Mt. Bachelor doesn’t always deliver great snow—but when it does, it’s really great.
MT. BACHELOR
RECOMMENDED BY Mike Adams
“I understand the appeal of marquee ski areas,” Mike Adams began, “but I really appreciate the thrill of having a wonderful ski experience at a lesser-known resort. I’ve had some unbelievable days at such venues. One such spot is Mt. Bachelor, in central Oregon. It’s special to me in several ways. First of all, you’re skiing on a volcano. How many times can you say that you’ve skied on a volcano? Thanks to Bachelor’s conical shape, you have skiable terrain from the summit wherever you turn—360 degrees of skiing. You don’t always have the best weather at Bachelor, and there are times when the summit is closed to skiing. But when it clears and conditions are right, skiing off the Summit Lift can give you access to unbelievable, untracked terrain.”
Mt. Bachelor rests near the center of Oregon’s Cascade Mountains, some twenty miles west of the city of Bend. Though it’s on the eastern (that is, dryer) side of the range, Bachelor sees, on average, almost four hundred inches of snow each year. Bachelor is a young mountain; geologists estimate that it was formed between eleven thousand and fifteen thousand years ago; it’s believed to have last erupted some eight thousand years ago. (No seismic activity has been recorded in modern times.) It takes its name from its “aloof” position relative to a nearby group of iconic mountains, the Three Sisters. The first modest ski operation on the mountain was opened in 1941; at the same time, a training camp for combat engineers was established nearby on the site of what would become the resort community of Sunriver. By 1958, a more formal operation opened as Bachelor Butte. By 1983, the areas had been rebranded as Mt. Bachelor, as operators feared that the name “Bachelor Butte” did not reflect a ski area of substance. The name was officially changed on Oregon’s maps, and Mt. Bachelor expanded to include over 3,600 acres of inbounds terrain, with a vertical drop of 3,365 feet—a mountain by almost anyone’s standards.
“I first visited Bachelor in 1997, when I moved to Portland after Adidas had acquired Salomon,” Mike continued. “My sons Cameron and Kieran were ski racers at the time, and they had a great program over at Bachelor. [Thanks to its long season, Bachelor is a regular training ground for the U.S. Ski Association and many Olympians and professional athletes.] We’d drive over from Portland (about four hours) whenever we could, and we got to know a lot of locals. One skier, Mark Ford (who raced for Colorado University in the early seventies) shared a lot of his local knowledge.”
As Mike mentioned above, skiers and boarders at Bachelor can run 360 degrees from the summit. The dormant volcano, which has seventy-one trails, is oriented in two halves, Frontside (east-facing) and Backside (west-facing). The front is given over primarily to beginner and intermediate trails; the back is entirely expert terrain and where Mike has found most of his best Bachelor adventures. “There’s some very memorable terrain on the back, when the conditions are right. Larry Valley, Curly, and Smokey Bowl come to mind. In some spots, you’re skiing in sluices created by lava flows, not like anything I’ve seen anywhere else. They’re little canyons, almost like half-pipes. On the edges of these canyons there’s rock, but snow blows into the interior, and the powder can be unbelievable. There are other curiosities, too. There are sinkholes that you’ll encounter from time to time, almost like vent holes. I saw kids fall in a few times, and then climb out.”
If you happen to get lost among the mountain’s 3,683 acres, look for one of the folks in the red jackets—these are Mt. Bachelor Ambassadors, and they’re on the hill to help you get oriented and have a good time. For boarders, Mt. Bachelor also offers terrain parks, including an Olympic-size super pipe; it’s been ranked among the top five snowboard resorts in North America by readers of TransWorld Snowboarding.
Part of the appeal of skiing and boarding at Bachelor is the chance to enjoy the unique landscape of central Oregon and the vibe of Bend. Here the pinyon pine– and sagebrushdotted high-desert country that characterizes much of eastern Oregon meets the Cascades, which protect greater Bend from western Oregon’s infamous precipitation, yielding nearly three hundred days of sunshine a year. “One of the beauties of the area is that you’re not in winter until you get to four thousand feet,” Mike added. “If you want to mix snow sports with other activities, you can usually do so.” These activities might include trout fishing on one of four local rivers; golf on one of twenty-five area courses; rock climbing on nearby Smith Rock; and in the spring, kayaking and whitewater rafting. Bend, a former lumber town, has emerged as an epicenter for outdoor recreation. In addition to fine restaurants and sweeping Cascades views, Bend is a beer connoisseurs’ paradise, with ten craft breweries/brewpubs (as of this writing). Visitors can tour the brewpubs on the Bend Ale Trail via the Cycle Pub, a sixteen-person pedal-powered contraption.
Given the eclectic nature of Mt. Bachelor’s Backside terrain, it’s no surprise that one of Mike’s most precious Bachelor memories involves a run in this region. “I was skiing with my wife, Ellen, who was once captain of the Middlebury Ski Team,” he recalled. “We came off Summit Lift, and traversed a bit to the right, and dropped into the Larry Valley area, at the edge of the western side of the mountain. We meandered down to a place we’d never skied; all of a sudden, we were on the border of a canyon. It was all fall line as far as we could see, no one had been there, and no one was around. We skied down side by side. Toward the bottom we stopped and looked back after eighty or ninety turns, and then simultaneously started giggling.”
MIKE ADAMS is vice president and commercial director for Amer Sports Winter Sports Equipment in the United States, which includes the Atomic and Salomon brands. His earliest skiing experiences were in Michigan, but through high school, college, and his ski industry career Mike has included New England, Colorado, Oregon, and Utah on his résumé of great places to live and ski.
If You Go
Getting There: Visitors to Mt. Bachelor can fly into nearby Redmond, Oregon, which is served by Alaska Airlines (800-252-7522; www.alaskaair.com) and Delta Airlines (800-221-1212; www.delta.com). Portland (a four-hour drive) is served by most major carriers.
Season: Mt. Bachelor is generally open from Thanksgiving to late May.
Lift Tickets: Day tickets are $76; multi-day tickets are available. See details at www.mtbachelor.com.
Level of Difficulty: Mt. Bachelor has a broad array of terrain, classified as follows: 15 percent novice; 25 percent intermediate; 35 percent advanced; 25 percent expert.
Accommodations: There’s no lodging at Mt. Bachelor. Visitors generally stay at the nearby resort community of Sunriver (800-801-8765; www.sunriver-resort.com) or in the city of Bend (877-245-8484; www.visitbend.com).
