Mammoth Mountain Bike Park Lifts to Start Spinning this Friday

Mammoth Mountain's Bike Park is set to open Panorama Gondola and Chair 2 this Friday for the first time in the 2024 season, after lingering snow has so far limited biking access to the lower mountain trails.

Last year, Mammoth's mountain bike season was cut short due to record snow that delayed the opening of many trails until late summer. Riders can rejoice that they won't have to wait until late August this year to reacquaint with their favorite descents.

Come Friday, the Panorama Gondola will open for access to the trail Off the Top, while Chair 2 will open, adding Brake Through, Boomerang, Seven Bridges, Ricochet, and Flow to the list of open trails, which so far has only included trails closer to the base.

Brand Marketing Manager at Mammoth Resorts Gabe Taylor says the 2022/23 ski season continues to impact the bike park, and has contributed, to some degree, to delaying the full bike park from opening this season. "That winter was literally record-breaking, because it broke every piece of wood in the park. All of our infrastructure - trestles, jumps, wall rides - were toast. Like, almost every single one."

And while Taylor says the 23/24 ski season might not look quite so impressive on paper, with 376 inches compared to 715 in 22/23, the snows from the most recent season melted more slowly, thanks to a cold spring. "As as we started working our way around the mountain, we realized we had a lot of work to do. We had to get excavators out just to unbury the trails, and we had to continue to refurbish all the infrastructure we lost two years ago."

"We were able to open Chair 11 two weeks ago, and that was a massive undertaking. We had to plow through so much snow to get those trails open," Taylor says. "I think seeing where we came from, it puts things in perspective: you’re really thankful when you get every trail open."

Taylor says construction efforts related to installing both a new Chairlift 1 and new snowmaking guns down all of Stump Alley may impact some mid-mountain trails this summer, but that it's hard to say for exactly how long or in exactly what ways. "Though, if we have a pro-line trail and there’s a 12 foot crevasse in the middle of it, is it the worst thing to build a jump over it? I dunno," he muses, (mostly) jokingly.

As for when the rest of the higher elevation trails will open, Taylor says only time will tell. Even 80 degree temps can't instantly melt snow that has been coalescing to ice for months. "It's a brick," he says. "Try to shovel through and it’ll rip your forearms off." He says that weeks of 40 and 50-degree weather in June also added a challenge that's hard to appreciate unless you see the effects first-hand.

"We all have this big goal: we want all our trails to be open. And it’s possible. We know that summer will win - it has for thousands of years in California. It just takes some patience."

For updated trail statuses and more information about the Mammoth Mountain Bike Park, head to www.mammothmountain.com