Hi

I am thinking about taking a trip to Mammoth Mountain in May as I am travelling to the US anyway. I heard that it is often open until July but certainly will be at the beginning of May.

Has anyone been there? Is it any good at that time of year?
Also, the accomodation on the mountain is significanlty more expensive that off the mountain a way. Is the location worth the price or should we hire a car and just travel every day?
Finally, when I looked at hiring skis/ boards you can’t seem to hire on the mountain after April? Is this due to unreliability of snow after then or another reason?? Lots of questions!!

Any advise/ info gratefully recieved.

Thanks

I’ve replied to this before but a few months ago all my posts were accidentally wiped from the record. (SPAM ISSUES in the Site Display Problems section explains.)

I’ve skied Mammoth once (1999), but no later than March. I stayed in the town (most do) and used the free ski bus which worked fine. There might have been some accommodation at the base lodge but relatively little. Nearby June Mountain reputedly stays open longer than Mammoth itself, hence the name; I don’t know if you could get there without a car.

The resort is not extinct so does not live up (if that is the right expression) to its name. [This feeble joke wasn’t in my original reply.] Seriously, I had heard the mountain was named after the town - Mammoth Lakes - which was so named either because fossils of the woolly beast had been found nearby, or because someone imagined it would have been a good place for them. [On further research I could be wrong, and the mountain really have been named first - by the Spanish - for its size.]

There was plenty of skiing to keep me - a slow intermediate then - happy for a week.
Richard