Pacific NW/AK/BC Early april recommendations, Oregon

[Mendieta]

Totally different day today. Wet snow. Interrstinf conditions with wt powder in places, thin powder on top of hard bumps in others, and, after 10:30, very little untracked on mos of the trails. Several runs on wet but fresh esrly on. Now it's getting cruddy. Hoping it clears upfor an hour or two. Jr doesn't like low vis and hates no vis.

Junior:



The chair ... And the rallies did not disappoint as usual!



This is me this time loving the wet powder:



And here Mendieta Jr is a spec down there. Ihad taken a little detour for fresh tracks. Lots of fun!



Great day on funky conditions! Tonight it is likely that it will snow all night. Hopefully it cools down a little!

 

[Tony]

If anybody else if planning to go to Bachelor and will be there at least two days, but not long enough to justify a now $259 Spring Pass, let me know. I have a couple of vouchers for 2 of 3 days for $99 that I can send someone that will use them (edited to say I found them). I thought I may be going this Spring, but since I have not even used my Ikon in CA, I will probably stay closer to home unless I have another reason to go to central OR.

If you already have a pass to another place, the vouchers won't save you anything as https://www.mtbachelor.com/sunchaser-spring/ says "If you have a 2018-19 winter season pass to any other ski area, Mt. Bachelor has a Sunchaser Spring special for you: a 2 of 3 day lift ticket for up to 50% off the regular price! The 2 of 3 day lift ticket is perfect for a weekend getaway, as it allows for two days of skiing/riding in a consecutive three-day period. Ski two days in a row, or take a day off between the two days - the choice is yours." Valid to use beginning April 15 for $89 in advance/$99 bought at resort.

 

[Mendieta]

Update: yesterday it started raining (wintry mix) around noon and it never stopped. As a result, the snow went from wet powder into funky into flat out heavy crud. Offpiste was still ok in the affternoon. I took a couple runs off Pine Marten, around the Tippy Toe area. Run of the day was in the glades in that area. These couple pics show the area, snow was still holding on at that point. A little heavy but manageable:



After we left (early, about 2pm) it kept raining until today. It was supposed to be a dump, but it's too warm, sigh. Today, OMG Heaviest snow I have ever experienced. Very few people. It rained the same sticky wintry mix quite a bit. The only skiable areas were on piste, simply because it had been compacted. It was still sticky but skiable. We rode the lift with a Patrol guy. Super nice like everybody else here. He said "Please DO NOT go off piste". I said "slow day huh?" "Yes, there are like 10 people on the mountain". Hahaha. But he did mention how heavy, dense and sticky snow was, and the risk of hurting a knee. Made a lot of sense. Hard to see much anyways. SO it was another short day, but it was fun, as always.



We lapped outback express. Junior did _really_ well in the soft bumps in some of the runs. I later took Boomerang as a last run on that side. It was funnnky. On the few steeper sections you would turn and carry a slide of really wet slush downhill. It sounded like water. The flatter areas were just catch and release. We met at the bottom of the chair and called it a day. This picture was taken a little earlier on the same side:



Oh, tomorrow the Ski Patrol throws a party. Part of it is to fund the doggies. Should be a hoot, we are in!



Love this place, I really do.

 

[slowrider]

It's been a little wet. Wednesday will be better. A few of us will be up for the morning. Enjoy.

 

[Jwrags]

@Mendieta, glad you are having fun and enjoying Bachelor.

 

[Mendieta]

Fourth day in Bachelor. I think my spring pass came defective:



Sunchaser? We haven't seen the sun in 3 days, haha. Continuous wintry mix and fog on the hill. Conditions went from amazing Sunday into what Ski Patrol folks described as pretty much they have had all season, today.

We went up on the lift and it was clear that the sleet piercing our faces with the strong cold wind was not pleasant. As we unloaded Pine Marten it was clear that the ground was frozen. Our faces hurt. So we went straight to the mid-mountain lodge for cappuccinos. We asked Ski Patrol and they said that conditions were really bad, and the more you moved to the left (facing the mountain) the better. Northwest was actually not running. This was the view from Marten:



So we went to Skyliner. Got there was Braille on ice. But we got there and lapped a few times. The top was frozen:



As you would go down visibility improved. We even had some moments of relative visibility closer to the bottom. Here is Jr in a bumped little slop under the chair



Anyways, headed for lunch, as he was getting a little vertigo with so little vis. Lunch helped, and we lapped a beginner chair to at least get some turns. Home run under Sunshine chair. It's really short and flat so I could have fun doing switch

A little later my son quit and I took a couple more runs. Mid mountain was still frozen, and zero vis


As you came down, you would go from blind on ice, through half blind on firm, then chalky, then slush. Like seriously sticky slush. The type that pretty much stops you. So, we called it a day a little before 3.

Later we headed to town for a fundraiser for ski patrol doggies at a bar. Kids welcome, at a bar. Gotta love the vibe in Bend. Brats and a drink, and back to the condo.

 

[Mendieta]

Today was the last day of the trip. We skied 6 consecutive days!



The last five, Monday through Friday, the mountain has been inside a friggin' cloud Like right now, it is snowing and blowing wind in the mountain. Top of the chairs feels like you are in Siberia. You drive 2 minutes on your way out and it's sunny. Oh well.

Conditions, as I said above, got worse every day until Wednesday. Thursday was better, with some actual snow (as opposed to a wintry mix), and today a little better than Thursday, not as good as Monday. Lots of variable. The only constant was really heavy wet snow. The rest, everything from frozen coral with some powder on top, crusty on top and heavy soft underneath, the reverse of that, some soft (but heavy) snow. This was the best of course. The worst was the sticky snow in some areas, not nearly as bad as yesterday (which was much warmer).

Every single day this week we came back soaking wet, so we let everything dry inside the room for the next day. Washer machines are for punks

Some pictures from today below. The best was snow under/between the trees under Skyliner. So, most of the pictures are from that area.

First things first: how are these folks racing with no visibility at the top of the course??



Mendieta Jr in a little detour in a gladed area:




Oh the beauty:



And the usual fog for the week at the top of the mid-mountain chairs (I am not even sure whether they opened summit, my guess is no):



Towards the end of the day Mendieta Jr had had enough of the endless storm and went to the main lodge to kill some time, while I made a couple more runs. Obviously, this kind of terrain is not what the Rallies were made for But they held up reasonably well ... until one of the got buried in the heavy snow, ejected, superman'd and decided to call it a day. It was snowing, blowing wind, I couldn't really see anything anymore with goggles and eye glasses both covered in sticky snow.

Look at the size of that tree well in the first picture!



We skied all the way to the car, and said good bye to Bachelor, at least for now.



This is how it looked just after two minutes of driving back from the mountain. Sunny, just beautiful. We could have used some sunshine breaks up top, sigh.



I feel sad to end this trip. It was a lot of fun despite the less than stellar conditions. The highlight for me was, even more than the mountain, the people. Holy cow! Most people are just nice, easy going, appreciative, a really really special place.

The mountain seems great for a family. There is a lot of mild terrain, and if anything, the locals describe it as "flat", But there is certainly all sorts of terrain, including steeps. I saw no "bro" culture, no big egos, just a lot of people having fun, the way it should be. Happy for those of you living in this area. Really nice spot.