Main Lodge

The Main Lodge is the prime hub in Mammoth where the skiers and boarders have access to the gondolas, restrooms, food and drinks, lockers, and places to rest.
Like other lodges, it gets crowded during peak season. And when it’s crowded, you also get the stench from sweaty people mixed with the scent of various hot food items and all the nasty wet-​carpet smell. It seriously made me nauseous walking in here and made me so lightheaded! I also saw a bunch of trash left on several tables (after the lunch rush).
Despite the horrid smell, they do serve a good purpose by providing shelter from the cold and a spot to rest up, eat, drink, etc. There is plenty of parking within the Main Lodge as well as on the streets. The road– and walkways are well-​maintained keeping snow away. The areas for bus routes are clearly marked. And they have a few pick up and drop off spots, that lead directly from the bottom of the mountain.
Overall, can’t complain about the services offered; however, cleanliness can also be a priority! On a more brighter note, I will say that they do have employees with positive attitudes here! :)

Mammoth’s «Skier’s mountain» heritage is most evident at this — the original base lodge. If one stands on the lodge’s third floor sundeck, in front of the flagstone chimney and its obsidian skier and indian arrow, you are literally standing at the original Mammoth Base lodge. The remainder of the Main Lodge complex grew out of this seed in a piecemeal fashion, expanding over the decades to encompass the two-​block long assembly of buildings, lodges, and parking lots that stand today. Aesthetically, it ranges from something that looks like the queue for the Matterhorn Bobsleds at Disneyland to something resembling a concrete bunker depending on what part of the building you’re in. As such, although it might lack a unified identity, it is undoubtedly charming.
Located four miles from town and resting nearly at tree-​line, Main Lodge possesses a remote, subalpine character. The air is thin here, and the vast carpet of Jeffrey Pine forest has been replaced with limber pine, rocky canyons, and volcanic craters. With a base elevation of 9,006 feet — an elevation higher than most Tahoe resorts — this is where the season begins and ends. The views of the mountain itself are spectacular, while a short chair ride up any of the lifts rising out of the base area provides tremendous views of the Ritter Range and Yosemite High Country, rising like a California Teton Range to the west.
Main Lodge’s main entrance lies adjacent to the skier drop-​off area, through the automatic doors. Here, on the first floor, skiers find lockers and lift tickets — the largest lift ticket desk on the mountain and the one with the fastest moving lines. Upstairs, Mammoth Sports’ largest location and a rental shop share space with season pass lockers, an equipment Demo center, and the «Photography Center» (Mammoth offers on-​mountain photographers that take «action shots» or posed photos.) The third floor — one more flight up — brings one to an extensive dining area consisting of the «The Green V» (Mammoth’s pressed juice bar. Never had it, never will) and «Tusks Bar.» The bulk of the space (including an upstairs dining loft), known as «Broadway Marketplace,» serves up cafeteria style dining, including Mexican, Grill, Asian, Italian, and Soup & Salad stations. As at Canyon, the tacos and pizza are quite delicious. The Asian stir fries change daily — the phở bowl is an unremarkable mess of noodles and flavorless broth, but the orange chicken is incredible — always crispy and freshly spicy with citrus notes. Chili bread bowls are a good standby as well — Mammoth’s chili is smokey and satisfyingly loaded with ground beef. Like the rest of the mountain, however, it’s pricy. You won’t get out of here for less than $ 15 bucks a person. Generally, the entire building can use a refresh — it’s old, it’s a little crisp in places, and it’s easy to get lost in. Hence the loss of one star. (Apparently, Mammoth has plans to redo the whole Main Lodge complex in the near future… more condos maybe?)
A separate base lodge across the parking lot and nestled next to a gigantic Mammoth statute serves as the loading building for Mammoth’s «Panorama Gondola» — offering access to McCoy Station and the «Elven53 Café and Interpretive Center» (aka the summit). A lesson counter and ski school shelter are found downstairs. Opposite this building is the Yodeler (subject of its own review) and directly behind is the Mammoth Mountain Inn.
Main Lodge is special for a number of reasons:
1) It provides the only access to Mammoth’s summit — Gondola or Chair 23 (or, arguably Chair 14 off the backside) provide access to the legendary chutes and high country. If you haven’t ridden these lifts, you cannot claim to be a big mountain skier. Cornice Bowl is the great rite of passage. Surviving Paranoid Flats or Scotty’s is apparently a big deal, though…
2) Terrain Parks — Mammoth has little competition in the field of terrain parks, as many snowboarding enthusiasts will attest. Though far beyond my abilities, the 28 foot half pipes and mountainous ramps would put the fear of God in the old guy himself. More my speed is «Disco Park» and «Woolly’s Woods» off of Chair 11’s beginner area… I love the tree runs.
3) Most Variable Terrain — Everything from the easiest of Greens (Sesame Street) to the best transition runs imaginable (St. Moritz and St. Anton) to wide «freeway size» cruisers (Broadway) to steep race runs (Fascination) and nearly impassable chutes (Gravy Chutes) are easily accessed off of Broadway Express. Access to Chair 12, 13, and 14’s backside runs provide a backcountry-​like experience nestled in a forested bowl cradled on three sides by the Ansel Adams Wilderness. Make your way out here on the crowded days and you’ll find runs all to yourself. Main Lodge has it all.
4) Extra Activities — Main lodge has dog sled teams. And snowcat tours. And snowmobiles. It rocks.
It’s old, but it’s special. Main lodge is Mammoth, pure and simple.

