March 16th, 2020 ALPENTAL Uphill Travel

Sorry, still a bit of a neophyte - I should have started a new thread here
We are getting a bunch of questions already about uphill travel policy during this "intermission" in our season. Snow Safety, Maintenance, and hill crews have all agreed that we will continue status quo for at least this week. That means it gets even better at West, Central and East because we won't have groomers and winch lines to watch out for. At Alpental, we will try and take advantage of some daylight this week and work on just those things. We have some new winch infrastructure that hasn't been implemented yet and needs both more work and more testing. We also have heavy equipment to move both up and down the slopes and that can only be done with winches. So we will leave Alpental closed this week to uphill travel while the resort is shut down and make a commitment to you to do this week-by-week. I anticipate one to two weeks and we will either open back up for some lift-served laps, or conversely, try to increase public access for you in some way. Thanks for your support -Gib/

Great update Gib, thanks.

Gib , thank you for all your hard work , Always .

That means it gets even better at West, Central and East because we won't have groomers and winch lines to watch out for.

 

That's not a clear answer to me. So, are we allowed to skin inbounds at west, central, and hyack?

At Alpental, snip,...  So we will leave Alpental closed this week to uphill travel while the resort is shut down and make a commitment to you to do this week-by-week.  I anticipate one to two weeks and we will either open back up for some lift-served laps, or conversely, try to increase public access for you in some way.  Thanks for your support -Gib/

thanks for the heads up on alpental, Gib.

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So, to update the answer to my own question because Gib's comment didn't address the status of the hyack, central, and west, I went an took a look at the Summit website which said:


MARCH 15, 2020 | 2:45PM
Alpental Restriction Status

Uphill travel restrictions REMAIN ACTIVE. These restrictions will remain in place through at least Friday, March 20, 2020. We will reevalutate these restrictions at that time. Uphill travel is not allowed within the Alpental permit area when the mountain is closed. Uphill travel at Alpental is still strictly prohibited until stated otherwise. Uphill travel at Summit West, Summit Central, and Summit East is permitted. Scroll down for more detail about restrictions.

I can't imagine parking in any of those lots would be a problem

I apologize that we are still day to day.  Suffice it to say that the current COVID situation has the possibility of more seasonal operations changing almost hourly.  This week we were unable to get all the prep work done for our winch missions so we worked on the hill itself.  Thanks for giving us the ability to do so.  That being said we need another week to move generators, bulldozers and winches around on the mountain at Alpental.  We need to continue with winter rules in effect for the next week which means no uphill at Alpental through at least Friday the 27th of March.  The Forest Service has also been looking at our uphill activities as possibly "congregating" so please keep travel to small parties and good spacing at East, Central, and West.  If we are good stewards I think they will let us continue the outdoor activities.  Thanks for your understanding. - Gib

Sorry if the answer wasn't clear above. Yes to inbounds at West, Central, and East - please just watch for workers. We still have snowcats out and about, and the lifts are still starting and stopping without notice so please stay away from facilities. Thx