June 3, 2010, Alpental Sunshine and Corn

What a great day.  Jill's improving after her total hip replacement surgery last Monday so I felt comfortable spending a few hours on the ski hill.  It's been a month since I've been on the skis and I was breathing hard on the climb.  It was sunny when I left the Redmond area and it was sunny at Alpental when I started skinning at 1pm.  I actually put on sunscreen.  For a brief moment I thought I was in The Sierra.  ;) There is a sign near the main parking lot indicating no cars past the sign.  I walked across the bridge to the patio and had to climb about 50' to reach  continuous snow under the lift on climbers left.  Once on the first plateau there is sufficient coverage to skin up in any direction.

I headed towards Lower International. At the junction with the cat track which swings back to the top of Debbies, I stopped and put on the ski crampons.  I met an employee who was descending and he mentioned that he didn't see any skiers today.  Hmmm.  I skinned up Lower International and there was debris on climbers left but the further I moved to the right the surface was smoother.  I had about an inch or two ski penetration on LI.  Once over the hump, Upper Nash seemed softer  and there was avy debris in the center area of the slope.  I stopped at the base of the debris and pulled the skins and enjoyed the sunshine.

I skied Lower Nash on skiers left and the surface was slightly sun effected.  With my wider skis, it was very pleasnat and the skis skimmed along the surface without becoming trapped.  At the top of the Sessel chair, I swung skier left thru an old trail that always has good coverage in the late season.  I was able to ski down to the Sessel cat track then ski down St. Bernard to the yurt.  Unfortunately, it was a longer walk back to the patio than just skiing back the way I skinned.  Normally when the you can drive to the upper lots, you can ski right to your vehicle.  You know how I hate to walk on dirt.  ;)
It was still sunny when I left.  The next downpour will probably increase the hiking distance a bit but the coverage is excellent above the Sessel chair.