It’s your typical ski lodge… plenty of lockers available to stuff you stuff in!

The line to take the shuttle back town at the end of the day last Friday was at least 500 people deep, which reminded me why I don’t mind paying a bit extra to stay slope-​side at the lodge. After spending all day shredding the snow (that’s strictly my interpretation, most would say look at that guy trying to learn how to board) on my snowboard, the last thing I could imagine would be waiting in line for over an hour to get on a bus to fight traffic to get back to my hotel in town. Not for me. The lodge is well kept, staff is friendly, and there is a very large fireplace to warm up in front of, assuming you can find space. There is a good amount of parking, most of which is outside and uncovered, but there is probably 40 undercover parking spots should you be lucky enough to grab one, that is the place to be if you care about your car. Checking in has been easy the last two visits. Simply pull the car to the front of the lodge and walk in to the front desk where checking in is a breeze. After checking in, there are a handful of guys there that can help with your bags if you need assistance. This visit we had a room that faced away from the slope which was kind of a bummer, but the view as still very nice. The bed was on par with the bed at the last Ritz I visited! The room was very clean and fairly spacious. This lodge also has 3 indoor spas and one outdoor as well as a pool. I have to say there is something about sitting in a 104 degree spa sipping on an ice cold whiskey while its snowing outside after a long day of snowboarding. The body is warm, but the hair is frozen. Not much better than that. The only negative I have about this hotel is something that is probably not easily resolvable, but it seems like the subfloors are made of cardboard, because I could hear everything going on in the room above me. That in and of itself is hardly a reason for me not to continue using this as my place of choice when I head to #mammoth. Looking forward to my next visit, hopefully in the near future.

My experience with the employee here was short and dreadful. We purchased tickets to take the shuttle to Devil’s Postpile. Upon paying, my aunt asked where the restrooms were. The lady said «up the driveway» and looked away. So my aunt went to that direction, but wasn’t sure where to go from there. She asked me to ask again, so I did.
«I said it’s up the driveway.» I said «yes, but where?» she snapped and said that it was up the driveway, then threw her hand up in the air as if to signal which way to go. Okay. That didn’t help, but okay.
I then asked «is there a restroom at the trail head for Devil’s Postpile?»
She asked «what?»
“is there a restroom at the trail head for Devil’s Postpile, where the shuttle drops people off?“
She stared at me, and said in the RUDEST possible tone «WHAT?!»
After asking again, the exact same way, she finally said «oh, yes.»
I have this idea that if you don’t like where you are — in life, at work, in line at the store, MOVE. It’s not my fault you’re tired, or grumpy, or don’t like answering questions. Don’t take it out on me!
I’ve truly never had worse customer service, especially at a destination like this. Not to mention, it was 7:30am. Nobody wants to deal with that kind of attitude that early.

