IKON Pass Expands With the Addition of Mt Bachelor and Windham Mountain for the 2020/2021 Season

[David Chaus]

This is not a great deal for Mt Bachelor season pass holders. Bachelor is an Ikon partner resort so still has a separate adult season pass at $959 with no resort exchange privileges. The Outplay 365 pass at $1428 includes Ikon Base Pass, which only makes sense if you also use the resort for summer activities. At least before you could rationalize the premium season pass price with the almost non-existent lift lines in the outer areas (NW Express, Outback, Cloud Chaser). I know this is NIMBY, but with the increased crowds due to Ikon, kind of sours things.

IDK.... the Bachelor season pass might not have resort exchange privileges, but is not out of line with other single-resort unlimited passes, and the Outplay 365 is only $469 more for the Ikon Base, which is really good price and less than the early season renewal for the Ikon Base Pass. If one visits a couple of other Ikon resorts in a season (Squaw Meadows, Mammoth, Crystal, UT, Big Sky) in addition to unlimited use at Bachelor, that's a good deal. I'd take it if lived in Bend.

It really depends on whether Ikon pass holders swarm to Bachelor. As previously noted, if they come during the midweek, there is plenty of capacity, weekends could indeed be a s#%tshow at the bases and lodges, though once you're on the slopes there is plenty of space.

I really think the swarm effect impacts mostly marquee resorts like Jackson and Deer Valley, maybe Aspen.

 

[Ski&ride]

No lodging within 30 mins?

3 hr drive from airport?

Yeah right, East coast family will flock to Bachelor! Not!!!

Pretty much every one of the ski clubs around here used to do a Bachelor trip as a not-terribly-technical mellow option.

Where is “around here”?

 

[Jwrags]

No lodging within 30 mins?

3 hr drive from airport?

Yeah right, eSt coast family will flock to Bachelor! Not!!!


Where is “around here”?

Truthfully, it is more like a 3.5 hour drive from the Portland airport in good weather. However, if you connect to Redmond it is only 30 minutes to lodging. There is no lodging at Bachelor so it is roughly 20 miles to Bend or Sunriver. The drive is easy.

 

[RJS]

I've wanted to ski Mt Bachelor for a long time, so I am excited by this news.

While Mt Bachelor certainly holds an appeal for many of us ski bums, I can't imagine that east coasters are really going to make much of an impact on Mt Bachelor with it's limited inclusion on the Ikon Pass. You have to fly past areas that much easier to get to (shorter flights + shorter travel times to the mountain), have better expert terrain, have "better" snow (I would bet that many would prefer Aspen's < 300 inches to Mt Bachelor's > 400), or have slope-side lodging. Again, don't get me wrong, I'm super interested in Mt Bachelor and I'm sure others on this forum are as well, but I would guess that the average east coast destination skier is much more interested in Aspen, Steamboat, Alta/Snowbird, Jackson, Winter Park, Copper, Big Sky, Squaw/Alpine, Revelstoke, or Mammoth than Mt Bachelor.

The target market here are probably people from the Seattle metro area who are skiing at Crystal and would consider a couple of weekend trips to Mt Bachelor, or people from the Portland metro area who are interested in weekend trips to Mt Bachelor or Crystal, with the ability to fly to world-class destination resorts. I agree with an earlier post in this thread that I can't imagine Meadows or Timberline being interested in joining the Ikon Pass given the crowds that they already see, not to mention that these are even less appealing to destination skiers than Mt Bachelor. I could see Alterra or Vail buying one of these resorts as a local mountain to try and draw Portland metro skiers into their pass offering, but I don't see a partnership happening.

 

[slowrider]

You guys call that s*** you guys get up in the PNL (Pacific North Left) powder? Feels more like the 5,000 PSI stuff that comes out of the back end of a ready mix truck.

 

[Slim]

Happy Bachelor is now on the Ikon. Wish they would’ve been this year.

