Rained at Alpental Jan 1st? Decent Today?

Maybe a few others deciding if/where to go today Fri. Jan 2nd(?). I'm planning on Alpental from 1pm onward, then Central at 4pm with kids. Now seeing it likely rained yesterday (1/1). Anyone know if it got really soaked on lower runs? (Lower-I & Deb's Gold runs). I suspect top is much better, thats a no-brainer..

I see they've had another 1/2" of precip since it cooled back down late afternoon, possibly thats been quality snow since then?

Thx for info :~)

Don Fleming

unfortunately the freezing rain created an easily breakable but thick (1.5 inches more or less) trap crust.  there's about 4 or so inches of snow on top of the crust, and it was fun enough today, but all in all a little less than satisfying.  The groomers basically weren't, and where they were were pretty hard. Oh and it was was crowded.

On the avalanche front, I chopped out a few shallow blocks in an untravelled area w/ my snowboard.  The entire new layer (meaning the 18 inches of new that fell before the crust formed) was slabby and didn't seem to be particulary well-bonded.  Once the crust was cracked the rest of it moved.

anyone know if they ever let folks on chair 2 today? I left around 11 and ski patrol said it was still gonna be a while before they got it open.

Chair 2 opened and was pretty good. Lower I was powdery in places, w/ no apparent crust - definitely the best turns of the day. Had they not opened the upper mountain, it would have been pretty bad, as the lower mountain was irritating at best.

I was there too. Only Edelweiss and International open on the signs, but no ropes across the traverse to lower Rollen and Gunmount, which skied nicely.

I dont know if any patrollers listen in here but there was rampant poaching happening (already) by a roving gang of teenagers. Not long after watching a couple patrollers head out to Snake Dance with big packs, presumably for control work (although I heard no shots) I watched a couple dozen of these same kids skiing exposed lines in Elevator.

Not to be a tattle, but somebody needs to bust these guys before they (1) get themselves killed and (2) foster an even greater disrespect for ropelines at Alpy. The latter usually results in a (perfectly justifiable but really annoying) retalitory closing of Chair 2, which I don't think anyone wants to see happen.  We all want to see stuff open as soon as possible, but unless somebody applies a little discipline I fear that these punks may ruin it for everyone. 

I would favor a different approach. I believe that much of the elevator area should be (re)converted to inbounds terrain. If you get the chance to see very old Alpental maps it seems that in the early days elevator, gun barrel, rope 3 bluffs and rock face were all inbounds runs. I'd like to see movement back in that direction.