CalActive.com Activities Blog

Man it’s shaping up to be an epic ski season in California! It’s only February and Mammoth already has a 100″ base, with more dumping! This is what I love about California. In a mere 5 hours you can drive from sunny SoCal to the Sierras where there’s some of the highest snowfall accumulation in these here United States. Whoa! You might even start with a surf or a kayak before hitting the slopes. How cool. And what else do I love about Mammoth? Let me recite the many things. First, the drive. While tedious, it’s also mind expanding as you travel the eastern Sierras through the Owens Valley. It’s vast and open and beautiful, with the mighty Sierras on one side, and the impressive White Mountains on the other. You’ll pass the true cowboy towns of Olancha (gateway to Death Valley), Lone Pine (gateway to Mt. Whitney), Independence (home to the ignominious Manzanar Japanese internment camp from WWII), Big Pine (gateway to the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest, home to the oldest living things on Planet Earth - a 4,000 year-old tree??? Come on), Bishop (home to crazy wilderness outback mountaineers), and finally Mammoth, home of the the LA powder cowboys. How does Mammoth stack up against world class mountains like Vail, Aspen, Park City, Jackson Hole and Whistler? Well, it may not have the light, fluffy powder of Utah, or the swanky private jets of Aspen, or the sheer size of Vail, or the steeps of Jackson, but it has more annual snowfall than any of them, more sunny California days, more ski days (usually staying open through June and sometimes July), less crowds (see 5 hour drive), a gracious layout that allows you to traverse the mountain without skiing the same run twice, modest pricing, cheap accommodations, lots of high speed lifts, and, oh yes, thermal hot springs that are free (if you know where to look). They can be the highlight of your holiday. Imagine skiing all day, getting that major thigh burn, then driving 20 minutes into the Owens Valley where you will discover a perfect tub in the wilderness with 110 degree mineral water for soaking those tires bones. You’ll have a 360 degree view of the Sierras and Whites just as the sun drops behind them. Ahhh. Life is good!

Almost 50% of the CalActive team is heading for the snow this weekend! Back-to-back winter storms covered Mammoth Mountain in 7 to 10 feet of fresh snow in the last week and I cannot wait to get some of the action.

I first learnt to ski in the eastern Pyrenees mountains of Andorra, Western Europe, but I’ve been trying my hand at snowboarding recently - still early days but on the last day of our last trip to Mammoth in December 2007, I started getting the hang of carving (thanks to lots of patient coaching by my dear friend Andy), and now I cannot wait to get back on the slopes. Being South African and more inclined to gravitate towards sunny climes rather than snowy mountains, it took me a while to get my head around the whole appeal of voluntarily choosing to spend a holiday/weekend in the snow, but the bug has bitten and now I can’t get enough of it.

My first experience of being on a snowboard was at Aviemore in Scotland: it was during a complete white-out in the middle of what must surely have been a blizzard (or maybe it just felt that way), and my then-boyfriend and his buddies insisted on dragging poor inexperienced me up the mountain onto a black run and basically left me to my own devices. Needless to say, I was absolutely petrified, could not even get myself standing, and ended up with a very wobbly lip, trying to hold back the tears, and managed to bum-shuffle my way back to the lift where I went straight back down to the bar and consoled myself with an obscene amount of very strong hot rum drinks. Aaah, the joys of apres ski, even if you’ve not been down a single slope. Note to self: try not to drink too many of those delicious Hot Apple Pie drinks at Main Lodge this time - even though they taste like a soft drink, they can give you a very fuzzy head if you drink more than 11 on the trot (they are made of Tuaca® citrus liqueur and apple cider. Yummy).

California’s Mammoth Mountain Ski Area is very special in that it gets an unusually large amount of snow compared to other Eastern Sierra peaks. Mammoth Mountain itself was formed from a long series of eruptions that started over 100,000 years ago, and although the large amounts of carbon dioxide that is still released from its South flank (near Horseshoe Lake) can wreak havoc on trees in the vicinity, it also means that there are some pretty fantastic natural hot springs in the area - but you are unlikely to find them unless you are with someone in the know! This, I have realised, is a very carefully guarded secret and I consider myself very fortunate to have had the chance to soak in one of them after a glorious weekend of boarding. This is one of the things that makes me feel so privileged to live in Southern California: the fact that it is absolutely possible to go snowboarding in the morning, take a soak in a stunning natural hot spring at midday, then drive to the coast (Laguna Beach is the CalActive hub) and fit in a surf in the afternoon. Who could ask for more!

Those in the know reckon that there will be excellent snow conditions this weekend and I have also heard that the Night of Lights event (on Saturday) is great fun too - there’s a Red Bull Sledstyle demo, fireworks, the lot - so I imagine that it’s going to be a whole lot busier than it was when I was last there, about a month ago - lots of boarders and skiers pretending to like each other. Factoid (thanks Wikipedia): approximately 97% of all ski areas in North America and Europe now allow snowboarding, whereas in 1985, only 7% of U. S. ski areas allowed snowboarding, with a similar proportion in Europe. Even so, it’s estimated that only 20% of all visitors to US ski resorts are snowboarders. I bet the skiers feel that it’s a much bigger percentage…the whole rivalry really intrigues me. With a nod and lots of respect to Stevie and Paul, wouldn’t it be nice if we could all board/ski in perfect harmony?!