April 8, 2004, Mount Bachelor

Following the previous day's long ski trip around Newberry Crater, I figured that a day just riding the lifts at Mount Bachelor would be great. The sun was out all day and the snow was mainly corn, despite a somewhat low 9000 ft freezing level. I started out on the NE side in the morning by yo-yoing the Sunrise and Summit Expresses until 1pm. Then it was time to make the arduous 60 vft climb from the top of the Summit lift to the true summit of Mount Bachelor. The snow up there had softened only on southern aspects, while the north/northeast-facing Cirque Bowl remained mostly frozen and bumpy looking. I skied off the summit cone to the NW, on smooth but still frozen snow, eventually softening to corn by the time I reached the top of Northwest Express. The afternoon was spent yo-yoing the high-speed cruisers of the Northwest side, with good corn over nearly the entire 2300 vft drop off that lift. Total skiing for the day was 68,000 vertical feet on the Avocet watch, not too bad considering the time off to climb to the summit and also taking nearly 100 digital photos of the spectacular scenery. It should be easy to break 80,000 vft in a day at Bachelor with a decent effort.<br><br>Mount Bachelor is arguably the best spring cruising ski area in the US, and it is in fine form this year with a snowpack still well above average. Unfortunately, the new management since 2001 has not done much to uphold Bachelor's formerly sterling spring reputation. Each year since, they've been shutting things down way too early and they certainly appear to be concentrating solely on the financial bottom line. Thus April 18 will be the last day of full operations, with a skeleton operation (Pine Marten and Summit chairs only, from 8am-1pm only) continuing until Memorial Day. The days of Mount Bachelor running into June and even July appear to be over unless management has a change of heart. But I guess that just leaves more time for the backcountry crowd to have the empty slopes all to themselves (I did already see one person that day skinning up all the way to the summit from the Sunrise Lodge along the edge of the trails). <br><br>The next day's plan was to head south to California, and try to ski something at Medicine Lake Volcano. Other trip reports:<br> April 7, 2004, Newberry Crater Circumnavigation <br> April 9, 2004, Medicine Lake Volcano, Glass Mtn <br> April 10, 2004, Mount Shasta, Red Banks Bowl <br> April 11, 2004, Mount Shasta, Whitney Glacier & Shastina Access <br> April 12, 2004, Mount McLoughlin, SE Face <br> April 13, 2004, Lassen Park, Old Ski Area <br><br>Amar Andalkar<br> www.skimountaineer.com <br><br>This view looks northwest from the summit of Mount Bachelor towards (left to right) South Sister, Middle Sister, North Sister, Mount Washington, Mount Jefferson, Broken Top, and Mount Hood. Click here for a double-size version of this photo. <br><br> <br>