It was a hard-fought struggle to score good snow this year and after Mammoth Mountain shut down its lifts over Memorial Day, it all came to an end — for a few months, that is. Snow fiends from all over made the trip up to the Eastern Sierra resort– the last one in California to remain open through May.

American flags were waving, bikinis were bouncing, and champagne was being toasted over the three-day weekend. Although avid riders are used to the mountain being open through July 4th, everyone was still stoked to be making some nice, slushy turns under gorgeous blue skies– for the most part. Friday and Saturday ended up getting a small dusting from a short but frigid storm. However, as soon as the sun rose on Sunday morning, the clouds had disappeared and were replaced by temperatures in the 50′s and sunny weather.

The small crowds that showed up were taking hot-laps from top to bottom as the Panorama Gondola was still going strong until 2 p.m. on Monday afternoon. The park had a solid 30-40 foot jump, followed by a small rail setup towards the bottom. Kids were lapping the park all day, even once snow started transforming into puddles and after the snowboarding became more like wakeboarding.

The last remaining riders gathered at the summit of the mountain for the traditional snowball fight and champagne toast. And just like that, it was all over too quickly. Now begins the countdown to November, when Mammoth should be opening its doors again. See you then.