The Main Lodge where the bunny slopes are and the Gondola to the top of the mountain. It’s where I first learned to snowboard (i.e., rolling down the hill). Mammoth has always held a special place in my heart like my first love. I hate the b*tch. Just kidding. It’s a great mountain for beginners and experts.
Like every mountain, there are multiple lifts to get you around and the staff is extremely friendly. Mammoth has a rest area with a cafeteria and a bar mid-​mountain at McCoy. In my opinion, it’s built more for boarders than skiers. I don’t see many skiers here so you don’t get those douchie skiers like you do in Colorado.
The snow is always soft and the runs are wide, so you have room to maneuver around beginners. The wait time on the lifts aren’t bad at all and it usually doesn’t take me more than 2 minutes. The diamonds and intermediate slopes have a good decline and isn’t as intimidating for some of the beginners in our crew. Yes, we took them up to the intermediate and diamond runs cause it’s ride or fall is the only way to learn.
Overall, Mammoth is a great weekend trip and it’s fairly price mountain relatively speaking to other winter resorts I’ve visited. There isn’t really a pretentious or bro-​ish vibe at Mammoth. It’s definitely one of my favorite places to ride during the winter. Lastly, the lift scanners could scan through your clothes so you don’t have to consistently pull it out unlike every time I have to go piss. I wish I could piss freely like in the shower or the pool.

I returned to Mammoth this past weekend to snowboard one last time before the season ended. Luckily, it snowed when I was there. The Main Lodge is the center of all the action in Mammoth with a lot of foot traffic. The other lodges were closed for the season, and Main wasn’t as crowded as it was in March, which was nice.
The wait for our lift tickets and rentals was about 10 minutes. Since they had our information from the last trip, it saved some time. They suggested I get a different snowboard size, which I ended up liking a lot better.
There are clean bathrooms, good food options, a hydration station, and a bar. It’s also nearby the gondola. There’s indoor and outdoor seating so you can enjoy the view of people doing tricks in the park or coming down Broadway. Main Lodge may get busy but has all the essentials to make your trip enjoyable.

Have been waiting in line for half an hour to get my lift ticket and still not even close to the front so maybe I can kill some time writing on Unilocal.I ignorantly bought my ticket presale online thinking that it would save time on the slope, but the advance sale line is actually slower than the normal ticket purchase line. This is my first time at mammoth and hopefully the slopes are awesome but so far this is a pretty poor experience. There’s plenty of sweet senior citizen ladies helping people get in line, but only three actual ticket windows. Even mountain high has more. If anyone is planning on coming to mammoth, avoid the main lodge like the plague!

It’s the MAIN LODGE!!! It is the HUB of Mammoth. Every soul on the mountain ends up here at some point. You may start at Canyon or Eagle or Mill Creek, but you always end up at Main. …and when it’s busy, Dog help you if you aren’t at Main. People be skiing/​riding over each other at the other lodges.
I’m not a big fan of the hotel accommodations up there… they’re a bit old and in need of renovation, but that’s not really what I“m reviewing here.
At Main you can get everything you need… one of my favorite places to start and end my day is at Tusks Bar. They make a mean Bloody Mary and you can sit back and take in the scene while you chill with your besties and watch the kids shedding the half pipe. Drop of your board (s) at the end of the day at the rental/​demo shop to get waxed so you don’t have to slog it home overnight so it glides over the snow in the a.m.
Jump on the Gondie and head up to McCoy or all the way up to the top so you can drop into Cornice or over the backside. Or you can hop on old school Chair 12 for a more direct route to the backside.
In the summertime, it’s the way station for heading into the back country, amazing hiking serious downhill mountain biking.
Yeah…

I ordered the chilli cheese fries, there were ready right after I ordered them, but the price on the board and what i paid were totally different! The fries were decent but I wasn’t a fan of the chili. It was too pasty and had too much beans and barely any meat.

