Mt Bachelor May29 Closing Day

schubwa

schubwa

New member
What a great way to end a wonderful season. We really had it good here this year with the snow starting in late October and never letting up. I hardly ever went skate skiing over in the Nordic area as there always seemed to be freshies "on the dark side".
After an extended (and impressive) corn cycle the gray bird came and there was accumulating snow above 5500 feet. I was busy riding my MTB and running near town and was unaware of how good the pow was on Sat and Sun last weekend. But Monday dawned bluebird, the Summit chair opened and there was 4-6 inches of cream cheese powder awaiting. The best stuff was a short hike away off the west side of the top. You could get back to the main area with a long traverse not far below the top of the NW Chair (closed a few weeks earlier).
I got in about 35 days on the lifts, another 10 in Mammoth and Utah, about 20 Nordic and another 9 days in the backcountry. We're liking the prospects now that the volcano season is here!
 

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You would have had the full 3,000 vertical to Pine Marten skiable to July 4 this year. My impression is that was true well over half the time before the bean counters took over in 2003. Summit was probably skiable via transport from Sunrise on July 4 in about 80% of seasons.
 
The Summit and Sunrise chairs are reopening for "sightseeing" on July 4 weekend. When questioned about the possibility of transporting skis up, the patrolman answered NO. Too bad, we could be doing hot laps well into the dog days on this year's pack. So you can have a pass, the lifts are open but no skiing. Any tourist from Arkansas could slide to the hospital down an icy face in their flip-flops but no skis allowed.
Good news: Pine Martin chair is to be rebuilt this summer with a new gearbox. There was a lot of grousing earlier this season as that chair broke down a lot.
This summer's volcano season should be epic. I have my eye on the SW face of Broken Top for a corn camp the weekend after next...http://www.skimountaineer.com/CascadeSk ... stFace.jpg
 
Marc,
That photo comes from this fine website on ski mountaineering in the Cascades: http://www.skimountaineer.com/CascadeSk ... deSki.html
As of last Sunday (the last day the range wasn't obscured by clouds), my observation would guess that photo was taken a month from now or later, all things being equal. Even though it has a SW aspect and very prone to wind erosion and sun, this season the higher slopes are really well filled in. Snow reaches all the way to the top of the southwest summit on the right in the photo. The time to strike is now and the road just opened.

Here Amar Andalkar describes the route: The shortest access to routes on the west side of Broken Top is via the Green Lakes trail, starting from the highway at the north end of Sparks Lake. Unfortunately the road is not usually plowed until late spring, adding 4 miles each way plus 900 ft of elevation loss (coming in) and gain (going out) to early season trips. That said, some of the best ski terrain on Broken Top is found on this side. The fall line of the Southwest Face drops naturally to this side, providing a more direct runout instead of the traverse needed to return to the Todd Lake side. The West Face has a variety of skiable lines, descending from high up on both the main (north) summit and the southwest summit and also from the various notches along the ridge in between.
 
The Cascade volcanic peaks are the reason most of the http://turns-all-year.com/ crowd live in the Northwest.

You should approach someone in Bachelor management about signing a waiver for summer skiing, as they do officially at Snowbird and occasionally at Mammoth.
 
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