Tue. Feb.20th, Alpental in-bounds

Alpy was amazing today. The morning was excellent at the summit but
still actually lumpy and heavy from midway down. But by noon, major
dumping and a temperature drop brought the whole hill alive, top to
bottom. It let up a little in the early mid-afternoon (or mid early
afternoon?), but for the last two hours of operation and for the first
15 miles back west on the 90, it was DUMPING.

Tomorrow will likely be better than today, and may be the best day of
the season at Alpy.

Negative marks for some of the clientele: as we waited for chair 2 to open (approx 9.30), a Patroller announced the opening of Elevator, and asked the crowd to work with the patrol as they labored to open gates further out. What he got in return were shouts of "hire more workers" and "start earlier". It just goes to show that some people with disposable income and even athletic ability have little idea how hard the ski patrol works, nor how to truly connect with the Alpine culture.

I arrived at Alpental at 11:45 (or so) after a sketchy drive, witnessing the aftermath of a rollover of a 4x4, which passed me earlier at high speed, be careful people! The snow really must have dumped after 10am (or so) when I checked the pass web cams which showed a slushy, bare and wet I-90, boy did that change fast!

…. Oh yeah… the conditions on the slopes were pretty awesome…

International got better as the day went by with new snow and wind accumulation over the avalanche debris with untracked sections to the sides. Snake dance; lower Nash (under the cliffs), Schluct, Rollen, Gunmount …. All had nice light and slightly wind-affected snow. Even though this is inbounds, it seemed like a very stable snow pack. It was one of those days where you just ski fall line at high speed with deep carves through nice light snow. Saw a couple other tele-skiers just rippin it on chair 2… One of the better days of the season.

- Geo in Redmond

p.s. – a 9:30 opening of chair 2 is actually pretty good after such a large dump.

crowd was weak with the heckling. patroller was trying to give info and be helpful. could hear tons of bombing. they were working hard.

ron sarah and i lapped chair 2 hard. truly epic lines and filling back in quickly. around 11:30 everyone was gone and no more lift lines.

definite drop in temp and rise in snow quality up top. despite no viz, who needed it anyway? 8 inches on the car after 4 hours, it seemed.

be careful tho about sweet looking shots which may have rock under 1 to 2 feet of light fluff!

JimmyO

Listen to JimmyO!

I kept targetting sweet puffs and hitting totally obscured but only lightly buried rock and tree stumps, especially on the skier's left side of The Fan, or where Breakover spills back out towards chair 2. If my stick was a surfboard, it would be taking in water from the dings.

I wanted to add this about the hecklers:

Hearing some of us in line express sorrow about them, a ski patroller with a classic sea captain's beard told us this:

the people with the money and the athletic ability but without the spirit - e.g. the kind trying to rack up the most vert per day and hence heckling the Patrol - are called "powder hounds". He said it's usually not until you're older that you realize the inner dimension and stop chasing vert and speed - then, when you let the mountain and the weather and not your amygdala tell you what time it is, you become a "powder wolf".

Sounds like something worth striving for.

as we waited for chair 2 to open (approx 9.30), a Patroller announced the opening of Elevator, and asked the crowd to work with the patrol as they labored to open gates further out. What he got in return were shouts of "hire more workers" and "start earlier". It just goes to show that some people with disposable income and even athletic ability have little idea how hard the ski patrol works, nor how to truly connect with the Alpine culture.

I was there in line when the patroller made that "announcement". By the time I got my headphones turned down, I only caught the last bit, and the jeers that followed. What did he mean by "work with us"? Did he want people to stay out of their way or what? The lift hadn't even opened yet... ???

My goodness that pow was deep and luscious :

I can second, or third, the watch out for obstacles under the snow sentiments. I was up there the last day before it started snowing again, and the sun had melted things out the way it tends to, which is unevenly. On some aspect there were rocks, stumps and yes even a little dirt. Even if you know which aspects to look out for Alpy is so crinkly that is hard to stay aware from moment to moment. My wife bruised/sprained her shoulder pretty good up there on Monday after butt-checking a little cliff drop and whacking into something under the snow.

All that said conditions are completely sick right now. Call in sick yourself if you can and get out there!