Mt. Bachelor Conditions Report | A Bit Hard, A Bit Fun

This last weekend started with high hopes of making some creamy spring turns from the top of Mt. Bachelor.  From a distance, the mountain looked ready for prime shredding, yet little did we know that the looks we got from the car were completely, utterly deceiving.

Our first run might have been one of the most disappointing I’ve had in a while; it was an ice rink.  I might have been better off with speed skates than skis.  The temp at the base approached 40 degrees in the morning, and we all fueled each other with false hopes that it would soften up throughout the day.  It did not.

As much as ice days like this one suck, it was still a successful and fun day.  The groomers were sugary at first, but were soon shaved off leaving patches of glare ice that could strike at any moment.  It was so hard to set a consistent edge it became a game of high stakes skiing.  The runs were wrist breaking-ly hard which had an all too unfortunate ending for one of our friends on the trip.

We eventually learned that the most fun to be had was down the terrain parks, which turned out to be quite an unoriginal idea.  The medium terrain park was packed.  Luckily, the slightly larger jumps seemed to be avoided by most.

The conditions Sunday were a polar opposite from Saturday — though equally crummy.  It rained, snowed, and sleeted all day long and was potentially the wettest experience I’ve ever had skiing.  We were all soaked to the bone by lunch.  Luckily it was Super bowl Sunday and we were able to escape the elements to root the Seahawks on to an almost win.

The message to take away here is that you can’t choose the conditions that get thrown your way.  Sometimes you have to take what you get and make the best of it.  After all, any day spent on skis is better than a day not.  I’ve been in this situation at Bachelor all too many times; it makes you appreciate the good days that much more.