The Main Lodge, the hub of Mammoth Lakes ski/​snowboard, hiking, biking, gondola ride up to Mammoth Mountain, and bus ticket to Devil’s Postpile/​Rainbow Falls and the back country of the Sierras.
When I went in late September it was slow with a few cars parked, probably they were inside Yoddler’s drinking their butts off. Rockwall was closed for the summer (cause the kiddies had to go back to school and learn their ABC’s and 1,2,3s!!!)
Though I did review the Gondola and Mammoth Mountain area earlier, I wil review what I forgot to review. As I stated before it is expensive to go up the scenic Gondola There are many steps going up to the Gondola as well as a seperate stair case (if I remember for the bicyclists).
Once you get to the boarding station, you have to have your ticket out and flash in front of the scanner (which I didn’t and stomach hit the gate nearly falling over and hurting myself in the process but I wasn’t hurt that bad).
I am not much of a snow sport person so I can’t review the other part of the lodge like ski/​snowboard school (done snowboard school before but at Mountain High), or their food.

WHICH WAY DO WE GO?! WHICH WAY DO WE GO?!
If you are a normal human, by definition, you’d have a clue and a sense of direction. That’s not how The Crew operates. We pride ourselves on going where no hiker has gone before, with a few exceptions of some epic peaks.
The Main Lodge is one of those exceptions, it is a starting point for many. tourists, fishermen/​woman, swimmers, loungers, skiers, drinkers, off road cyclists, etc… Heck there’s even a rock wall as well as many other activities for the wee ones. You name it, starting at the Main Lodge you will find something for everyone to do, see, eat, drink.
The Crew hitched a ride for a short jaunt to Agnew Meadows trail-​head for another trail adventure. There are others stops to various trail-​heads as well. The round trip cost to the various trail-​heads is $ 7.00 for adults, $ 4.00 for children over the age of 3, and children 2 and under are free and parking is both free and convenient. Tickets may be purchased the day of your excursion.
So the next time you’re in the Mammoth Lakes area, check this local out, you will find yourself amused.

we spent most of our time at the mountain here. just hanging out with family/​friends. lots of space available to both eat, lounge, vedge and just people watch. there’s a cafeteria area for food, a full bar inside and outside, lots of tables to eat on, lots of lounge couches to sit on, rentals and a partridge in a pear tree. prices were typical for a resort. nothing crazy. we’ll be back here next year.

Today we decided to meet for lunch at the main lodge after an amazing morning of snowboarding. Our experience was much better than yesterday’s at Canyon Lodge. Though it was much more crowded, the food service was quick and efficient. There were more choices for food, and I ended up enjoying a bowl of tricolor pesto pasta with broccoli, artichoke hearts and olives, yum! The server was also very friendly and helpful which is surprising considering pretty much everyone in mammoth wanted to enjoy the first day of the best snow of the season. We had a great time recharging our batteries and would go there again.

