October. Mammoth. Snowboarding?

October. Mammoth. Snowboarding?

We don’t know how they did it, but we’re pretty sure that Bear Mountain somehow remotely opened at Mammoth today. Every “head” that would normally be found on a February Saturday afternoon at Bear was up at Mammoth for it’s opening today, the mountain’s second earliest opening ever.

It all started on October 4th, when the temps were super low and the mountain got a good blast of super early season snow. It dropped 8-10″ up at main lodge and the temps were ridiculously cold, somewhere around 23°. Then on Tuesday the 13th another, warmer, storm rolled in – dumping 20″ in town and up to 6′ up on the mountain.

Luckily we pulled into the parking lot first thing in the morning. When we were leaving, we saw cars parked down to chair 20 / RollerCoaster. There was A LOT of people who came up to take advantage of free tickets and a Friday opening in October. There’s no doubt that twitter / facebook / rate my hippo can really bring the people in. Riding before Halloween is a pretty nice gift so we took advantage of it, taking a few runs with what seemed like everyone from Reno to San Diego. Still, even as crowded as it was, it’s not a bad way to start the season.

October 16th, Mammoth’s second earliest opening ever.

Bear Mountain Express or Broadway Express? You choose…

Scary to think how long the line would be if all the party people weren’t on the patio.