Bloated Skiing: December 2014

Dec 29, Alpy Again

Hooked up with my brother Kelly and his wife Jen for a Nash lap. Little wind up top, but still pretty sweet in the middle.

Jennifer Curd, International, Alpental.

Woohoo! Awesome day at Alpental with good snow, good weather, and a good group of friends. Nash was so good the first lap, I made a solo second lap to the top. Starting to feel like the season is really starting.

Renata, Scott, and Dan

Tom and Scott climb up Rollen

Scott slides in, looking for a rock free entrance to nirvana

Got it. Scott

Dan

Tom

Eric Noll skied through.

Scott

Renata

Dan

12/27 Summit West, Snowing up top, raining at the bottom

Quick west lap with Scott. One and done.

Scott

Dec. 26, Summit West - Ready for snow.

Skinned up little thunder chairlift, which was actually groomed. Did a short lap from above Little Thunder to the maintenance shed, then skinned to the top and skied the face. Coverage was a little thin on the lower face, but didn't hit any rocks today. Hoping for the snow gods to deliver over the next couple of days. I imagine if the ski area does receive any snow, they will have something running on Sunday.

Fresh tracks, looker left of Little Thunder

Dec. 19/20 Mt. Bachelor

Skiing was so good last week, we hopped in the car and went back. We invited several friends, but only Sue Taylor was able to make it. We got opening day of the Summit Chair last week. This week it was opening day of the Outback chair. We made the mistake of starting Friday on our skinnier skis. The fresh powder on Outback was pretty sweet, but we could have used our powder skis for the slightly thick snow. After 2 runs on Outback we headed to the car and got our fat skis for the rest of the trip. Worked the ski hill pretty well, skiing everything that was open and lasting until almost four o'clock. Saturday morning brought more powder, Sue and Francine enjoyed making almost first tracks down Old Skyliner run. Lots of fresh snow, but rapidly warming. By 2:00 the snow was pretty cooked, but so were our legs.

Sue and Francine

Morning line-up. We were about 10 chairs back from the front.

Fresh snow, on the car, at the end of our trip

Dec 15, Moto Hyak

Well no snow at home, so jumped on the dirtbike and checked out the neighborhood. New chair at Hyak has the cable strung, and they are splicing it together today. Looks like bottom lift shack still needs work. Rode out to the gun-range and checked out the tree thinning and then poked around at the lake. Snowing today, so hopefully the moto will stay in the garage.

December 11-13, Mt. Bachelor

Tired of the lack of snow at Snoqualmie Pass, we had two options: Go North to Whistler or go South to Bachelor. Both area were forecasting snow and had a good base. We have not been to Bachelor in years and decided to head South. The drive down the east side of the Cascades was definitely more pleasant than the I5 corridor. From our house the drive is about five/ five and a half hours, same as Whistler. The weather was windy our first day, with about an inch of wet snow falling. Second day was a little better, with just Skyliner and Pinemarten chairs running. Saturday broke out bluebird and the Summit chair opened up with nice windpacked powder. Great trip, sure nice to finally go skiing.