Mammoth Mountain Ends Ski Season In August After 275-Days

MAMMOTH LAKES, CA — Mammoth Mountain welcomed the final skiers and snowboarders to the slopes on Sunday, putting the cap on an historic 275-day season. California's highest-elevation ski resort outlasted its peers and kept the lifts open into the first week of August for only the third time in Mammoth's 70 years of operation.

The resort logged the most snowfall in its history amid the Eastern Sierra's deepest snowpack on record. As NPR reports, early-season snow storms helped Mammoth open a week early on Nov. 5, and the historic parade of atmospheric rivers that followed dumped 58 feet of snow at the resort by the end of March.

Mammoth tacked on another couple of feet at its main lodge by the end of the season, and snow totals hit 75 feet at the summit, allowing the mountain to welcome visitors to the slopes deep into the summer. According to the Los Angeles Times, in a typical year, the resort receives 33 feet of snow and wraps up the season sometime in June. The previous record was 55 feet.

Several feet of snow remained by late June, and the resort was optimistic it would be able to stay open into early July, before announcing a final extension late last month. The ski season has reached August just twice before at Mammoth, in 1995 and 2017.

The new season will be here before you know it: According to KTVU, Mammoth has tentative plans to reopen on Nov. 10. With the potential for a historic El Niño winter ahead, another big snow year may be in the cards for the Golden State.