Oregon’s Mt. Bachelor delivers top-notch skiing on every level
To get the most out of Mt. Bachelor, skiers attack this snow-catching 9,000-foot volcano in Central Oregon from every angle.
On a recent December powder day, as downhill riders waited for the lifts to open, the action had already started nearby.
Backcountry “dawn patrol” climbers were already shredding the Cinder Cone and Nordic skiers were gliding on 56 kilometers of trails that wind through the nearby wilderness.
Then the lifts started spinning and 8 inches of primo Bachelor fluff was systematically tracked out over the next few hours.
Downhill, backcountry and Nordic: Mt. Bachelor delivers top-notch skiing on every level. When the multitasking snowsports day is done, nearby Bend, Oregon, also delivers as a fun-loving mountain town, with great lodging, dining and a craft-brew-crazy culture.
For downhill riders, Mt. Bachelor has joined the ranks of the biggest and best ski areas in North America.
With 4,300 acres of lift-served terrain, it is the sixth largest resort in the U.S. and has a vertical drop of 3,365 feet.
What makes Mt. Bachelor great is its high elevation. The main parking lot at Bachelor is at 6,300 feet, more than 400 feet higher than the summit of Mount Spokane.
The elevation enables Bachelor to hold onto the 460 inches of snow it receives annually, giving it one of the longest ski seasons in the U.S., usually from November to late-May.
The resort is getting even better this year. The new high-speed Cloudchaser Express lift is adding 635 acres of skiing to Bachelor’s southeastern slopes.
“It’s been a long time coming to get a chairlift on that side of the mountain,” says Stirling Cobb, marketing and communications manager for Mt. Bachelor. Seven of Mt. Bachelor’s 11 lifts are now high-speed quads.
“Our lift capacity is fantastic,” Cobb says. “Our lift lines will never be like they are in a place like Vail.”
Most of Mt. Bachelor’s lower slopes are intermediate, making it “a great family mountain,” Cobb says. The upper mountain, accessed off the Summit Express lift, has most of the steeps, but remains closed in stormy weather. Cobb estimates the Summit Express is open about 60 percent of the time.
Mt. Bachelor’s season is off to a great start, as December storms have zeroed in on the Washington and Oregon Cascades. That bodes well for a long spring season, arguably the best time to ski the mountain. Nice weather, longer days and meticulously groomed slopes keep the season rolling on a high level.
“They do a great job of grooming,” says John Flynn, 66, a season-pass holder from nearby Sunriver, Oregon. The season-extending grooming helped Flynn to score 190 days last season.
Spring visitors can ski in the morning, then head to Bend in the afternoon for another activity, such as golfing, mountain biking, kayaking, fishing or you name it.
“I’ve been known to ski in the morning at Bachelor and water ski in the afternoon,” Flynn says.
For backcountry riders: The road to Mt. Bachelor heads deep into the Deschutes National Forest on the Cascade Lakes Scenic Byway, giving backcountry riders access to several exceptional high-mountain routes.
One of the best is the Cinder Cone, inside the ski area boundary.
The 700-foot climb to the top of The Cone is done in fewer than 30 minutes, making it popular with “dawn patrol” types.
“It’s easy enough to get in some runs before work,” says Hank Therien, an avid backcountry rider who works for Visit Bend.
Just east of Mt. Bachelor is Tumalo Mountain, a 7,775-foot peak that offers great skiing off its backside.
“When the conditions are right, the skiing is great back there,” Therien says. “Once you’re up on top, it’s fun to take a few laps in the bowl.”
Near Mt. Bachelor, Therien also recommends Ball Butte and Tam McArthur Rim.
For Nordic skiers: The Nordic trails at Mt. Bachelor are special. The high elevation ensures good snow quality, and like its alpine counterpart, the season seems to go on forever.
“The amount of snowfall we get puts us at the top of our field,” says Susan Foster, Nordic center manager.
On an early December day, temps were in the single digits after a series of storms had dumped 2 feet of fluffy, dry snow.
The trails were groomed and soft. Within a few hundred yards of starting at the cozy Mt. Bachelor Nordic Center, the trails were picturesque – and empty.
“It feels like you’re in wilderness when you’re on our trails,” Foster says. “You have magnificent views and you’re skiing through a pristine forest.”
The Bend experience: When the ski day is done, there’s the booming city of Bend to explore. Once a quiet crossroads on U.S. Highway 97, Bend is now in the midst of an employment explosion fueled by the outdoors industry. Bend led the nation in job growth last year, according to Forbes magazine.
With the picturesque Deschutes River running through its hip downtown, Bend feels like the next Boulder or Austin.
Lodging and dining: Bend has many exceptional lodging options described on the Visit Bend website. I stayed at the Wall Street Suites, a 1950s-era motel tastefully renovated into a boutique hotel.
For dining, I ate at Zydeco, an excellent cajun-themed restaurant downtown, and at the white-tablecloth Jackalope Grill. Many other excellent restaurants are scattered through the city.
Beer: You can’t talk about Bend, nicknamed “Beer City, USA,” without mentioning its famous Ale Trail. The success of the Bend-based Deschutes Brewery helped spark a craft-beer explosion in Central Oregon. As of now, 29 breweries serve the area, with more popping up every year. I drank at Crux Fermentation Project, a beer-a-torium housed in the renovated AAMCO Transmission Plant. It was the perfect place to end up after a day on the slopes of Mt. Bachelor.
John Nelson is a freelance outdoors writer based in Seattle. Follow his blog at skizer.org.