After one of the worst starts to the season for snowfall in years, Californian ski areas have seen something of a bounce-back with a fairly snowy January.
Mammoth Mountain reports, "We just tallied 6 feet of snow in the month of January!"
The news come after the resort reported only two feet and two inches of natural snowfall between opening for its 23-24 season on 10th November and New Year.
This was only a little over 10% of the more than 15 feet of snowfall it received from multiple snowstorms in the same period in November-December 2022. That turned out to be a record season passing 900 inches (nearly 23 metres) of snowfall and saw Mammoth stay open until last August.
Mammoth is now almost 100% open with 165 of its 176 trails are open and it's unclear how much its business will haves been impacted by having only limited runs open at the key Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year holiday periods. Last winter there was too much snow falling and lifts and slopes couldn't open while they were dig out and made avalanche safe.
The poor snowfall figures, which were repeated across the Western US in November and December, have been blamed on a strong El Nino system from the Pacific Ocean bringing warmer than average temperatures and coupled with climate change.