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There have been some developments since the original
publication of this page in early '05. Stay tuned for updated
information for 2006/2007 season.
Lot 3 & 4 are Public
Land!
Concentrated Wealth
attributes the prosperity and
progress of the United States to what it calls
free
enterprise. To it free enterprise means freedom
to
take, keep and control all the resources,
services and
opportunities it can, and charge for them the
last
possible cent. --Gifford Pinchot
freealpental.org
home
The upper parking lots, traditionally
known as lots 3 and 4 at Alpental are public land, and open to
the public under Article F in the Special
Use Permit, under which this particular ski concession operates.
The upper lots not only are a convenient place to park and ski down
to the lifts for skiing and snowboarding, they have historically
been an excellent point to access many winter climbing,
skiing, and snowshoeing routes. Lot 4 is described as
the start of several tours in Martin Volken's guidebook; Backcountry
Skiing Snoqualmie Pass. Here is an excerpt:
"Approach: Take Interstate 90 to the Snoqualmie Pass
west exit. Drive on Alpental Road to the uppermost parking
lot (3,220 feet). Leave your vehicle here.
From the parking lot you'll see a groomed path leading deeper
into the Alpental valley. Follow this path to the end.
From here you continue up the valley, staying well above and
south of the Snoqualmie River. Be aware that the north
slopes of the valley are steep and very avalanche prone."
Volken, Martin Backcountry
Skiing Snoqualmie Pass A Falcon Guide 2002, The Globe Pequot
Press pp.71, 73, 74, 77, 81, 84,87, 89,91, 93, 95, 98
Pro Guiding Service (425) 888-6397, info@ProGuiding.com
www.proguiding.com
There are indeed many
opportunities for climbing as well as touring from Lot 4. For
example if one wanted to climb Chair Peak (or the Tooth, or Bryant
Peak) in the winter as Jim Nelson and Peter Potterfield describe in
their guide:
"The difficulty of this approach varies, depending on snow
conditions. Drive I-90 to Snoqualmie Pass and Exit 52;
cross under the freeway by heading north, and follow signs to
Alpental. Drive Alpental Road north 2 miles to the upper
parking lot..
Hike upvalley, staying left (south) of the creek, to the head of
the valley above Source Lake. This area is prone to
avalanche. Use extreme caution."
Nelson, Jim and Potterfield, Peter, Selected
Climbs in the Cascades, The Mountaineers,/Seattle 1993,
p 46.
These are only a couple of
examples, but everything from snowshoe to waterfall ice guidebooks
point clearly to lot 4 as a traditional trailhead. There is even a randonee
race which starts in the upper lot. Without a doubt this
area has a historical precedent as point for the public to access
this wilderness all the way up this valley. Many families also
come to lot 3 and 4 without even winter sports as a part of their
adventure. Picnicking and playing in the snow, they have a
right to this land as well. We simply want to peaceably
assemble for whatever reason (including religious), on
public land which has been set aside for this purpose. Some people
come here just to look at waterfalls.
Not only is this valley a great
place for a day outing, lot 3 and 4 have traditionally been great
places to camp
in the winter. It used to be that in the 70's there were
even free electrical hookups in lot 2 for campers to use as an
incentive for skiing the area. Those days are long gone, but
as the seasons have gone by, the campers who have inhabited lot 3
have forged a strong community. Given continued free
access to our public land, this community will continue to thrive
for many generations to come. People will be able to freely peaceably
assemble and enjoy wilderness as was intended.
Sadly, Booth
Creek Ski Holdings Inc. has a different view of things.
Since acquiring the ski concession at Alpental in 1997, and with the
submission of the Master Development Plan ,
this corporation's policy has been to actively discourage people
from being in lot 3 and lot 4, seemingly in order to discourage
any opposition to their plan to develop this public land.
This corporation wants to build a large maintenance shop in lot 4,
to do "welding, sanding, grinding and painting" as
well as hydraulic work on large machines. Lot 4
is not only a trailhead, parking area, and emergency helicopter
landing zone, it is also a riparian zone on the source of the
South Fork Snoqualmie River. Corporate management should
consider cleaning up the mess they have made concerning the old
maintenance shop in the maintenance lot (in a riparian zone on
public land) before they build another. Corporate management
should also consider every option for building what they want on
their own private land,, and not consider encroaching on
public land. The clear direction in management philosophy
represented in the 1998 MDP is corporate acquisition of public land.
The resulting policies in the upper lots have directly hurt the
public's ability to access the legendary Alpental backcountry.
The Master
Development Plan, has also strangely and confusingly changed the
traditional numbers of the parking lots, in an apparent effort to
confuse people about what is going on here. Below
Alpental exists the "Webb lot" Named originally for
the Webb Moffet ski school and a building which existed below the
first main lot, which has traditionally been called lot 1.
(Interestingly enough, this corporation is seemingly not interested
in developing anything they own. They would rather build on
our public land). The MDP calls the Webb lot, "lot
1", and calls the traditional lot 1, (the lot where the old
historic bridge used to be ) "lot 2". Beyond the
unnecessary gate, there is the maintenance lot which the new MDP is
calling "lot 3". This is especially confusing
because locals refer the the lot a couple of lots up as lot 3, the
traditional overnight lot. Beyond the maintenance lot
there is a bit of parking on the right side of the road before you
get to the traditional lot 2, which was the original
overnight lot, but now is usually occupied by City League racers.
