May 24, 2004, Alpental

After reading the Silver Peak reports, I was encouraged about the existence of some skiable snow at Alpental.  Left the parking lot near Sessel chair about 10am.  It was sunny and still in the 40's.  Hiked to the top of the Sessel chair where I found a ribbon of snow that connected to the totally snow covered slopes of Lower Intwernational.  The snow had already softened about an 1 inch and the skinning was quite pleasant.  At the top of Lower International and the top of Felsen, I stopped for a few minutes and waited for a another skier who was booting the slopes towards me.  Met Donnely who was carrying his skis and wearing his downhill boots.  Donnely says he can normally boot it to the top in about an hour but he was a bit slower today due to the softer snow.  Two hours seemed reasonable to me but then he could have been my grandson.  The coverage on Lower and Upper International(UI) was good.  There were still a few small moguls remaining on UI.  I continued to skin towards the top and booted the remaining 50 feet.  The entrance lip into UI is melted out but there is total coverage above and below the lip.  From the top of the Edelweiss chair the coverage looked quite good in the bowl.  After swapping a few stories, I down climbed the lip and Donnelly walked down a bit, put his skis on atop a boulder and launched himself into the bowl.  I only wish I had my video camera to capture the moment.  I started first and made my short turns over the moguls on softening snow that had about 2 inches of slush which was quite manageable.  I continued down and Donnelly still wasn't around so I cut over to Adrenalin and paused at the top.  As I turned to look uphill, Donnelly blew by me and made two turns before he stopped at the top of Lower International(LI).  I think Donnelly has "a need for speed".  It was obvious that my only response would be to make twenty turns in the distance he made two and demonstarte the style that enables you to get old.  When I reached him at the top of LI, he smiled. I explained that if it takes me 2 hours to climb to the top I really need to make lots of turns.  He kept smiling and disappeared down LI where he made 4 turns.  I traversed skiers right along the top of LI and kept linking turns till the snow ran out at the top of Sessel.  The recent rains will probably raise the snowline a bit but there still remains quite good coverage on LI and UI.  Zap