We awoke in the Bachelor parking lot at 4am and the furnace was cranking. Inside the temperature was 46F and the probe in the wheel well read 22F. The snow grader was removing some old snow piles in the parking lot as we pulled the blanket over our heads. At 6:30am the alarm sounded, the inside temp was 65, and outside it was sunny and brisk. The snow report was 16F at the base and 13F at the summit, with winds 10-15mph and no new snow overnight. The winds appeared to have pushed an inch or so onto the groomers which were packed powder. Geez, these are mid-winter temperatures so we dressed with several layers, neck gaiters and mittens. It has been 3 weeks since we last skied here and the snow coverage on the mountain appeared identical. Three high speed quads were operating including the Summit chair. The mountain was very quiet and lonely – mainly old timers like us. We cruised perfect groomers with an inch or so of powder. Our first 4 groomer runs were untracked and wonderful. We just put the skis on edge and cut grooves down the trails. In a 12 minute cycle here, we skied more vertical then we did on Shasta the day before. Wow! We made one run off the summit just as the forecasted clouds began to roll over the mountain around 10:30. For a little over 2 hours we enjoyed sunshine with temps in the low 20’s. By noon it had begun to snow lightly, but we were already brewing some fresh coffee in the camper. When we drove down to Bend, the temperatures were rising and it was starting to rain a couple miles down from the base area. Please, one more day!