From this lot on, things are an easy ski down to the lift from one's
vehicle. The MDP calls lot 2, "lot 4". Lot 3 the
traditional overnight lot is called "lot 5", and lot
4, the uppermost lot is now "lot 6" according to this
plan. If all this seems confusing, it is meant to be.
The authors of this
"plan", the SE group
(formerly sno.engineering.com) want to build a
maintenance shop on public land in the upper lot 4; a riparian
zone. Moreover, SE group would rather you not know that
they themselves are the people who are writing the Environmental
Impact Statement for their own MDP due this January 2005!
This is as per a memorandum (coming soon via Freedom of
Information Act Request) issued by the organization known as the
Council for Environmental
Quality, a Whitehouse based group. A public comment
period on this subject will commence soon, and it is vital that
those who wish to freely access this public land express their
opinion within the allotted period of public comment. Last year the
ski concession attempted to try and restrict uphill traffic in the
valley, as per the above approach information; from lot 4. (see this
controversial thread at www.cascadeclimbers.com
) The authors of this plan would rather no one know they plan to
develop the upper lots for their own purpose. Indeed, the MDP
states the following concerning lot 4, the uppermost lot:
"Resort management proposes the expansion
of the Maintenance operation (from 1,472 square feet to
approximately 4,200 square feet) and the facility's relocation
to the westernmost edge of lot 6 [if one did not know lot 4
was being called "lot 6" one might be confused
here]...
The proposed facility will feature three groomer
maintenance bays - equipped with 20 - foot wide overhead doors
and hydraulic lifts -as well as isolated space for welding,
grinding, and painting...The proposed facility will be
accessible by both wheeled and tracked vehicles and will be
screened from the arriving guest (Parking Lot 6 will be used for
employee parking, ski patrol parking, and as a last resort,
overflow guest parking).
In addition to the
maintenance facility, approximately one-half an acre adjacent to
the building will be reserved for vehicle storage (for snowcats
and snow removal equipment in the summer, and auxiliary vehicles
during winter months)."
Master
Development Plan as submitted by sno.engineering
(currently SE Group),
August 1998
Chris
Cushing [Mountain Planning, lead
author of the MDP at Alpental, SE
Group (formerly sno.engineering)] Park City, UT
ccushing@segrp.com
Tel
435.649.9395
Since the publication of the MDP,
Booth Creek Ski Holdings Inc. policy toward the general
public wishing to enjoy the upper parking areas has been one of
active discouragement and even open harassment. At
the start of the 98/99 season, and again the next season, Booth
Creek Ski Holdings Inc. has attempted to disallow
overnight parking in these upper lots. If it had not been for
the persistence and diligence of a few campers who knew what their rights
were, the company would have gotten its way. Of course,
few knew of the corporation's plan to build in these public lots at
the time.
$$$Illegal
Corporate Monopolization of the Snoqualmie Pass
Camping Economy$$$
This year, Booth Creek Ski
Holdings Inc. has begun illegally charging a fee (i.e.: establishing
an illegal private corporate tariff for use of public land) to
be on public land at Alpental (in clear
violation of the letter and spirit of the holder's SUP privilege),
as well as instituting a maximum stay of 2 days (as opposed to the
14 days one can freely and legally camp in one place as per USFS
policy), also suspending citizen's constitution rights (
i.e.: peaceable assembly, free speech, religion, security of self
and effects against unreasonable search and seizures) on public land
at Alpental. Last year in a clear attempt to break the spirit
of the lot 3 community, the corporation's private security
militia went as far as attempting to prevent people from peaceably
assembling and freely associating outside their campers, from
using propane heaters to gather around (these are now used in lieu
of the traditional campfire, which people have gathered around
at Alpental for years, and northern people have gathered
around for religious and social reasons for millennia, because Booth
Creek Ski Holdings Inc. has decided that fires are not allowed),
and also instituting an illegal "curfew," disallowing
people to freely associate on public land, enforced by private
"security" (i.e. corporate unregulated militia) operating
on public land, apparently armed, and clearly beyond the ambit of
judicial purview. People were illegally disallowed from
gathering on public land last year. This year (04/05) the trend
continues with Alpental becoming a police state over New Years, and
local campers being chased off public land and onto private land by
the Booth Creek security forces.
Booth Creek Ski Holdings
Inc. seems to be intent on disallowing and eliminating any
energy which might cause this unique community of wilderness
enthusiasts to peaceably assemble and communicate, and seems only
interested in their stated goal of public land acquisition and
making profit off of public land; eventually acquiring it. This
discriminatory policy is in complete opposition to the letter and
spirit of Article F, in the Special
Use Permit, which guarantees the right of the people to freely
access these lands and waters. Alpental is a day use ski area
with camping, which operates on public land, not an exclusive resort
operating on private land. Booth Creek Ski Holdings Inc., a
Delaware based corporation, appears to want nobody around these
upper lots this season who might want to comment on the DEIS
of the MDP, or the effect of this proposed development on the
environment, or the accessibility of our public land .
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