Day 5

Wow. The kids have had a great lesson in adverse weather conditions on this trip. Today was another wild storm day and all the kids were amazing troopers! Cold, heavy snow and wind can wear out the hardiest skiers, especially when you happen to be so small in stature that the wind knocks you over! We all agree that it just makes you a better skier or boarder.

Time is limited so I'll probably have to finish my entries in Santa Barbara. It continues to snow heavily, however, and we don't know when -or if- we'll be leaving tomorrow. The word is that this latest storm will taper off tomorrow afternoon but we're hoping for a window of opportunity in the morning to get to Bishop.

I have additional ski pics and video to download but I wanted to end the evening with a great idea from Robert: Let the kids say in their own words why they love this trip and what it means to them. The following is a series of mini portraits with their thoughts. It's better than anything I could have written.

I also want to end the daily chronology the way I began: With thoughts of the members of this posse who could not make the trip this year. Rob, Vikki, Wayne: You will never know how much you were missed; This place is not the same without you. I hope this blog brought a little of the circus home to you, just as it reminded all of us how much more fun it is when you're here. Here's to Park City in 2009!

Finally, this thought: Special places are in part special because of shared experiences, good times with friends and family and all the history of annual trips that came before. Mammoth is such a place for us. The very word "Mammoth" evokes excited anticipation in the kid's hearts as early as the month of August. It isn't the geography, the real estate, the weather. It's "THE SKI TRIP"; the one that matters. There is no way to quantify the impact of those experiences in the life of a child, and that is the reason why the word Mammoth is synonymous with so many good things, and not just with the kids. One more memory for the bank, one more positive thought for the future. And one more reason to be a believer: Forever Mammoth!

Snowy Village at night

Nick

I like the Mammoth trip because I like to ski with my friends. I like to go to the hot tub with my friends. This year was my first time snowboarding, which is like skateboarding. It was perfect because I know how to skateboard. I like the snow but it's hard to snowboard in the snowstorms. My new stuffed toy "Mammy" likes Gondola rides and so do I. If we couldn't go on the ski trip every year I would be very sad. P.S. Mammy is a cute mammoth.

Savanna

I like coming to Mammoth because I
like having fun with family and friends.
I like the skiing; skiing is one of my favorite things! Even when it's a snowstorm I tell my mom that if everyone else is going, I'm going. I like the Village, it's a good little town. I also like to come just to see the snow and play with Nicholas. Nicholas and I like a lot of the same things, like bacon, croutons and peaches. I like lunch at the cafeteria and I shared my croutons with Nick. I like the pool when it's not too cold!

Sydney

I like the Mammoth trip for the skiing. I like Skiing because it's challenging. I like to take chances and go fast! I also like to laugh with friends and I like being wth the family. I like the pool but it was freezing! The hot tub was an interesting experience. The far hot tub was hotter and better. The snowstorms this year were kinda fun but made a hard wind that was challenging. The wind almost blew me over! I miss Rob and Vikki because they put a lot of fun into it. I love having fun with everyone! Ski lessons are fun but it"s really fun to ski with family. The ski trip is totally coolio! (adj. "over the top of cool" Ed.).

Natalie

I like the Mammoth trip for the skiing, the jacuzzi, being with Sydney and everyone and playing in the snow! I like to see what the condo is going to be like every year, because it's always a little different. I always tell my friends what a fun time it is. I like skiing with friends and family, especially Sydney. It may be blizzard outside but it's still fun. The falling snow is so beautiful and hard to believe that every snowflake is different! I also like eating dinner with friends and family, especially when we eat in the Condo. This year Sydney and I got own room for the first time. Sweet! Every year the ski trip is a little different but always fun. Sydney and I say it's totally "coolio" (Adj: "over the top of cool" Ed.). I wish Rob and Vikki were here.

Nick grinds in a snowstorm

OK, video was limited all the way around and downloading is too time consuming to get them all in before the trip ends. Keep watching the blog and I'll try to get other snips in this weekend. In his particular scene, Nick finally got me over to the jump & grind area to watch his latest tricks. The only fly in the ointment was the current snowstorm, which provided a nice 40 knot head wind. That makes it a little tough for a mini man to get enough speed for flying, or even moving forward. He attempts two grinds here and pulls the first one off, but in the second the only grinding to be had was grinding to a halt. Please bear with me on the gap in between: I couldn't shut the camera off while moved on to the next jump but had to protect the camera from wind & snow. Just for the record, proud ski daddy thought he was totally awesome.

