January 20th, 2014, Alpental

25F in the parking lot at 9:00. Freezing fog. As others have noted, the parking lot is a smooth, clear, sheet of water ice. Two other visitors in neighboring cars slipped and fell while getting their stuff out.

No lines. Coverage shocking in places (creek flows open underneath Armstrong).

Heavy fog until the top of Armstrong, at which point the temps began to soar under clear blue skies with limitless vis. Lots of hard ice in places up top, but by about 10:30, corn began to form and the conditions became quite enjoyable. Most of the upper terrain is closed, but I found lapping E Bowl made for a fine morning.

With the right expectations and timing, still very much a thumbs-up trip.

to say it was thumbs up is putting it mildly, today was as good as a finger dislocation day imo.
no lift lines and nice temps so we do have that going for us.
b

Nice - I wondered if it got warm up higher there today, as I toiled in the salt mine down in the lowland (could have looked at telemetry too but reading this is more fun).

Sounds pretty much like Sunday.. I came out late and the top was pretty warmed up already. It was pretty fun corn. But with international closed, shot six, breaker over closed the choices are limited and keep you pretty much on just chair 2... Someone i rode up with said that international iced over and pretty much all of the snow from the last cycle just slid off.. I wonder how bad it really is, ? like open rocks or or just super icy?

smooth glazed ice that would require factory sharp edges and the wise descender would have an ice tool in each hand.
b

Sounds like a so-so day in New England!