Summer! Photo: Mammoth Mountain
In case our entire editorial staff didn’t remind you often enough this past winter, the 2022-2023 stretch was a doozy. Everybody on the West Coast got puked on with snow, especially during an abnormal late-season period where The Inertia and other publications made the rest of you start to hate the words “atmospheric river.” It was a weird winter in California. For example, I looked out the window of my apartment in Hollywood one afternoon in March — a whopping 30-minute drive to First Point Malibu — and saw snow falling. This doesn’t happen. Ever.
Meanwhile, just a few hours away in the Sierras, people watched foot after foot after foot of snow build up until places like Mammoth Mountain eventually said, “It looks like we’re staying open this summer…”
Spring skiing is a blast, obviously. It’s a bit of a novelty and a way to hang onto the sensation of making turns — or more like hot-dogging your way down the Village Run in boardshorts and a tank top — until opening day swings back around six months later. Summer skiing, however, takes things to a whole new level if for nothing else than the fact that it’s pretty rare. And from the looks of it, Mammoth’s record snowfall this past winter left enough behind that people weren’t on the hill this holiday weekend dodging boulders and throwing rooster tails with more mud and rock than actual snow.
Ok, one last time for good measure…atmospheric river.
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