The 28 members of the Chattanooga Ski Club just returned from Mammoth Mountain, California where the snow was good, the weather was great, and the comradery was fabulous. 25 members of our group flew out of ATL on a very early morning Southwest Airlines flight to Reno via Las Vegas. We then boarded a bus, went to Walmart Super Center for groceries, and then enjoyed a 3.5-hour bus ride to Mammoth, finally arriving around 6p. All flights and bus transfers both going out and returning were on time. Three trip members flew into Bishop Airport, and met the rest of us at the Juniper Springs Resort.
The Juniper Springs Resort is conveniently located right next to the Eagle Lodge and Eagle Express Lift, and also has 3 outdoor hot tubs, a heated pool and a small exercise gym. On Sunday, the Resort provided us with a welcome breakfast, and gave us a general overview of the resort, and the mountain. We then split up into small groups of about 8, and were given a very nice 4-hour skiing tour of the mountain.
We had a decent base of 30+ inches of packed snow at the base. Mid mountain and peaks had much higher snow totals, though some areas of the mountain had less snow due to the way the winds blow across the mountain. We received new snow on Saturday night, and again on Tuesday night which helped with the overall ski conditions. Unfortunately, three people had injuries while skiing. Two were reasonably minor, while the third one will require patella knee surgery.
On Tuesday night, the group went to The Mammoth Brewing Company BrewPub for beers, dinner and Trivia. We were split into three different teams for trivia, and one of our teams took 3rd place out of about 20 teams total! It was a fun night for sure! On Friday we held a potluck get-together in two different condo rooms. Lots of good food and drinks were shared and enjoyed!
A number of people rode the gondola up to the top of the mountain for a 360 view of the mountain and surrounding valleys. All-in-all, it was a very good trip!