A lot like the rest of the country, Mammoth had an amazing La Nina snow year. It was almost like we had two entire seasons in one. We had a short fall, which led right in to an early and very snowy November and December. Then for the entire month of January into February there was barely a cloud in the sky and it was 35-45 degrees and we had an amazing "spring". Mid February into March, April, and even May were very snowy for our second "winter season" and then from the end of May till the Fourth of July was summer time skiing. At every point of the season; Roy and Gabe at Smith, Matt and Josh at LINE, Seth at Armada Clothing, and Matty Myhill at Nine22 all killed it with making sure I had what I needed. When a pair of skis de-lam'd, Malcyk hooked it up with another pair. I have never had a problem with my goggles fogging or having the wrong lens, which especially wearing a snowmobile is tough to do. Roy and Gabe have been awesome to me in the past and definitely continued with season. Big thanks to Seth at Armada for some nice water proof and warm outerwear; and with the insane amount of sun we had this year in main park, the first wave of Nine22 products was really really sick.

The early season in Mammoth was powder heaven. Deep, stable, snow with a lot of cushion for dropping cliffs and snowmobiling. I was lucky enough to get hooked up with a GoPro and full mount set up from Abe over at GoPro, who we've known from being a USC grad in town. For the early season, before everything got buried, I spent a lot of time snowmobiling, along with spending time at Mammoth's sister, June Mtn.

sledding in the mammoth slack country

phot cred: Peter Morning

Transfer backflip

Around Christmas, a friend and old coach of mine came to visit me and my room mates from the East Coast. Armed with a brand new camera and a whole bunch of GoPro gear, we got some of the sickest video of June Mtn Pow, and some secret Pillow Line stills as well.

Photo Cred: Matt Iovanni

Early Season Pow and South Park from Nick P. Miles on Vimeo.

After getting South Park up and open in one of the best set ups I've seen in four years, the Unbound Team at Mammoth assembled a park with features catering to its many X Games athletes for a proper Training ground. Matt Clausen put together an edit of the Montage Inc crew as well as some Past, Present, and Future Locals riding main park in January.

Just over a month after the X Games, Mammoth held a Grand Prix snowboarding half pipe and slopestyle contest. I'm not much of a half pipe rider, but one of my best days all year was when Michael Greggory and the rest of the Unbound staff gave myself, Chris Logan, Sean Logan, Parker White, and Kevin Malone the opportunity to test out the newly built Main Park before the event.

Cork 3 on day 1

Photo Cred: Peter Morning

A mellow but exciting session went down on the snowboard course on day 1 and we couldn't wait to get to filming after the contest ended. Surely enough, during the week of the contest South Park was as prime as ever. Ben Wiltsie, the always entertaining and mind behind the edit: Kevin Malone, and myself went on a mission to film an edit with shots from every park on the mountain. Once Main park opened after the contest we did just that: Starting in South Park, Migrating to Forest Trail, and ending the day on the grand prix course. Here's what we came up with:

2 and 1/2 Men from nick miles on Vimeo.

After the Grand Prix was over, the Unbound Crew kept Main Park in Pristine condition all year long allowing us to have the option of riding deep pow when it snowed, or a nice, big park when the California sun was shining.

Photo Cred: Peter Morning

Hand Drag to forward

At the beginning of April, Roy Tuscuny at SMITH OPTICS contacted me and told me about a contest being held at Kirkwood Mountain Resort. It would be put on by Kirkwood Mountain, and the 4FRNT team built hand shoveled features on a natural boulder field to make a Big Mountain/Slopestyle hybrid event called: Twisted Sisters. It was my first "big mountain" event and I was really excited to see what the scene was all about. I unfortunately showed up the day of the contest to a course layout that resemble Coral Reef: frozen solid from the slush fest the day before. The course ended up softening up for the afternoon and the contest went off with out a hitch. I had a really good time dropping cliffs to semi-soft landings, and just skiing fast at a place I'd never been before. Here is the contest recap video:

Twisted Sisters: Day Two Pro Invitational from 4FRNT Skis on Vimeo.

Soon after my short trip to the Lake Tahoe area, I went up to Timberline, OR to take part in the WEST COAST SESSIONS for the second year in a row. Last year it was an absolute blast and this year we had even better weather and an even bigger jump to hit. I did my first ever straight up double back flip, and had an awesome time thanks to Windell's and all of the other sponsors who make that event happen, it hopefully be a staple of my ski season for years to come.

Photo Cred: Ethan Stone

7 Blunt

Biggest Single Backy of my life

Photo Cred: Darcy Bacha

Recap of the Big Jump Session can be seen here.

http://freeskier.com/stories/2011-west-coast-session-5-athlete-awards-and-full-recap

For the rest of the ski season, which in Mammoth went for another two full months I just spent most of the time working, and skiing Main Park like I had all season in the sunny California weather. Its always a lot of fun to simply Lap the park and have a good time, but as soon its sunny for a while I can't help but pray for next season to come. You just can't beat skiing and riding snowmobiles in pow.

Since we had so much snow this year, it is now the end of July and there is still plenty of snow in the woods and shade. After going on a few hikes in Yosemite, and the Lakes Basin surrounding Mammoth, we decided to drive up to the early season rail spot and see what we could find. When we got there, we found tons more snow than we had expected and a couple features that weren't 100% buried. We put it in some quality digging time and it was really fun to get back on the skis and slide around again. End of July, who needs summer camp?

Purple City Project-Vol.1 from Tory Kelliher on Vimeo.

This coming year I plan on getting an HD camera, in addition to the GoPro I already have and really spend a lot of time logging shots and pumping out consistently unique edits featuring BC Lines, Park Skiing, Pow Jumps, and everything in between with little-to-no repetition. I love skiing in the park, but I have noticed in the last year or so that my forte lies off Piste. With my mogul skiing background, and the terrain and snow that I have grown accustomed to living at Mammoth, I feel as though I can ski with just about anyone given the chance. Which is why I plan on attending a few of the World Freeride events this winter, along with any other Freesking events I can come across. I feel as though that is where my successes lie.