It was simply one of the best ski days of my life, Maybe even the best. There were more skiers than I expected but very few in the woods. The woods were where I was skiing bottomless untracked powder on every run in widely spaced trees with a few choke points. At my age I approach tree skiing with caution, but my confidence grew with every turn. It is all about the flow. You can't get it with a few turns then a stop. It takes 10 turns, 20, 30 50. When the flow kicks in it is mesmerizing. You never want to stop but eventually exhaustion compels it. I was on a new pair of skis, super fats with rockered tips, 125 mm waist and 155 mm tip. http://www.wildsnow.com/1039/megawatt-black-diamond-review-ski/ They were perfect for the conditions.

I have a date with the same place tomorrow.

Enjoyed more of the same today. The whiteboard at the bottom of the lift said, Welcome to June, your own private mountain. That pretty much sums it up. I did not see one other person in 'my' woods. I skied thru lunch until I was toast, at about 1:30. Got back here to Mammoth Lakes and I couldn't walk a straight line from my car. I'm still skiing powder in the trees and will be doing so in my sleep tonight.

Enjoyed more of the same today. The whiteboard at the bottom of the lift said, Welcome to June, your own private mountain. That pretty much sums it up. I did not see one other person in 'my' woods.

Today was my third day in a row skiing nothing but powder in the trees. Well, There was a bit of sun crust from yesterday's warm afternoon. Not really a problem with the super fat skis except I object to the noise. Again, there was NOBODY else in the woods. It was taco day at the taco. That's what they call their superpipe. Free tacos. Guess where all the rad dudes were. The lifties, cafeteria staff, and bar tender all know me now. I overheard a skier ask the ticket seller if there was any powder left, "There's some but an old guy has been tearing it up for the last 3 days." I left a bit early; it's snowing again and lightning is expected later. I am not that hard core.

Nice Denis!

Trees are where it's at. Despite the mountain being mostly skied off, I found a stash or two in the Brighton evergreens yesterday.

CA and WV have been getting the recent pow while Utah has been shut out.

LOL nice work Denis.

I thought it couldn't get any better. It did get better. Last night was supposed to snow 2-4". It snowed a foot. I skied the runs on the face of June, which are seriously steep, a consistent 35+ degrees and 40 in places.
http://www.junemountain.com/images/trail_map_lg.jpg
It was steep and deep. The best feeling in skiing is when you change edges and commit your body down the hill on something really steep and the powder gives you a second or so of floating gravity defying 'free fall' before the skis hook up and turn. It was like that. I didn't have legs enough to do that all day so after getting early morning untracked on the steeps I went back to my tree stashes between the blue trails.

Today the female liftie started calling me Darlin'. "Back for more Darlin'? (Laugh) I knew you would be." I think it's the gray hair, which equates to harmless.

I took a day off today. My muscles are fine but arthritic knees do not fully recover overnight, despite icing and ibuprofen. Some maintenance had to be done anyhow. Yesterday I blew a rivet out of a boot; got that repaired, did laundry, visited the Mammoth Brewing Co. tasting room, then drove to Bishop, CA to visit the Mountain Light Gallery. The latter is spectacular, a must-see. http://www.mountainlight.com/about.html I have long been an admirer of Galen Rowell's photography and writing.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galen_Rowell
Some of his pictures;
http://www.mountainlight.com/gallery.easternsierra/images.html
This one, http://www.mountainlight.com/AA-images/aa_0043_110.jpg brings to mind some of the places I skied in the past few days.

Denis,

Why have you been skiing June instead of Mammoth? Less competition for pow? Better tree skiing? Just in a groove?

John,

Yes, pow is pretty much the whole story. 4 days in a row of powder rarely crossing another track is pretty special. And yes, the tree skiing is exceptional.

I can find cut up powder in the trees at Mammoth days after a storm but it is cut up. Mammoth can get very crowded but few CA skiers (even experts) are comfortable in trees. A few years ago the founder of Telemark Tips came to the Tele Festival at Mad River. I met him and skied with him. Although an excellent skier, he was spooked by the trees at Mad River, but I have seen video of him tearing up the steepest cornice runs at Mammoth. OTOH I am spooked by big exposure on steep slopes.

PS Just found this; http://www.theeastsidemag.com/on-snow/2008/12/19/to-june-and-beyond.html
I wouldn't have tried this stuff alone, but next time we are there together - - - .