Pro Guiding Service - American LaGrave

The plaque reads: "Skiing is not a matter of life and death--it's much more important than that."

Fitting words to find in the office of Alpental's General Manager. Those words capsulize the type of skier attracted to Alpental--dedicated, hard-core, intense, and, probably, misguided.

I'm in the GM's office trying to decipher how Alpental, one of four areas at Snoqualmie Pass that was recently purchased by Booth Creek Ski Holdings, will factor into the $30 million that George Gillett says he will spend to spiff up these unshaven resorts situated 50 miles east of Seattle.

Three of the Snoqualmie Pass ski areas border I-90 and are accurately described as clear-cut hills crisscrossed with ski lifts. Alpental, however, just 1.5 miles away and up its own narrow valley, is a world removed. It's a world of old-growth trees, black cliffs, frozen waterfalls, avalanche gullies, chalet-styled structures, and craggy peaks rising 3000 feet above the valley floor. Even the name "Alpental" (translation: valley in the Alps) conveys old-world ambience that clashes with the freeway ambience of its sister resorts: Snoqualmie West, Snoqualmie Central, and Snoqualmie East.

Over the summer and fall, Booth Creek devoted $4 million to on-slope improvements at the four areas. Alpental will benefit from the fleet of new grooming machines that will be shared by all the hills. Beyond that, the only change to the old-world atmosphere at Alpental is fresh paint on the buildings and new carpet in the old lodge.

Which is no surprise because the regulars here could care less about frills. Alpental is a skier's mountain and, except for the limited terrain on the lower mountain (which has some intermediate and novice terrain), the majority of the cut runs are for experts. They're ungroomed and irregular. They're narrow and endowed with double fall lines. They're challenging and, with a dose of heavy snow, humbling.

But cut runs are not what give Alpental its cult status: It's the off-piste skiing that makes Alpental rule. The other three small hills at Snoqualmie Pass can teach you technique, but Alpental is where you take the final exam. The inbound off-piste provides cliffbands, old-growth forests, tight trees, avalanche chutes, boulder fields, creek beds, couloirs, and narrow ramps for sport. Ski it with great snow and you might leave with some semblance of dignity; ski it when it's coated with glop and you'll quickly discover where your technique flails.

When I skied the area recently with Bruce Edgerly, a Colorado-based contributing editor toPowder Magazine, he was blown away. The difficulty factor had him bad mouthing his backyard. "The terrain here is better than anything at Vail, Steamboat, and--with the exception of A-Basin--anything in Summit County. My only beef: The cafeteria doesn't have those fat, chocolate-chip cookies. If it weren't for the cookie, I'd ski here over A-Basin or Telluride."

Interestingly, Edgerly only skied the area's inbound holdings--avalanche hazard had the out-of-bounds closed. Had we skied beyond the boundary ropes, he'd have forgotten about the cookie.

The outback triples the area's size and removes any danger of the place being dubbed "Alpensmall." And it's the true proving grounds of your technique. None of the runs are easy. Many, like the shots down Mushroom Couloir, Draft Dodger, and Roxoff, get downright harebrained. And some, which start in wide, seductive bowls, deposit you above lethal cliffs. It's complex ground to navigate, and over the years it has transported a number of skiers who haven't known the terrain into the Big Sleep. Which is why outback types need to take an orientation tour with Ski Patrol and receive a backcountry card before they're allowed to venture through the gates leading away from the resort.

Put this all together and the Big A is something of a Little LaGrave. That's why serious skiers love the place...and why relatively few people ski it. Last year when I visited the hill on President's Day Weekend, one of the busiest weekends of the year, the place felt like a ghost town.

The GM (remember him?) tells me they hope to change that (not that I had any complaints about no lines on President's Day Weekend). He tells me big things are on the make at all four Snoqualmie Pass ski areas and he pulls out the master plan to illustrate how those big things might impact Alpental.

He shows me how the lifts might be reconfigured at some future time to improve traffic flow. He shows me how a new chair might someday have its upper station atop Knoll 1, which would enlarge the area's inbound holdings and provide easier access to the outback.

Despite the lip service, I don't see it happening soon...if ever. Booth Creek Ski Holdings did not line its deep pockets making poor business decisions. This year, on one of the days between Christmas and New Year's, there were 2600 people skiing the four Snoqualmie Pass ski areas. Alpental saw fewer than 200 of those visitors. What kind of business is going to sink millions into a hill turning moribund numbers when the hills that are keeping the operation afloat are also in dire need of polish?

And truth be told, there's little that Alpental needs. Yes, the lifts to the top of this 2200-foot drop are old doubles, a disgrace in this keep-up-with-the-Aspens age of skiing, but few are the skiers who will benefit from getting up this mountain in five minutes. The terrain, hazards, and snow conditions are so demanding that they sap one's strength and increase the odds of getting Bonoized. The majority of skiers need 15 minutes of down time on the ride up before they're ready for the trees again.

Alpental skiers realize all this. In regional polls, there is no Washington ski area that engenders more loyalty from its constituency. There may not be many of them but, as far as the true Alpentallers are concerned, fresh paint and new carpet are the only improvements this hill needs.

For more information about Alpental, call 206-236-7277.
1998/99 Adult lift rates at Alpental: $25/day M-F, $34/day Sat, Sun, and holidays.