We spent another New Years at Mammoth Lakes. Man, I can't get enough of this place. It might very possibly be the most beautiful location on earth. This year, three of us went, Jeff our friend Denise and myself.
For Christmas, Jeff bought me a pair of snowshoes. I've wanted them for years and rented some last year when we were up at Mammoth. Now I own a pair which means if I want to I can really do Mammoth on the cheap. I can hike all day and not have to rent any equipment at all. The first day I snowshoed up to Panorama Dome and up Lake Mary Rd venturing off the trail whenever I could. That is the point of snowshoeing anyway... to get off the beaten track.
The second day I cross-country skied at Tamarack. This is my third year and 5th time out. I was feeling pretty confident from the get-go and decided I was going to try more advanced trails. I definitely pushed myself harder than every before and because of that my failures were proportionally larger. I took a pretty good spill coming off a trail into an intersection. I haven't really figured out how to turn yet and lost my balance exploding into a ball of snow and gear. It must have looked spectacular as 6 people came to my aid. I was physically fine though I lost my nerve and called it a day after that.
As usual Jeff skied and Denise snow-boarded at the main mountain. They explored away from their usual trails too and made it to the back of the mountain avoiding the New Years crowds. Jeff said he fell a few times too, most notably when he skied down one of his favorite trails from last year which had been groomed differently to include moguls this year. The second day they made it to the top and skied/boarded the ridge. They reached the top which is over 11,000 feet in elevation. We all met up at the Village for drinks and limped/crawled back to the lodge together for dinner and drinks at the Tamarack living room.
Ok, I'm going to wrap this up. My writing is God-awful boring tonight so lets get to the photos, which are really the most interesting thing about this blog. We didn't get any people photos this year... just scenery.
