It doesn’t matter how many YouTube tutorials you’ve watched or hours you’ve spent observing other people on the slopes, learning to ski and snowboard is hard work.
The good news is that once you make it past your first few turns, skiing and snowboarding offer excellent escapes into the outdoors where you’ll get to exercise your body as well as your mind for the rest of your life. To help you make it past the learning curve, the Mammoth Bound team has written up a short guide on how using the beginner pass at Mammoth Mountain saves you money while you’re still learning. Save by checking out the guide below so you’ll have more money for lift tickets at Mammoth Mountain once you’re ready!
How Much a Mammoth Mountain Beginner Pass Costs
For an adult (23–64 years old), a beginner pass currently costs $79. However, Mammoth Mountain has a number of other age ranges with greater discounts. To see which age range you or someone you’re buying for falls into, click here and scroll down to the section with more beginner pass information.
Remember, beginner pass lift tickets are sold on an availability basis, so check Mammoth Mountain’s ticket page or call their ticket office to check availability before you make plans to purchase one.
How Much Terrain the Mammoth Mountain Beginner Pass Gives You Access To
The beginner pass gives you access to Chairs 7, 11, 15, and 17, but if you’re a beginner then you may not know what that means. Mammoth Mountain is one of the largest ski mountains in America, but if you’re learning to ski or snowboard then you’ll be focused on the beginner friendly slopes near the bottom of the mountain. Those runs are exactly what the beginner pass gives you access to, and those runs only.
At Mammoth, that means you’ll have access to at least one chairlift near each of the three lodges around the mountain’s base. The largest cluster of beginner trails is off of Chair 15 near Eagle Lodge. Here, you’ll find plenty of gentle green trails that are perfect for getting your feet under you. The beginner trails off of Chair 15 fill up for this very reason, so once you know how to stop and turn then feel free to move on to some of the other blue (A.K.A intermediate) trails accessible from Chair 15 to avoid the crowds.
You’ll have more lift options at Canyon Lodge between Chair 17 and 7 to avoid long lift lines on crowded days. However, the trails around Chair 17 and 7 are all green and meant for learning and not progressing. You can spend an entire day learning how to ski or snowboard here, but once you have the basics down you will need more terrain to progress on.
You’ll find similar terrain off of Chair 11 near Main Lodge where you’ll have great trails for learning turns, stops, and general mountain etiquette. If you learn enough to where you’re looking for more challenges than you can find on the terrain covered under the beginner pass, then check out the beginner terrain parks near Eagle, Canyon, and Mammoth Lodge. Terrain parks are a big step up in ability so you’ll need to be careful when riding here, but everyone in these terrain parks is a beginner just like you so don’t feel intimidated or pressured to push your abilities.
Find the Mammoth Mountain trail maps here.
One Last Thing
If you do get a beginner pass, then you should know that due to the pass’s lift restrictions you won’t be able to ride between the other lodges, so while you can get from Eagle Lodge to Canyon Lodge, it is impossible to go back or from any other lodge to another.