March 14, 2012, Alpental

Short drive to fantastic powder today shared by few enthusiasts; thanks everyone for getting the stoke out of your systems yesterday, staff called it the busiest day on Chair 2 in three years?!

Telemetry says 10" fell in 6 hours?!!   .59" precip = 10" snow, what does that mean for moisture content Garth?   The final couple minutes riding Chair 1 got fairly breezy as the new storm blew in during the afternoon.   Tracks filled in quickly, so almost every run was untracked, even with Nash gate closed!   Wow, and my daughter had a rare day off for skiing, happy pappy.

Kam, can you refine the joy-o-meter to include points inversely related to driving distance and snow moisture content?!!   I feel safe saying the Washington Cascades are the best place in the world to ski this week.

The 13th was pretty fantastic too.  Wouldn't say Chair 2 was too inordinately busy, especially after lunch, and the guests were all polite.  The quality was amazing, 12-18 inches most places.  It got better all day yesterday also, 3 inches on the car at 4 PM (and 27 degrees!).  Best turns ever for me in the Powder bowl "near entry", Gunmount drop-off, and Elevator gate "medium traverse" drops.  Even the shot 6 entry zone was tolerable.  There was tricky slide debris on lower International and in the gut of Eidelweiss, buried under a deceptive powder blanket, but nothing new there.  Thanks to Bradley for a few runs. He had gone for an 11-hour training run the day before (yes you read that correctly) and tele'd like a maniac. 

The 13th was pretty fantastic too.  ...There was tricky slide debris on lower International and in the gut of Eidelweiss, buried under a deceptive powder blanket, but nothing new there.

Lower International was debrisless today, light and fluffy, maybe the best I've ever seen it. Higher freezing level and wind tomorrow could change that.

Have to agree with Silas.  I was up at Central this afternoon and didn't expect it to dump so much nice snow so quickly.  It's been quite an amazing last few days in the Cascades.

Great making turns with you Silas. Yesterday was Holly's and my anniversery date and we both agree it was the best date ever! How can you go wrong with great snow and no lines?

Silas, have you ever considered starting a turns-every-day club? You could be President. Crispin could be Vice President.

Yesterday was Holly's and my anniversery date and we both agree it was the best date ever!

Sorry I missed you guys, heard from your babysitter you were coming up! Skied all day and hardly saw anyone . . . e-Gate lines were skiing like untracked by end of day!