Day 4

Big day today. First of all, we finally saw the top, along with lots of other scenery, because the storm passed! So it seemed appropriate to toss in some photos of familiar places around the mountain while they were still visible. Late in the day we got to ski with the kids (after ski school) so it also seemed right to download some of those hasty, late afternoon shots. It is still cold here but everything is relative and compared to yesterday it seemed like Miami. Of course the cold will still take its toll and I almost lost today's kid pictures as a result. Feeling the need to ski with one glove off for better access to the shutter release, I discovered that the main side effect was a completely numb hand with very limited ability to hold a camera. Skiing and shooting went along OK for a few minutes until the camera hit the deck, battery and card slots popped open and snow filled the cavity. I collected all the snowy pieces, dried them off and fired it up again. Thank you Nikon.

In the miscellaneous category, the coyotes have taken over around here. We encountered one casually walking a public street on the way to Canyon yesterday and there was one acting as a sentinel over Lift 7; that and the crazy howling last night.

In any event, we all had a great day on the mountain and tomorrow looks even better. No ski school; we all ski together. Hopefully we'll get some decent photos in better quality light and maybe even a group photo if we can get the group to stand still for long enough. Hope you enjoy today's entries!

Exotic Local Cafe

The top makes an appearance ...still closed :(

The view from 10

Dry Creek

The Trees!!!

The back of 5

The Gang of Four

Cindy trails boarder-boy

Savanna Shreds

Nick heads for the lift

Robert, Melody, Sydney & Savanna

Nick makes a slide stop

Sydney attacks a turn

Natalie, Nicholas, Savanna

Natalie: Speed Demon

Sydney and Natalie

Sydney

Melody & Savanna at lunch

Day 3

What a fun day for everyone! We learned that in addition to the quantity of snow, they also had 110 MPH wind gusts all over the mountain yesterday, which they consider an excuse for closing. The rundown for today is that the weather is still horrid by some standards but just right for us. All the kids were in ski school today except Nick, who went to boarding school (ha ha). Most of us were pretty beaten down by 3:00 due to cold & heavy snow, but Nick wanted to keep going with Dad (sigh) so the only kid "action" pictures are of him. We'll ski with the others tomorrow after school is out and get lots of pictures!

The photos start with a dawn shot of the village and end with the walk home through the village, but will include everything from hot tubbing in 15 degree weather to sleeping in, doing homework and generally fooling around.

The Day Begins

Savanna at ski school, Cindy & Joe, Snow pile

Nick, Sydney, Melody, Cindy

Robert, Robert & Cindy, Nick

Homeward through the Village

Day 2

Is there such a thing as too much snow? There is when it closes down the mountain. They managed to get 7, 17 and occasionally 8 going but the entire main lodge group was closed and of course the top was out of the question. They were even stopping traffic going to the main lodge and they closed the village gondola by noon. Not worth the price of admission for three lower lifts but we had food to buy, equipment to secure, etc. so it didn't bother us that much. Not that we could have gone anywhere anyway: 395 was close in both directions from here. I had a feeling we were the last people to drive that road last night...

Of course our spirits were lifted by the friendly, helpful, customer service oriented staff. more later.

Day 1

Ho-ly- cow, what a snow storm. Beats the wind & rain in SB, but caused almost zero visibility for the last 35 miles or so. I should have taken some car window photography, you wouldn't have believed how crazy it was! Instead I'll post some of our first pictures from Mammoth; Blizzard conditions all the way around.

In this round we see Robert and the kids braving a "walk" outside and everyone on their best behavior at Henneseys. Except for me of course, and that is a beer in my hand and I drank the whole thing. Parrrrty! Also, as you can see, we donned the bathrobes and took on the 40 mph winds and whiteout conditions to hot tub outside. We got 4 kids into it before we realized that the pool and jacuzzi's were turned down, apparently due to inclement weather. Sheeesh. Weather? We'll be the judge of that. So we got the kids out of the cold tub and ran for our lives through the snow. I have seldom been that cold. Finally, I've included a shot of Nick and Savanna having a sweet moment by th fire at the end of the day. Don't tell them I said that...