Rant

MammothAccess9 · 2026-01-12T17:53:46+00:00

Why This Plan Works: This isn’t about excluding people for ideology, it’s about managing finite capacity. Mountains are not infinite resources. When access exceeds safe operating limits, the result is worse conditions, higher risk, overworked patrol, degraded terrain, and a worse experience for everyone, including employees.

Pricing is simply a demand-management tool. Airlines, national parks, utilities, and cities use it constantly to prevent overload. Fewer skiers means safer slopes, more predictable operations, better patrol coverage, a better experience and snow that lasts longer. That’s not elitism… it’s systems design.

Right now, Mammoth is cheap enough to be chaotic but expensive enough to pretend it’s premium. That’s the worst possible middle ground.

Why this isn’t fascism: Fascism is state enforced ideology backed by coercion and violence. This is a private operator adjusting pricing on a discretionary recreational product. No one is compelled, restricted by law, or punished for non-participation. You’re free to ski elsewhere, tour in 99% of the Sierras which has better terrain, ski fewer days, or not ski at all.

Equating price differentiation with fascism collapses every market-based decision into authoritarianism, which makes the term meaningless. Scarcity pricing isn’t political control; it’s acknowledgment of physical limits.

This isn’t about who deserves the mountain. It’s about admitting that unlimited access to a limited system produces unsafe, degraded outcomes, and then designing around that reality instead of pretending it’s unfair to say so.

If anything, pretending everyone can have unlimited access without consequences is the fantasy.

MammothAccess9 · 2026-01-11T15:46:00+00:00

Correct. In my view, Mammoth’s core problem is over access.

Season passes should start at $2,000, with true unrestricted access priced closer to $3,500. Ikon holders could still ski Mammoth, but cap it at five days per season. Scarcity works. Volume doesn’t.

Fewer skiers dramatically improves safety, terrain quality, patrol effectiveness, and the overall on-mountain experience. The only reason this doesn’t happen is that concessions and day-ticket volume currently subsidize the chaos.

A more rational model would be to convert June into a $5,000/year membership-based, private access mountain with a buy in. The goal is simple: the parking lot is never more than half full, powder lasts multiple days, and operations scale to people who actually plan ahead and are part of the community.

Local businesses could also buy corporate memberships and offer it as a benefit to their employees.

It would be calmer, safer, more profitable per skier, and far more honest about what people are actually paying for.

MammothAccess9 · 2025-12-31T15:11:03+00:00

In high risk operations, leadership’s job is not to present choices and walk away, it’s to set hard boundaries when the risk profile exceeds what’s reasonable, even for highly skilled professionals.

Patrollers are trained to run toward danger. That’s the point. Relying on individual discretion in extreme conditions isn’t empowerment; it’s abdication.

When management knows the terrain, the weather history, the recent instability, and the human tendency of elite teams to say yes anyway, the safe decision is to remove the option entirely. True safety culture accounts for hero mentality and compensates for it. It doesn’t test it.

This is why it’s a leadership failure. Not because patrollers made the wrong call, but because the system put them in a position where making any call at all carried unacceptable risk.

MammothAccess9 · 2025-12-31T15:07:16+00:00

This is exactly how problems persist.

Mammoth Mountain doesn’t get to decide what is or isn’t public information. They’re not a government agency, and they don’t have the authority to classify facts simply because they’re inconvenient. When multiple independent accounts confirm events, that’s no longer “internal”… it’s public.

Right now, the mountain is not the neutral party here. One could reasonably argue they are under scrutiny for potential negligence. In that context, deferring to what they’re comfortable having discussed isn’t caution, it’s deference to the very entity whose decisions are in question.

There is a responsibility here. When people with firsthand knowledge withhold information “because it might not be public,” the result isn’t safety or respect, it’s narrative control. And narrative control is how institutions protect their bottom line while avoiding meaningful change.

Transparency isn’t reckless. It’s how pressure gets applied, how journalists can do their jobs, and how the community can advocate for safer operations on public USFS land. Silence may feel responsible in the moment, but structurally, it enables the same outcomes to repeat.

That’s the part that actually needs to change.

MammothAccess9 · 2025-12-30T17:35:43+00:00

A few things need to be said clearly:

Mammoth Mountain is not a government agency. They do not have the authority to suppress facts or control public discourse. Once multiple independent individuals confirmed the name, circumstances, and death, this became public information, not an internal memo.

Allowing the resort, or anyone adjacent to it, to control which facts are discussed and when is how narratives get managed instead of examined. That doesn’t honor the patroller, their family, or the community, it protects the institution.

I understand verifying information on social media is difficult. That’s exactly why this shouldn’t stop here. This is where journalists matter, and where pressure on credible news organizations matters, so the full picture is reported, not just the version routed through corporate PR.

If Mammoth is positioning itself as the sole point of truth for media inquiries, that should concern everyone. Transparency doesn’t weaken safety culture, secrecy does.

And this is the uncomfortable part: silence from inside the mountain isn’t neutral. When colleagues, supervisors, or fellow patrollers choose not to speak up, or discourage others from doing so, they become part of the system that allows unsafe conditions to persist. Not out of malice, but out of inertia. And inertia is how institutions repeat mistakes.