Because of their great spring skiing ?

 

[KingGrump]

View attachment 101116

I do not have a requirement for that. I am light and agile enough to float like a raft spider on top of the wet concrete. Legs need not be involved.

 

[Jwrags]

Because of their great spring skiing ?

Mostly because I skied there in January and bought tickets. But I would have been spring skiing this month.
Their spring skiing may be their biggest attraction on the Ikon...ski in the morning and golf or bike in the afternoon.

 

[PinnacleJim]

Mt Bachelor regulars are now in the same situation as fellow Powdr resort Killington regulars. The Ikon doesn't work because it only gives you 5 or 7 days so you have to buy the full single mountain pass. At least this year both have included a base Ikon with the 365 year round pass. Good deal for adults, but not for seniors.

 

[Gary Stolt]

You guys call that s*** you guys get up in the PNL (Pacific North Left) powder? Feels more like the 5,000 PSI stuff that comes out of the back end of a ready mix truck.

Now children, behave.

 

[Lift Blog]

You guys call that s*** you guys get up in the PNL (Pacific North Left) powder? Feels more like the 5,000 PSI stuff that comes out of the back end of a ready mix truck.

If there's one thing I learned as a Seattleite going to college in the Northeast, it's that the Pacific Northwest is totally misunderstood by east coasters. Not only does it rain less in Seattle than NYC/Boston, Washington and Oregon have some of the best skiing in the country. I routinely had to explain to people that we had skiing at all, let alone 3,000'+ foot resorts that get way more snow than Colorado/Utah.

 

[Crank]

My ski club went to Mt.Bachelor a couple of seasons ago. Robin and I did not go with. Heard great reports and they loved staying in Bend with restaurants and bars and, apparently lots of breweries/ brew pubs.

They loved it so much one recently retired couple just moved out there. Maybe we will visit them next winter.

One reason our club went to Bachelor is because we have a number of teachers in our club and most of our week long trips are planned to avoid school vacations: President's week. This trip was conceived as one they could attend with Mt. Bachelor being a place that would not be super crowded with families on vacation or have jacked up holiday pricing.

 

[LewyM]

Personally, I love cascade concrete. A much maligned substance. I finished my second week of three planned at Crystal before they shut it down.
I've skied Bachelor before. Not my kind of hill. Need more gravity. I'll stick with Crystal.

From a Crystal local. . . Bachelor and Crystal have almost nothing in common aside from limited on mountain lodging (or in the case of Bachelor, none). Bachelor is much more "interior," has way more sun and much drier snow pack. It also isn't especially steep or "gnar" like the costal mountains. I think of Bachelor (and Bend) as poor man's Sun Valley/Ketchum. Drier than the costal PNW, more sun, better visibility than interior PNW or interior B.C. For groomer zoomers, fans of low angle trees, the terrain is fantastic. A PNW pro move is that when Sun Valley is lean (which is frequently the case during the early part of the season), re-route to Bachelor where there is usually better coverage and comparable nice weather.

Agree that Bachelor isn't a realistic destination for anyone outside of the PNW. Not that easy to reach in a single flight (unless your are starting your journey on the west coast, in at an Alaska hub) and lodging is non-existent. Bend is cool, but most destination skiers aren't looking to drive 30 minutes to the mountain each direction. But during the edges of the season, you can ski and mountain bike on the same day and that is kind of cool.

This move isn't really about destination skiers. Bachelor isn't even remotely comparable to a destination like Jackson Hole. It is about pulling Seattle skiers aligned with Crystal down to Bend for a few days. It gives Crystal skiers and PDX skiers on Ikon a nice long weekend option and frankly, it is just another reason for folks like me to not bother with the expense and drama of Whistler anymore - at least not until Vail/Whistler gets back to creating incentives for us to come up and fill empty mid-week beds. I see this as a direct shot at Whistler's secondary local market (Seattle). A driving distance long weekend destination was the one thing missing from the package for the Seattle market aligned with Crystal (Cypress is most definitely not a destination worthy of a 1 hour drive, let alone 3+ and Revy is a haul and a brutal drive).

