Jan 8, 2011, Alpental

Morning review of telemetry indicated that Alpental was the place to be (6 inches of fresh). Normally, fear of crowds would keep me far away from the Summit on a Saturday, but with high hopes that the Seahawks game would keep people away we headed up from Seattle at 7:15am.

Arrived just as the lifts started loading and we were happy to find far fewer than the normal Saturday crowd. There was 6 inches on top of icy, crust from mid-mountain on down. At the top of Chair 2 there was easily a foot of fresh snow on top of the crust. Good density of the new snow made for great lines in the entire Chair 2 area. Made a couple runs down through Elevator gate and had a good time.

Crowds picked up a bit in mid-morning but totally cleared out by 1pm. Things were getting pretty bumpy/scrapy by late afternoon on the main runs.

Snow was stable and a ski patrol dude said they didn't kick off any slides with their morning bombing. It seemed like one out of ten people at Alpy was a ski patroller.

Luckily the Seahawks win means at least one more weekend of crowdless slopes. It's good to have a winning sports team!

what time did they get the high T open? hoping to find some goods tomorrow.

Chair 2 was loading by 09:30. Confirm the unusually short lines and pretty decent early conditions. Word on East was still a fair amount of electircal work to do (late Jan?).

Not exactly sure what time they opened the high traverse. As I recall i was quite a bit later in the day. There were some people making the hike, but it didn't seem like as many people as usual. My uneducated guess is that there will probably be plenty of good lines through the early part of Sunday.

Chair 2 opened at 9:00 which has actually been more of a norm this year.
Nash gate opened Saturday between 1:30 and 2:00, conditions out towards the cleaver were fantastic.

Sunday was an almost exact repeat. Only with more snow and several inches accumulating during the day. Lower International was the best spot. Deep powder lap after lap. In the afternoon there were few people up there so it was all to oneself. Glad I was able to get up both days. Once I get the pictures off my phone I'll get them on here.