Mammoth

Took the family to Mammoth this past weekend. Despite the fact that it was snowy, cold and windy -- so much so that they had closed the top of the mountain for most of the two days that we were there -- and Nicholas spending most of Saturday layed up in the lodge with altitude sickness, everyone had a good time.

Technically, I'm not a bad skier -- in fact, I was an instructor at one time -- but when you ski as infrequently as I do (half dozen times in the last 25 years) proper technique only takes you so far. I simply don't have the leg strength to do well and enjoy myself on the bumps and steeps -- not that I did a lot of mogul skiing; it seems the snow boarders have eliminated most of the bumps fields from the slopes. But, this was family outing; I had more than enough fun spending time skiing with the kids.

Here we are in the middle of the Sierras during a beautiful snowy weekend and this is the view from our hotel room. I booked the reservation on line where they had a box designated for preferences. I put down that we didn't want a room next to the jacuzzi and that if possible wanted something with a view. When I called the hotel to confirm the reservation the guy at the desk said, "You requested something with a view?" "None of our rooms have views." No kidding. Other than that, though, everything else was fine.

After spending most of the day sleeping off the effects of altitude sickness on Saturday, Nicholas recovered enough to have a good time playing in the snow back at the hotel. It is amazing what a difference 2,000 ft can make. Right before leaving the hotel he was perfectly fine; twenty minutes later he was as white as a ghost. The same thing happened to him on a hang gliding trip to Walt's Point a few years ago. At launch he was fine. But after I had taken off, Lauren took the kids up to Horseshoe Meadows but had to immediately turn around because of Nicholas' sickness.

Speaking of the Owens Valley, here is a nice shot of Mount Tom. One of my goals is to fly from Walt's and meet Lauren and the kids in Mammoth. The flight is tough to accomplish because of the prevailing SW winds; and a preferable SE usually means overdevelopment. Anyway, if you want to have any chance of making it to Mammoth you must get over Coyote Flats (under clouds in the distance on the left) and get established over Mount Tom. One of these days.