December 31, 2011 Summit East

The expectations were high as we arrived at the Summit with blue skies, an easy drive and powder clinging to the trees.  Temperatures were in the mid 20's and no wind.  We arrived early and parked in the 3rd row and were in the first group as the lift started loading early.  From the lift, I kept looking at yesterday's tracks still visible with about 5" of new on top.  The telemetery indicated 9" since they closed at 3:30pm but at Summit East the reality was about half that.  Considering the recent dry spell then monsoon, the 5" was excellent quality.  The groomers were in great shape.  The snow was dry and when skiing off piste even with a fat ski you could feel the crust layer. 

The backside lift for Hidden Valley had problems and did not start loading until just after noon. The crowds were building and we only stayed until shortly after noon.  The parking lots were full and cars were still arriving.  It was a beautiful day at The Summit.

It seems like there were heavy very localized squalls from what we saw on the trees while driving up to Alpental yesterday, where the telemetry did not seem to mislead in any way. Even in the late afternoon we were enjoying some nice little untracked lines in no-base fresh snow up in the "backcountry" and elsewhere was mostly packed powder or very skiable semi-tracked, with very avoidable ice patches appearing in bottleneck areas. While skiing some of that untracked I picked up a few handfuls of snow, and it seemed like it was mostly all graupel - I don't know that I've ever seen it pile up that deeply. Still skied well.