May 17, 2006, Alpental BC

With all the good backcountry trips I've taken lately on skis, and with my daughter suddenly getting enthused about skiing late in the year and me wanting to stay on skis to help teach, I didn't get in my season's fix of lift serve singleplanking. Never even made it to Baker this year. So ... better late than never. Lifts not running? No problem.

Snow consolidation on the main hill at Alpental is pretty good for booting, though there were not that many old boottracks seen. I booted up Lower Intl and then boot-traversed and board-traversed over to Piss Pass, then boarded down Stokes. On lower Stokes there were a few gaps melting out amidst the trees and rocks, and the frozeup tree gunk was not that pleasant, but the upper part was pretty nice and at just right softness @ about 9:30 AM. There was just a slight surface freeze overnight, apparently, based on what the snow was like in the shade. The snow here is generally more pitted up than the BC snow I've been seeing at more primo locations like Cascade Pass & Washington Pass, but it's still enjoyably slidable. Maybe because it rained a few extra times here in late April/May. Moguls still prevalent on steep part of Lower Intl, less so (based on viewing) on Upper Intl. Still barely enough snow to make it up/down Sessel.

Across the valley, the Phantom is looking pretty sparse. No wall to wall holes but lots of suspicious looking spots that I'll bet are groundwarmed rotten underneath. Might be more trouble than it's worth by this weekend even.