Mammoth Mountain

The Mammoth Mountain Ski Area is the single largest alpine ski area in the country. The development of the mountain into a resort was started by Dave McCoy, a surveyor and hydrographer for the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power who, in 1953, was awarded a permit to operate a skiing site permanently on condition that he develop it. The first chair lift opened in 1955. Over 30,000 rooms are available and on holiday weekends every last room will sell out.

11,030 foot tall Mammoth Mountain marks the eastern end of a low passage in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Winter storms from the Pacific hit the mountain and precipitate on its slopes, giving it one of the most dependable and longlasting snowpacks in the continental United States. The unusual location of the mountain is related to its origin: unlike the Sierras, which were formed by tilted and uplifted ground, Mammoth Mountain is a rhyolite dome formed between 200,000 and 50,000 years ago as magma began to rise to the earth’s surface again under Long Valley Caldera.