pm alpental ice

[James]

so my weekends are looking way too busy for february and i'm getting nervous that i won't get on anymore ice this season

while looking through loren's website (cascadeclimber.com... check it out if you haven't already) i found a great idea... climb at the in bounds flow at alpental at night! so here's the deal: i want to go out there after work while the ice is still there. i get off (work that is) at 5pm, but can arrange to leave maybe 1hr earlier. i'm looking for eastsiders or people that can meet me over there as i live in bellevue and don't want to drive back into seattle at 11pm. i have a car (4wd) and will drive. i guess its pretty extreme measures to go through this trouble for maybe 3hrs of tr'ing, but it could be my last option for this year... any takers? post, pm, or e-mail if interested or if i left something out and you've got a question

[hakioawa]

I friday night and did the same. Good stuff.

As it turned out the patrol was not real excited about us climbing. They didn't stop us but our timing was less than great. We had our rope pulled by 10:10. But the lift stops at 10:00.

I ended up having beers with a couple of the Alpental patrolers at Crystal Saturday night. They suggest next time to get out a bit earlier so as to be down by 9:30 or so.

[Jens]

To all reading this thread.

If you must climb at this one little spot, (when it is in) please try to use it on Mondays when Alpental is closed.

[vegetablebelay]

That's gonna involve a headlamp, right? Do you get FA credit for that?

[mattp]

I'm with Jens. If you make a spectacle out of ice climbing right next to a ski run, they will almost certainly look for a way to shut it down.

[vegetablebelay]

Just to be clear - does making a spectacle include climbing the ice?

[mattp]

Climbing ice right next to a ski run certainly is "making a spectacle." That doesn't mean you shouldn't go there, but the suggestion that it might be a better idea to go when the ski area is closed than when it is open is, in my view, a good one. Short of that, I would think it prudent for anybody who goes there to try to be as low-key as possible.

I don't know that particular piece of ice. Maybe it is truly something unique and there is a reason to go for that particlar piece of ice rather than something else like the flows 1/4 mile up the valley.

[vegetablebelay]

I agree with you about keeping it low key and I'm definitely not up for climbing at a ski area, but the original post here was about night climbing due to whatever reason and his choices for that are very small in number. It sounds like he wouldn't be the first person ever to do it.

[jon]

I was skiing at alpental a week ago on sunday and there was some guys climbing all day next too the quad. Every time I came up the chair lift there were people standing there watching. I'm not saying that they don't have a right to be there but you can easily see it from the chair lift, and people want to watch. Skiing on friday night I couldn't believe how well lighted that particular flow is, I'm surprised I haven't seen people up there at night before.

I'd be really f@cken careful though, there is a ton of snow up there and there is a reasonable steep slope above it that is pretty well loaded.

[James]

i've never climbed there either, but the time i have free to climb on the weekends is looking thin and so i've decided to climb at night so i can get more laps in and make improvements before everything melts this year. i went to the above mentioned flows upvalley on sat, and they were covered with snow. it was suggested to me that i climb the inbounds flow, but i decided against it because i didn't want to be there attracting attention while alpental was busy... so by climbing at night i will 1. be able to keep my nonclimbing commitments and get some more practice in on the ice before its gone, and 2. not attract attract too much attention to myself while doing it as i presume there will be few skiers there. if that seems just too horrible then go get yourself a badge and gun cuz you must be the ice police

[mattp]

Climbing at night may indeed produce less of a spectacle than doing so during the daytime because I would assume it is not quite so noticeable when the ski runs are brightly lit and the adjacent woods enjoy some of the overflow lighting.

You may be reading more into this than is intended. I don't think anybody here wants to be the ice police but I see the potential for conflicts with the ski area and I am just suggesting that climbers be mindful of this. I suppose it is possible that the management will think, gee -- this is an exciting bit of entertainment for our customers and maybe we should promote ice climbing in the ski area. But I doubt it. I think it much more likely that they will find a problem with climbers straying too near to the ski run, with skiers who are gawking at the climbers standing in the way of those who are trying to ski, with a potential liability concern, or with some other issue.

Meanwhile, have fun and climb safe.

[James]

mattp, we'll do both of those, and while we're at it we'll make sure that anyone who meets us up there will ski/board away with a good impression of ice climbers btw, how does one include in their reply a previous post that they want to address?

[mattp]

James -

Click on the " " icon just above that post, and it will be reproduced in its entirety, with the proper html to display it in bold, labelled as a prior post. You then cut out what you did'nt want to highlight, being careful not to change the html, and you follow the whole think with your reply.

[James]

quote:

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Originally posted by mattp:

James -Click on the " " icon just above that post, and it will be reproduced in its entirety, with the proper html to display it in bold, labelled as a prior post. You then cut out what you did'nt want to highlight, being careful not to change the html, and you follow the whole think with your reply.

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thanks!

[James]

thanks for the info! c'mon people... climbing at night, riding a chair lift to the climb... is there a better way to unwind after work?