My friend Peppa is a
true California girl who lives for action sports: she is a breakdancer,
sk8ter, snowboarder, stunt woman, and surfer, in alphabetical
order.  Every winter, when we'd catch up on the
phone, she would tell me about Mammoth
Mountain, in central California.

Peppa is
what you call an “early adopter.” As a general rule of thumb, if
Peppa says it's cool, then I find out later that it's usually
pretty darned cool. For years, I had been determined to check
Mammoth out for myself, and last month, I finally got my chance.
I found breakdancers, sk8ters, stunt people, and surfers,
...