Bachelor, Bend and that high-desert high
WORDS • Tess Strokes | PHOTOS • Pete Alport
The greatest Christmas gift I’ve ever received was a storm cycle at Mt. Bachelor. I was home for the holidays from Colorado, and it snowed about seven feet in seven days at the hill where I learned to ski 30 years ago. The miracle week started with an early-season summit day. Bachelor opened 100 percent of its then-3,683 acres on the earliest date in its then 50-something-year history. It was a bluebird, windless day and the backside was open, meaning 360-degree skiing from Bachelor’s 9,065-foot summit to the base of Northwest Express at 5,700 feet. That’s 3,365 vertical feet of alpine wind-shaped bowls and natural halfpipes formed from ancient lava flows leading to old-growth tree skiing. It was the last of the sun we’d see for more than a week. The season prior, January brought a weeklong, 100-inch storm that doubled the season’s snowpack. And more recently, in early 2017, Mt. Bachelor received too much snow.
The biggest storm in 30 years crippled the resort and buried Bend, the nearby high-desert town in Central Oregon where residents can go several winters without shoveling their driveways. Five-foot snowbanks narrowed roadways, roofs collapsed and schools closed. By late January, more than 325 inches of snow had fallen on Mt. Bachelor, and the ski season ended on the Fourth of July with 600 inches. The ski area isn’t immune to drought cycles and climate change, but in general, precipitation isn’t an issue at Mt. Bachelor.
“From the top of our mountain, the next high point is Japan,” says Drew Jackson, a meteorologist turned marketing director for Mt. Bachelor. “An entire Pacific Ocean, a freight train of sorts, often takes its aim at Oregon, which is centrally positioned on the West Coast to catch at least a portion of almost anything heading [its] direction.”
It’s what I’ve known since I was a kid wearing a “Good to the Last Drop” Mt. Bachelor poncho and a Skigee on my mitten thumb: Mt. Bachelor is a storm magnet. On average, the isolated volcano receives more than 450 inches of snow per season, and because it’s on the drier, eastern side of the Cascades and it has the highest lift-served ski access in Oregon or Washington, the snow is the best you’ll find in the Northwest.
Thirty minutes east, juniper and sagebrush mark Oregon’s high-desert where Bend enjoys 300 days a year of sun and less than a foot of rain annually. When my parents moved to Bend in 1980, they joined fewer than 20,000 people in the former logging town on the banks of the Deschutes River. The following decade, Bend more than doubled its population (famously with Californians) and now, the population tops a staggering 94,000. This year, Bend was the fourth fastest growing city in America. Of course, every “Best Towns” and “Most Breweries per Capita” listing brings more sprawl, stores and inflated real-estate prices in the metro area, but Bend remains, hands down, one of the coolest places on Earth. With 2.5 million acres of Forest Service land, vast wilderness areas, empty desert and a mountain range distancing itself from Oregon’s main populous, Bend feels much smaller than its numbers. For instance, Bend’s oldest ski shop is still the best in town. Skjersaa’s moved from its former location a couple years ago and put a six-tap pub in the back, but the place still gathers skiers and snowboarders around its roaring fire like it has for 60 years.
The first rays of sunlight hit Broken Top as seen from Bend. Skiing is just a piece of the recreation pie in Bend. World-class mountain bike trails lead right from town, and there’s also more than 500 miles of singletrack within an hour’s drive. Smith Rock State Park draws rock climbers from around the world with more than 14,000 routes, the Deschutes River offers everything from an in-town surf wave to Class 5 kayaking and world-renowned fly fishing, and many of the town’s 25 golf courses are open year-round. You literally must try in order to be bored here. Bend also has a historic and charming downtown, tons of cool concert venues, more breweries than you have nights to sample and, in my opinion, better restaurants than any ski town in the country.
Much like the breweries are to Bend, overkill but character-defining, the wind is to Mt. Bachelor. The mountain is home to sometimes hurricane strength gusts that blow chairlifts sideways, cake rime ice on all the upper trees and blow away fresh snow. Yet, the wind is also what shapes Bachelor’s unique terrain. Lucas Wachs, a 24-year-old professional skier and native Bendite, says it’s the mountain’s most defining characteristic. The first thing he does when he gets to Mt. Bachelor on or after a storm day is take notice of how and where the wind blew the snow. Then, he’ll work the mountain accordingly.
