A Cold War Breaks Out on Mammoth's Slopes
By DENNY LEE, 24 January 2003 -- New York Times

WITH the Winter X Games only days away, Matt Hammer nailed a couple of tricks on the halfpipe, launching himself several feet into the air and twisting his 23-year-old body like a flat-footed whirlybird amped on Mountain Dew. It was only 12:30 p.m. at Mammoth Mountain, California's premier snow resort, but he was calling it quits.

"We're heading back to my condo," insisted Mr. Hammer, one of the many fresh-faced pro snowboarders who have adopted Mammoth as their training ground for events like the X Games, which get under way next week in Aspen, Colo. He peeled off his fog-resistant goggles and eyed the lift lines, which were growing longer by the minute. "The weekends are always so crowded," he said. "During the week, there's nobody here. It's just you and your buddies."

But not for long. Mr. Hammer and his buddies may soon be dodging hordes of skiers and snowboarders seven days a week as the midweek ghost town is remade in the image of Aspen.

Tucked among the eastern bluffs of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, Mammoth traditionally has been the domain of weekend warriors from Los Angeles. On Friday nights, caravans of four-wheel-drives slog their way north on United States Route 395, the 300-mile umbilical cord that connect the mountain to Southern California. Nearly 20,000 people fill the slopes on a typical winter weekend. By midweek, that figure drops to as low as 3,000.

Under a billion-dollar transformation spearheaded by the Intrawest Corporation, a resort development company in Vancouver, British Columbia, that runs 10 ski resorts, Mammoth Lakes — the town — is weaning itself from its traditional core. The no-frills, fleece-wearing community is being remade as a world-class resort for a fur-covered clientele that expects white tablecloths, designer boutiques, nightclubs and Starbucks.

"The average skier spends less than four hours a day on the mountain," said Douglas Ogilvy, vice president for Intrawest Mammoth. "For the other 20 hours, we're not yet at the level of other resorts. The amenities found today in Mammoth are not what they can find in Vail, Whistler or Aspen."

The centerpiece of these new amenities is "the Village at Mammoth," which is scheduled to open by Memorial Day. Really a shopping mall with luxury residences above, the pedestrian village was designed to offer alternatives for soft-core skiers. A 15-person gondola will whisk passengers between the mall and the slopes. To ensure that the gondola stays filled with après-ski shoppers, Mammoth is trying to upgrade the local airport for commercial flights.