Skiing, Day 1

The chains from Hell

Actually, I was kind of glad we put the chains on the night before. Otherwise I would have needed to put them on the next morning since the roads were covered with snow and ice. However, I think we either put them on incorrectly or they were too loose. Every time I get to about 25-30mph, something on the chain would bang away at something in the wheelwell, and it was loud.

The first morning, we left the condo at about 7:45am in order to rent skis. We went to a local ski shop to rent equipment. In hindsight, it was probably easier to rent at Canyon Lodge at Mammoth since we don't have to lug everything around with us. I rented the same type of skis I rented at Snow Summit except these were a bit longer at 160cm. It turned out to be a pretty good length; maybe I'll buy a pair before next season.

The weather in the morning was really nice and we got on the slopes at around 9am. It looked like there were a lot of people but the lift lines were really short. Since we were skiing Saturday and Sunday, I bought a two-day pass which cost $130. I don't remember paying that much for lift tickets but it's been awhile since I skiied at Mammoth. The snow was much much better than what we had at Snow Summit. I met up with some co-workers, including my manager, and skiied down an intermediate run.


My manager's 4 year-old daughter; I had a hard time keeping up with her

In the afternoon, it started snowing for real. The sky was cloudy and it got a lot colder. I spent the afternoon with Sunny and Steve on Eagle Express (chair 15). This is all the way to the left when you look at a trail map of Mammoth. It's mostly beginner and intermediate runs and we stayed with the green dots. The snow was really good but it got cold cruising down the slopes.


Lots and lots of snow