“It skis a lot like a skate park,” says Wachs. “Unless Summit’s open, it’s very jibby. You carry your speed from feature to feature, and it’s like a top-to-bottom, flowing skate park.” Wachs grew up skiing Mt. Bachelor with snowboarders like Max and Gus Warbington, Ben Ferguson and Peter Butsch. “I took a lot from their books in terms of how they read terrain and hit stuff,” says Wachs. “Bachelor doesn’t ski as fall line as a lot of mountains, so it teaches you to hit features and lines at different angles.”
Wachs still rolls with a snowboard crew, but he often skis with local professional skier Sage Cattabriga-Alosa and professional mountain biker Adam Craig. What they all have in common is an appreciation for Mt. Bachelor’s mellow, laid-back persona. Bachelor’s endless supply of vast bowls and evergreen alleyways means there’s no fighting for the ultimate stash. With enough acreage to rank it the sixth largest resort in the country, Bachelor always has plenty of snow to go around, which translates to mellow locals and civilized lift lines. High-speed quads access 3,000 of the 4,318 acres and efficiently space out crowds, which during the week are often slim to none.
SKIER: Lucas Wachs | LOCATION: Bend, ORLocal knowledge goes a long way at Mt. Bachelor, especially when visibility is poor, but a cat road encircles the mountain’s entire base, making all the unmarked gullies and old-growth tree runs off Northwest Express navigable. When Summit Express and the main bowl are open, you can access Bachelor’s steepest and most exposed terrain. “It has elements of Alaska in there,” says Cattabriga-Alosa of the Cirque Bowl near the coned summit. “You can make a couple exposed, steep turns, find some cliffs and jumps and get some big vert.”
Similar terrain can be found in the Three Sisters Wilderness near Mt. Bachelor, which offers enough backcountry lines for a lifetime. Access is the challenge. A snowmobile is practically mandatory, not for laps but just to get to the day’s starting point. At the base of one popular backcountry zone, Tam McArthur Rim, two 20-foot yurts and a wood-fired sauna are available for reservation (threesistersbackcountry.com). Across the street from Mt. Bachelor, Tumalo Mountain offers the most accessible human-powered turns. Inbounds, a treeless volcanic feature known as “The Cone” and its 700-foot descent draws the prework dawn patrol crowd but allows uphill traffic all day long.
Surrounded by national forest and devoid of any services aside from its utilitarian lodges, Mt. Bachelor’s only après scene is in the parking lots. Near Skyliner lift, which accesses the mountain’s largest complex of terrain parks, crews mingle in a ski-in-ski-out lot and barbecue. In the massive (and free for day use) West Village lot, RVs park for $20 a night. Over holidays and closing weekend, you’ll see more than 200 vehicles parked overnight. This spring, Jackson tells me, the scene will be livelier than ever thanks to some TBD parking lot events, including a huge concert.
Spring is when Mt. Bachelor and multi-faceted Bend shine. Traditionally open through Memorial Day Weekend, Bachelor boasts one of the longest seasons in the country, and in April and May, the mountain offers everything from spring powder days to thousands of vertical feet of prime corn. In the 22 miles between Mt. Bachelor and Bend, you’ll find a robust network of flowing singletrack, a river trail prime for running, a scenic section of Class 3 rapids and a favorite golf course shaded in huge ponderosa pines. Plenty of opportunities to thaw out from a storm-filled season at Oregon’s best ski area.
Get to Bend
Connect through Portland (PDX) to Redmond (RDM). Downtown Bend is a 25-minute drive south from RDM, or a three-hour-plus drive from PDX, should you choose to grab a rental car there.
Accommodations
There’s zero on-resort lodging at Mt. Bachelor, so your best bet is to grab a bed in town. The Oxford Hotel is a boutique option ideal for those seeking luxurious digs; for adventure travelers on a budget, hit The Bunk+Brew Historic Lucas House, the town’s first and oldest brick building; The DoubleTree by Hilton offers quality, affordable accommodations, too.
