Spring at Mt Bachelor

We scored a $200-ish Bachelor Spring pass in late March. With a great base, it seemed like a good year to amortize costs and spend my semester break there instead of Whistler. And then return for the madness of the closing weekend.

The first week was total bluebird. With the Northwest Express and Summit open, there was plenty of terrain to explore. True Spring skiing didn’t really arrive until the end of the week though. Cold, strong northwest winds brought temperatures more reminiscent of February than the end of April.

The Summit was deserted as even the single groomer was an ice sheet. Each day we started in the sun on the east side of the mountain, and gradually moved west. By mid-morning the groomers heading down to Northwest were just about skiable. Unfortunately, on Spring schedule, the lift closed at 1pm, so the window for screaming groomers was small.

It was only by Friday that the Summit defrosted and we finally saw some true Spring skiing off the Summit. Friday and Saturday were great. Creamy corn, carvable breakable glass-like ice shards and perfect untracked lines down the gullies off the west side of the Summit. Sunday was actually a tad too warm, and sticky heavy snow finally drove us back to the lower groomers. No complaints though – it was great to see 3 true Spring ski days from 7. And Bend is a mighty fine place to spend a week!

11,100, 9300, 9100, 9600, 9400, 8700, 8000m vert

2.5 weeks later we returned for closing weekend. By this time Spring had departed again. We had a foggy day with rain from 11am, then a sunny but cool day, with some very good corn. Saturday was primo. Blue skies, enough sun to make Cow Face and the gullies perfection on the east side by 10am. Then after a couple of crater lines, we hiked the Summit for 3 great runs off the Northwest side.

Saturday was great. Sunday was slop. About 3 inches of it all over the mountain. Heavy. Sludgy. Groomer covering. Knee twisting. We were saved by Coffee. For some reason the sludge was minimal and it skied fast and smooth. We occasionally ventured into another run, but nearly always regretted it! No one made it past 1pm. Beer and end of season shenanigans were more appealing options.

So a 60 day season ended on a bit of a fizzer. it was an odd one weather wise. Dry before Xmas. Cold and slow in January. Full on Winter in February. And some very good March and April skiing. Overall, a lot of fun!!

8000, 8700, 7000, 5400m vert

11 days, 94,300m vert

Season Totals 60 days, 485,500m vert, 14 powder days

No shock really – May pow at Mt Bachelor

It’s been a big snow year at Mt Bachelor. This wasn’t the first time we’ve had May pow there, and I suspect it won’t be the last. For mid May, it was pretty delightful, with 3-5 inches each day on an increasingly mid-winter-like snowpack. These took the season total over 600 inches. Not bad.

Luckily the weather didn’t warm up too much each day to totally wreck the new snow. Some mushy clumping happened on the first day in the chopped up pow, but then the wind started loading the traverse towards the (closed) Summit Chair from Skyliner. It was perfect wind blown pow, free refills every run. That kept us busy until the lifts closed at 1.30pm. And smiling.

The wind dropped and the sun came out finally on Sunday. The Summit terrain was pretty scoured, and only really worthy of a couple of runs, including a decent full (top to bottom) Cow Face. While half the mountain’s small crowd waited for the Summit chair to open, we found the powdery, creamy Spring goods off the open Outback terrain. First tracks on Kangaroo, Ed’s trees, and several laps of fresh lines on Downunder were effortless skiing, ripping through soft Spring pow in the sun.

Welcome to Spring ski season at Mt Bachelor. There will be more before closing at Memorial weekend.

6200m, 7300m vert

68 days, 569,500m vert, 18 powder days

 

 

 

Closing the 2014 season down at Mt Bachelor

A deep late-May base, weather that finally started to resemble Spring and a ton of terrain to play on – it was a fine closing weekend at Bachelor.

Friday started out clear but clouds moved in mid morning, closing the Summit down and restricting us to cruising the lower mountain, which fortunately stayed relatively free of slow, sticky snow.

Saturday and Sunday saw the sun reign, fighting off a few lingering persistent clouds. These kept the temperatures reasonable, and the snow in great shape for most of the weekend. Perfect conditions for end of season costumes, in fact.

After fast early morning groomers, 10am runs runs down Cow Face were epic, carving creamy fresh lines all the way to the cat track. As the sun got higher, hikes to the summit held treasures that “Captain” Jack Sparrow would covet.This was great Spring skiing – finally. And very. very funny  😉

As the lifts closed for the season, we sat in the sun (and strong wind)  at the summit, supped the last drops of a horrible Absinthe, and shredded all the way down to the bar, a few thousand feet below, for some well earned end of season beers. Bring on November …. and here’s the video to keep us going until then.

3 days 9700m, 7900m, 7400m vert

Final Season Totals: 61 days, 504,400m vert

10 powder days, 1 chowda day