May 5, 2014, Alpental

Sloppy corn snow, a few sloppy drunks.  Fun in the rain and then late afternoon brief sun breaks. 

And the extra wordy report - Another tough morning deciding on what to do…Telemetry and Radar all looked pretty iffy negative and the forecasts not much better – cam at the bottom of Alpy not really much help either. But today was Cinco De Mayo and Alpy’s last day, hadn’t got to ski it in a long time cause of X-tal always being open – not a problem today. After a nice short drive up pulled into the parking lot a 100 ft from the bridge in a light mist, at 9:45 (a very wet pot holed parking lot, kinda hurt when I drove out of it later). Quick put on boots, get the cheap tix, jump onto an empty Armstrong (kinda clear light precip at the bottom, but towards the top it was nice white solid precip). Based on cars in the lot I thought Chair 2 would be busy – not! Jumped onto one of those nice cushy soft seat (very nice). Snowing nicely all the way to the top, did one pick your line through the untracked areas of Edelweise bowl – nice spring heavy northwest powder (at least 4+), the Coombas liked it! Back up again to check out International! Looked lumpy nasty at the top, but skied nice and if you stayed skier right side it was nicely steep and smooth from the new snow sliding down and off. Pretty much the run of the morning for me…heard good things about Snakepit(?) – never tried it. Day was variable – some looks like sun moments, some snow squalls up high with wet squalls down low. No crowds though I had to ride with many very nice folks at times. Skier traffic made the main Armstrong line nice spring skiable snow and bumps – same for International (only bigger steeper and longer), every run better than the last (except for when I watched a woman slide and bounce and yard sale down the lower middle part, lucky she didn’t hurt her self). Got really wet during the noon hour and I was on my second pair of gloves…..so…time for the bar at the base.

Other – Alpy by far has the best party vib and food at its base of any area. Had a soft shell taco trio of shredded pork/chicken/shredded beef – ouch good with guac and salsa and a cherry margarita (?) it was all very very good! Music blasting from a live band, DJ playing great music outside. Lots of folks in great costumes and Mexican outfits. Could have been sunnier, but the weather kept the crowd down to the hard cores. Great last day at Alpy! Sorry I missed you Silas.

keep reporting like that and we may get busy. keep complaining about the rural parking lots too, maybe we'll get more than a 10'x10' concrete pad that lot 3 got, those hosers.
appears silas only rolls lot 4 during powder season, that's weak sauce because he's afraid of the high octane we got.
ddk, you tell me next time you rodent ride around my hill, the mayor is a bit concerned.
as for Alpental, when Gib gives the green light, it's full of fun snow to be on.
this season played out backwards imo
bobby

Other – Alpy by far has the best party vib and food at its base of any area.  Had a soft shell taco trio of shredded pork/chicken/shredded beef – ouch good with guac and salsa and a cherry margarita (?) it was all very very good!

The taco trio isn't always on the menu, ddk - they roll out the good stuff for the visiting luminaries. Party vibe is always on, tho.

"First" chair:


Last call:


Full album

good action right up to the last moments atop denny.