February 7, 2015, Alpental

Expected heavy wet snow with the warming, so waited 'till afternoon for things to get skied into condition. Turns out I needn't have waited. Shady snow up high stayed dry.

With Vertfest coming up, I brought the wee rando sticks and skied nothing but Nash laps all afternoon. Super, super fun. I'd forgotten how much fun a skinny ski can be on edgeable, supportable snow. Caught up with friends lapping Chair 1 after 2 closed, which made the day even better.

At 4:30, headed over to Hyak for two quick laps. The sunset was beautiful. Snoqualmie is such a pretty place when you can see it.

I wouldn't say that the snow up high stayed dry... but rather I don't think it ever set-up on Sat. night due to a temperature inversion in Snoqualmie Pass. The telemetry doesn't show it (because the station at the top of chair 2 is still offline), but the characteristics of the snow and fact you could feel the air warming as you rode the padded seats gave it away.

E-Bowl and most of the terrain under chair 2 skied like springtime, with soft, manageable bumps. The International side was firmer, esp. below the Snake Dance gate. Fortunately, as the day wore on, the lower mountain softened up, too, but nowhere near as soft as up top. The terrain accessible out the lower gate went from heavy at the top to downright miserable coming out at the bottom, with a grabby crust complicating turns in the more open terrain and drips from the trees soaking the snow (and you) in the trees.

Upper gate did open in the early afternoon, and while the turns were soft, the snow was so saturated that it was like riding on a thick carpet. Leapfrogging each other and following our tracks yielded best results for getting through low angle "flats". Snow was markedly less sticky on the far side of the Cleaver, but time was running short so we stayed on the near side of it (and Trash Can) until we knew we weren't gonna get another, then went far out to conclude a great weekend ripping around the Alpental valley.