It Hasn't Snowed in Weeks, but Mt. Bachelor Is Ripping—Conditions Report

Because it's a volcano, most of Mt. Bachelor loses sun around 2.p.m. this time of year. It gets *frigid* in the shade, and the combination of flat light and the cold temps we've had for the last week have meant that late afternoon skiing is less 'carving' and more 'praying to whatever God you believe in that your edges hold on that patch of ice you can't see.'

So I made the polarizing decision to wake up at 6a.m. on a Saturday and go skiing, not on a powder day. 

Mt. Bachelor does 8 a.m. early ups for passholders on Red Chair on Saturdays so I arrived in the lot by 7:25 with a thermos of coffee and my camera in hand. Watching the sun rise over the Sisters and Broken Top might have been worth the experience alone, but an hour of skiing freshly groomed runs on freshly sharpened skis was definitely worth it.

Hear me out— you wake up early, you ski groomers that make you feel like you're Mikaela Shiffrin laying down World Cup times (okay some of us didn't grow up racing and feel that way on 112 underfoot skis, let me live), then it gets crowded, the runs are skied off and a bit icy, and you're ready to bail. You head home, and do your laundry or take a nap, or cuddle your cat, or do whatever it is you don't feel like you have time to do during the week. Tell me that's not a perfect Saturday? 

I think there's a lot of pressure, as someone who works in skiing, to ski all day or always be pushing yourself. What I often remind myself, and we all remind each other here at POWDER, as people whose jobs depend on skiing, is that at the end of the day, it's just skiing.

It's supposed to be fun. I ski for work plenty, so on a Saturday morning when I'm not working, I only feel the need to stay out for as long as I'm enjoying the experience. On that note, that should stand true for pretty much everyone, whether or not you work in skiing or not. 

Once again, my inability to carry a full thought has led me on a tangent, when what you came here for was a conditions report.

Before I get distracted again, the conditions were fast, loose, and really great for realizing you need to work on your technique (Ian infiltrated my brain with this last week and now I can't stop thinking about it. What am I supposed to be doing with my hands???).

Bring sunscreen, an après bevy to drink in the sun, freshly sharpened edges, and a readiness to forgive yourself if you don't last all day long.