Hi Gram,

The alarm screamed at us too early on Sunday morning, but we dragged our butts out of bed. We packed the car for our next adventure, said our goodbyes to our hosts, and headed for Old Sacramento. Zibby managed the music while I navigated and a few hours later, we were magically in Sacramento. The old wooden boardwalks, kitschy little shops, and milling tourists made it a fun experience for both of us. We avoided the tourist traps of getting our picture taken, or buying souvenir T-shirts, but we did get a little chocolate for the road and postcards. We grabbed tamales for lunch, chicken for our meal and apple cinnamon for dessert, before hitting the road again toward Mammoth mountain. Zibby was awed by the lush beautiful scenery as we drove through the foothills, and awed again when it changed from lush greenery to four feet of snow in a few miles. As we drove, the roads grew slippery and narrow. Traffic slowed after the sun went down. Between the slippery roads and the low visibility, it probably took us an extra hour but we finally pulled into town and found a motel. Ten feet of snow had fallen in the past few days and the whole town was still digging their way out. The motel parking lot left only a narrow path between snow drifts on one side and parked cars on the other with a truck parked at the far end of the driveway. After carrying our luggage to the room, our only option with the car was to back it out the way we came in. Unfortunately, the snow was too deep. The tires spun as the car dug itself in, and soon we had to recruit the help of a few young guys who were staying there too. We got the car to move forward, and they pulled in behind us. We had four cars behind each other, and all decided to be ready to leave at 7:30am in the morning. With the car parked, Zibby and I headed to our room, ate a little dinner and fell asleep.

We got up early in the morning and made sure we were ready to leave. The sun was shining, the sky was blue, and the air was crisp and nippy. We grabbed some coffee and juice and warmed up the car, ready to go. A couple people overslept, though, and we didn’t get out of there until closer to 8:30. After running by the grocery store, we headed to our friend Nick’s to pick him up then headed to the mountain. We met Nick and his wife Lindsay a few years ago when they stopped by Skydive Chicago for a visit and stayed the rest of the season. They’re a couple of the most positive, friendly people we’ve met in a while, and the reason we were visiting Mammoth. They fell in love with the area the winter after we met them and have been coming back each winter since then. Lindsay was just getting over a cold, so she stayed home to rest up while the three of us went to tour the mountain. Nick had an accident a few years ago that resulted in having his lower legs amputated below the knees. He walks around on prosthetic limbs, which would make standard skis or a snowboard difficult to ride. He doesn’t let that stop him from enjoying life, though. He has a mono-ski that allows him to sit in a bucket suspended on shocks and springs, and carries two outrigger skis to help with his balance. He’s faster and more nimble down the hill than either of us, and enjoys almost a minor celebrity status on the mountain, with skiers approaching him at the top and bottom of the chairlifts to ask about his contraption and asking if they can ride with him. There’s no better way to see new terrain than to follow a friend who knows the ropes. We bounced from chairlift to chair, trying a different run each time, traversing the whole mountain. Nick is fast and experienced on his ski, which drove us both to push a little harder to keep up. There was one run at the beginning where he cut across steep ungroomed terrain toward a groomed run. I followed, keeping an eye on Zibby who hasn’t ridden much this year and has a harder time. She had it at first, but caught a spot and face planted. In her words,

I face planted into five foot deep powder and had the mother of all fun times digging out. Pushing myself up only sunk me deeper. I abandoned the attempt to wade out after sinking hip-deep. I finally started to grasp the concept of weight distribution along with the understanding of how snowboards stay on top of the snow and managed to climb onto it and ride it like a sled to where the snow seemed packed down a little more. I eventually made it to Keith and Nick, then down to the lift, and after about 5 or 10 minutes of fuming, I was in a good mood again.