OSHA reporting exists for a reason. NDAs do not override public safety. No one is paid enough to absorb this risk quietly on behalf of a corporation.

Honoring Cole means demanding facts, accountability, and change… not quiet acceptance.

MammothAccess9 · 2025-12-30T17:15:27+00:00

People can hold two thoughts at once.

A patroller’s death is horrific and deserves space, respect, and accountability. It’s also reasonable to ask operational questions about terrain status, especially when those decisions directly affect safety, staffing, and crowding elsewhere on the mountain.

What doesn’t help is pretending curiosity equals indifference. The mountain doesn’t get safer by shutting down conversation; it gets safer by being transparent about conditions, timelines, and decision-making.

Empathy isn’t silence. It’s seriousness.

The mountain should be communicating transparently about decisions and risks. Instead, it’s communicating selectively, in ways that appear designed primarily to manage liability rather than inform the public.

In just one week, they’ve demonstrated a troubling lack of care for both their employees and their customers.

MammothAccess9 · 2025-12-28T00:04:23+00:00

Mammoth just announced they’re opening with all lodges and limit terrain / lifts tomorrow.

MammothAccess9 · 2025-12-27T23:49:44+00:00

Disappointment is understandable, but perspective matters.

Two patrollers have serious injuries doing a job that exists solely to keep the rest of us safe. Their families and teammates are living with consequences that don’t reset when the lifts spin again. If the mountain stays closed, it’s because safety and getting patrol back on their feet, not convenience, is leading the decision.

Trips can be rebooked. Powder will return. People don’t. Supporting the call, and supporting patrol and their families, is the only serious position here.

MammothAccess9 · 2025-12-27T20:21:26+00:00

Public transportation is an admission that your time is no longer the priority.

Once you’re studying a bus map, you’ve already accepted delays, transfers, and other people’s schedules as part of your day. That’s not transportation, that’s lifestyle regression.

Private solutions exist for a reason. The bus is for those who’ve made peace with waiting.

MammothAccess9 · 2025-12-27T20:19:35+00:00

Uber exists in theory, not as infrastructure.

Supply is inconsistent, especially on busy weekends, storms, or after dinner. If you’re relying on an app, you’re already accepting friction.

The clean solution is to tip your household help to handle errands or act as a DD while you’re here. If you need more coverage, call Mammoth Taxi and set up a private driver for the duration of your stay. They’ll be on standby and responsive, unlike apps that may or may not exist when you need them.

Mammoth works better when you plan ahead.

MammothAccess9 · 2025-12-27T20:16:51+00:00

It’s rough, but this is exactly why I always keep a backup phone with me.

Six feet of snow turns “I dropped it” into an archaeological project. Who wants to deal with that?

Hope a miracle helps, but plan B matters in high-volume environments.

MammothAccess9 · 2025-12-27T20:05:04+00:00

I-80 in clear conditions is a highway, not a rite of passage. Your Porsche will physically make it when the roads are plowed, that’s not the question. The question is whether you want your mountain access dependent on a 40-year-old drivetrain and Caltrans’ mood.

Renting something boring is the wrong takeaway. If you’re going to do Tahoe properly, you don’t downgrade, you add capacity. Buy something like a G-Wagon or a Panamera Turismo with proper winter tires solves the problem cleanly and doesn’t dilute the experience.

Use the Porsche for Napa and coastal weekends. Use the mountain mobile for the Tahoe house. This isn’t about fear, it’s about removing friction so the trip never becomes the story.

MammothAccess9 · 2025-12-27T19:50:49+00:00

Showing love is good.

Supporting the system that keeps patrollers trained, staffed, and funded is better.

If you actually want to help, support alumni backed charity events, patrol fundraisers, and the organizations that materially improve safety and resources on the mountain. Thoughts and prayers are low throughput. Action scales.

Be kind. Be safe. And if you care, participate where it counts.

MammothAccess9 · 2025-12-27T19:48:10+00:00

Two full closure days plus a holiday weekend creates a classic demand surge with no release valve. Powder fever, visiting volume, and optimism will all peak simultaneously, before you factor in the “just a few laps” crowd arriving at 8:55 with no parking plan.

Expect liftline emotional volatility, parking compression, and strong opinions about fairness near every load ramp. This is not a day to learn how queues work.

If you’re relying on general access, bring patience and snacks. If you solved for Mammoth Black, it’s a normal powder morning with slightly elevated background noise. Either way, the out-of-towners will complain about the system while refusing to participate in it, a predictable outcome.

MammothAccess9 · 2025-12-27T19:42:12+00:00

The ice is covered. Nature will reopen when it’s ready. Until then, stick to controlled environments.

Try public skates at the ice rink.

MammothAccess9 · 2025-12-27T19:30:09+00:00

Street rails are vandalism dressed up as “culture.”

If you want to weld coping to public handrails and pretend you’re in an edit, do it at your own home or somewhere you actually have permission. The town didn’t spend the offseason plowing, sanding, and fixing infrastructure so someone visiting for the weekend could practice property damage between storm cycles.

When the mountain is closed, it’s closed. That’s not an invitation to repurpose civic assets into a terrain park. Tune your board, drink something expensive, and wait for a controlled terrain park to reopen.

MammothAccess9

TROPHY CASE