If you missed Part 1, click here.
If you have ever spent a whole day doing anything active, you know that you are exhausted. After snowboarding for the better part of 8 hours with almost no break, I was quite exhausted. Our dinner consisted of thanksgiving leftovers which certainly did not help the cause as our intentions were to check out the nightlife in the area as well.
After dinner, the rest of the party had begun to lag with the getting ready process. At this time I sat down to watch TV while waiting. Sitting turned to slouching which turned to laying which resulted in a quick power nap. I did not know it at the time but turns out that was exactly what I needed. When everyone else was ready, I was woken up, threw on a quick change of clothes and out the door we went.
The first place we tried was apparently at capacity. So rather stand in line we headed on to another place. Now going into the evening, I had the intention of only having "a" drink. But as I'm sure many people know, one turns into two which turns into more. At the end of the evening, I had a few more than anticipated plus a couple shots. I was feeling "good". The question was how was I going to feel early in the morning when I was to head up to the mountain again.
Sneaky little fact about me is that I do manage my alcohol very well. Very rarely will I feel any after effects of drinking. A combination of being lucky with genes and lessons learned.
Sunday morning I woke up to lovely bluebird skies. I was bright eyed and bushy tailed without feeling the slightest hint of going out the night before. After the time I had on the mountain on Saturday, I was itching to get back up there. I decided to get my stuff on and head up on my own as it seemed that some of the others were not as ready. Luckily, that was a good call.
I got up to the mountain just before 9. I had missed first tracks again but it was so nice out I did not care. The nice thing was that because I had my pass this time, I went straight to the lift line and up to start my day.
Since I had spent a good portion of Saturday exploring, on Sunday I had a better knowledge of the layout of the mountain and where I was compared to where I wanted to go. Any one that has been to Mammoth knows how important this is and for anyone that hasn't, I will just say the mountain is huge. With only about half the lifts open, Mammoth still had the largest open ski area in the U.S. at this time. So knowing the layout of even half the mountain is huge.
I spent the next several hours alternating between finding new runs and hitting some of my favorite runs. The great thing about the conditions we had was the weather was wonderful. The downside was, in these conditions, there isn't too much to do other than jam it down the hill as fast as possible. Oddly enough, this is one thing I enjoy; I love to see how fast I can go.
After a few hours, I finally got in touch with the rest of my group. Some of them still were not feeling top notch so they went to cure their hangover with a bloody mary. The rest were cruising about slopes. I knew where they were so I figured I'd find them eventually. Just to experience the thrill of the summit again, I headed to a lift that brought me to the top.
I still can't reiterate how lovely it was up there for both these days. I'm sure that there are other areas that are also lovely, but I just couldn't contain my smile while up there. After spending a few minutes taking it all in again, I traversed down taking yet a different run down.
As the day went on, eventually the fact that I had not snowboarded in several years caught up to me. I am in decent shape but I can think of nothing that can be down to keep those muscles in shape. By about 2 pm, I was ready for a break. Considering some people I was with had only done 3 runs all day, I figured I had done enough to warrant a rest.
Eventually, we decided to call it a day. We still had the long haul back down to LA. But before we left we decided to curb our appetites at a little burger place simply called "Burgers". This place had come recommended from another passenger on the shuttle as we came back down from the mountain. And after having their burgers, I would recommend it as well.
Once our bellies were full. We loaded into the car and headed on out. I was a long one but nice. We talked, laughed, joked and took in each others company. After a while people started nodding off. I just put some music in and just took everything in. The weekend was coming to an end as was another adventure. On the other hand however, another week was just starting. And with another week comes another chance for an adventure.
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