Mammoth Lakes offers lifts via Snowcats

Snowcats have been busy this season, pushing and piling up mounds of snow. But at Mammoth Lakes, the heavy-duty plows are doing more than grooming ski runs. They’re hauling passengers. When the lifts have stopped running, snow-goers who have paid $79, $99 or $139 a head are carted up to the Parallax Restaurant, where they indulge in a three-, four- or five-course meal.

Whether they experience a high-altitude sunset depends on when they go, but a 12-passenger snowcat treks up the mountain every 30 minutes between 5:30 and 8:30 p.m. Thursdays-Saturdays through April 5. Info: (800) 626-6684, www.mammothmountain.com.