November 27, 2003, Alpental and Hyak
11/27/03
WA Snoqualmie Pass
5822
3
Thanksgiving, November 27th 2003
Alpental (2,380' vert) plus Mt Hyak (1,100' vert) =
3,480' vertical of fine Thanksgiving Cascade Powder.
Thursday, 4:30 am and I'm off. More of my wife's relatives would be arriving mid morning so now was a perfect opportunity to run up to SnoQ for a ski, feeling only slightly guilty about leaving on the Big Day. Who on Earth could wait after watching it snow all week, I reasoned. Must be 3 feet of new snow at least at the base! I was dizzy with excitement. I hit the Alpental parking lot at 6 am and followed the light of the Base Lodge up the semi groomed slope. Groomers! Alpental wasn't scheduled to open 'til - who knew, the resort wasn't saying - and yet they had cats grooming slopes which aided immensely in upward travel. I donned snow shoes and made my way up International. It hadn't snowed since yesterday so I followed the control worked snow (loose avy's set off by bombs in the upper parts of the area created dense snow slides which were a breeze to snowshoe) after the cat track died at the chutes leading to the upper bowls. The upper bowls were magnificent in the morning light, quiet, beautiful, and sporting a mid-winter snow pack. Slowly the sun came up and I was busy snapping shots of Snoqualmie Mountain and other ski routes that were due to fall this winter. Specimen shots, I thought to myself and smiled.
I arrived at the summit of the upper lift just in time to chat with the ski patrol who were running around the mountain, looking busy and skiing powder all day long. I expected a scolding for running up their ski runs (trauma from being a snowboarder in my youth makes me gun shy of ski areas) but instead one asked if I could hike up the back side in the future in case they were going to do control work. Yet again, I enjoy a great feeling of comradship from the folks at Alpental - so far, my favorite ski area in Washingon for BC relations.
Considering I had followed a dozen tracks up International (pert near tracked out by my standards!), I decided to drop off into Edelweiss Bowl which had only two customers since the storm began.
Holy Moly! Big time deep powder - light, dry, dreamy powder! And because the two skiers had created a nice egress from Edelweiss, I schussed all the way out in one fell swoop. Magnificent knee deep powder - On Thanksgiving no less!
I carved around the lower lift station without having to de-boot and followed the Cascade Traverse out to the steeps.
It was the kind of three/four foot deep powder runs where you actively look for shit to jump off of - with total abandon - because you just know no one has skied these lines this year, leaving plenty of cushion, and there is a 45" base on everything! My only concern was keeping my speed and tip up.
At the bottom and 10 am. Hmmm, what to do. On the one hand, it was Absolutely Fantastic powder, and on the other hand my wife's in-laws would be swarming about the house.
It was a quick decision; I threw my stuff in the truck and drove over to Hyak. After sampling Alpental, I figured the conditions at Hyak had to be about as good as they were ever to get. And I wasn't disappointed.
The powder on Mt Hyak - a picture tells the story:
(Continued on Mt Hyak, November 28th. For sample photos of Thanksgiving Day at Alpental: http://groups.msn.com/MCSAWashington/alpentalthanksgiving112703.msnw?Page=1)
Alpental (2,380' vert) plus Mt Hyak (1,100' vert) =
3,480' vertical of fine Thanksgiving Cascade Powder.
Thursday, 4:30 am and I'm off. More of my wife's relatives would be arriving mid morning so now was a perfect opportunity to run up to SnoQ for a ski, feeling only slightly guilty about leaving on the Big Day. Who on Earth could wait after watching it snow all week, I reasoned. Must be 3 feet of new snow at least at the base! I was dizzy with excitement. I hit the Alpental parking lot at 6 am and followed the light of the Base Lodge up the semi groomed slope. Groomers! Alpental wasn't scheduled to open 'til - who knew, the resort wasn't saying - and yet they had cats grooming slopes which aided immensely in upward travel. I donned snow shoes and made my way up International. It hadn't snowed since yesterday so I followed the control worked snow (loose avy's set off by bombs in the upper parts of the area created dense snow slides which were a breeze to snowshoe) after the cat track died at the chutes leading to the upper bowls. The upper bowls were magnificent in the morning light, quiet, beautiful, and sporting a mid-winter snow pack. Slowly the sun came up and I was busy snapping shots of Snoqualmie Mountain and other ski routes that were due to fall this winter. Specimen shots, I thought to myself and smiled.
I arrived at the summit of the upper lift just in time to chat with the ski patrol who were running around the mountain, looking busy and skiing powder all day long. I expected a scolding for running up their ski runs (trauma from being a snowboarder in my youth makes me gun shy of ski areas) but instead one asked if I could hike up the back side in the future in case they were going to do control work. Yet again, I enjoy a great feeling of comradship from the folks at Alpental - so far, my favorite ski area in Washingon for BC relations.
