Spring skiing is here at Mt. Bachelor, at least for now...
Although the forecast would suggest another round of winter on its way, Bend skiers have gotten a preview of Mt. Bachelor's long awaited spring season. While there's nothing like a good PNW storm, and Mt. Bachelor has gotten plenty of them this year, spring volcano skiing is its own flavor of ski heaven.
Mt. Bachelor's last storm cycle delivered some of its deepest days on record—the mountain received nearly seven feet of snow in 11 days. Mountain ops crews have spent much of the last week digging the mountain out following the storm.
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As usual, getting Summit lift dug out and performing avalanche mitigation in the Bowl was a full day task for lift ops and ski patrol. The last storm has brought Mt. Bachelor's base depth to 137" and its season total to a healthy 412".
More than just a base refresh, the last storm also delivered the goods for one of spring skiing's biggest assets: the halfpipe. Throughout the season, a natural halfpipe has sat in lieu of a cut one under the Pine Marten lift. While the deep run ins cut by riders have made for some super fun hits, its not quite the same as a real halfpipe and the dedicated park skiers of Bachelor weren't quite satisfied with it.
Rumor has it that the mountain's pipe cutter was broken for some time, but at long last, a real halfpipe appeared under Pine Marten. The people asked and Mt. Bachelor delivered a 400' long, 13' high half pipe for all the spring park riding dreams of the hundreds of groms in parachute pants to come true. See below.
While we didn't sample the new halfpipe, I did head up to the mountain this week with some of Bend's most talented park skiers to get some laps on two of the other Woodward built parks at Bachelor.
We got perfectly slushy, warm spring conditions and a clear day to snag some photos and look forward to many more days of spring riding.
Spring at Mt. Bachelor truly might be the best season. The whole mountain, including most of the terrain off Summit, turns to perfect corn.
That Central Oregon desert sun keeps it warm on the mountain so you can ride in bibs and hoodie or t-shirt but somehow the snow stays nice until late in the afternoon. The parking lots also melt out and make for the perfect tailgate barbecue spot.
Mt. Bachelor sells a spring pass and the mountain is currently predicted to be open daily until April 20th. From April 21- May 26th, Pine Marten, Summit, Skyliner, and Little Pine will be open from 8:30am until 1:30pm for spring skiing hours.
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