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UPDATED FOR TRIP 5 (April 2013 trip!!!!) I :wub2: the ad that Ford puts out here in California about the CMax and the lady who "loads up her car with skis and goes"....but I have yet to spot a single CMax at Mammoth mountain. I find it funny and I truly wonder if she is for real or fictional... Focus, Escape, Prii, Subies, BMWs are all over the place but no CMax, at least not in the extended long weekends while I was there...so onward we go to....a real person aka Jus-A-Cmax's on-going trips to Mammoth.... :shift:...driven by a real person (me), the wife, the 2 skis, the snowboards, all the exotic Goretex snow softgear and boots, food, snow shovel, alcohol, eating utensils and plates, blankets, towels, snow cables etc. Yes, it is consistently loaded with the same amount of gear literally to the roof and YES, you can feel the weight on the car which takes a while to get used to since I drive the car at least 500-600 miles per week unloaded. The Route For those not familiar with Mammoth or CA, I have added in the googlemap of the route... Major freeways: 210 and 395 (65mph Speed Limit), 14 is predominantly 65mph with 1 section 70mph between Lancaster and Mojave, 203 is 50mph. I have driven this route since 1998 and it use to be a speed zone, drivers would literally fly at 90+ mph but in the last 8 years and especially the 395 - its a money maker for the CHP. You simply do not speed thru any of the towns and the section between Lone Pine and Bishop, you are guaranteed to go past at least 5 CHP lurking. IMO, any route after and around Mojave are speed traps. A few years ago, I was pulled over for doing 68-70 mph once, given a warning so now I simply do not speed, its not worth the $400+ ticket and the day in traffic school. So now where once the Mammoth trips took like 4hrs and 45 mins, each leg takes me about 5 hrs - 5 hrs and 15 mins in the CMax. This is also dependent on the time we spend to gas up and re-fuel with ice cream at the Indian Casino in Independence... ;) My past 2 other trips to Mammoth can be found here: 1st Trip: http://fordcmaxhybridforum.com/index.php?/topic/805-let-is-snow-let-it-snow-let-it-snowcmax-at-mammoth-lakes-ca/ 2nd Trip: http://fordcmaxhybridforum.com/index.php?/topic/975-part-2-let-is-snowcmax-at-mammoth-california/ 3rd trip was a post in the Fuel Mileage. Now onto the statistics for my Mammoth runs and keep in mind, this is with the CMax FULLY LOADED: For Trip 4: Frankly I did not expect that much of a MPG difference coming back from Mammoth. I knew it was better when I got to Mammoth with 40 Avg MPGs and this is in context that I got to the Sherwin Grade outside Bishop with 43MPGs and I lost 3 MPGs going up that grade to Mammoth town, just could not recover and I can't fight physics. This trip, temp was not that cold, some light snow. Now on the way back from Mammoth to Bishop, what I paid up to go up Sherwin Grade, I now got back about with a tidy profit on the way back:Yep, thats right. This was taken at about Pine Creek Rd. Yes, it was :happy feet: & :wub2:. Rest of the coming home was nothing special, not much traffic or trucks since it was a weekday that we drove back. Tanked up in Independence as we always do, and a couple of Choclate Hagen Daz from the wifey, I was a happy :shift: . For Trip 5: Big headwind going to Mammoth and cold too. Coming back, it was a tail wind (very dusty hitting Mojave/Palmdale). The MPG Gods take it and giveth as well :)However, I can see a slight improvement and I suspect, my engine break-in has levelled out and I got a slight improvement. Overall, the average MPG is consistent between 4 and 5 even with the slight temperature variations. Yes, chocolate Hagen Daz stop in Independence as well! Pictures from MammothNow some posters have requested some shots from Mammoth so here are some feasts for your eyes. I am a snowboarder so nothing fazes us riders...I will do all the chutes and runs and it was POWDER, POWDER, POWDER for 2 days and then the weekend crowd came but by this time, all the pow was ripped. Somelight snow as we got to Mammoth - I finally put up the wipers...man those things are LONG. Race training down Ralphie while I was going up Chair 1, these guys were scooting... Looking back at the Main Lodge at Mammoth: FRESH POWDER!!! Untracked!!!!! In the trees with moi...I wonder who's track that is...my favorite hunting ground, can't tell you where though... Powder for sale! Powder for sale! I lost a lot of it before I stopped...