Tips For Skiing

MAMMOTH BASE SKI LODGES – ACCESSIBLE BY CAR, with parking; listed from west to east. More about Lodges, including on-mountain lodges below…

  • The Main Lodge was the original lodge built at the end of Minaret Road back in the fifties. The Mammoth Mountain Inn was added in the sixties. The Gondola up to McCoy Station and the Cornice ski runs begins here.
  • The Mill – along Minaret Rd.on the way to Main Lodge, is at the base of chairs 2, 10, and 21. Its a great place for lunch but has no lockers or other facilities.
  • Canyon Lodge is a 7 minute walk from Mountainback 72 and has day parking.  Access to Chairs 16, 8, 17, and 7.  Lockers, food, rentals.
    Chair 16,  hi speed quad lift, takes you up to the middle of the mountain.
    Chair 8, slow 2 person lift, takes you over to Eagle.
    You can take the gondola from Canyon Lodge down to the new Village.
  • Eagle Lodge is the newest lodge and the closest to town. It is still in a temporary inflatible building but it has good facilities, as the others do. Chair 15, Eagle 6 person lift.

TIPS FOR SKIING 

Websites:
MammothMountain.com

CANYON LODGE (formerly Warming Hut 2)
The nearest lodge to us, it is straight up Lakeview Boulevard, about a ¼ mile, or about a 7 minute walk on foot. There is a large parking lot as well as street parking.   Most weekends the parking lot fills by 7:30 AM and parking stretches all the way down to us at Mountainback and beyond.

Ski Lockers
It is a good idea to get a locker at Canyon Lodge for your ski gear.  They work with tokens which can be purchased from machines, from Mammoth Hosts who walk around selling them,  or from the Basket Service on the 1st floor.  Insert the token, lock the locker, and take the key with you. The locker is good until you open it again with the key – BUT  you can leave everything overnight.

Lockers are located on the bottom and second floors. You should be able to get a locker, especially if you arrive on a weekday – but get one as soon as you can before the weekend. If they run out you can also check skis and things with the Basket Service up on the main floor, next to where they sell lift tickets. Remember that holiday weekends are especially busy. Tokens used to cost $2 …but they’ve gone up.

Each locker can hold two sets of skis, boots, helmets, and poles, plus… but it gets tight.

Ski Tickets – see: Mammoth Mountain website

Ski Rentals – see: Mammoth Mountain website
Canyon Lodge rents skis, boots, poles, etc. There are two rental shops: the large regular rental shop, located on the main floor next to the ski store, and the smaller Demo Ski rental shop, located on the second floor.

Ski Repair Shop
is located on the second floor, right of the staris, behind the Demo Ski shop.

Ski Shop
is located on the main floor with rentals, tickets, and baskets.

MAMMOTH SKI LODGES, as of 2015, listed from west to east

  • The Main Lodge was the original lodge built at the end of Minaret Road back in the fifties by Dave McCoy and company. It has been expanded numerous times. It, too, has lockers, lift tickets, information, cafeteria, bar, outside dining, ski shop, repair, and rentals, basket check, ski school, ski patrol, shuttle, and the gondola to mid-mountain McCoy Station and on up to the Cornice runs. Canyon Lodge seems larger, although it may not really be. The Mammoth Mountain Inn was added in the sixties. The Gondola up to McCoy Station and the Cornice ski runs begins here. Numerous Chair lifts take off from here including beginner lifts and boarder lifts. The main one is Chair One, a high-speed quad that takes you up to McCoy Station.
  • Outpost is really the western-most but it is not really a lodge; its a sun deck with fast food and restrooms. You get to it via the Cornice or Chair 12. 
  • McCoy Station, or Mid-Chalet, is located half-way up the mountain from the Main Lodge. It has a large cafeteria and a large indoor-outdoor bar as well as an elegant restaurant called Parallax. There is also a small ski shop and restrooms. The Gondolas stop here on the way up to the Cornice runs.
  • Panorama Lookout is at the top of the mountain, the Cornice, inside the gondola station. As of summer 2007 it was almost serving light lunch and snacks at window tables. Its very nice with great panoramas and it includes a small museum exhibit space about the Sierras.
  • The Mill – along Minaret Rd.on the way to Main Lodge, is at the base of chairs 2, 10, and 21. Its a great place for lunch or bar but has no lockers or other facilities. There may or may not be kiosks for buying lift tickets.
  • Chair 4, South Park – no lodge but an alternative location to begin skiing, with Parking on Minaret Road and and sometimes sells lift tickets on busy days. Restrooms.
  • Canyon Lodge is a 7 minute walk from Mountainback 72. It has Chairs 16, 8, 17, and 7. Beginner slopes and Intermediate. Hi-speed Quad Chair 16 takes you up to the middle of the mountain (one of several middles). Chair 8 is a quick way over to Eagle. Lockers, lift tickets, information, cafeteria, bar, outside dining, ski shop, repair, and rentals, basket check, ski school, day care/children activities, ski patrol, shuttle, and the gondola to the new Village.
  • Eagle Lodge is the newest lodge and the closest to town. It is still in a temporary inflatible building but it has good facilities, as the others do. Plans are to build a permanent lodge and village. There is only one chair, Eagle (15) but it is a high-speed six-person. Limited small 1 cu.ft. lockers for small things, lift tickets, information, waiter restaurant, bar, outside dining, ski shop, repair, and rentals, ski school, shuttle. This side of the mountain gets the sun first in the morning and most of its runs orient east-west so that it maintains the sun throughout the day. Many consider it the ideal place to begin the day as the snow softens here first – but then it may also be the first to turn slushy in warm afternoons or icy as the sun goes down. This side of the mountain has wonderful lower slopes for beginners and intermediate. Its upper slopes are quite challenging and are being expanded with the opening of six-person high-speed chair 9, Cloud Nine Express. The main Eagle run crosses over Lake Mary Rd.