TR Mammoth 4-23-12

First day -
Ugh. First problem was this (from Victorville Daily Press website) -
:
Man dies after crashing into fire engine

CAJON PASS -- A motorist was killed early Sunday morning on the Oak
Hill Road offramp after he collided with a San Bernardino County Fire
medic engine, fire officials said.
Firefighters had just arrived at the scene of a roll over crash at
about 6:45 a.m., when a driver in his 20s lost control of his vehicle
striking the rear of the medic engine, Tracey Martinez, spokeswoman
for the fire department said.
One firefighter was transported to a local hospital with minor
injuries.
The Oak Hill Road offramp from northbound Interstate 15 was shut down.
It took an hour and 15 minutes to get from the 138 exit (which I
should have taken) to the top of the pass - about 8 miles.

On the bright side, gasoline in Bishop was $3.659 at Von's with my 60
cents/gallon awards discount.

Picked up my MVP pass at the ticket counter. I noted that the Senior
Day Pass price was $64 today, although I think I could have gotten it
for $59 online with my existing MyMammoth account. At those prices, it
will take 6 days to offset the $329 MVP price - and today is my 6th
day at Mammoth this year.

As for the skiing - the mountain is now operating at reduced level -
Chairs 1, 2, 3, 11 and the Gondolas. I saw them grooming up around
Chairs 5 and 10, which I heard will be open on weekends only.

The surface was hard and scratchy where it had been groomed, and heavy
outside that. As skiers beat up the surface the sun warmed up, it
turned to really nice spring corn. I could string together a short
wedel run or dobig looping turns across the slope with equal ease.

I had to go back to the car and remove a few layers because I was
sweating so much I was starting to get itchy. After a few cooler runs,
clouds came over the ridge and chilled me out. I was left in the
incongruous position of feeling cold up top while fighting
increasingly heavy slush down below, so I quit at about 1PM. It
started raining and thundering soon after I got back to the hotel - I
hope that was snow higher up.