Mid-winter hits Mammoth

Click HERE for a gallery of images from Mammoth's recent snow!

Mammoth Mountain, CA-I wasn't expecting this. California's Mammoth Mountain Resort opened on Thursday, October 21, offering up four feet of February in the middle of autumn. And the skiing was sweet. I mean, we've all experienced that early-season jones that pulls us from football or fly-fishing to make a few pre-Thanksgiving turns. But OCTOBER? And usually these "runs"-at least the resort-based ones-consist of yo-yo-ing a couple short groomers, opened largely for ceremonial purposes on man-made snow. But not here. Not now. The crowd on Thursday and Friday consisted mostly of friendly locals, exhibiting the kind of amiable manners that rise to the surface when your town just gets delivered the ultimate gift almost a month ahead of schedule. Even all of the employees were friendly, exhibiting an astonishingly helpful attitude for being called to duty smack in the middle of find-housing-and-sleep-till-noon season.

When chair 23 opened on Friday morning, stretching the then-skiable terrain from top-to-bottom, Drop Out and Wipe Out chutes provided as quality a skiing experience as you could expect at any time throughout the year. My legs were screaming early-season but the snow was saying don't stop now. So we didn't. Saturday, though the clouds rolled in to remove the blue skies of the previous two days, wind just kept filling in Wipe-Out Chutes, and made each successive run into Scotty's all the better. Even hungover Red Sox fans were out in full force, getting in a few quality turns before returning to the tube.

It was the earliest opening for Mammoth in a decade, and with more storms predicted, we can only hope that this is indicative of the winter ahead. For the latest up-to-date info, visit www.mammoth-mtn.com