April 2-3, 2005, Mt. Bachelor

Skied Saturday and Sunday at Mt. Bachelor.<br><br>Saturday was overcast with only an inch of new snow from Friday night. Northwest Express and the Summit lifts were both running by about 9:00. I was able to ski off the summit for the first time; been at Bachy a half a dozen time and it was always shut down due to weather. A cornice had broken off in the Cirque and caused a slab avalance: 30 inch crown and about ~200 yards across. The slide area was visible from the chair and I saw lots of activity (dogs, probers). Apparently there were some people caught in the slide but they were able to ski away unharmed. Since the Cirque was closed due to the avi, I traversed around and skied the Westside. I found some gullies that maintained fresh, soft snow unaffected by the wind. A pleasant surprise. The Northwest runs were good, but it was a bit crusty in the trees.<br><br>On Sunday, we were disappointed that the storm hadn't rolled in the night before as expected and dropped the 6-8" of new snow. But it was snowing when we got to the lot and it was cold. The Summit was shut down with the weather and NW Express was shut because there weren't enough employees at work, so we resigned ourselves to the Outback lift. My buddy Chris, who's a Bachelor regular, found plenty of nooks and crannies in the trees that had some great stashes of fresh snow and reasonable pitches. The conditions improved as the day went on and the snow kept flying. We finished up the day (as we had on Saturday) with the brief climb to the top of the Cone near the parking area. The short, open slope had held some really nice snow and the tracks from prior days were filling in. A fun way to end the weekend.<br><br>I gotta say that before this weekend, I had never really enjoyed Bachelor (I had referred to it a Flatchelor). But skiing from the summit, and being guided by someone who knew where the good pitches/trees/powder were made a big difference. Big fun! The coverage is excellent and it looks like they have enough snow to be open for quite awhile.

I'm reporting this second hand.<br><br>A classmate of my girlfriend's at U of O was the person caught in the avalanche. He apparently triggered the slide. Going up the chair he thought it look sketchy, but since he was in bounds and it wasn't closed he figured it was safe.<br><br>He was buried up to his neck and suffered a concussion and a black eye. The rescue took a long time and he figures he would have died if he had been completely buried.<br><br>Apparently some members of the rescue team were unfamiliar with beacon use and it took some time for them to switch from "send" to "receive."<br><br>Yikes.

Hi David,<br><br>I immediately wonder why rescuers would need beacons for a partial burial.  This makes me wonder also about the reliability of your source.  I'd be interested in hearing whether you're able to confirm or disconfirm this information.  <br><br>Aside from which, 'bout time you turned up here ;D.<br><br>Mark

Thanks for the reports Joe and David. If the story is correct about the partial burial, and the skier wasn't poaching, this will be the 2nd avalanche near-miss at Bachelor this season.<br><br>