March 17, 2011, Alpental

Went up for some lift accessed backcountry this afternoon.  42 degrees at the base of Chair 1, wow;  surprisingly soft powder at the top of Chair 2 tho. High traverse opened at 2PM after bombing.   Few skiers, lots of 6" soft untracked powder between Piss Pass and Draft Dodger ridge. Light wind, in and out sun, excellent nearly spring day.

vimeo.com/21184329

Thanks for the report. I may head up tomorrow b/c of it!

- Matt

Thanks for the report. I may head up tomorrow b/c of it!

- Matt

Sun was out most of the day and warmed things up by the afternoon, making it pretty heavy/potatoey? North-facing stayed good but there's not much of that around Alpy.

North-facing stayed good but there's not much of that around Alpy.

Actually Alpental is almost exclusively N-NE facing. The exception is Edelweiss and assorted micro terrain features such as the back sides of the knolls, but other than that it's all North to Northeast. Looking at the Green Trails map of the pass as I write to verify.

That's why the Alpy BC almost always has the best snow in the valley.

Plinko, I'm curious if we might know each other by face or have randomly skied together up there. I'm the very shaggy guy with the orange jacket.

It did get pretty warm yesterday, and then pretty cold last night.
Snow in the driveway is very crunchy this morning, which means that conditions at Alpy are going to be pretty variable.

Silas, did you locate your friend?

Corey, I mostly agree with what you said about aspects with exception to Martins bowl.

High traverse opened at 2PM after bombing.

??? Yesterday? Pretty sure I skied out at around 10:40. Hard to argue with powder, sun, and no people.

I'm the very shaggy guy with the orange jacket.

Good one, Corey!