We booked a condo at the Village in Mammoth, which is a phenomenal resort in the town of Mammoth Lakes. I stayed there with Carrie and Aron back in 2004 and just loved the feel of it with the cozy stores and restaurants that were all within walking distance. The first night we walked around the Village to see what our options were. We selected a wine bar and split a bottle of Cab, my favorite. We also had the server select for us a variety of sliced cheese and crostini with olive oil. After we were sufficiently warmed up and relaxed, we braved the freezing weather and tromped over to the Auld Dubliner for dinner. We all had hearty Irish boxtys (boxties?) which pretty much put me over the edge into food coma. It was a great day.
The weather on my birthday was unreal! The next morning when we got up, it was snowing pretty hard at our condo and already there were 6-8 new inches. The part of the mountain near our condo in the Village wasn't open yet due to the lack of snow so far in the season, so we had to take a shuttle bus to Main Lodge, which was further up the mountain. On that drive up I have never seen so much snow in one spot! I was impressed by the bus making it up the winding hills with snow chains on. When we got to Main Lodge, it was blizzard whiteout conditions with a 60-70 mph wind. You literally couldn't see the lifts or the trees or anything. On the slopes, Andrew headed off on his own expert double-black dodecahedron trails with rocks and cliffs, while Sara and I stuck to the easier ones that were named things like "Sesame Street", "Squeeze the Charmin", "Jeezey Creezy This is Flat", and "Trust Me, This One is REALLY EASY". After a couple times of getting off the lift in complete whiteness, Sara and I decided to wait it out in the lodge where it was warm. Where there was food. And hot chocolate. Andrew was still out on the slopes doing an Olympic course or something that sounds equally impressive. He came and met us for lunch and said that several times he got vertigo from the snow swirling and not knowing which was was down. He also got buried in some drifts after going off a cliff on one of his expeditious runs. After lunch it was snowing a bit less and the winds weren't as bad, so we ventured out until 3:30 or so before it started getting worse again. I literally skiied into a drift up to my thighs! Every time you went down the hill, your tracks were covered by new snow. Andrew posted on his blog and fittingly titled it "God's Etch-a-Sketch".
By the time we were done for the day, there were already 3 feet of new snow. We headed back to the Village and sat in the outdoor hot tub, which was awesome. You're outside, the snow is falling, and there's all this steam coming up from the tub. We had it all to ourselves. We went and got some dinner at this Hawaiian-themed restaurant called Lakanuki's. Who would've guessed that all of their food would've been 50% off in honor of my birthday?
The next day was gorgeous. We woke up to 4 feet and blue skies! What else could you ask for? We were checking out of the condo that day, so we immediately bounced out of bed and packed the car. We then headed for Main Lodge again and since it was a Tuesday, there was practically no one there. It was awesome. We skied until lunch and then we had to drive home. It's a 6 or so hour drive and we weren't sure how the road conditions were going to be. Thankfully we left when we did because the next day we got a huge storm and all the freeway passes through the mountains near LA were closed due to snow! It was a crazy adventure.
I really had a special birthday and look forward to next year when I turn the big 2-9! Whoa!
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