Unless your home mountain is Stevens, I am running out of good reasons to ever bother with Whistler anymore if your Seattle base is Crystal. It doesn't pencil and all of the great skiing attributes can be found at other places in the Ikon network. If Ikon is listening, they should add Schweitzer as well.

 

[Tom Co.]

I do a spring trip to Bachelor every year in May, usually in late May and have found it to be a superb spring corn destination. The snow coverage is usually great, the weather varies from gloriosky sun to descent, and minimal skiers.
They usually only run three lifts, Pine Martin, Skyline and Summit, but those lifts are all HSQ and give you 3000' vert and 2000+ acres of terrain. The lifts open at 7:30 and close at 1:30. The early closing time is sometimes a drag, especially if the corn is slow to ripen. We have flown into the Bend/Redmond airport a couple of times and it is nice. Easy car rental [no snow car needed in May]. Bend is a fun town. Lots of brew pubs, cool shops, parks and riverside walks. Sunriver is a nice big resort area about 10 miles south of town with good places to stay, a golf course and bike trails. The whole area is very bike friendly. The spring time hiking here is also first rate. Smith Rocks is a good example. Smith Rocks is also a world class climbing spot. [if you are a climber you already know this]

If you are an IKON pass holder, come on down, Bachelor could use more bottom line spring business so Seattle ski area skiers like me can keep it up.








They are usually open until Memorial Day weekend

 

[Itinerant skier]

If there's one thing I learned as a Seattleite going to college in the Northeast, it's that the Pacific Northwest is totally misunderstood by east coasters. Not only does it rain less in Seattle than NYC/Boston, Washington and Oregon have some of the best skiing in the country. I routinely had to explain to people that we had skiing at all, let alone 3,000'+ foot resorts that get way more snow than Colorado/Utah.

Shhhh! Don't tell people this. The rents are high enough already!

 

[Pat AKA mustski]

I love the town of Bend. It is high up on our retirement list - partly because good friends live near by but, mostly, because the town is a super cool, walkable town with a great arts scene. Yes, that matters to me. We are retired but - due to previous employer continuing my medical insurance which is not available out of state - we will be sticking here for 5 more years. Bend and Reno are tops of our list for different reasons.

 

[Vinnie]

I live in Portland and usually head over to Bachelor for a few long weekends every year. Except for the Cirque there aren’t many steeps, hence the nickname ‘Mt Flatchelor’. Over the years though I’ve come to appreciate the natural features that make for fun skiing (Cow’s Face, West Bowls and all trees in between). On one visit a few years ago I was on a chair with a guy that had recently moved from Crested Butte to Bend. I was talking about liking the mountain but kind of apologizing for the lack of steeps. I’ll never forget his response. Coming from Crested Butte “it‘s kind of nice to not be skiing scared all the time”. Definitely a different perspective.

 

[Itinerant skier]

Bend is also only an hour-ish from both Hoodoo and Willamette Pass ski areas for those seeking a little more variety. Regarding the EPIC/IKON rivalry though. I think Windham is the key here. Adding a good Catskills hill to the VT holdings makes it the total package for NE USA folks. Windham for day trips, VT for weekends and out west for the weeklongs.

 

[KingGrump]

If there's one thing I learned as a Seattleite going to college in the Northeast, it's that the Pacific Northwest is totally misunderstood by east coasters. Not only does it rain less in Seattle than NYC/Boston, Washington and Oregon have some of the best skiing in the country. I routinely had to explain to people that we had skiing at all, let alone 3,000'+ foot resorts that get way more snow than Colorado/Utah.

Boy, you guys up in the PNL (Pacific North Left) are touchy. Aren't you?

 

[cantunamunch]

I don't know about total package, but it sure makes it more storm-chaser friendly.