California Snowboarding Trip
Snowboarding is one of California’s many popular activities it has to offer in its beautiful mountain ranges. California is home to many ski resorts where famous competitions have been held for snowboarding. I went to two of the largest ski resorts on my road trip during winter break: Mammoth Mountain Ski Area and Palisades Tahoe Ski Resort.
Mammoth Mountain Ski Resort
Mammoth Mountain Ski resort is located in the Sierra Nevada Mountain Range in Central California and is on the border of Yosemite National Park. It has previously hosted the 2014 WINTER X-GAMES and has been a training ground for many professional snowboarders and skiers. Typically, Mammoth Mountain Ski Resort opens in early November to May depending on the weather. This resort has 175 trails, 25 lifts, has an elevation of 7953 feet and boasts 300 sunny days throughout the year. 1.3 million people visit Mammoth Mountain Ski Resort for skiing or snowboarding.
Palisades Tahoe Ski Resort
Palisades Tahoe Ski Resort is a famous ski resort for hosting the 1960 WINTER OLYMPICS and has an Olympics Museum open for the public to see. It is also located in the Sierra Nevada Mountain Range and is northwest of Tahoe City in Olympic Valley, California. Interestingly, you may know the previous name to this resort “Squaw” Valley but the name was changed to Palisades to respect the Washoe tribe due to the derogatory and racist nature of the previous name. Palisades Tahoe Ski Resort hosted the World Cup in 2017 and is a designated training site for the US Ski and Snowboard Association.
Itinerary
Day 1-3: We left at 2 am from the Inland Empire to go to Mammoth and boarded for three days, and left on the third day.
Day 4: I boarded one day in Palisades Tahoe and wish I had stayed longer. That afternoon, we left to San Francisco. Check out my blog about my California Coast Road Trip.
My Experience:
Day 1
One of my favorite hobbies is snowboarding so you know I had to wake up very early to drive five hours from my home to Mammoth to catch the first chair. The roads were empty so early so it was easy to get there in a timely manner with the exceptions of gas breaks and to stop to put on cables on the tires of my car. We arrived at Main Lodge at the opening time and still had to park at the lower Resort access called The Mill for closer access. There was a blizzard happening while we were there so a good amount of chair lifts were closed and at times there were some white outs. White outs are when the visibility is almost nonexistent due to clouds, snow, fog, and wind. They do not usually last very long, sometimes. We had brought snacks to keep us fed without having to buy lodge food as that is so expensive. We headed to the airbnb we rented. We made food, conversated a little, and went to bed to get ready for another early day.
Day 2-3
It turned out that there was a massive storm and the Main Lodge was closed due to over 100 mile hour winds and the blizzard. Our cars were also so piled on with snow you could barely see them. We dug them out but it took a fairly long time. By midday, secondary lodges opened so we headed out to the Schoolyard to get into other parts of the resort and more strenuous? lifts. This was a cold but successful day of boarding. We headed home and made food. We then went to bed for another early day of boarding as we knew it was going to be a bluebird day which meant it was going to be a clear blue sky with great weather day. We had an absolutely amazing day of boarding only with one or two near death experiences unlike the first two days.
Day 4
We had packed up from the Airbnb that morning and headed on our way after we finished boarding that day to Palisades Tahoe, a mountain I have been dying to see from what people have been telling me and the fact that the 1960 Winter Olympics were hosted there. We got to our hotel in a lovely city named Carson City, Nevada that I really enjoyed and would love to explore further in the future. We fell asleep immediately. Then we got up early again to catch an early chair. This was by far the best, most exhilarating mountain. I got to go down a double black diamond with a killer view. I was very terrified but it was so thrilling. The resort was absolutely stunning and I very much recommend it. At about 2 pm or 3 pm we headed out to our next adventure: A California Coast Road Trip! We packed up and headed to our first destination on the Pacific coast which was San Francisco.
Tips I learned Along the Way
- Make sure to have cables or chains for your car and know how to put them on your car.
- Try to get there before the lodge opens or you will likely be walking a far distance to the nearest Chair Lift with your heavy gear.
- ALWAYS CHECK THE WEATHER because there are high chances that if the weather is bad, chair lifts are closed or even the whole lodge.
- Be sure you are prepared for white outs when there is no visibility and your depth perception is not working
- Hand Warmers. A must. Life Savers. Finger and toe savers. Will save your life.
- Roads also close so if one road closes, it could add a couple hours because you would have to take a detour going around the mountains for example.
- Make sure to have cables or chains for your car and know how to put them on your car.
- Try to get there before the lodge opens or you will likely be walking a far distance to the nearest Chair Lift with your heavy gear.
- ALWAYS CHECK THE WEATHER because there are high chances that if the weather is bad, chair lifts are closed or even the whole lodge.
- Be sure you are prepared for white outs when there is no visibility and your depth perception is not working.
- Hand Warmers. A must. Life Savers. Finger and toe savers. Will save your life.
- Roads also close so if one road closes, it could add a couple hours because you would have to take a detour going around the mountains for example.