May Day @Alpental, Washington

Closing the lift served on a gorgeous spring day in the Cascade Mountains.
A fabulous season of snow riding and friend sharing with minimal suckage!
Super slurpee conditions and a social in LoT4,
till it migrates to the Top o The Padded Seats,
will high light The Day that will be most excellent.

Yee haa! FP! Thats a really early last day report....Congrats!....and the late afternoon report...before the happy party at the top of 2 in the nice evening sun!....Right now?....

Gotta say all in all a perfect way to end the Ski season today at Alpy!...Warm from the get go, jumped onto the first empty Armstrong chair around 9:02, soft enough in the right places and still a little way to firm in some shady places. Hamster Treadmill was full on early…especially now that I can finally remember all my fav lines off of Armstrong. Jumped onto an empty Chair 2 early…hot warm slow thinking chair ride up…big views pretty much everywhere – finally noticed Rainer from the top…plus nice views north and all the peaks I see from Crystal that are a lot closer to Alpy than I realized. Edel bowl was big huge fun bumps early, but the line up by mid morning was way past my hamster world…so spent the day lapping Armstrong over and over and over …and found some new for me tree slots to provide some solomn gate type skiing – much to much fun. Softer snow than yesterday, bigger crowd over all, kept me from doing Nash, but the line up on AS was short enough to be entertaining.

Other – Soup…dang forgot to look again, thought about it at least twice…but the combo pizza was big and very good again….sitting in the sky bridge between the two buildings, eating big pizza, drinking nasty beer, looking out at folks sliding down the slopes to the base and all the folks hanging out at the base…gotta say pretty dang pleasant.

Other – easy parking again, lots looked pretty full when I bailed out at 2pm again today…probably way to early, since it looked like the lift lines were gone at the base…but the quads were definitely complaining…dang all those happy fun deep soft bumps! Bumped into another happy TAY poster – Neil...should do more posts to off set my biased to happy reports…

Other other other – Gotta repeat that today was a great day to be skiing a big happy fun sunny warm day to finish the lift served season in Washington! What a nice way to finish it off!...

So with this report I give the Alpy ski conditions TAY posting’s back to all those folks lucky enough to ski (or ride) at the Alpental all winter long….see you all next year for the final days!

Real nice party at piss pass and later on the patio above heavenly trees below wally's wall. This had to be one of the bestest closers this decade!! l'International was supreme and snake dance just as fun. Spun numerous laps off the high T which was 3,241 times better than yesterday morning. No need to check my depends today thank god. LoT4 was under our control today FKNA. really only busy if one was concerned about vert accumulation otherwise the left side of the padded seat line moved quick, wait times roughly 10 minutes, never longer and no problems getting loaded at the end of the afternoon. Saw Silas, he had a few family members with him so I DIDN'T give him to hard a time. Lots of kooks and Sk8trs to play with and the beer and buds flowed free! Final kicker was the 6pm deep fryer that kept spitting out good food for an hour. Hush Puppies, onion rings, breaded fish, corn and pecan pie. Oh hell yeah that bubbling oil can really be a friend some days!
Yo ddk, you should'a hollered once in our direction, we don't bite.

It was a lovely end of the season.

DDK - We should introduce you to the terrain out on the high traverse. Not hamster-wheel territory, but very enjoyable. As long as you promise to tell everyone form that resort down south: "Alpental? Don't bother! It's always better at Crystal."

Hey Bobby, I skied with (style and) grace today. Thanks Dan for spinning the Alpensmall lifts on a much nicer weekend. One more day please?!

Nice day, indeed

It was festive and the corn was harvested
www.flickr.com/photos/11723786@N06/albums/72157667270170350
a few pics from Saturday and Sunday

Hey Bobby, I skied with (style and) grace today.   Thanks Dan for spinning the Alpensmall lifts on a much nicer weekend. One more day please?!

Nice Silas!! See you on Thursday for Sinko!

Agreed great day. Should have a short vid together soon of those last sunny days......

Sounds like the ad hoc Cinco is still on. Hmmmmmm.............

What a great end to the season!  Saturday I went to Piss Pass for the first time.  It was sketchy for a few moments but ultimately a blast.  Some pics:




Album: imgur.com/a/8HLHv

The weekend before, I got away from Bellingham and my roommates by skiing at Mission Ridge. The need to escape was ever more present this past weekend! lol Shame on me for being 41 years old and living with roommates! : lol

I arrived at roughly 1 PM after a long road trip, but I had my skis. I was caught off guard by all lots being full and having to park on the road at the entrance to lot 4.  The last time I skied closing day at Alpental (that would be Sunday, April 24th until about 1PM, then it became the weekend before closing day weekend) the place was practically deserted. Of course it was snowing at the top and raining at the bottom for a bit. That just shows you what a bit of sunshine and warmth will do.
Being solo, and a bit line-adverse like DDK mentioned, I didn't hang out long, but enough to get one down Adrenaline and a few on AS.

Acck, where did all these skiers/partiers come from? I thought everyone had moved on to kayaking or something

Proof that I waited in that massive line on chair 2...

The line wasn't massive, it just had a more civil sense with out the shoving and jockeying for the next gap. Instead of 50 wide and 100 deep, it was 100 deep but only 16 wide.

That was my witty sarcasm.
;D
Massive compared to skiing up and getting on the chair which I have done several times this past season.

82% of the time it is ski on ski off.

I was wondering if that pool deep in the woods half way up chair 1 is on anyones radar these days. Nice 15' drop to cool off on a hot day.

Assuming you'd go to the pool when snow free, how bad a bushwhack would it be? Is that the waterfall you see off to the left riding the chair near the bottom of red robin?

Gotta have a vid of the final days. Great season friends. See you next year.

vimeo.com/165988034

Oh and btw, there are great pools (easier access) over on the Commonwealth creek just about 15 minutes from the PCT parking lot.

I had to update the closing weekend vid as I completely missed some friend footage by accident. Skiing down Edelweiss on Closing day I pass a guy standing in a stance as I have  see a 1000 times before by only him........yep my old friend Dave, and skiing down his wife Pam. Friends since 1984 when I first met them both........skiing. As I joked with them I only see them skiing and I am glad some things NEVER change.

vimeo.com/165988034

Just saw the vid!! Happy Times