Zibby

It was funny sitting with Nick just over the crest where we couldn’t see Zibby at first, then seeing her come paddling over the ridge, covered in snow, riding her board like a surfer riding a sled. She was a good sport about the whole thing and once she got over the shock of it, gave Nick a good ribbing about taking her into that terrain for the rest of the day and into tomorrow. We did a few more runs, but the suspension on Nick’s ski had something wrong with it, and wasn’t absorbing any of the jolts. He was feeling it in his spine, so he decided to call it for the day. Lindsay came to pick him up while Zibby and I had lunch and did a few more runs. With our food comas setting in, the lower oxygen content at altitude, and just plain exhaustion from riding hard all day, we decided to rest up and save some energy for the next day. We threw our boards in the car and headed over to the gondola that takes you up to the top of the mountain. The really experienced people take the gondola up to the double black diamond slopes and ride down the sheer face of the mountain, but they let less experienced people ride it up just to step out and look around. The view from up there was breathtaking! We could see for miles in every direction, seeing other mountain peaks off in the distance, rivers running down them, and villages below. We walked over to the edge, where braver skiers ride down, and it was a sheer drop. We could see down about ten feet, then there was just nothing, practically a cliff face from our perspective. The wind was howling, so after we’d walked around and seen every direction we headed back down the gondola and drove to the hotel.

They’d cleared the parking lot a little better when we got back, but it was still piled with snow mounds and clumps of ice and snow scattered around. We parked down by the road and headed back to the room to clean up and take a nap. After resting a bit, we picked up a pizza and wings, then headed over to Nick and Lindsay’s place. They have a great little condo just a few miles from the chair lifts with a nice decor and comfortable vibe. We had a great night recounting our stories from riding that day, catching up on our winters so far, and looking forward to next season. We were exhausted from the day of riding and low oxygen, so Zibby and I excused ourselves and headed back to the hotel to get some much needed rest.

We got up early in the morning, a little sore from the day before, and got to the lifts at 8:30. We were a little earlier than Nick, so we caught a lift to the top so we could get a couple runs in while we were waiting. The temps were a little warmer than the day before, and the sun was shining, but the wind had really picked up. The chair made us a little nervous on the way up as it was rocking back and forth, and the wind pushed us around as we were strapping into the boards. Once we got down the hill a little, the trees and slope behind us sheltered us a little and made the riding more enjoyable. After a couple runs, we met up with Nick and started working our way across the mountain. We decided to try the slopes on the “backside” of the mountain, where it wasn’t as crowded. The first few hundred feet were brutal, with winds pushing us around and blinding us with snow whipped up in swirls from all around us. We got down the hill a little and it calmed down, and became a nice wide run with trees on either side of us and not many people. We rode up and down those runs a few times until Lindsay messaged us and told us she was on her way. We made our way back to the frontside, navigating some runs and lifts as they started shutting down lifts due to winds.

After seeing Lindsay and warming up a little, we all decided the winds were too brutal and headed to lunch at a cozy little restaurant near their condo. Zibby and I shared one of the most delicious chimichangas we’d ever tasted; the crust was flaky and tender like a pastry, the chicken inside was spiced with flavor and a little zing, and the filling was finished with the right mix of grilled vegetables, beans and rice. After lunch, we decided to hit the road while there was still some daylight, hoping to keep ahead of the incoming storm. There was a woodpecker on the tree as we walked out to the car, and he didn’t seem to care that we were talking about him and taking pictures.

We said our goodbyes and headed north on the 395. We got about twenty minutes down the road when we came around a bend to find traffic at a standstill. Unsure of whether to wait it out or turn around, our decision was made for us when an officer came by and announced that there was a six to fourteen car pileup ahead. The wind was creating white-out conditions and the highway would be closed for another few hours and possibly overnight. We turned around and headed back to Mammoth to get some internet and gasoline to plot our next steps. Zibby got on the phone with Lindsay for some inside knowledge, and was told that she and Nick agreed that we had two options – Start driving right now and go south toward L.A. or go find a hotel room in Mammoth and plan on spending another four or five days in a blizzard. Without a second thought, we pointed the car south and got out of there. As we left the ten foot snow drifts in Mammoth, we were amazed when we found no snow anywhere less than an hour later. As we drove, Lindsay reported that they’d closed all roads out of Mammoth an hour after we left, so we made the right choice. We stopped for dinner in one of the little towns along the way and ended up in Mojave, where we found a clean little hotel room for the night. More about that next time!