Highway 108 aka Sonora Pass

Within the snowboarding world, a place called Sonora Pass is synonymous with snowmobiling, jump building, and filming. Countless movie crews have visited this area over the last fifteen years in hopes of good terrain, fresh landings and sunny skies. Being early June, the winter road closure has been lifted so I took the opportunity to drive this route in an automobile on my way to Mammoth.

Highway 108 begins outside the town of Sonora and runs approximately seventy miles (112 km) east to west, ending at Highway 395. During the winter months, this entire stretch of highway is closed off due to heavy snowfall and no real need to keep this lightly traveled throughway maintained for safe passage. A closed highway in the winter is a good thing for snowboarding because you now have a groomed outlet to negotiate by snowmobile into the backcountry...equaling endless terrain.

My goal in driving this route was for the comparison-contrast impact of seeing a well-traveled winter route during it's off season...and a bit of reminiscing! There was still a significant amount of snow sitting on the mountains, a sign of a very good winter in the Sierras.

The next few days will be spent on the slopes of Mammoth for the final-final Standing Sideways movie shoot...I'll be checking in often with the good 'ol behind the scenes images...Cheers! Blotto