The below pic is not a claim. I am not an expert, and this is not actually expert terrain. But it is me about to drop in on my first run of the season. Busy day in Mammoth for a Wednesday in mid December, but I suppose a couple big storms will do that. Drove up this morning and got to The Mill around 10am. Parking lot was full, but I entered just to turn around and park on the side of the road. Timed it just right to score an extra wide spot in the lot as someone left at the same time. First ride up chair 10 I had the chair to myself. Starting things off nicely.
Nice, firm, but very edgeable packed-powder snow. I wasn't in top form to say the least, but 1 day of snowboarding in the previous 3 seasons will have that effect. Did a couple runs and retreated to chair 12, which was empty as always. Much better snow, good side hits, and hiked someone else's boot pack for a few hundred feet to get about 4 legit turns of side-ish country untouched 2-day old pow, so I could at least say I made some powder turns on day 1.
Took chair 6 to get back to my car a the end of the day, and ran into pro snowboarder Zeb Powell at the top of the chair. We'd never met, but he's from my tiny home town, rode the same tiny hill that I grew up skiing on, and my parents are good friends with his. He was pretty shocked to meet someone from where we're from in Mammoth, and we had a brief but fun exchange.
Pretty nice start to the season. Think I'll head over to June tomorrow to dodge the crowds a bit.
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