Mammouth Lakes, CA

It was hard to leave Truckee with tons of snow on the way, but we were headed to Mammoth Lakes and they had their own promising forecast.  We were able to slip down out of the mountains and into Reno before the storm really started to cook. As usual, I was really worried about this drive.  I knew the 165 miles south along the eastern base of the Sierra Nevada’s would be a dry piece of cake, but it was the last 5 miles back up into the mountains that concerned me.  

Turns out the weather gods were with us.  The storm that began hitting Truckee as we left slammed into Mammoth immediately after we arrived.  We settled in to our new home at the Sierra Lodge and took Merl out for some snowy exploration.  

I was delighted to discover the residential neighborhood on the backside of the Lodge was chock full of 1970s A-Frames.  My family owned an A-Frame in the Adirondacks for many years and I guess I have a real soft sport for them.  It felt so right being amongst them while getting dumped on with snow, staying a 5 minute free bus ride from an epic mountain.  We even had a delicious ramen and sake dinner in one of them!

The skiing conditions were nothing short of stellar.  Each day it would start to snow around 4pm and continue through the night.  The daily 1-2 feet of fresh powder was a nice tailwind in our  push to tackle the steep and deep.  Even the Marines turned out from nearby Pickel Meadows Mountain Warfare Training Center to get powder experience (sorry no photo).

With an 11am checkout and a 5 hour drive ahead of us, we decided to spend our last morning snowshoeing up the mountain behind our hotel.  It was a low pressure blast.  We didn’t quite make it to the top, but we loved seeing Merlin romp and tried to savor every step.  It was St. Patricks day, and boy did we feel lucky.