Mar 8, 2013, Alpental, Sunny goodness

After Wed. night's unexpected dump and yesterday's reports of low traffic, I was disappointed to see how skied-out everything was when I arrived this morning. More disappointing, Rock Face had climaxed and slid to the ground, ruling-out a large amount of the lower "back bowls" and making me leery about setting foot into the steeper parts of Elevator / Meadows / Roxoff. Caught my first chair up Armstrong at 11 and headed to the top to see what the status of the gates was - Elevator was open but both Adrenalin and Shot Six were still shuttered and there was no indication of an upper gate opening. Took a run through Elevator and snapped a few pics of the aforementioned climax slide before meeting up with some friends for the second lap.

Was pleasantly surprised to find that the upper gate had just opened as we topped-out on 2. With the sun overhead, soft snow a short traverse/hike away, and good company things took a turn for the better. Four laps later, including one further out towards P. Pass and we were cooked. Snow up top was great until the last lap, where it had started to develop a thin crust as the sun was no longer beaming down upon it. Conditions from Billington's down were tough - either heavy mashed potatoes in the woods or completely slid-out chutes down to a hard bed surface. Best lines were between Trash Can and Heavenly Trees, which afforded the ability to just catch the end of the upper cat track back to Lot 4.

As for tomorrow - I'd give it time to soften, but it could be creamy by lunchtime and ready to go.


Climax slides = free base grinds. Stay away from Rock Face, folks!

i ground down that one scary spring afternoon landing in a hump o shit at the bottom.
got sooo lucky.
the n. facing slopes past the cleaver held fine snow if meadow skipping in the trees is ok. lack of people made it ok too.
bF