now you hot me looking gor one on ebay.

I do have another unique piece about Mammoth. Through my wife I was able to get a set of plans for the development at Main Lodge. All I can say is wow. I'll be printing them out and hanging up a few of the renders.
 
" A San Francisco resident..." -- "...Ellery Dolan Curtis..." -- "...the skier ..." -- "...their..." -- '...their..."

The body must have been pretty badly mangled if they couldn't tell its gender.

 
" A San Francisco resident..." -- "...Ellery Dolan Curtis..." -- "...the skier ..." -- "...their..." -- '...their..."

The body must have been pretty badly mangled if they couldn't tell its gender.

So sad. I took a father/son ski trip to Mammoth earlier this week, A 14 year old crashed hard on a big jump. The boys were the first to the scene and the boy was out cold, blood foaming out of his mouth and taking large labored breaths. They called ski patrol and stayed for about 10 minutes. The boy never regained consciousness while they were there. I haven't seen any reports of injuries or deaths, so I'm hopeful that the kid will be OK.
 
Don't need Scotchgard -- the best impact on outdoor gear by the snowboard fashion revolution is clothing you can wear all day without getting wet.

My "fun factor" is the shuttle bus driver asking me "How old are those things?" about my 1997 208 cm Rossignols.

As for the new technology -- a ski instructor sharing a chair with me at Mammoth, after commenting on my ancient gear, said that some skiers with the new tech equipment ski in a way that makes them look like a dog taking a crap.
Keep those 210s forever!

Grew up skiing + worked at several resorts in different capacities including Ski Patrol.

To this day I can't stand the short fat skis. I use them today because I don't want to look like the weirdo on longer skis than everyone else but they just suck. A couple of years ago I demod some 170 GS Volkls and they were ok but the entire time I just wished they were longer. They were stiff and incredibly fast but couldn't turn quickly + they kept trying to force me into sweeping arcing turns. Which I suppose is the goal of GS skis.

When I was younger I liked to take GS skis in bumps and run through the ruts at full speed. This is something you just can't do on fat skis. It's hard to explain to someone that's never tried really nice, longer fat skis.

Lange boots and long skis for the win!
 
So sad. I took a father/son ski trip to Mammoth earlier this week, A 14 year old crashed hard on a big jump. The boys were the first to the scene and the boy was out cold, blood foaming out of his mouth and taking large labored breaths. They called ski patrol and stayed for about 10 minutes. The boy never regained consciousness while they were there. I haven't seen any reports of injuries or deaths, so I'm hopeful that the kid will be OK.
When I was working as a Patroler we had 3 situations like that. Incredibly sad. I was on scene with one and we knew by looking at him (40s male) that it was over. Side of his face was concave from hitting a tree.

Another weird one was a lift op chose to take one last run by himself at the end of the day. On the way down he fell + hit a tree. We think he knocked himself out and froze to death. He was found the next morning when we were opening runs.
 
Back
Top