alpentalcorey

Norman Clyde, do you have the first year model of the tri-step? Others have reported the same problem with them and I believe life-link has a fix that they will send you for free. I have the 2nd year version of the tri-step and thankfully have not experienced any releases except for when I forget to lock them down in tour mode. Note that any version of the dynafit will twist out of the toe piece if it isn't fully locked down.

It's all skiing, so it's all good in my book! I've been fortunate to be able to ski a lot of days in the last 5 years, with an ever increasing number of bc days. This season has been a little wierd in that there was so much pow in the beginning and lots of sunny weather in the 2nd half (allowing for lots of bc skiing and all the great TRs this year) instead of spread out more like it usually is. In the last year or two, I've had the pleasure of convincing a few of my bc skiing pals to ski more lifts as well has talking a couple of my alpental buddies to get into/ski more bc. Life is good!

very nice read. I'm more of a lurker here but I just wanted to chime in to say way to go and thanks for the TR!

It's a great ski line. I did it twice last June from Timberline. Obviously it could be done from Meadows as well. Reasonable steepness with not too bad exposure from the top of the face. There would be more exposure if you skied it from the summit, but from the top of the face it is good to go. Here is a link to a TR with photos: http://staff.washington.edu/skykilo/Wy_east/Wy_east.html

This is what I have seen so far: Plenty of folks are still going up the trail. They're not really stopping anybody, and I haven't seen any new signage. I did see the snoqualmie pass security guy come up to try to shoo away some sledders and with his PA he shouted that there was "no uphill traffic" on the trail. But it's not like he was getting out of his Jeep and stopping anybody. Uphill traffic, has not seemed to slow down, at least not noticeably. I've been skiing at Alpental for a long time and if anything the traffic is higher now than it has ever been. They're not stopping the snowshoers, so I don't see why should the climbers and backcountry skiers should stop either. However, some of the showshoers DO seem to think that this is a trail maintained for THEM. It is not. It is made by skiers coming out of the BC. Skiers coming downhill have the right of way, as they should. From what I have seen in the last decade, people with climbing packs and uphill skiers are very conscious of the downhill traffic but some of the showshoers will do things like stopping right on the trail or walking in a horizontal column that blocks the whole trail. I think people should still be able to head up the trail but I do wish that they would add a sign that specifically says that downhill travellers should have the right of way (I believe there is a warning sign but it's not too specific) and that breaks and rest stops should be taken away from the trail.

10 oz? Seems more like 3oz at least for the dynafit crampons. They weigh nothing, and when you need them, they rule!

I have a pair of Tourlight Tech 4S (saw a great deal on ebay and went for it) which I believe is just last year's model of the TLT4, but I have not tried them yet because even though they are the same shell size (27.5) as my Tourlight All-Terrains (is that the right name for the blue ones?) my skis would need to be adjusted to fit them because they are shorter without the toe-piece. A friend of mine has these same boots and loves them. To improve performance, he added a G-fit liner and a custom booster strap. I have some of those booster straps too for my blue dynafits and they improved the performance so much (they feel like my downhill boots now) that I would certainly use them on these boots as well.

That's a good point, I never thought about the effect of the rain (it did rain, we waited it out in our tent at ~5900 sat morning before we moved the camp up to where we both were) in terms of smoothing everything out. It wasn't a hard rain really but I imagine now that it must have had some effect.

I think the 3 guys you are talking about were our party. Were you guys the party of 5 camped nearby us? Toby was the tele skier in a party of 2 with his girlfriend, I believe camped a bit below? Anyways, what nice snow for this time of year! So smooth and nice, I read a TR about suncups on the S side of Adams, none of that here, just nice silk. What a nice trip that was.

Great photos! For more solitude, check out the N side. Except on the summit, we never saw more than a couple people at any given time. Sometimes I can enjoy the social circus atmosphere at places like the S side, but the ratio of people on the S to the N was probably 40 to 1.

Dynafits are the best because you don't have to listen to all that clack-clack-clack with every step. Hmm, if it takes me 10 minutes to get them on, its probably 1 minute to get them on and 9 minutes to space out. Or maybe to tend to my chronic bronchitis.

My experience was somewhat the same as petea - brought a rope, didn't use it.

I was there last memorial day weekend as well. I imagine that this year has much more snow than last year, so crevasses shouldn't be too large if visible at all. I heard the guy who spent the night in the crevasse was wearing jeans & t-shirt, but I never saw him, so I don't really know.

I did it last year over memorial day weekend. There is a lot more snow this year so it will likely be a lot different. For me, it was hiking on foot all the way past Kennedy h.s. and then up the steep trail to boulder basin. Around kennedy or so, there were patches of snow, but it wasn't continuous. It's a long approach however, but the views from up high were really fantastic, of course I forgot my camera. So, I say go for it, but expect a long slog, which you probably already know. The ski was pretty good, but the partly cloudy conditions made for mush rather than corn. If I do it again, I think I will either try for a fast light deal or bring extra food and try to stay for a few days

Hehe, still here reading, so may as well reply. I remember thinking last year that it would be easier with more snow, and it probably would. However, the section between the PCT and boulder basin is possibly/probably too steep to skin (although maybe with snocover you could put in a switchback trail somewhere). It may also be difficult to ski down that section with a gigantic heavy pack on. But, let me know how it goes, I think you probably have the right idea.