Feb 7, 2013, Alpental "Country Club"

I counted less than two dozen folks waiting for opening bell in line for Armstrong this morning. Sure the big overnight accumulations in the forecast didn't materialize, but the surface was still soft and after a few cycles in the natural dryer since New Year's, who can complain about picking up yesterday's foot of leftovers? With less than 100 folks hamstering around the mountain today, it felt like a private country club.

Armstrong started accepting butts around 8:45 as was Chair 2. Put down a couple of quick warm-up laps up top where the new snow was deeper and the leftovers were cushier. Dropped into Upper Nash around 9:30 and rode an untouched right side all the way down to the top of Snake Dance then went out Elevator. Despite warnings of challenging conditions, we found great snow in the open areas (less so in the trees). Heavy for sure and fairly chopped-up from yesterday, but soft enough to turn in and produce even a few faceshots at speed. Two more Upper Nash -> lower BC laps later I noticed that the whiteboard at the top of Chair 2 no longer said that the upper gate was closed, but it didn't say it was open either - it simply said "Nash Gate:    ".

That seemed odd so we took our sweet time getting down to the gate. No patrollers around, not sure if it was worth waiting. Just as we were ready to leave I saw them coming into Upper Nash. Lo and behold, the rope dropped just a hair after 10:45. Not bad, considering how huge the cornices were this morning before they blasted them down. Not wishing to set the bootpack to Knoll 1, we opted to traverse over into Brownie Bowl and rip the fall line down to the far side of Gun Barrel. Very good up top, less good in the middle but fun again down low until having to scrape through the trees in the exit. Not content to call it a day as it wasn't even 11:30, we went back for one more lap, this time from Knoll 1 out through Heavenly Trees. The sun came out as we dropped in, tons of faceshots were had and the entire line was an incredible end to a great morning.

Tomorrow should be great in the "back bowls" and depending on the size of the horde, Sat. could be fun, too.


Heading-up top for the first turns of the day


Looking across a very untracked set of knolls

Looking excellent. "Private country club" sounds like not too bad of a thursday out.

freealpental does not approve of the privatization of Alpental.

Thursday night laps on chair 1. Expected heavy snow from warm daytime temps but shady side comes through.Bblasting soft crud on many lines off the cattrack. Perma grin all night. Don't let the warm daytime temps fool you north facing should all be good.  10"+/- of new helped immensly.
Wish I could have been up in the day would have been fun. Work thing getting in the way.


flowing Alpy  - please post link to "free Alpental" t-shirts
I heard Judge Smails was seen on Sessel.

one word freealpental ftw

Sorry I be a dense old X-tal skier....and I been trying to find the right link for the "Free Alpental" t-shirts - because I'd like to have one and I dont even know what they look like - but we got to promote the libration of Alpy from the tyranny of Crystal management (I assume?) - I truly do miss skiing Alpy in May BTW.