A Gondola to the top of Alpental?

Washington skiiers are so pretentious. Oh, our backcountry, oh, so many people, oh this, oh that. <br><br>Jesus H. That's why I love Whistler so much. There is no pretending up there. It is, what it is. Great skiing. Great night life. And hardcore skiiers. <br><br>Europe is the same, although I've never been there. <br><br>It's a shame we have so many petty people fighting against a great sport. Imposing huge costs on companies willing to make your ski experience even better. <br><br>I'm surprised we haven't heard about the green skinned wolly pog in the 1/2 acre wetland, in the summer on the lower lot. That's going to cost at least $50,000 to study. At least it will give some poor starving biology student some summer work. <br><br>I saw it all with The Crystal Mt plan. What a bunch of horse shit. <br><br>"Oh, it's going to hurt my "backcountry experience".<br><br>If you think you're a backcountry skiier riding lifts then I've got some property in Northern Nevada, right next to The Ruby Mountains , I'll sell you. <br><br>Jesus H. If you want the backcountry, put your skins on and head up one of the great cascade volcanoes.

Washington skiiers are so pretentious.

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It's pretty hard to be hardcore when you're waiting in lift lines and sitting on a chair. Just telling it like it is.

<br><br>hmm, I guess you're right...

Well put Philfort. But, more explicitly, Bandit, I think your diatribe misses the point. Questioning whether development is a good idea is, to me, merely being responsible, whether that development occurs at my favorite ski area, or, yet again, in the Issaquah Highlands. In this case, it's not because I'm afraid that I'll lose some of my "precious backcountry," but because I absolutely love Alpental and I am afraid that development could affect the mountain for the worse.

Being responsible doesn't mean making a company spend millions of dollars for a project that will eventually happen. <br><br>Have you seen the developement at Crystal? All of those people crying about expansion, all they did was slow down a project that is first class. <br><br>Did you know that the constuctors of The New Green Valley Chairlift did not disturb one tree? <br><br>They used a helicopter to place all the towers. More spendy , but enviornmentally better. <br><br>Did you know that the Crystal groomers are switching over to bio-diesal? <br><br>You people and your "concerns". <br><br>If the ski areas operated like the logging companies of a century ago, they would be shut down in a heartbeat. Do you think any of the ski area owners want to be shut down?<br><br>Quit being so pretentious. <br><br>Issaquah Highlands? Please

Bandit - hmm, I'm not quite sure where the "pretense" is here. <br><br>Anyway, it's obvious from your posting history that you like lift skiing a lot, you don't like crowds, and so expansion suits your purposes well. Other folks balance things out a bit differently, and so not suprisingly have a different take on what should happen. That's of course why an open public review process is so important. I'm missing the pretense there. Randonee posted a link to a great article that suggests we all need to be a little more open to each others' viewpoints if we don't want to just be ignored (posted here www.turns-all-year.com/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB...splay;num=1132770392 ). You may find you get induce more thought in others with a slightly different approach. Unless of course you are just looking for a little emotional release from venting...<br><br>I'm happy projects like this do need to go through review, despite the costs involved. I'm sure the process can be made more efficient and sane, but when public lands are involved, it's important to have a period of open review to weigh competing costs and benefits. That's the cost of doing business on shared property.<br><br>I need to dig into the materials posted above to learn more (thanks for the original posting!), and get a feel for where "knoll 1" is. My partly uninformed take at the moment is that this doesn't sound nearly as limiting to backcountry options as running lifts up into Bullion Basin at Crystal would be (which would effectively remove the ability to head out from this high-altitude plowed road into non-lift-accessed terrain), since it would just push Alpental further out toward Pinapple Pass a bit, making the lift-accessed, patroled Alpy "Backcountry" (with a capital "B") less of a plum for those who like to ride the lifts and hike a bit. W/o looking at the maps, I assume it would also change the aesthetic a bit as you look over from the pass above Snow Lake or from Snoqualmie and see new cut ski trails. But since I hear the highway and already see the ski area from these spots today, and since there are lots of other usually untracked, quiet spots accessible from very close to Alpental that won't be impacted at all, I'm not as inclined to comment negatively as I was with notion of putting lifts into Bullion Basin (they did get my comment on that). I think jasonsalvo is right that the biggest impact is on the ski area itself, and to folks who love it just the way it is. In any case, time to read the plan now to see if I'm missing something more problematic.

"Folks who love it just the way it is". <br><br>If that is the case, then why aren't they still skiing on their 220 straight skis and wishing for the old two seat , slow bull wheel chair lifts. <br><br>Skiing is supposed to be fun. Whether it's backcountry or lift skiing. Why not try to improve your ski area? What's all the "we should study this, and check the aesthetics of that, or see if Ma and Pa Jones might get their nose out of joint because they don't want 100 more cars driving in front of their cabin. <br><br>Sometimes people have way too much free time on their hands, and have nothing better to do than go to public meetings and bitch and complain about nothing. <br><br>I saw it all with the Crystal Mt plan. What a joke. Some of the things that spilled out of peoples mouths was no less than hilarious. <br><br>One person complained "that they could see the Summit House Restaurant from areas of Mt. Rainier."<br><br>I'm glad I don't ski that much at Alpental. I couldn't take another round of mind numbing meetings, listening to all the frivolous complaints and whining. <br><br>I'm just glad Crystal got some of their plan through. <br><br>