• Like most condos at Mammoth, Mountainback is run sort of like a hotel – except that you take out your own trash and wash your own dishes. Bed linens and bath towels and shampoo & soap are provided. For the kitchen, the dishwasher detergent, trash bags, and kitchen towels are provided. Maid service comes in once a week to change laundry unless you request it more frequent. When guests leave, and before new guests arrive, they come in and do a lot more: change beds and towels, clean the kitchen and bathrooms, vacuum the rugs, put away dishes, etc.
• Parking is in the garage under the building. This picture is looking directly at our parking spot, 72, this side of the second column on the left as you enter. You can park in 72 or in any un-numbered spot (north wall, which might be more convenient for loading and unloading).
  
• You should get a parking pass from the main office and keep it visible through your windshield.
• Trash goes in the dumpster at the entrance of the garage.
• ON YOUR LAST DAY, when you are ready to leave, you need to take out the trash, wash pots & pans, and run the dishwasher – and leave the dishes in the dishwasher, you don’t need to put them away.

THE KITCHEN

• The kitchen is quite well equipped – it was when we bought it and we try to keep it that way. There is a microwave, large oven and stove. Everything is electric, but that’s all there is in this town. Everything you need is there (no wok but lots of big skillets).
  
• Directions for the oven, microwave, heaters, and most other gadgets are in the far kitchen drawer by the windows.
• Mountainback provides dishwashing detergent, kitchen towels, and trash bags.
• The big supermarket in town is Von’s at Old Mammoth and Meridian. It’s a great store but try to avoid late afternoons, evenings and holidays – it can be a zoo. There is also a very nice alternative foods market, Sierra Sundance Whole Foods, in the shopping center where the Do-It Center, CVS, and Footloose Sports are located at Main Street and Old Mammoth Road.  There are also a few other small stores with groceries, even Mexican foods,  on the residential streets downtown.
• There’s a clothes washer and dryer in the entry closet, and a second closet with brooms vacuum etc.
  

INTERNET

• Wireless internet and TV is cable, quite good, and no charge.
• Wireless connection is named: Mountainback72
• If any trouble, call the office at (760) 934-5000 and they can reset the cable. Meanwhile, the other condos around, #71, #73, etc., all use the same username format and password.

TV & MUSIC

We have a 40″ LG HD TV and a Sony Blu-Ray DVD player in the cabinet underneath. There is also an LG soundbar with its own controller. If you need to modify input and output configurations, the input should be TV and audio output should go to the soundbar.

• The orange Yamaha stereo plays iPods that have the older, wider connector as well as CDs and radio. There is an adapter for newer ipods. It also has a standard mini stereo phono plug (i.e., headphone), USB, and the usual other inputs for other devices.

HEATING & HUMIDITY

• PELLET STOVE and HOW TO OPERATE… per Forest Service and City requirements, the fireplace has been replaced by a wonderful, very efficient, much greener PELLET STOVE. It is very easy to operate and can easily provide all the heat needed in severe winter weather.
• Electric HEATING… The heat should be on very low when you arrive and it should be left on low – 50 degrees – when you leave at the end of your stay. This is to prevent pipes from freezing.
• Otherwise, the ‘comfort zone’ on the thermostat works fine but remember, it is only for the electric heaters, not the pellet stove.

• The thermostat is on the kitchen wall for the heaters in the entry and dining room. There are separate thermostats in each of the bedrooms.
• There is another heater unit in the living room at the glass doors to the firewood balcony which is independent of the thermostat – it has a knob on the unit which controls it. Please leave it turned down when you leave.
• Mammoth has VERY dry air at 8500′ . There should be a humidifier either out in the kitchen or in the entry closet. Feel free to bring your own too if you want.
  

CARPETS

• There is a great carpet cleaner in the laundry closet, above the washing machine. Its called Fonex and it does an amazing job on this carpet.
• Vacuum cleaners are in the small entry closet.

WINDOWS

• The windows are great – but fragile and tricky to open. They are double paned to keep the heat in and the cold out in winter.
• However, try not to open the windows too much, if you can avoid it – the sliding doors are much easier. The window hardware is getting old and fussy. The cranks can malfunction, call the office if they do. We have replaced several but the problem is also in
  the wood frames.
  The most likely reason to need to open windows/sliding doors is when cooking; the stove ventilation is useless, sadly typical of the era – and standard in all condos. Our experience has been that nothing works better than opening the windows. But do it very gently – don’t force anything.
• Best: open the lock,  gently press outward on the wooden window frame at the same time you gently begin to crank the knob. This will pop the window out a bit and then we find that the crank works fine. They probably malfunction when people try to force the window open with the crank alone.
• Technique from Germany for ventilating a warm, stuffy, house in the dead of winter: open all doors and windows at once and then go around and close them again. This airs everything out before walls and furniture have a chance to get cold. It works, but remember to be gentle with the windows. Stuck windows in winter are not fun.
  If you have trouble with a window call the management in the office. They are very good at fixing them. If it is after 5PM you may still be able to get them, try ringing the bell at the office – if not, there are spare blankets!