Alpental, January 9, 2026

I popped over to Alpental for the day to enjoy the bounty of the latest PNW storm cycle before the warm-up. Yesterday would have been a better day in terms of snow quality (colder), but the visibility was much better today.

Lifts at Alpental generally start running at 9:00am, but patrol was doing heavy avalanche control work, and even the base lifts didn't open until about 9:40am. Telemetry reported only 6" of overnight snow at mid-mountain, but over the last five days, there has been around 3-4 feet of new snow. My guess is that they were concerned about instability as temperatures warmed through the day.

This was only the third day of operations at Alpental this season. The warm temperatures took their toll here, since the base elevation is 3000', there's no snowmaking, and the terrain isn't graded like the other I-90 areas (which have been open for a couple weeks now.) Fortunately, the latest storms made it possible to open everything, including the steep terrain that's the big draw at Alpental. There were few obvious areas of thin cover, though if you're a regular, you can recognize that the terrain isn't filled in as much as it typically would be.

Over the summer, Alpental replaced the old squeaky Edelweiss double chair with a fixed grip triple. I've got some serious nostalgia for the old chair, but the capacity upgrade was necessary. With that an the recently added International triple chair, it's possible get a lot more laps in.

The old Edelweiss (Chair 2) shed is still there...


The view east toward Keechelus Lake


Riding up International Chair (just added last season)


A few more rocks and cliffs than usual for early January


Big Alpy conifers shedding snow as the temperatures warm

Nice photos. Makes me miss the Northwest and Seattle area.

claurel said:

Over the summer, Alpental replaced the old squeaky Edelweiss double chair with a fixed grip triple. I've got some serious nostalgia for the old chair, but the capacity upgrade was necessary. With that an the recently added International triple chair, it's possible get a lot more laps in.

Click to expand...

I was a bit surprised that Alpental chose Triple Chairs versus Quad Chairs, but I assume the single lines will move fast at both Edelweiss and International. I cannot imagine what weekend lines were like before these lift improvements.

claurel said:

There were few obvious areas of thin cover, though if you're a regular, you can recognize that the terrain isn't filled in as much as it typically would be.

Click to expand...

I was always impressed by how easily the relatively high-moisture snow at Alpental sticks to and covers anything. I almost never hit a rock after January 1st.

I'm hoping that I can add Alpental to my list on the February road trip. There seems to be quite a bit more snow than in Oregon right now.

Mount Shasta Snow Park has expanded, and finally looks worthy of exploration/a stop - although I understand the connection to its highest lift is poorly thought out/executed due to land ownership issues and requires horizontal traversing/poling.

However, I have never driven I-5 North in the Winter to Oregon/Washington, but many times in the Summer/Fall to climb Mt Shasta/Mt Lassen, visit Crater Lake NP or Redwoods NP or the Oregon Coast and see friends in Portland/Seattle. Always fly for work and skiing to preserve time in the Winter.

China Peak (4.25 hrs from SF) and Mt. Shasta Snow Park (4.5 hrs) are outside of the day-trip zone, and I do not have enough interest for overnights.

And I have never skied any Oregon resorts outside of Mt Hood/Mt. Bachelor/Bend area, despite some decent ones off of I-5.