This 2011 winter season is just now gearing up to be whats forecast as another el nino. Our local mountains were snow-blasted with 4-6 inches and mammoth with 14-16 inches just from our first overnight storm.  Yeah, sick…I know…our first storm…its almost unbelievable, I almost fell off my chair when I heard the news.  I quickly sent a mass text to my fellow snowboarding amigos. In addition, temperatures are now cold enough for snow making. Like the rest of my fellow so. cal. snow junkies I’m equally stoked…can you tell? Road trip?…anyone?

Remember when your were a kid and couldn’t sleep the night before going to Disneyland?  That was me last night.  Like I’ve mentioned earlier, snowboarding is an addiction and I couldn’t wait to get up and get shredding. Ooops…did I write shredding? Yeah, I know shredding is a skateboarding term, but its where I started. You can find out how easy it was for me to transition to snowboarding here. Sorry to veer off topic there…so where was I? It’s been close to 9 months since my last time up but its felt like an eternity. 5am finally came and I was already staring at my clock before my alarm even went off…almost as if I hadn’t slept at all.  But I think I did get a good nights rest because I was completely pumped…and that was without coffee.

Up the mountain we went…

Route 330 leading up to Snow Summit was a complete disaster. Bumper to bumper traffic like I’ve seen many times before. Seems as though everyone and their mother shared our feeling of yearning for fresh powder.

U-turn…

No way were we going to waste a couple hours moving at snails-pace.  We turned around and headed to Mountain High.  A closer snow resort we usually don’t go to because of its low end facilities.  The mountain is small and their runs are short…nothing compared to Snow Summit.  But we had no choice and ended up having a great time.  We were able to get 10 runs in down the mountain…so it wasn’t too bad at all.  Surprisingly, they even had a snowboard park with a few jumps, boxes, and rails.  Another positive of Mountain High is the drive home…a mere 30 minutes vs. 2 hours compared to Snow Summit…something I’ll never complain about.  No more down playing Mountain High for me…I’ll definitely give it a thumbs up next time we decide where to go.

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Southern Californians are fortunate to have three mountains to their disposal when deciding where to snowboard.  They are Mountain High, Big Bear, and Mammoth.  The latter being the biggest and baddest, but also the farthest to drive to.  From where I live, broken down it would take 1 hour to get to Mountain High, 2 hours to Big Bear, and 5-6 hours to Mammoth.  Though the first two choices are local and convenient, I’m almost positive you’ll be willing to make the drive after you find out what Mammoth has to offer. The amenities available will completley blow your mind.  Check out this WOW factor…I’m a numbers guy so let me lay it out for you to see the comparison.

Mountain Size

Mammoth: 3,500  acres  Snow Summit: 240 acres

Number of Trails

Mammoth: 150 Snow Summit: 31

Number of Lifts

Mammoth: 28  (3 gondolas)  Snow Summit: 14 (zero gondolas)

Snow Base

Mammoth: 48-60 inches  Snow Summit: 4-6 inches

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Nuff said…Get the picture?

Bonus

The biggest bonus is their terrain parks.  Yes…plural…there’s 3 altogether supplied with a diverse collection of boxes, rails, half-pipes, quarter-pipes and more.  And…each park is designed for the needs of each level of ability ranging from beginners to experts with the only difference between them being the size of features.

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What Other Snowboarders Are Searching For:

What Other Snowboarders Are Searching For:

Whistler is one of the most talked about destinations amongst snow junkies located 75 miles north of Vancouver, British Columbia, in Canada.  Any snowboarder fortunate enough to have carved this mountains silky powder would solemnly swear to it being winters ultimate paradise.

Count me in as being lucky enough to have experienced its greatness.  It was an obsession of mine to be able to snowboard at the biggest and baddest mountain on the west coast.  Everyone spoke of it being heavenly because of its powder.  That made it all the reason to max out my credit cards on a plane ticket and lift tickets.  It was truly an experience to never forget.  The sheer number of runs and the length of the runs were massive…nothing compared to what I was used to at my local mountain.  And one of my favorite aspects of Whistler was not getting down the mountain but getting up the mountain.  Can you say gondola…yupp, that’s right…no more freezing in a chair lift to the top of the mountain.  I got to experience warmth in an enclosed 10 person heated gondola.  Awesome!…Yes, I know!  Another great amenity is their backcountry.  This was my first experience of powder.  I heard stories but never experienced it for myself.  Lucky for me, I was at the pinnacle of mountains. Check out this amazing clip and you’ll know what I’m talking about…

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