Published from a picnic table on the edge of Zion National Park
After a long and spectacular day of driving from Reno to Mammoth, we were greeted with sleet/rain/horizontal wind at the ski area. It was 1 pm and like a true east coaster, I waited it out. Things looked better at 2, so away I went to get my 2 hours of fun in. Unfortunately the management of Mammoth had other plans and informed me that their hours had recently changed to 7:30-2pm. Skunked.

We returned today to gorgeous weather and prime spring snow. Sensationally sensational. These are the photos.

It was nice the bulk of the drive through Tahoe, until of course we turned off of 395 for Mammoth. As we pulled in it looked grim. Turns out they were not even open.

That didn't stop Jen from giving the Mammoth some love. Incidentally, this is the obligatory Mammoth photo, a must have.

We waited around after they closed hoping that someone would take pity on us and throw us a lift up the mountain. I even tried to plead our case to the marketing department. Unfortunately they were not around. It did gain us a sweet shot of the Fiesta with no cars in the parking lot.

Setting up camp in style.

Too lazy to hike Everest but not to camp and eat sushi in Mammoth.

Stickering Jen's new ride with some Eesa love.

No one has ever taken a photo of the bear sticker before, never.

Voila, a gondola.

I may be smiling, rare photo.

The view from the top of the gondola, the top of the mountain, where you can stand anxiously awaiting your wife, if you choose to.

Top o' the Mountain shot.

See Jen is happy here. Slightly farther down the mountain she faced a rather nasty steep section that lessened her happiness, temporarily.

The top of said steepness. When they say no easy way down at Mammoth, they mean it. Husband of the year for leading Jen down this.

That's the lift photo.

And the thumb's up photo.

You can see the halfpipe in the middle of this photo. The only thing more ridiculous than the size of the pipe was the quality of the riders. I barely got out of the pipe and all the tall tee wearing neo punks were skying 6-8 foot airs. Jen says I did great since I am old. That really smarts.

Speaking of being old, I wanted to get at least a few "snowboarding" shots. To be honest, the snow was so much fun for simply freeriding that I was not very interested in "catching air" or "getting radical". Since the real jumps in the park were real scary, I angled to slice off the landing for manageable jumping fun.

I call this the weakest shifty ever thrown on Mammoth, ever.

That is the jump that the real riders hit, notice my 6'2" frame beside it.

And this is smallest full tweaked stalefish ever thrown by a father of one. Awards to be distributed later.

This looked cooler in my head.

Jen giving her short pants pose to close the day. We piled in the Fiesta and drove to Las Vegas for an In N Out burger, but that is tomorrow's post.