Considering I had followed a dozen tracks up International (pert near tracked out by my standards!), I decided to drop off into Edelweiss Bowl which had only two customers since the storm began.
Holy Moly! Big time deep powder - light, dry, dreamy powder! And because the two skiers had created a nice egress from Edelweiss, I schussed all the way out in one fell swoop. Magnificent knee deep powder - On Thanksgiving no less!
I carved around the lower lift station without having to de-boot and followed the Cascade Traverse out to the steeps.
It was the kind of three/four foot deep powder runs where you actively look for shit to jump off of - with total abandon - because you just know no one has skied these lines this year, leaving plenty of cushion, and there is a 45" base on everything! My only concern was keeping my speed and tip up.
At the bottom and 10 am. Hmmm, what to do. On the one hand, it was Absolutely Fantastic powder, and on the other hand my wife's in-laws would be swarming about the house.
It was a quick decision; I threw my stuff in the truck and drove over to Hyak. After sampling Alpental, I figured the conditions at Hyak had to be about as good as they were ever to get. And I wasn't disappointed.
The powder on Mt Hyak - a picture tells the story:
(Continued on Mt Hyak, November 28th. For sample photos of Thanksgiving Day at Alpental: http://groups.msn.com/MCSAWashington/alpentalthanksgiving112703.msnw?Page=1)
Hey MW88888. I think I saw you at Alp at the top of Ch 2 Thursday AM. I skinned up on my splitter ascending Ch 1 and then the ridge and was just getting to the top as you were talking with a patroler at the lift shack. I went inside to connect my board and i think you were gone by the time I came out.
I did a run down the ridge and the fan and then climbed back up and rode down International, Adrenalin and lower I making it home in time for turkey. It really was good.
I'm a Patroler at Alp and in general we don't mind people climbing for turns. The one exception is when we are doing control work. It helps to check in before climbing to see what is up. If you start before anyone is there it is best to either skin up the valley floor or climb under Ch 1 and head up Ch 2 via airplane turn / gunmount / disposal ridge to the top to make sure you are not going to be exposing yourself to active control work...
I did a run down the ridge and the fan and then climbed back up and rode down International, Adrenalin and lower I making it home in time for turkey. It really was good.
I'm a Patroler at Alp and in general we don't mind people climbing for turns. The one exception is when we are doing control work. It helps to check in before climbing to see what is up. If you start before anyone is there it is best to either skin up the valley floor or climb under Ch 1 and head up Ch 2 via airplane turn / gunmount / disposal ridge to the top to make sure you are not going to be exposing yourself to active control work...
Hey there A-Trol!
I do remember you, you had just skinned up unto the ridge when I went over to Edelweiss. Maybe I'll see you there sometime. Me with the Blue Helmut...
Good info. Yes, indeed, I will definitely climb under the lifts in the future - on Thanksgiving I figured no one would be on the mtn and I could see the control work had been done the day before. That, and I wanted to inspect the line in case I wanted to descend via International - I'm still learning the mtn and figured it would be a good day to explore.
Anyway, when you say Valley Floor - do you mean up the egress from the Alpental Backcountry as if I was going to Pineapple Basin or Source Lake?
And word on the street is that the bridge will delay the mtn opening. Any inside scoop? (I'm personally hoping I'll have alpental all to myself until February, but I think that may be unrealistic and unfair to alpentalcorey and folks)
I do remember you, you had just skinned up unto the ridge when I went over to Edelweiss. Maybe I'll see you there sometime. Me with the Blue Helmut...
Good info. Yes, indeed, I will definitely climb under the lifts in the future - on Thanksgiving I figured no one would be on the mtn and I could see the control work had been done the day before. That, and I wanted to inspect the line in case I wanted to descend via International - I'm still learning the mtn and figured it would be a good day to explore.
Anyway, when you say Valley Floor - do you mean up the egress from the Alpental Backcountry as if I was going to Pineapple Basin or Source Lake?
And word on the street is that the bridge will delay the mtn opening. Any inside scoop? (I'm personally hoping I'll have alpental all to myself until February, but I think that may be unrealistic and unfair to alpentalcorey and folks)
I'm not sure how long it will be before the power and sewer is restored - I've been out of the loop. You can bet Booth Creek wants it fixed ASAP so don't count on Alp being this season's touring mecca.
I was referring to the trail out of lot 4 that heads to Source Lake. Any variation up Snakedance or Lower I could put you on a control route. A general rule of thumb is to expect control work for 6" or more at the lodge - but this can vary...
I was referring to the trail out of lot 4 that heads to Source Lake. Any variation up Snakedance or Lower I could put you on a control route. A general rule of thumb is to expect control work for 6" or more at the lodge - but this can vary...
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