California: All of Mammoth Mountain set to open Friday

Officials at Mammoth Mountain were a little worried late last week when the forecast called for a big storm with temperatures on the warm side, which would have meant rain -- at least on the lower slopes.

But the weather turned cold enough during the weekend so the precipitation that fell was snow, lots and lots of snow. By Monday, between 4 and 6 feet of the white stuff had landed on this big Eastern Sierra Nevada resort. The base is now an impressive 50 to 70 inches.

As a result, all of Mammoth’s terrain, 28 lifts and the Canyon and Eagle Lodges will be open Friday morning.

Writing on his mammothweather website, forecaster Howard Sheckter called the storm ideal and said the snow was loaded with water, giving the mountain a “great setup” for the Christmas and New Year holidays.

“If you were going to design a winter’s snow pack and summer’s runoff you would not do it any differently than what Mother Nature has done naturally this fall,” he wrote.

“The current setup of a rich ‘Sierra cement’ base with high water content will get compressed throughout the remainder of the winter/spring and will last much longer for the summer of 2013.”

He’s predicting cold weather after this weekend.

For details on Mammoth lifts, lodging and dining, go to Mammoth Mountain or call (800) 626-6684.

Elsewhere in the Sierra, heavy snow also fell at Lake Tahoe. Squaw Valley reported 48 inches and Kirkwood, 36 inches.

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