What does 12 feet of early season snowfall look like? Just ask the Mammoth locals and those visitors lucky (or smart) enough to time the storm cycles just right. 12 feet and it’s only early December! Last weekend, the mountain received a 42-inch dump of cold, dry snow, making for classic Eastern Sierra storm riding that blossomed nicely into a picture perfect bluebird powder day on Monday, December 12th.
Mind you, that the 42 inch dump’s predecessor dropped between 4-5 feet the previous weekend. Tracking back to November 2nd, Mammoth started receiving its snowfall ahead of schedule allowing the resort to open a week early (Nov. 5th, to be exact). Since then, they’ve been graced with three major storms each dropping a whopping 3 to 5 feet. Pepper in some additional 2-6 inch days and just like that, Mammoth is at 138 inches and it’s only early December. Cars have been buried, roads plowed, ski patrol and operations crews have worked tirelessly to prep the mountain and the result has been “as good as it gets” conditions.
Of course, Mammoth’s photographers and filmers put themselves in the eye of the storms to document this amazing early season. Here are a few gems from Christian Pondella, Andrew Miller, Todd Robertson, Patrick Griley, Sammy Deleo, and Sean Logan. Enjoy!
