Photo: Kevin Westenbarger
Free Champagne

By Kevin Westenbarger...

Mammoth Mountain is officially open for the 2009-2010 season. This fall has been good to Mammoth, dropping 3-4 feet on the mid-mountain and allowing them to open 4 weeks ahead of schedule. To commemorate this good fortune, and add some hype, Mammoth designated opening day a free ski day. Over 4000 people made the trek to take advantage of this local stimulus package. Unfortunately, almost all 4000 people showed up early to get first chair, creating some massive lift lines.

Photo: Kevin Westenbarger
Matty Mo tree slide.

Many people decided to take a break and participate in the traditional opening day champagne toast while others decided to hike features in the park in order to avoid the lines. These features included a flat box, mailbox, up to down box, a flat box set up on a left bank, and a flat-up-flat-down-flat box. In addition to these features, there are some unsanctioned log jibs that some dedicated shreds built in the trees.

Photo: Kevin Westenbarger
Mad crowds already.

Throughout the day, Mammoth was able to open chairs 3 and 23, allowing access to the top of the mountain. The upper mountain ended up having surprisingly fun snow and shorter lift lines, which made for a nice afternoon of inaugural shralping.

Photo: Kevin Westenbarger
Liftline anyone?

Mammoth has a big reputation for building up there park right away and will most likely be adding features and opening more lifts as early as this weekend. Big thanks to Mammoth for making a lot of people really, really happy.