November 22, 2003, Alpental
11/22/03
WA Snoqualmie Pass
2627
3
I took MW8888888's advice and decided that Alpental counts as BC prior to lift operation beginning for the season, and a 24" semi-consolidated base. Bruce Colony, my neighbor, and I took off at the usual hour (4:20 AM) in order to be home to the kids and wives by breakfast. Skis and skins on and climbing in the dark by 6 AM. We dodged many early season hazards, and followed some boarder's downtracks as skin track up; it was easy, as the skins have been rolled up for a few months. Anyhow, we got to Lower Int'l. about 40 mins. later, and skiied some of the lightest snow I can remember this early in a long time. Down about 300' vert, and headed east, under the Armstrong Express. Up the little steep section under the chair, and we found our little gold mine of the day! About 300' of 18" fluff, w/o any donikers to catch the edges!! Made about 12 really wonderful floating/flying turns, and were back into "bumper bush" (or is that "bush bash"?) territory. All told, about 1300' of vert., and 2 shit-eatin' grins at the bottom. Saw Wolf just as he arrived in the lot, and gave him the lowdown. I LOVE his Hexcel/Silv. 404 setup for rockin' and rollin' early season!! I know that by the time most of you read this, the real deal is set to arrive in one giant frontal system. I'm headed to Whi/Black for T'Day, but when all of this settles out, it's gonna be RAGIN'...
Any body up for Granite Mountain the 1st or 2d weekend of December?
Any body up for Granite Mountain the 1st or 2d weekend of December?
I was up near the Tooth today, trying to climb something. Took my skis for kicks. The trail to Snow Lake isn't really skiable, too many creeks and bare spots. I got some really nice turns in on the approach gully to Great Scott Bowl. Hit a rock. >:(
Skinned up at Snoqualmie airport (i.e. Summit West) a few times. Quite a few folks on skins or fishscale/metal edges were checking out the snow. The upper part had excellent 12-18 inches of powder, which got heavier and scantier towards the bottom.
I made it to the top lift station via Internationale, and upper Internationale had the goods! Followed a couple up a decent skin track, so didn't have to break trail (woo! the short pieces I did break were WORK). Worth a long lap on the best 600ft near top for sure. I was worried that the talus would be poking thru here but for most part the slope was 1-2 feet of primo powder. Downhill edge was tending to collapse a lot, so it was hard to maintain good form. Things got less primo about a third of the way down lower Intl. Many bushes rocks creeks et al. Sometimes it was amusing to shoosh through protruding bushes on 6 inches cover, but other times the thrill was mitigated by the CRSSSHHHHH of whacking a rock so hard that it brought you to a dead stop. Still a damn fun early season ride, and riding on 21 yr old Hexcels means no worries, you can laugh about it every time you hear that early season growl from beneath the base.
Right between Upper and Lower the snow was starting to set up, slabby, might even have been just a bit slide prone if deeper.
Right between Upper and Lower the snow was starting to set up, slabby, might even have been just a bit slide prone if deeper.
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