Home > Trip Reports > May 16, 2013, Alpental

May 16, 2013, Alpental

5/16/13
WA Snoqualmie Pass
7202
14
Posted by silaswild on 5/16/13 1:32am
Light breeze, very humid, clouds melted away by 10am, slushy snow 4-6", no pollen.  T shirt and shorts weather. Good exercise.  Heard that outside the area is skiing well also with no pollen.
And views!  Photo by Silas.

Thanks for the update Silas, if the rain holds off I'll be heading up there this afternoon to stretch the legs.

Dusk patrol shift. Showers rolled in around 6 and gave me a good soaking for half hour. Paused on Pettigrew Porch to dry out and make go-nogo decision but weather didn't strike again despite threatening clouds to north and west, so that was good.

Ascent via Rollen has a tricky spot now but otherwise fast and straightforward skinning. Some big craters from cat digs in Debbies where they were surfacing utility vaults, you might want to go other runs.

Nash was in really nice shape for descent. Much of snow was white from skier grooming and sluffing. The bumps were still present, but they were fun. Can avoid taking off skis for initial entrance if adventurous by being way off to either side, but it's easy to walk in too. Enjoyed Nash run this time much more than Rollen run a week ago. Good all the way down, even to Sessel. And, picked up a lot less gunk than a week ago.

I watched you skin in the rain from the comfort of my car - impressed!
When the rain stopped I enjoyed the consolidated corn both up and down lower International.

I got up there close to 6 and there wasn't any rain all the way until...lot1.  Slowly got ready hoping it would pass and hung out on the bridge for a bit, then got antsy and set off just after 6:30. And then the rain stopped about 6:35 leaving a pleasant climb and ski.






Had nice weather for the run down L'international, no issues with stickiness and very good snow conditions. I contemplated a second lap but thought that might be pushing it with this on the horizon-


Skiing around the Alpental Valley (Mountain valley valley) has been excellent all week.  This afternoon JD and I got a good Zen slap upside the head though while on a quick and mellow 'rest day' lap at the end of the day in familiar terrain.

About 12 turns down the skiers right slide path near Shot 6, a good piece of snow on the rock slab broke above.  The mountain gods were favoring us today, as we managed to see it just as it was breaking and spraying like whitewater.  Both of us went into hyper focused survival mode (so much for a mellow rest day afternoon run) and launched hard to the right, luckily getting ahead and watching from the side as it ran out and sent some small snow boulders down onto the traverse.  Photo below.

Hope that helps give a sense of the desirable ski conditions and areas of caution.

author=alpine-earth link=topic=28557.msg120161#msg120161 date=1368854718]
About 12 turns down the skiers right slide path near Shot 6, a good piece of snow on the rock slab broke above.  The mountain gods were favoring us today...Hope that helps give a sense of the desirable ski conditions and areas of caution.


A "good" piece of snow?  I call that a BAD piece.  Glad you "lived to ski another day"  (TNT)
Focused attention always provides an extra margin of safety.  Chouinard in his book "Climbing Ice" written in the late 1970s, says "speed is safety."  Sort of the Eleventh essential (re:  the Mountaineers "Ten Essentials")

As I was booting up there Thursday, I was always keeping in mind my escape to safety plan even though the cliff looked bare and finished with sluffing for the year.  So glad you two were aware, and thank you for sharing this wake up call with the community, reminding us to stay vigilant.

Do any Alpental locals have an opinion whether one or other of those Shot 6 lines is safest?

tripped up alpental today with a lil guy i've known his whole life.
we followed the cattrack under 6 keeping a good watch uphill, some debris but no activity by noon. light mist and sunbreaks all morning on nice snow.  rollen crux a scramble but goes for another day. l'international was in fine shape but skiers right is developing a moat requiring a mandatory air.
fun times watching q get to the top of 2!
bF

author=silaswild link=topic=28557.msg120168#msg120168 date=1368893973]
A "good" piece of snow?  I call that a BAD piece. 

As I was booting up there Thursday, I was always keeping in mind my escape to safety plan even though the cliff looked bare and finished with sluffing for the year.  So glad you two were aware, and thank you for sharing this wake up call with the community, reminding us to stay vigilant.


Ha...'good' as in good SIZE piece of snow.  The snow itself was neither 'good' or 'bad', it just was.

You're welcome, that was the idea in sharing, just a helpful reminder.  This is event is why I love, and have even set my life up, around moving through the mountains.

Skiing in the Alpen-tal is always an adventure.

"An adventure is an exciting or unusual experience; it may also be a bold, usually risky undertaking, with an uncertain outcome.  Adventures may be activities with some potential for physical danger." ~ Wikipedia

author=alpine-earth link=topic=28557.msg120180#msg120180 date=1368930297]
"An adventure is an exciting or unusual experience.... Wikipedia


Or as Yvon Chouinard says:  "It's not an adventure until something goes wrong."

author=silaswild link=topic=28557.msg120181#msg120181 date=1368934372]
Or as Yvon Chouinard says:  "It's not an adventure until something goes wrong."


Agreed. 

I'll see your Chouinard and raise you a Messner:
"Mountains are not fair or unfair--they are just dangerous"

May 19th

half way down upper nash, a narrow glide crack has opened up on the skier's right side. It caught me by surprise because it wasn't big enough to be seen from a distance. In retrospect I should have hucked it,...

Also, adrenilin has a thinning area projecting from the cliffband on the skier's left across the slope which is also hard to see from above. Middle slope and everything to the skier's right is still solid coverage.

No problem with pollen anywhere or sticky snow from top to bottom.

Rando-ron, good talking to ya again....

That slide path on Shot Six is still active. I skinned up what’s left of the lazy traverse yesterday and some huge chunks were breaking off and coming down. I skied past it again on the way down and there was a fresh pile of mini-fridge-sized ice chunks that had come down in the last hour. Watch out for rocks too. The cliffs there and elsewhere in the valley are spitting good-sized chunks down pretty regularly.

And watch out for dog shit! So, so much dog shit.

author=tele.skier link=topic=28557.msg120219#msg120219 date=1369066944]
May 19th

half way down upper nash, a narrow glide crack has opened up on the skier's right side. It caught me by surprise because it wasn't big enough to be seen from a distance. In retrospect I should have hucked it,...

Also, adrenilin has a thinning area projecting from the cliffband on the skier's left across the slope which is also hard to see from above. Middle slope and everything to the skier's right is still solid coverage.

No problem with pollen anywhere or sticky snow from top to bottom.

Rando-ron, good talking to ya again....


Hi there Tele.skier - was great running into you again.  Conditions were great that afternoon, a little light drizzle but that was about it.  Got in a couple laps before harder rain hit.

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