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Rueben Valdivia, of Bend, slashes through deep powder on his snowboard last season near the Outback chairlift at Mt. Bachelor in January. Mountain executives said tubing area and a small rail park will open this weekend.
Andy Tullis / The Bulletin file photo
Bachelor’s tubing opening this weekend
The powder’s nowhere near this deep yet, but ... tubing area and small rail park can open
By Sheila G. Miller / The Bulletin
Published: November 26. 2008 4:00AM PSTMt. Bachelor will open a tubing area and a small rail park on Friday and Saturday, but no runs will be operating this weekend, the resort announced Wednesday morning.
With only 7 inches of snow at the base of the mountain, the ski area is trucking snow from parking lots to build up the tubing area and rail park, which will be open to the public from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. those two days. The ski shop and bar will also be open, said Alex Kaufman with Mt. Bachelor, and there will be a BBQ for guests as well.
The resort has not yet set a date for opening runs, since sustained cooler temperatures are necessary to be able to make snow.
“It’s very difficult to say, we will announce opening day as soon as we can,” said Frankie Labbe, communications manager for Mt. Bachelor. “Stay tuned, we’re all just trying to work with what we have.”
The mountain needs 18 inches of snow to open, she said.
Neither Hoodoo nor Willamette Pass ski areas has opened, according to their Web sites. Hoodoo expected to open Friday. It reported about 3 inches of snow. Willamette Pass, which expected to start operating Thursday, is now looking at opening Dec. 4, according to its Web site.
Last year, Mt. Bachelor opened limited areas on Thanksgiving, Nov. 22. But this year is very different, Labbe said.
“By this time last year we had surpassed 10 million gallons of snow-making because of the sustained cool temperatures,” she said. “This year, we’ve been having some struggles with Mother Nature.”
To make snow, the temperature needs to be 28 degrees or lower. That hasn’t happened much during the past couple of months, Labbe said, and weather models look like temperatures could get warmer this week. On Tuesday, temperatures reached into the 40s on the mountain.
“We will make snow whenever we can,” she said. “But if the forecast models show it’s going to be 45 degrees the next day, then we’re likely to lose the snow; then we have to consider the cost effectiveness. But when we see sustained cold temperatures, we’ll make snow.”
Mt. Bachelor has traditionally opened on Thanksgiving, even though in the past decade that’s sometimes meant limited snow and few available runs.
Since 2000, the mountain has opened every year in the last two weeks of November, but snow levels have varied. In 2000, it opened the last weekend in November with a 13-inch base.
In 2003, the ski area opened the weekend before the holiday, with a base more than 2 feet deep. Two years ago, the ski mountain opened on Nov. 25, and set attendance records.
At Skjersaa’s Ski Shop, Megan Davis, 21, said the shop is just playing the waiting game. “We’re getting customers trickling in, but they’ve all got the same look on their face,” she said. “They’re waiting for the snow.”
Davis said when the snow does come, the shop will see a huge bump in business. “We all know it will happen,” she said. “It happens every year. The first couple of weeks we’re like, where is everyone? And then we’re in over our head. It’s slammed.”
She said the brief snow in October got people’s hopes up.
“Do the snow dance,” Davis said, laughing. “It’s got to be a good winter after we’ve waited this long. But the mood changes, too. When we got that early hit, everybody was so excited. And then it hasn’t happened again.”
Sheila G. Miller can be reached at 541-617-7831 or at smiller@bendbulletin.com.
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