A Summit Day on Mt Bachelor

Day two of my Central Oregon weekend, and the weather couldn't have been more different.  Doing a complete 180 from Saturday's cold, windy conditions, Sunday dawned calm and clear.

Yahoo!  Let's go skiing!

South Sister fills the sky

My brother and I grabbed our gear and headed up the road to Mt. Bachelor.

Sunshine on the Rainbow Lift

Blue skies, bright sunshine, and a bit of new snow greeted us.  After a couple laps on the Pine Martin Lift, we decided to check out things on the mountain's far east side.  Although the only lift here, the Rainbow, is an old, slow chair, I love skiing it's terrain.  I'm willing to put up with the long ride.

The Summit is open!

Heading uphill, the lift's slow pace provided lots of time to look around and take photos.  Glancing towards the summit, I noticed the lift to Mt. Bachelor's very top was running!  Since the summit isn't open very often, I convinced my brother to give it a try.

Fantastic scenery on the ride to the summit

The Summit Lift takes skiers to the very top of Mt. Bachelor, elevation 9000 feet.  On a sunny day, the ride alone is a treat.  All the surrounding mountains spread out behind you.  (Too bad the best views are at your back!)

Unloading at the top, skiers slide through the lift house, and emerge to a wonderful panorama of mountains and lakes.  I kept my GoPro camera running the entire ride, and edited the footage a bit to show you the best parts.

Views from the very top

Exiting the lift, we skied over to the roped ledge to have a peek off the backside.

My bro and I on the summit

A very nice mountain host offered to take our picture.  You know me, I never turn down a chance to be in a photo!

Snow-free lowlands

Oh what glorious views!  All the mountains south of Mt. Bachelor spread out before us.  I spotted several lakes along the famous Cascade Lakes Highway.  Due to our unseasonably warm winter, instead of seeing white, the lower reaches were totally snow-free, and the lakes very much unfrozen.  Only the highest mountaintops had any snow.
  

Ice-crusted top of the Summit Lift

The lift house's roof was still wearing an icy crust.  The top of Mt. Bachelor gets some extreme weather - high winds and icy precip.  It's a rare winter day that the summit is actually open, and even rarer to have nice weather.  We lucked out big time!
 

Incredible views from on high!

After several minutes of gawking and photo-taking, my brother and I began our descent down the Summit's steep, icy slopes.

Broken Top and Three Sisters mountains are front and center

Although the lower slopes still had a small layer of new snow, the runs up here were nothing but a sheet of skied-off ice.  Ugh!  I hate skiing on ice!

Halfway rest break

Knowing a fall on these icy slopes would mean a long, fast slide to the bottom, I skied slowly and carefully, taking frequent stops. 

But having breaks wasn't all bad - it meant plenty of photo and video opportunities!  And lots of chances to enjoy this amazing scenery.

Icy trees

I stuck my GoPro pole inside my jacket, and tried to get some point of view footage as I skied downhill.  But I moved so much that the video might make some folks a little seasick.  Still, I edited a short bit to show you what it was like.

Another look down

After filming for a couple of stretches, I shut off the camera (or so I thought), and pointed the lens down.  I then proceeded to ski all the way to the bottom of the Summit Lift.  Imagine my surprise when, about 10 minutes later, I looked down and realized the camera had been rolling the entire time.  When I later reviewed the video, I had about 10 minutes of my feet!  But it was kind of interesting, so I included a quick clip in the video above. 

Three Sisters from the Outback lift

We ended our perfect day on the mountain's west side, first exploring the Outback Lift, and finally ending with a couple runs down Leeway, one of my favorites.  The views from this side of the mountain were fantastic, with peaks lining the sky.

Here's a final video clip showing my glorious trip down Leeway.  You'll notice I stop at the beginning to give everyone a good look at the Three Sisters mountains.  That's our continual view as we skied down this trail. 

(One of my readers commented about how well I hold the camera still.  I have to tell you, it's not me - I wobble all over the place!  The GoPro camera has some amazing built-in image stabilization, and it blows me away how smooth my skiing videos turn out.)

This is one happy skier!

Although our ski down the summit wasn't under the best conditions, my brother and I agreed the spectacular views were totally worth it.  Any day you get to ski from a sunny mountain summit is a good day!


Sharing with:  Scenic Weekends and Skywatch Friday and Weekly Top Shot.