Bike Trail Prep
The following is from the Mammoth Mountain Live Vibe site: ”On Monday, June 5, the dig-out began. While the Mammoth snow report stated a base of 7 to 9 feet of snow, the bike crew brought out the snowblowers on the mountain’s lower measures. Live Vibe talked with Dave Geirman, who’s leading the battle against the heaviest winter at Mammoth by listing at least eight trails opening for June 24.”
LV: How long does it take to dig out a trail?
DG: We’ll utilize every day from now to opening. It’s a daily regimen of snowblowing and tree cutting.
Where are you starting?
We started on Downtown near the garage. Mark Hendrickson and I went out Monday morning and looked at where we need to blow. We’re going through piles six feet in some places. We’re going above the garage on Downtown and we’ll be snowblowing on Paper Route going towards Timber Ridge. Greg Sorenson is going to help using snowcats, using the blades to push the snow away from trails.
What other challenges are there besides lots of snow?
Because of the violent windstorms we had over the winter, there’s dozens of trees that fell over the trails. We’ll chainsaw those, use hand tools and rakes to work on erosion problems and smooth out the trails.
How big is your crew?
We have three people working now and we’ll add the ten-person trail crew the week before opening.
Which trails do you expect open for June 24?
Uptown and Downtown, Shotgun, Big Ring, part of Paper Route, Timber Ridge and Juniper, and Lower Bullet. It’s going to take a lot of work, but that’s our best guess and I have a real good feeling about opening these trails.
Then what will you open next?
We’ll extend Paper Route, continue it up to Juniper and the rest stop above Twin Lakes. We’ll continue on Paper Route to get the whole loop open for Fourth of July weekend. Then we’ll go Off the Top, which will allow bikes up the gondola, somewhere around the week after we close for skiing. The next big push will be Off the Top and Beach Cruiser. We aim for everything to be open by August 1 by adding trails every week. The last one to open is usually Skid Marks, and parts of Bering Straits.
What’s this season going to be like in the bike park?
We’re expanding the Kamikaze Park with an intermediate section, and doubling the amount of dirt jumps on Pipeline. The new trails Techno Rock and Twilight Zone are going to be radical. The thing about Techno Rock is you can see the lower half from the main lodge web cam. It will be utilizing the Super Pipe, so it will be a really fun one to watch.
Share your thoughts:
livevibe@mammoth-mtn.com
