Blogs from Mammoth Lakes, California, United States, North America - page 3

Friday January 15th to Tuesday 9th March, 2010 Closed since September for a maintenance and upkeep programme that consisted of one vacuuming, two scrubs of the pan and a wipe of the window sills the 'Sty' officially once again opened it’s doors to visitors in mid January with the visit of my old compadre Paul ‘Moose’ Murray. I’d been waiting in anticipation of our reunion at LAX arrivals for over half an hour when he finally emerged into view, a solitary sports bag no bigger than Dick Whittington’s hamper slung haphazardly across his shoulder, wearing a scowl and scuttling across the concourse at a pace that depicted a man on a mission whilst nervously scanning around, presumably for me, like a meerkat on the lookout for predators. If I was Customs and Excise I’d have had ... read more

Kørte fra San Francisco, mod Yosemite Valley. Vi kørte over San Francisco bugten, hvor vi kørte igennem landskab med kirsebær, nektariner og ferskner, hvor vi så endte med at køre ind i Yosemite naturreservat. Et mægtigt område med dalen og i bunden er der vandfaldet, og igen kæmpetræer "Redwood". Her er der rig mulighed vandreture, bjergbestigning og cykleture. Derefter mod Mammoth Lakes, men inden da mødte vi lige tre Sorte Bjørne. ... read more

From Vegas we drove another fair distance and braved the high temperatures of death valley to reach Mammoth Lakes. Matt was occupied for a large portion of the journey by conspiracy theories surrounding 'Area 51' and it's possible whereabouts.. (he saw a sign-like it would be THAT obvious!) Approaching Mammoth was a little surreal as we headed through blistering heat we had a perfect view of snow-capped mountains and signs for shops selling skis etc!! Our hostel was a very 'quaint' little log cabin type arrangement with bunk beds made of big logs and bear carvings all over it. We met a few interesting characters over the 3 days we were there, Glenn the pot-smoking drunk hiker, Jeff the chef who seemed to only eat ready-meals, Chuck the 70 odd year-old marathon runner..you can imagine the ... read more

Spring 2009! It was a great season on Mammoth Mountain; my best ever. We ended with 477 inches of snow!!! I had my first chest deep day and accomplished a lot in my skiing. To end the season, we explored around Mammoth, skiing Hollywood Bowl and Rock Chute, and going to the Reds Meadow Hot Springs. My roommate, Andrew and I took a trip up north with a plan to summit the two volcanoes; Mt. Shasta and Mt. Hood. We were unable to summit either mountain, but we returned with great experiences and all of our appendages intact. Mt. Shasta was our first stop on the trip. We rented crampons and ice axes from a climbing shop in town and got advise from the employees on where to begin our summit attempt. We were advised to ... read more

Thursday December 25th, 2008 to Friday 9th January, 2009 I hate Christmas. Okay, okay, maybe 'hate' is too strong a word but it is certainly something that I struggle to get excited about and come to think about it has been for as long as I can remember. I assume it's because I simply don't like the notion of people finding it necessary to have a justified reason to eat, drink and be merry whilst at the same time being generous and occasionally transparently insincere with the good will to all men! All these things should surely just come naturally ! Proceedings on a clear skied blustery and chilly Christmas morning started early, admittedly much earlier than I'd have preferred with a knock at the door around 8am and the granting of a request from Phil ... read more