Jan 8, 2005, Alpental

started the day at the opening of Central, where the quick and clever were able to stay a step ahead of the patrollers roping off the "rocky" areas (interesting that they opened w/o any ropes at all, then 2 hours later got things closed that they deemed unsafe ... why not just do it the day before?  But I'm not complaining ...).  After two hour of face shots and the occasional base bash, headed over to Alpental.

There is a lot of snow over there, particularly once you get above the bench at they top of Sessel.  But they aren't near opening because the ground has way too much countour to handle masses w/o a lot of coverage.  Skinned to the base of chair two up Debbie's Gold and then stopped due to a cloud settled in in the Edelweiss basin.  The ride down was fun -- a little wind scoured near the top on top of the bumps, a few fun slabby wind lips, nice turns between creek crossings down to the day lodge.  Didn't dig a pit because of the low angle, and stuck to the thin spots on anything nearling questionable.

Talked to a few other people who skied the Lower International area and the areas feeding into it from the direction of the BC.  They were stoked on the conditions, a few to the point of abdicating other responsibilities to continue making laps.

So anyway Alpy should remain a good, close option for a few weeks until it opens.