2/6/2011 Alpental

Wet. Very Wet. I was hoping that the snow level would stay low enough for chair 2 to get some white stuff. When I got up there about 10, it was already raining all the way to the top. There was about 2 inches of really soggy new, on top of soft icey packed. The skiing wasn't actually that bad, but after 2 hours I was ready to give up after being totally soaked.

The base over all, chair 2 and up is not that bad all things considered, Nash entrance has filled in again.. The lower part of the mountain on the other hand is a different story. Lots of creeks are opening up, lots of water flowing everywhere, and lots of slides. This is a photo of Rockface (looking from Ropeline), you can see the rockface itself slid down already. Kind of crazy for middle of the winter, usually you don't see this till late may.

I'll say about getting wet! My son did want to go out for PM lessons so figured thats a good sign, if you can have fun in those conditions you can have fun in anything. My new westcomb shell, e-vent, was bone dry today so passed the 1st test. Gloves, gore tex were soaked - go figure, as were my gore tex cloudveil pants.

I hit the chair at 8:38 and luckily got some decent untracked runs on the lower mountain. Even by late morning untracked areas could be found around Dom and Eisfallen. However, the snow consistency got really grabby right above the gun. Yuck. By lunch my daughter and I were thoroughly soaked, in fact I poured water out of my megarides. After lunch she headed off to lessons I put on the tele boots and trekked over to Hyak via shuttle and ski.

West: Too foggy to deal with. I'll be there Wednesday night anyway.
Central: Who took the snow? Alpine looked like a giant skidmark. Silver Fir was holding okay.
Crossover to Hyak: Note to self, pack skins is doing this again. Its mostly uphill and poured rain the whole way, otherwise fine. The reason they named "Creek Run" that was was apparent. May have to jump it soon.
Hyak: With some more snow this will be nice. Lots of dirt and some open patches. Also watch out for the little lips from roads or nordic trails. They sneak up on you. Rumor was that the back lift will open next weekend.

I suppose its payback again for the sunny/snow showers day at Yodelin on Saturday again.

Highlight of the day was sharing a chair up to the top of Alpy with the honorable Mr Haggis. Hope to see you again.