January 13, 2008, Alpental slackcountry

Not being a fan of fanning flames, I found this quite disturbing.  www.telemarktalk.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=41854

Not being a fan of fanning flames, I found this quite disturbing.  www.telemarktalk.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=41854

The acronym JONG comes to mind...
Frankly, (and disturbingly) I worry more about people like that setting things off above me, then I do triggering (still concerned about that to). Call it self preservation in the brave new world of personal broadcasting (read YouTube) and all things "extreme" which should now be renamed "colassal" (miss spelled on purpose) to capture the ever growing spirit of pushing limits combined with attention whoredom... Did you see me, did you see me? Rant over.

If I were to say I approached the Alpental BC via source lake, my backcountry prowess would not be questioned (which I have numerous times). But because I got there via a lift and ducking a rope I'm automatically dubbed a noob, jong, idiot, ect? On this particular day I felt the bc was safe, regardless of whether the patrol deemed it unsafe. I would never exit a ski area, or travel anywhere in the backcountry, where my line selection puts those below me in danger. And there are days where I agree with patrols' decision to close the bc and I stay in bounds (or just do a mellow tour). However, Alpental is overly conservative on their decision to open and close in bounds and out-of-bounds terrain. Resorts such as Alta, and Jackson Hole, (which generally have considerably higher avy danger) realize that it is futile to enforce a "boarder" because people will inevitably cross it. Instead, they have bc gates, and those gates are permanently open even in extreme avy danger; more of a European model. The PNW ski scene has always been a little behind the curve. In time, I am confident resorts like Alpental will relax their boarder policy and put more of the responsibility on the skier. If you don't agree with my assessment of the avy danger that day, that's cool, I respect your opinion. But like kayaking a class V river, or doing a big wall climb, backcountry skiing involves calculated risks. I stand by my decision to venture into the bc that day, as do the 100 or so other skiers that were also in the Alpental bc on that day. Also, Alpental may be able to pull your pass if you get caught ducking a rope, but I'm not aware of any WA statute that makes it criminal.

Here's the problem with Alpental's BC policy: By taking responsibility for whether or not you are allowed to access the BC from their gates, Alpental implicitly takes responsibility for your actions once you enter the BC from their gates. Jackson went to an open gate policy because this places the responsibility entirely on the individual who made the decison to enter the BC. Yes, there are problems with the Jackson system, primarily that you get a bunch of idiots out there who end up getting in trouble (having personally saved the life of one, I know how much this sucks), but this happens just as often at Alpental (if not more so since we're so close to a major metropolitan area) so why the antiquated policy? By placing yourself in the BC you are taking a risk, whether its high or low avalanche danger, that's what makes it the BC and not inbounds. I respect Alpental and am very thankful for the terrain its lifts allow me to access, but like the previous post, I am hopeful that they will see the pointlessness of their current policy and open the gates. I just hope this happens before an incident occurs in their BC and they get sued and have to close their gates permanantly.

I would like to add a bit of reinforcement to the last two posts. We went to Alpy yesterday afternoon, very excited that they may have one of the higher gates open. Alas, no. The big glide crack has opened on Rockface just below Elevator Gate and they used that as their excuse to leave everything closed. Huh?

So we toured up the Phantom on Snoqualmie. Then we did some high-speed night-skiing laps on the groomers afterward.

I tried to be patient and understanding with the long delays earlier in the season, but to get nothing open yesterday because of Rockface seems ridiculous to me.

Way to stand your ground through the dogpile, altasnob. I still disagree with your flippant assessment of Sunday's danger (small crowns, nothing substantial, everything cemented today) in your first post, but you sure did catch hell for your other comments.

I'd be happy to cut every roll in the BC, pre-opening - just let me sign a waiver and I'll be there for Chair 2 at 7 am to git 'er done. I'm sure others would offer the same.

Not being a fan of fanning flames, I found this quite disturbing.  www.telemarktalk.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=41854

I found this video to be uhhhhhhh extremely boring. That's ten minutes of my life that I'll never get back.