Ski Into Summer: Late Season Snow Keeps the California Slopes Raging Into August

Maybe you can keep those skis out a little longer.

Usually by the end of May, most Californians are packing up the snowboards and jackets and dusting off the surfboards and wetsuits. Not so this unusually wet spring. In fact, experts are saying the ski and snowboarding season could go as late as August. Yes, AUGUST.

“We can honestly say this season at Mammoth has been the best in the country, producing the best spring conditions in decades,” says Tom Johnson at Mammoth Mountain, which just extended its daily operations from July 4 to August. “Even our biggest season on record [668” 2010/2011] did not produce the kind of conditions and coverage we’re seeing right now.”

That means plenty of summer shredding. According to the San Francisco Chronicle and Condé Nast Traveler, “California’s frozen water supply—or ‘Sierra Snowpack,’ as it’s known—was 173 percent of normal this winter: a good thing for environmentalists worried about the state’s drought problem, but also for ski and snowboarders who’d rather be zipping down a mountain than lighting up the barbecue.”

We’ll see you on the slopes!

For travel information on Mammoth, visit www.cntraveler.com.

Photo courtesy of Mammoth Mountain