Mammoth Opening Day 11/11/10

The day has finally arrived!  I love opening days, it’s when the die-hards come out to play after waiting so long and it’s a great way to start the season being around people stoked on snow as much as you are.  Today was no different except that it was my first time being able to ride Mammoth and be a part of something totally fun at a new mountain.

Arriving at Mammoth at 6:45am

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I work for Mammoth marketing which meant an early day to work, getting ready and helping out with opening day.  It’s been rad to become part of this team and a new position that I can learn a lot from.  It also meant being outside to watch the opening and first chair go up, capturing the moments and having fun.

The marketing team getting ready for some camera time this morning

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The Arbor guys who came out for first chair slept overnight in tents at the chairlift.  That’s pretty die-hard and they were totally stoked the next morning (despite the cats walking them up and moving them).

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Chris Peroddi, Patrick Reddy and Danny Thomas representing Arbor

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When I first saw a tweet from a special person, I knew I’d see him soon at the base of the mountain.  Lee Crane, master and jack of all trades was present for the opening and such a great person to be around.  He was tweeting all day and even caught  all the action of the day which you can find on Boardistan (including a pic of me interviewing those in the lift line).  I owe Lee beer though because I went up the chairlift without him and missed out on riding with him 🙁

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Those crazy Rome guys were in full force.  They threw an opening day party at Whiskey last night that gave you free beer with a wristband (totally rad!) and were up bright and early to shred.  No doubt anyone from Rome has heart and soul into snowboarding.  They updated Facebook throughout the day and cooked up brews/brats in the parking lot.

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For conditions it was a really great opening day.  Bluebird skies with some winds but the conditions were perfect.  Groomers with not too many rocks, powder on the sides of runs and on the higher terrain.  It definitely made me realize moving to Mammoth off of reputation was a great choice and that if opening day was this much fun, imagine how much fun the rest of the winter will be.

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Groomers with the first people coming down

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For my first laps at Mammoth I headed up with my boss Steve to get in some turns.  Steve is the mastermind behind the Mammoth social media and really happy to be working with him.

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Underneath Chair #6 where main park will be this winter was the opening day Unbound park with 12-15 features including some new urban jibs that they built up.  We’ve got a new action sports manager (josh chauvet) and terrain park manager (michael gregory) in charge of making Mammoth known for its exceptional parks.

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I rode through a couple times but decided I’ll wait till the weekend to start hitting features.

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Of course there was powder to be enjoyed.  I rode chair #3 in the morning with Steve and just enjoyed getting some slashes in.

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I headed in after a couple laps in the morning to get back to work (updated the Mammoth Blog with more pics) but was able to take a ride break around lunch with Dan who handles PR and get the full tour of the mountain (what was open).

Top of the gondola view (yeah I love breathtaking views like that)

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Dan caught this shot of me hanging out at the top

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Ended the shred day with a stop by the Rome tent for a good talk before heading into work to finish out the day.  Stoked to get to ride the Rome Agent Rocker this weekend (thanks Graham and Joel) since a lot of you guys requested it!  Of course opening day isn’t complete without a happy hour somewhere and it was fun to meet up with Pash from Dragon for a couple drinks after work.  I must say, best opening day ever.