November 25, 2012, Alpental

Although the day was exquisite, in terms of sun and scenery, the recent freezing of the rain crust spins this TR in a much different direction than Snakeman's of Nov. 22. Frozen rain crust from the lodge until the top of Debbie's Gold precipitated the use of ski crampons. Even then, the purchase was not always positive. Once into the sunlight, and free of all of the snowshoe tracks (thanks to all of those snowshoers who used the skin track as easy access :-{...), I was able to make good use of a previous skin track from a day or 2 back, under and foloowing Chair 2.

Using the ridgeline north of Edelweiss Bowl, made good time to the top, relatively speaking. From the top, it was adventure skiing at it's finest: 3 inches of dust-on-crust until top of Lower Nash, and then the brutality began, with the dust buried deeply under the crust. Doing a combo of sideslip/stem christie/delicate crust dance, I was able to spend the next 30 minutes returning to the lodge. The portion just above the lodge, generally deemed a 'Green' run, was full of natural challenges like tree-lump moguls and creek crossings. However, as I told my wife, I got to practice ALOT of stuff I don't generally get to practice. Now, if we just get a nice sloppy slush dump, imedaitely followed by 18" of nice pow in the same storm, we are set. Otherwise, remember the frozen layer...