Alpental pre-opening shakeout, December 7, 2003

After Bill and I skied our brains out at Steven's on Saturday, I felt compelled to run up to Alpy's for at least a run down International.  Dale, Ron, Jimmy and I left the parking lot at about 10:00 and followed a well established skin track up to the top of 17 via Edelweiss.  Snow was pretty thick and sloppy until we reached the top of the Quad and then things got a lot lighter.  On top around 11:30, we hung out for a while eating and mingling under broken clouds.  By this time, several parties had arrived on top including one comprised of Sky, Corey and the Hummels.  Talk shifted to, "I think we should ski this..." or "I think we should ski that..."  
Our crew still opted for a run on International and so we dropped in.  I must say there are few times I've skied that run in better conditions.  Calf-to-knee deep fluff all the way down to lower international...very nice!  And of course, no bumps to bottom-out on.  Things started getting heavier, but still many good turns were had until we reached the top of Sessel.  Here it was time for figure 11s down to the car...necessary to keep up speed.  Back home by 1:30 so we could all be domestic .

photos courtesy of Ron:

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