Mammoth snow a welcome relief

Well, after months of waiting, here it is folks, a substantial amount of snow in Mammoth Lakes and all over Mammoth Mountain.

A series of storms blew in over the weekend and by Monday evening, Jan. 23, had fully coated the resort town and the California mountain in the Eastern Sierra with a fresh blanket of snow.

According to Mammoth Mountain’s website, the weekend gift from Mother Nature left approximately 57 inches of new snow on the hill. The season total thus far: 108 inches. On Tuesday, Jan. 24, for the first time this season, nearly every lift was open for the public to enjoy.

June Mountain, a mere 20 minutes north of Mammoth was also enjoying a heavy blanket of snow. The mountain was reporting a weekend storm total of 36 inches, and nearly all of its lift were open on Jan. 24 as well.

The 2011/12 winter season has been a relatively dry one so far, but Mammoth Mountain’s CEO, Rusty Gregory, pledged several weeks ago to keep the Mountain open for as long as possible and to take care of all of his employees (see letter from Gregory here).

Other businesses in the town of Mammoth Lakes continue to do the best they can to hang on through the season. When The Sheet checked in with them at the beginning of the year, many were fretting over what a dry January would mean to them. The recent storms will definitely serve as a shot in the arm for everyone. However, the weather pattern in the next week doesn’t show much more snow on the horizon at this time, so the future of the season is still unknown.

For now, however, locals and visitors are simply enjoying the fresh snow at Mammoth and June mountains, allowing any future worries or fears to fade away with every face shot.