Cam Zink on Mammoth's Newest Trail: Smooth Operator - Video

 Agreed, single black if even, everything was rollable. I always explain double diamonds as having features that require commitment to the feature and can't be rolled.

 Ya mammoth rates their trails really conservatively. I think they might have more casual tourists than other places and its better safe than sorry. The average mountain bike rider can hit their expert trails no problem, their pro trails are a bit more advanced. In the end I like it, it keeps the easily intimidated tourists off the funner trails, and your less likely to get held up on your run.

 @cfox109: not just conservatively...but inconsistently...this "smooth operator" trail is a joke and is rated as a double black versus flow which would give riders significantly more trouble and is only rated as a single.

This literally had no features...

That said...I think the entry line to flow is considered a "pro" line...but the rest still has a bridge drop and much trickier lines than this sidewalk of a trail.

Makes no sense...I love mammoth, but always leave wanting more. This is a step backwards, imo.

 Yeah I rode it this weekend and it's pretty easy. However, it's up to par with the rest of its ratings. I personally thought it was fun and the jumps are more lippy than they usually build them. More trails are better than less!

 looks smoother than crank it up at whistler

 I fell asleep halfway through the video...

 Looks more like a blue trail

 Trail ratings are a pain because there are so many variables. Often resorts will rank trails relative to the lift you ride up, which is a carry over from ski resorts. So an intermediate trail on one lift, may be way more difficult then the an intermediate trail on the lift over by the bunny hill. Also people tend to rank difficult differently based upon difficulty of terrain or size of the jumps. An expert jump trail with massive table tops could be considered easy, just because you can ride over them all. But it takes an expert to hit them at the right speed to clear the table. Locations are also often relative. After riding in a more difficult place like Virgin, I would come home and think that 95% of the trails in Park City are Easy/Green, which they really are.

When traveling to different riding areas, I think it is better to think of difficulty ratings, more like a local ranking system. Given the location and terrain, this is the order of difficulty as they ramp up. But only partially, as there still needs to be some semblance of global understanding, so that people can use the difficulty ratings to plan a trip. When in doubt, trail photos and videos like the one above, help end confusion. it is great to have a specific POV trail associated with trailforks trails.

 Looks like mt bachelor

 +10000

 Inyo National Forest has control over Mammoth's land, so Mammoth has miles of red tape to cut through before they can open a new trail. That's where the bulk of the "years" in question are spent.

 Mammoth probably can't take a shovel to a trail without having ecological checker making sure each shovel strike wont affect some bare bottomed ground squirrel or fairy shrimp while they fill out environmental impact forms in triplicate.

 @SacAssassin: dude it's a wasteland up on those trails! (joking...partly)

 @The-dirt-farmer: Agreed, years are probably referring to pen and paper time rather than digging time. Good news is that may mean more trails in upcoming seasons... Trestle is doing similar things with new trails and lift use.

 @SacAssassin: lol so true

 Here in Killington VT we have different ratings. Wel, not necessarily different, but the trail signs at the top of the trails have different symbols for the jump lines and natural trails. For jump lines they highlight the difficulty level in orange, and for natural they pretty much just leave it alone.

 @rip8569: Killy use to be my favorite. Gravity Logic needs to put away the machines and quit paving over every natural feature there is. The time and money spent on creating one Black Magic and then a Bob could have made two dozen new tech trails from green to black instead. But what really gets me is when they go into an existing tech trail and pave and berm it - like they did with trail 22 I think it was (steel panther). I hope they're done up there.

 thats a blue anywhere. honestly looks like some access trail that funnels everyone to the lift or something

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