At Mt. Bachelor, mixed reviews
Bend Chamber chairman voices concerns; others say everything's OK
Published: February 06. 2008 4:00AM PST
The chairman of the Bend Chamber of Commerce board of directors fears the region’s economy could suffer from customer dissatisfaction with Mt. Bachelor ski area.
David Rosell expressed his concerns in a letter he wrote in the February issue of the chamber’s Business Journal. His letter was triggered by the Dec. 31 shutdown of the Sunrise Express chairlift during the busy Christmas-to-New Year’s holiday period.
Rosell wrote that the incident caused “inexcusable mayhem and confusion at the ski area. I observed the anger expressed by countless tourists visiting Central Oregon with their families.”
In an interview, Rosell said, “I … thought to myself, ‘Here are 150 tourists who will never come back to Mt. Bachelor,’ The last few years, I’ve noticed service disruptions, but this is the first year I’ve thought about it in negative economic terms.”
Rosell, who became chairman on Jan. 1, is concerned that negative feelings about Mt. Bachelor could result from such disruptions and damage Central Oregon’s $498 million-a-year tourism industry, including the restaurants, hotels, and ski and snowboard shops that rely on the mountain for visitors, he said in the letter and interview.
“I am writing this to express true concern for both the mountain (that) my family and I love so much as well as for our local economy, which we at the Bend Chamber are so dedicated to enhancing,” he wrote.
The chamber has more than 1,550 members.
The New Year’s Eve snafu was the first real problem this year for Mt. Bachelor, which has revamped its lift and maintenance operations this season and re-engineered its key Pine Marten chairlift in January, said Matt Janney, president and general manager of the ski area.
Janney took over leadership of the ski area in July and promised then to address all aspects of its operations, including lift operations, customer service and the overall skiing and riding experience.
“We had our challenges on the 31st,” Janney acknowledged Tuesday. “Sometimes it takes something like that to see how the team will react.”
Mt. Bachelor has been getting more positive feedback on a daily basis since the New Year’s chairlift shutdown, he said.
“We’re working diligently to make changes,” Janney said. “Obviously our number one priority is to address that and open up lines of communication with the community. I think we’ve made great leaps in the last several months.”
Rosell’s complaints in the chamber newsletter were not reflective of most downtown business owners, said Chuck Arnold, executive director of the Bend Downtowners Association.
“It’s a changing industry and they’re an easy target,” Arnold said. “Bend has changed, and it’s not necessarily going to be the same mountain.”
Mt. Bachelor, which is owned by Park City, Utah-based Powdr Corp., had its second best season ever in 2005-06 with approximately 590,000 visitors. Visitor counts dropped about 10 percent in 2006-07, according to the Pacific Northwest Ski Areas Association.
This year’s totals are behind last year’s pace, mainly due to a slow start to the season due to late-arriving storms, a national economic slowdown and several weekends of heavy snowfall that have hindered travel, Janney said.
Doug LaPlaca, president and CEO of the Bend Visitor & Convention Bureau, agreed that Mt. Bachelor plays a pivotal role in Bend’s tourism industry.
“The importance of Mt. Bachelor to Bend is significant,” LaPlaca said. “It’s the primary winter draw for tourists. Their ongoing success is critically important to the health of Bend’s tourism industry.”
Some longtime skiers and snowboarders also have criticized Mt. Bachelor for raising prices the past two seasons. Season pass prices went from $699, where they had been since Powdr Corp. bought the ski area in 2001, to $829 in 2006-07, a 19 percent increase.
This season, pass prices increased another 12 percent to $929. Daily lift ticket prices also have gone up the past two years. Janney said in an interview last year that the increases were necessary to cover rising expenses.
Matt Gadow, a longtime passholder at Mt. Bachelor, said the combination of lift breakdowns and pass price increases has caused some resentment among locals.
“It’s the worst communication I’ve seen at any ski resort,” Gadow said. “I bit my tongue for a good, solid two months this year because I heard Matt Janney was a local, but I haven’t seen anything different.”
Gadow’s biggest complaint, frequent lift stoppages, is something that the ski area is working to improve, Janney said.
“We’re doing a lot of things up here,” he said. “I’d like people to know broadly that we are listening to them and making changes.”
Mt. Bachelor has had only one complaint this year — for the New Year’s Eve lift shutdown — fewer than in previous years, said Phil Cruz, Bend-Fort Rock District ranger for the U.S. Forest Service, which leases land in the Deschutes National Forest to the ski area.
“I’m really pleased with how things are going this year,” Cruz said. “We’re not getting anywhere near the number of concerns or comments about things not working.”
Cruz heard about the New Year’s incident and said the ski area is continuing to improve its maintenance record and equipment operation.
The Forest Service approved the ski area’s pass price increases and is charged with ensuring the mountain is safe and affordable for the general public.
“I’m disappointed in the chamber letter because it doesn’t tell both sides of the story,” Cruz said. “Matt’s arrival has made for a really nice revival of the mountain and given us a new look at the needs of the mountain. You can’t fix anything that big overnight.”
The Forest Service is working with Mt. Bachelor in the first six months of a 1 1/2- to two-year master planning process that could ultimately result in more investment at the mountain, Cruz said. The master plan would be a three- to 15-year vision of how the resort would be developed in the future.
Ultimately, the process could result in new hiking and mountain bike trails, new chairlifts, remodeled buildings and better employee break rooms, he said.
Jeff McDonald can be reached at 383-0323 or at jmcdonald@bendbulletin.com.
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