Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Alpental 1/26-27 and 1/31

Alpental on the 26th was one of those days you dream about all year. Fresh snow (lots of it), friends, and no crowds. Snow up top was insanely good, plus there was no one on the mountain. When Elevator opened a little after noon I was filled with joy. ] Took a dumb amount of video but I won't have any clips put together for a few more days. Got 1 picture at the end of the day right at the entrance of the elevator gate:



Alpental on the 27th was excellent as well. Had an Accounting test (93% ...oh word!), then mobbed up to Alpy with my buddy Derrick and hit the upper nash gate nonstop till close. Blue skies, no crowds, and all the pow to be punished. It was cold up there too aka good snow aka phuck yeah sofa king stoked. Didn't take any pictures but here is a screenshot from the last run of the day in that little gully by knoll 3:



Alpental on the 31st was an interesting day to say the least. The report was 2inches of snow in the last 48hrs, but I knew it was below freezing all of yesterday up on chair 2 and it was nuking rain on the pass. There had to be pow there, and the curiosity of Brian and I led to a true heavy pnw poohtater fest that was actually really fun. There was about a foot of fresh up top which was a great suprise. The best run of the day was Adrenaline+Cliff line sickter zone+Felsen, right in the early morning. Snow was heavy but very forgiving. Warmed up as the day went on and the upper nash gate opened at 1230. Scoped that out and uptop there was no viz, vertigo style. Once we got into the trees it was supah phun till at about 4000ft where everything was slid, everywhere. Avy debris galore. So painful on my poor legs. After that lap we called it a day, mainly cause it was getting way too heavy. When we left it was 40 degrees at the bottom. Here is a pic from Snake Dance around 1100am, so many tracks:




I'll have some vids up by the weekend most likely. January was awesome at Alpental, hopefully February will be the same.

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Alpental Powdar Day 1/24/12

Day Numero 11. Showed up and there was NO ONE THERE. No liftlines and fresh snow that was relatively dry. Elevator Gate was open as soon as chair 2 started running so Andrew and myself cycled that for the first 2 hrs. It was the oppposite of turrrible. Check out ze liftline from today:



And here is the vid from today:

Monday, January 23, 2012

White Pass 1/19 and West 1/20

Days numero 9 and 10 of the season were the good. White Pass was INSANELY deep but it was really heavy pnw potato snow. That ski area needs some more steeps but they make up for lack of gnar by having no crowds at all. Rode the new terrain there (got first chair lol @ 845) and it is phlat for the most part but fun.



The drive back home on Thursday was terrible though. Nonstop insane snow all the way back to Ellensburg. Manastash Ridge was a ghost town because it was chains required/4wd. I had never seen it that bad.



Wildside at 4pm on Friday was the tits. Pretty dry snow, and there was pow everywhere. Once Wildside was tore up and the Beaver Lake gnar got boring then we made our way to 360 bowl and jumped off of things into darkness for a couple hrs. I love snowboarding. Here is a vid:

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

WSDOT COCK-BLOCK

Epic day of the century = denied. Snoqualmart Pass is closed. If I would've left a little sooner I could be riding neck deep pow with like 4 other diehards. Oh well. White Pass on Thursday? I think so...

Sunday, January 15, 2012

Alpy 1/15/11 aka day #8 aka I'm slacking

Got 2nd tracks down knoll 1 #claim

Bottom of knoll 2...so many tracks


Overall a very fun day. This week is going to be the titz