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- Thread starter espola
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Avalanche Saturday closed most of Mammoth Mountain from about 10:15 AM. The description given by the MM management was not very helpful, but this picture posted by a skier to Eastern Sierra Forum will be meaningful to those who know the MM layout. The slide apparently started during ski patrol avalanche control work causing the snow at the top of Climax to break and run down Dry Creek all the way to the bottom of Chair 5.
Multi Sport
DA
I don't ever recall Avalanche control while the resort was open, always in the AM before they opened the lifts. Had some friends up there when it happened..View from top to bottom - Climax down Dry Creek - bottom of 5 is just right and below bottom of picture.
They had Climax and the slopes below it roped off, but the snow didn't respect the ropes. I saw the results of a similar out-of-control avy-control effort back in the 80's, when they bombed the Scotty's-Paranoid face during a big wind&snow storm. The lip came off not as powder but in house-sized blocks that gathered together running down St Anton, failed to make the right turn at the bottom of the gully, climbed the slope and knocked over the top tower of the old slow-double Chair 11. The lift was out of commission the rest of the season. We were staying that week in the Mammoth Chalets above and behind MM Inn (still my favorite place ever for a ski week).
Mammoth's first experience with avalanche in open hours in 1968 is covered in Tracks of Passion, a coffee-table book about Dave McCoy and Mammoth, page 168 --
http://www.tracksofpassion.com/content/11skipatrol.pdf
Multi Sport
DA
Curious.. was that in 82?
Not sure - I was thinking sometime between 80 and 90.
Multi Sport
DA
I was there in 82 and recall feeling like I was in a maze trying to find our room. That was also the year of the deadly avalanche at one of the Lake Tahoe resorts...
The homeless situation in San Diego is so bad that the County declared a health emergency due to a hepatitis outbreak blamed on unsanitary conditions in the areas known for homeless overnight encampments. As part of the the City's "Fuck you" campaign* to address the portion of homelessness that is caused by people not being to afford indoor living, the City Council yesterday voted 9-1 to allow a developer to tear down Penasquitos Village next to I-15 in PQ, one of the largest Section 8 Housing projects in SD, and replace it with "working rent" apartments and $500k condos.
*This is new meme competing with "Deep State" for social prominence.
*This is new meme competing with "Deep State" for social prominence.
Multi Sport
DA
Warren Miller's early movies were fun to watch because they focused on people I could believe I knew, or even emulate. But when his subjects started jumping off cliffs, he lost me.
Multi Sport
DA
Odd that you feel that way. I thought that you changed with the times? You know, out with the old and in with the new kinda thing.
I was a Moguls skier so I enjoyed the bump scenes and clif drops but my favorite scenes were always the bloopers. A skier getting caught by their fanny pack on a surface lift and dragged up the hill or the pile up on a rope tow is always good for a laugh or two.
I hate bumps, but I have always been pleased that there were those who liked them and thus left good lines for me. It looks like from the McCoy Station webcam that they groomed out a clear path down Cornice Bowl last night. In the bad old days, skiers had to jump in as much as 10 feet or wait in line to get through one of the entries previous skiers had cut. My habit was to make a good turn each way - in Cornice Bowl each turn is easier than the last because of the bowwl shape - then bear right once below the level of the rocks until there was smooth(er) snow all the way down to St. Anton.
Multi Sport
DA
Was never a big fan of the upper runs other then they were steep. Too many skiers would slide down them pushing all the good snow off of the runs. Plus, it always seemed to be crowded with skiers over their head and that made for additional obstacles.
My favorite runs are off of Ch 22. You can ski great lines under the chair that are all bumps, then when your legs start to fill with lactic acid you can drop into the Avalanche Chutes for some, normally, deep snow. My wife and I would ride the Chair up together then she would go around Lincolns Mountain and we would meet up at the bottom and ride back up again. Good times...
Badly-edited video from go-pro camera of the avalanche at Mammoth Saturday --
http://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2018/03/05/girl-survives-avalanche/
http://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2018/03/05/girl-survives-avalanche/
If I were constrained to a single lift at MM all day I think it would be 16. HSQ, good elevation drop, and a broad choice of ways down. Or, in good weather with no/small lift line, 23 - all ways down from there are good.
Nonononono
PREMIER
What are you going to do if your paired on the chair where jumping off is going to be a serious risk of injury, and the other skier is unknown to you, is a married woman of Orthodox Judaism, it's a Friday and the sun is setting? Huh, Mr. Mammoth Knowitall?