MAMMOTH---A REAL TOWN FOR YOUR SKI JONES
Most resorts have closed, but Mammoth Mountain in California is still going strong with good snow and good snow riding. It's aptly named. You could ski this mountain for a week and take a different run each time. Right now, the U. S. ski team and snowboard team is taking advantage of the great conditions to hold a training camp. The place is every snowrider's dream.
But the surrounding area is not a chalet jungle, it's a real town. It's a ski town, but not a tourist town. Unlike Vail, Aspen or Park City, seasonal workers don't have to commute to their jobs because they can't afford to live where they work.
"Mammoth provides for its residents as much as for its tourists. There's a lot of residential neighborhoods that the locals live in. Mammoth has transformed from transient ski bums in the 80's to people who wanted to make a living here, people who wanted to raise families," says Tony Colasardo, who has lived in Mammoth for 27 years.
It's still a very down-to-earth place, without that tiresome atmosphere of wealth and privilege found at many major resorts. But amenities for snowriders are certainly not lacking. The Mammoth Mountain Inn, directly across from the resort gondola, offers elegant rooms with four-star service, including a valet at the entrance who will take your skis or board and even wax it. There are wax rooms in the parking garage for those who wish to prep their own gear.
But it's the mountain that is the sun that everything else in Mammoth revolves around. Even the communications director, Laura Johnson, wasn't chosen from some big PR firm. She competed for the UCLA snowboard team, then taught snowboarding as a certified instructor for three years before coming to Mammoth Mountain.
"I could have worked anywhere, but I wanted to be here," she said.
The lifts are scheduled to stop on May 26, but there is still a seven foot thick base of snow covering the slopes. It will have to melt before golf and mountain bike season open on the mountain.
But until then, Johnson says everything is being groomed "just as it would be in the middle of December." In fact, the mountain will host a major snowboard pipe and rail contest May 2-3; with top pros such as Danny Kass and Jonas Michilot.