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Alpental BC, December 31, 2014
What's New Year's Eve without a celebratory ski first? In past years, we've had plenty of ski opportunities to choose from, but with the sparse snow this year the choices were limited. Kevin wanted to get in a quick tour, and with Seth and Holly already at Alpental for the holidays, we decided to give the Alpental backcountry a shot.
Kevin, Seth and Holly skin the corduroy
Alpy had been prepping for an opening and had groomed out Sessel and Debbie's, so a more or less covered route existed to get down the lower mountain. Still, the coverage was marginal at best. We took skis off several times to wade through streams, and there was plenty of brush underfoot much of the way. Above 4,000 ft. the coverage was much better, and once in the area above Machs and Martin Bowl there was a nice fresh layer of around 8 inches, perfectly skiable if you were wary of large boulders.
Kevin gets some
Holly
Seth
With Seth doing the vast majority of the trailbreaking, we went for several good laps, a perfect warmup for the season to come. We finished off the day with a stop at the Pass Life's new brewpub, Dru Brew, which offered a great deal on a rack of six "taster" beers.
In the shade all day
Kevin airs it out
