Its been years since i went on a two man mission to the mountains, so in commemoration of the even i brought out my snowboarding jacket circa 1999. I picked up Ben from his house in Venice, filled up on a meal from costco at hit the road at 7:30pm. We made quick work of the drive and arrived to the Vagabond Inn in Bishop just around midnight.
In morning we woke up enjoyed the free breakfast from the motel, and hit the road by 6:30am. We arrived to the Mammoth Resort geared up and were one of the first in line for gondola. We spent the next seven hours on the slopes cutting the waits at the life through the single rider line, and crisscrossed the entire mountain. We road hard and fast racing many times down the trails. Hit a few natural jumps, and had nary a crash. We probably got in a good 30 runs in by the time we left at 3pm to head home from a great day of boarding.
The mountain was surprisingly not as busy as i expected, but much sunnier than expected. We were burning up in our jackets and eventually shed to just our shirts. The snow was hard and fast in the morning but softened up by the afternoon and it really felt like spring boarding, but in January. I had thought that it was a good idea to have a birthday celebration for Joy in February, but now with a winter heat wave i’m not even sure if they’ll be any snow by the middle of February. People were literally sunning on the lounge chairs, and just hanging out with their beers.
The drive home was a little more rough but by no means difficult. We stopped by Schat’s Bakery in Bishop to pickup some bread, and headed home with the dream of having dinner at Manna. We got back into LA at 8, and feasted upon mounds of meat. The turn ar0und trip isn’t for the faint of heart, but its great if you like to save a little money and like to sleep in your own bed after a hard day of riding. It was definitely a good time, and good memories of past turnaround trips.
