Alpental Randonnee Rally on March 18th and more

Hi all;
Just wanted to drop a quick note about the Alpental Randonnee Rally that is coming up on the 18th of March.  Yes, that is this coming Saturday and yes you are in plenty good of shape...
The race serves a good cause, is non profit and should help get the ski touring community together. Not to mention there will be so much schwag (sp?), that just about everybody should walk away with something.
The pre race meeting will be held at the OR store down town in Seattle on Friday the 17th at 6pm. You can pre register on line (Life-Link.com . That is also where you will find all the pertinent info) or call Pro Ski Service of North Bend, (425 888 6397). You can also sign up at the pre race meeting on the 17th.
I hope you can make it.
On a sidenote. I did a bit of examining for the AMGA in the last couple of days. We roamed around the Alpental back country, so here is what I found.
Bryant Peak traverse, excellent condition; access couloir to Kaleetan Peak use the far right of couloir to stay out of the way of the big cornices, then exit right asap (the cornices are quite large and heavy looking); the access ridge from Melakwa Lake is actually not quite as direct as one would think - it gets really skinny in a section or you have do drop down again about 400 feet on the south side; Kaleetan skiable from the top, Roosevelt good to go; Crooked Couloir exit fully filled in; Slot Couloir - good to go and the North Slopes below the Snoqualmie East Summit are excellent.
The snowpack is obviously going to take a beating in the next couple of days since it is already quite wet below the new stormsnow from Thursay. I assume there will be some loud rumbling in the mountains tomorrow; it will be interesting to go see the carnage next week.
Have fun, stay safe.

Martin, is it Sunday the 18th or Saturday the 17th?

Have you lined up an Irish Whisky sponsor?

Greg, sorry about the confusion.
The Pre Race meeting will be held on March 17th (Saturday) at the OR store in Seattle.
The Race will be held on Sunday March 18th.
Cheers. M

(I got permission for the following bit of marketing from Charles)

I know I'm a little early on this, but I wanted to get the word out.

For those of you who are going to be participating in the Alpental Randonee Rally on Sunday, I will be out on the course taking pictures (with the permission of Ski Lift, Inc and PGS).

After the event the pictures will be available for purchase at www.initialphotography.com

I hope to have the pictures all posted by Sunday night, and a few pics posted to this thread soon after.

-Andrew Gorohoff

Quite by accident, I clicked the Alpental webcam at just the right moment this morning:



Anybody have a report from the rally?

Rando rally was very cool. Kudos to Martin for quality course setting, Alpy for supporting these events and especially OR for the sponsorship and unbelievable amount of schwag given away (hats, coats, sleeping bags, tents, packs, you name it!). with free beer and free stuff, it makes everyone feel like a winner! The course was challenging, with a cool ladder section that added spice. Cruising down upper nash and snake dance was callenging with burning thighs from the ascent. I just did the one lap (rec), I am still in awe of those young bucks who did that, then followed it up by skinning back up to piss pass and down again. The winner (peter unpronounceable) did both laps in like an hour 20 minutes. Ridiculous! This event, preceded by the vertfest at crystal are great ways to celebrate backcountry culture with a bunch of great folks. And the schwag, did I mention the schwag?