Finding A Little Urban Release At Alpental Opening Day
by Shanti Sosienski
(December 11, 1996)

Alpental is a Seattlites dream mountain as it is located less than an hour from the city, and offers night boarding for those brave enough to cut out of work early and head for the hills. It's a small mountain with only four short lifts and a rope tow, but there are cliffs in all heights and shapes, legendary backcountry, and a lot of really friendly people on the mountain.

I quickly discovered that a serious line at Alpental means not seeing the "Danger! Cliff" signs everywhere, and has little to do with chair lift terminology. Even on opening day the wait was no more than enough time to rest aching leg muscles and catch a few breaths of moist Washington air. The tickets are cheap if you go during the week (15-18 dollars) and if you want a latte, no problem, you're in the land of java.

We arrived at the mountain as early as possible on Thursday morning, which still wasn't early enough for first tracks. The road was a bit like a parking lot due to the heavy snowfall causing closures on I-90 for avalanche blasting. Finally we made it through the chaos of cars spinning in the fresh snow to the parking lot. It was a high energy zone with Led Zeppelin cranking loudly from someone's car. A CJ-7 filled with people pulled in to a spot via a nice e-brake 360 before resting neatly in its parking space. Everyone seemed in good spirits and huge smiles lit the fog filled parking lot.

Fog is a friend that Washingtonians rarely snowboard without, especially in the early season. It's moist, thick, and often can sit on a mountain all day. This doesn't disappoint people at places like Alpental, though. They see it as making small mountains more challenging. One of my native friend's appeared almost excited at the prospect of Jedi snowboarding as we humped our gear and our bodies across the bridge which led to Debbie's Gold, an archaic double chair.

The chairs don't get any bigger or faster at Alpental than doubles. This is a beautiful thing. It means skiers and snowboarders seeking high-speed quads and luxurious half-an-hour runs will never see mole hills like Alpental or its next-door neighbors Snoqualmie, Ski Acres, and Hyak. These mountains are for the city dwellers who worship snow as often as their urban lives allow. We worshipped with them all day.

Another interesting thing about Alpental is that it was once home and still is at times to many of the Northwest pros. Arlie Carstons, Dave Lee, Elan Bushnell, Josh Rosen, Heidi Nymark, and Billy Summers were just a few of the faces that popped up on opening day. I kind of expected to see Jamie Lynn and the Cummins brothers, but even if they were on the mountain, the deep snow and clouds could have easily hidden them.

The snow continued through out the day making almost every run feel pretty much like fresh turns. Even in the trees snow cover stayed good, and I felt the early season scrape of board hitting stump or rock only once on a well worn traverse to the Upper Internationale trail. All in all if you have to live in a city and ride a local mountain, Washingtonians are pretty lucky to have Alpental as an option when they aren't willing to make the mega committed trek to Baker or Crystal. One thing to keep in mind about Alpental--don't go there on a Monday or you will be hiking. It's closed.