Mt. Bachelor (Oregon Cascades; 9,065')

Mt. Bachelor's historical (and proper) name is Bachelor Butte. The name change occured for PR reasons when the mountain acquired the dubious distinction of being the only summit in the Oregon Cascades that can be reached by ski lift. This limits worthwhile ascents of the cinder cone to a brief window right after Memorial Day Weekend, after the lifts close and before it all melts out. The ascent is short (only 2,700 vertical feet), the descent on the deserted slopes is fun, although hardly a wilderness experience, and the views are cool. In the summer a trail leads up from the ski area, but hardly anybody ever bothers; there are better hikes around.	Mt. Bachelor from the southern slopes of South Sister in early July (photo credit: Jörg Rollbühler)
Topo Map
Routes: NE Ridge (I, easy snow, moderate ski descent) NE Bowl (I, steep snow, steep ski descent)) References: N.A. Dodge, A Climbing Guide to Oregon , Touchstone Press (Beaverton, OR 1975)

Date: June 7, 2015

Party: DB solo

Route: N Ridge (up), NE Bowl (ski descent)

Equipment: AT skis

Time: Highway - Summit 3 hrs 20 mins
Summit - Highway 1hr
Roundtrip from Highway 5 hrs

Trip Report: 2014/15 had the worst snowpack on record in the PNW, but I was hellbent on getting one more skiing trip in. Since I did not have much time I chose Bachelor, which had closed down its lift operation two weeks before. When I arrived at my usual parking spot in front of one of the locked gates there was a big sign saying "Summit Closed", which went on to talk about "race camps" and "ongoing grooming", and the entire mountain being off limits. This business of public land becoming unaccessible to the public seems to be getting worse and worse. I found a different parking spot with no sign and got ready, never having seen the sign, of course. Just when I was starting out a pickup truck with the Mt Bachelor logo showed up on the dirt road, so I went back to my car and got busy sorting things in the trunk. The truck passed, and I started out for real. Half way up the mountain I heard a snow cat, so I hid in the trees for a while. Then I saw two guys on skis and was about to hail them as fellow outlaws when I realized that they were hauling a litter (empty), so I hid in the trees some more. When the air was clear I continued, taking a very northwesterly route to stay far away from the summit lift, which was running but without any people in it, and I even stayed away from the bowl where one is very visible, choosing the adjacent ridge instead. That's quite a bit longer than going straight up, and I was not in good shape either, having slept poorly the night before, and it took me forever to get to the summit.

The snow pack did indeed look abysmal, and I was glad I had not tried South Sister, where the snow line was above the flat terrain above Moraine Lake. For going down I chose the bowl, eager to check whether my tech bindings are now appropriately set for steeper stuff. They were, and I had a pretty good run, on snow that was not great but not horrible either. On the lower part I followed a dead groomed run and was able to ski to within 200 vertical feet of the highway, quite to my amazement. By absolute standards the skiing was just okay, but for the worst snow year on record it was pretty good. On the way out I ran into the pickup truck again, and the guy was very friendly, so maybe they just put the sign up to scare people off, or because their lawyers told them to.

Photo Gallery: Click the thumbnails to see a higher resolution image