Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board Winter finally! (DH ski trip, MooseTracks sighted)

Not Whitney Zone on this trip, but my family celebrated the last weekend of winter with our first true "winter conditions" outing of the season. Punxsutawney Phil was apparently correct.

Saturday we pulled up at Mammoth Mountain Chair 2 for a weekend of family downhilling. Snow had started partway up Sherwin Grade and was dumping heavily. Noticed the skiers parked next to us had some sort of Tele/AT gear. Looked a little closer and saw that the owner of same was none other than Laura M.- the famed MooseTracks

An exhausting day was had by all. 12 hours from sea level to skiing with about 1/2 my normal sleep didn't help. Visibility was poor, snow was deep, heavy, and carved up. I loved it but tired quickly- finally begging the family to ski Chair 8 (an older, slow model) just to get some rest between runs.

Sunday was even better- dumping heavily again the temp started at about 10F with wind blowing nicely to make some classic Mammoth custard. MMT claimed 42" storm total and I believe it. My 9 year old and I played lots of follow-the-leader through trees generally involving a submarine voyage and resultant digging around for detached skis.

Exhausted driving home last night. I told the family that I'm done with 2-day weekend ski trips. Our next trip is now booked for Spring Break 4/8-13. Two nights each before and after in Owens Valley to make it more of a vacation than an exercise in exhaustion.

Bet the businesses along 395 were happy. This was the most traffic ive seen on 395 this winter (both Friday and Sunday mornings and yesterday evening).

Non-winter appears to be coming back in the next few days. 13k forecast is saying 40+ degrees by Friday.

Jim, it was great to see you at Mill on Saturday morning! I was thrilled to get to try my new pow skis, and while the cement was indeed thick and heavy, I did get a number of runs off Lincoln (Chair 22/25) before it got too tracked out. The beer was extra-special good that night as exhaustion set in: too much hiking, not enough skiing this winter!

I'm sorry I missed Sunday, and sorry I didn't call in sick to work this morning to catch the top before it, too, became mangled. I even had a patient up there today, but having survived enough pistoning on bumped-out runs without wrecking my knee, I opted to just look up and smile.

Then, of course, I took some time scouting options on the drive back down the hill to B-town... <evil grin>

Have a great time in April!

-L