Mt. Bachelor, OR, Report: The Joy of the Storm

A boarder soars above a wind lip off of Red Chair, with the Cone in the background. (PC: Mt. Bachelor)

Report from February 14, 2025

Spending Valentine’s Day at Mt. Bachelor, Oregon, always feels right. This year, the day brought a very powerful storm, beginning in the wee hours. By the time the resort opened, there were already three to six inches of fresh snow. The parking lots quietly filled and stoke was incredibly high—as were the winds, exceeding 80 miles per hour at times.

The Mt. Bachelor lift operations team performed a valiant job, keeping lifts spinning from bell to bell. I found myself, along with the lucky riders who arrived at the mountain early, “trapped” on the Outback Super Express and the Northwest Express at around 11:00 a.m. For a period of hours, the lift ops team was able to keep the “backside” lifts running amidst high winds which caused holds on the East side.

A glorious, untouched technical tree line between Outback and Northwest, seen through a stormy camera lens. (PC: Nicky Blumm)

The snow was genuine blower powder. That said, there were certainly wind-scoured spots at the tops of ridges, but the departed snow from those ridge-tops left incredible veins of powder on the leeward sides of slopes and in the middle of “groomers.” The snow never abated for more than a few minutes during the day, and visibility at the tops of the lifts could be challenging. But intrepid riders were rewarded with incredible turns after braving a few hundred feet of blowing snow and intense wind.