Main lodge is the oldest part of the Mammoth mountain properties and has the best snow and highest elevation compared to Canyon and Eagle/​Juniper Springs.
The Good:
1. Best snow. Higher elevation means better snow than Juniper Springs/​Eagle lodge and Canyon Lodge.
2. Largest rental selection of the three lodges.
3. Largest restaurant of the three lodges.
4. Arguably has the best ski instructors of the three lodges.
The BAD:
1. Main Lodge is old. They renovated but the parking is terrible and small and the place gets really crowded peak winter season.
2. STAIRS… There are a ton of stairs to the shop and restaurant which are a pain in the butt when you are wearing ski boots or with kids.
3. Crowded. The lifts have super long lines during peak winter season. Expect at least 30+minutes to get on the chair lift. Longer for the sesame street chair.
4. Rental shop. This one deserves it’s own category.
The place is disorganized and service is slow. Seasonal employees mean it’s a toss up between totally unhelpful employees to knowledgeable. The presence of managers doesn’t seem to speed up the process. You can watch the employees sit around behind the counter doing nothing as you wait in line. They won’t even acknowledge your presence when you in line even though they aren’t busy with another customer.
The employees also do not respect the line and will allow people to come in from the sides to ask questions and jump the line. Very annoying.
You can check in your ski’s overnight but getting them the next morning is a test of your patience. The employees should be expediting getting your equipment to you but instead use the space for pick up to rent equipment and answer questions while a huge line of people wait to get their ski’s and boards.
5. The lockers. It costs money every time you open the door for the bigger lockers.
The small ones you can rent by the day but they are too small for skis and boards.
6. The Sports Shop… Has a decent selection of products and you can buy the demo equipment that you tried when you rented it.
The «Try before you buy» is very misleading though.
Officially, mammoth says,
«With convenient service at each base lodge and the ability to test as many models as you like without leaving the slopes, Mammoth Rentals offers the best demo program in Mammoth. In addition to the unmatched convenience of on-​mountain demo, you can deduct your rental cost from the purchase price of any demo equipment you decide to buy. «
That is only part true. You can only deduct the FIRST day of rental cost from your demo purchase. I rented Demo Ski and boots for 3 days after reading that from the website but was told at the shop you could only deduct one day worth for you purchase. The rental shop employees did not know about this when I asked them.
7. The MVP season pass program. Buying a season pass makes sense when you know you will ski a lot at Mammoth. But, the MVP program has very few perks at all. NO food discounts. Sports shop will give you 10% off only after you spend 100 dollars. The website says 10% off everything and 20%off over $ 100 but that wasn’t my experience in the shop. NO rental discounts during peak season. NO discounts on lessons.
They should just call it a Season Pass and remove the «MVP» part of the name.

Mammoth is great, Main Lodge… so so. Here’s what’s up (in my mind). The bathroom issue really bugs me, but I can’t let that make me give them three stars.
Great:
— Tons of options for food.
— Indoor and outdoor bar.
— Lots of seating.
— Spacious.
— Easy access to the gondola, lessons, beginner area, rentals and two of the main parks.
— Service is excellent, from the ticket window to the gentleman that asked if I was done with my tray.
Not that great:
— Bathrooms without shelves for gloves above the urinals (probably not that big of a deal for the ladies).
— Crappy parking situation.
I’d consider parking elsewhere if you can find it, but the food options and room may make this your best bet.

Winter is here and it’s time to be heading to an amazing snow mountain resort called mammoth. I’ve went to mammoth almost every season accept for this year since I am still out of the country having my own adventures. But if you love to ski or snowboard it’s time for you to head to the mountains and enjoy a beautiful day !!
This place isn’t just for adults the kids can come too and they can learn how to ski with trained instructors. I’m not sure how much it cost but many of the employees will for sure help you out !
I’ve never been here during the summer time so I am not sure how it is. But one thing is for certain you will have a blast and the more people you bring the better. Have fun for me!

Great lodge that always gives you the feeling of «home away from home» when you’re getting ready to sit your ass on a lift!
The lines here to get lift tickets move fast; they have staff guiding walking traffic and line formation to get tickets… everything, thanks to these guys, runs super smooth!
Once you’ve picked up your tickets, you can head out to a couple of different lifts. What I hate about this place is the foot traffic (it gets packed) and the lines can sometimes move slowly because, if you’re just part of a group of friends, you can be slightly delayed by families with kids. Go kids! There are some short, crazy little bastards here who continue to amaze us on park obstacles while we’re riding the lift up.
I’d recommend parking over at McCoy if you can, WAY easier getting in and out of the parking lot when you’re heading out.

Main Lodge is the hub of most of the action at Mammoth. The deck is great fun — sunny days are unbeatable and it’s the perfect place to watch all the contests on the hill. Inside, it’s huge (especially when they open all the areas up), and there’s enough food and drink to keep you stuffed while you shred.
There’s a shop with tons of gear — Mammoth and typical snow brands — and gear rental is inside as well.

Mammoth rocks! Come to Main Lodge in winter for your ski/​snow board fix and head up in Summer for mountain biking. I really can’t decide which I like better, but I know I choose Mammoth for both!
Summer season, if you come up with little ones and can’t do the mountain biking, the lodge has a great package for the kids; rock wall, zip lining and tons of other options.
Good times, I love you Mammoth :)