MAMMOTH UNDERTAKING by Jackson Hogen
[reproduced from SKI Magazine December, 2001]

In the late Eighties, plans were forming to reverse Mammoth's slide in popularity. Under the direction of then Chief Administrative Officer Rusty Gregory, the resort began acquiring parcels of land around its base, at the same time looking for a development partner to reshape the town's core-free character. Like 80 percent of the customers he serves, Gregory is a product of Southern California, a surfer who morphed into a heliski operator and later into his present role as resort CEO and mountain manager. Like the mountain he runs, he is tall and broad-shouldered, with a strong, handsome face and the burnished skin of a lifetime outdoorsman.

In 1996, he brokered the deal with Intrawest. The resort developer bought 33 percent of Mammoth (later upped to 58 percent) plus 130 acres at three sites, which it pledged to spend $800 million to develop. McCoy retained voting control and continues to run the mountain, along with co-owner Gregory, McCoy's wife Roma and their daughter Penny.

Mammoth is a giant work in progress. In the last four years, the resort has poured nearly $100 million into new lifts, base-lodge improvements and expanded snowmaking, with another $60 million going into the operation over the next four seasons. The majority of effort, however, will be spent on beefing up Mammoth's lodging in an attempt to recast the area as a destination resort. In 1997, Intrawest embarked on a 10-year plan to develop 10,000 additional beds, including the Village at Mammoth, the centerpiece of the new North Village base development, which is scheduled to open in December 2002. All told, the capital outlay will run in the neighborhood of $850 million. That puts the total resort-development package at more than $1 billion, making Mammoth's transformation the biggest resort makeover in the history of skiing.

None of this mountain of moolah was likely to be invested were it not for the plan to expand the Mammoth Lakes airport to handle jet traffic. This essential piece of the puzzle fell into place last April when the FAA approved $28.7 million in funding for the airport expansion, which would lengthen the runway by 1,200 feet, allowing 180-seat 757s to land where only small aircraft are now permitted. A lawsuit by a coalition of environmental groups, however, could delay the airport expansion if the FAA determines more environmental analysis is needed, but the resort is optimistic.

The new airport and the concentration of services in the pedestrian area of the North Village mean that future visitors to Mammoth won't need a car to get around. A $15 million gondola running from the Village to the mountain, also due for completion next season, will further obviate any advantage to having wheels on hand.

In any discussion of Mammoth Mountain, it's wise to note that its moniker is well-deserved. The mountain's 3,500-plus acres dwarf the town's total developable acreage of 2,200. But size alone is not what makes Mammoth memorable. Its defining physical characteristic is above-treeline skiing, which comprises the top 1,300 vertical feet of its total 3,100-foot rise. On a day when clouds settle like a shawl across its wide shoulders, this attribute can be disconcerting, disguising terrain and baffling one's sense of what's up or down. But when it's bright and sunny, as it is some 300 days a year, the mountain's tree-free top creates a boundless playground limited only by one's own creativity.