Bachelor plan gets good reviews
Published: November 05. 2009 4:00AM PST
SUNRIVER — Mt. Bachelor ski area’s proposed updates drew positive responses from the nearly 20 people who attended a Wednesday night meeting in Sunriver.
Steve Ashton, of Sunriver, said he thinks that the improvements, such as adding more parking and a new day lodge at the Sunrise base, will help prevent overcrowding elsewhere at the ski area.
“The idea of balance makes a tremendous amount of sense to me,” Ashton said.
That idea of balancing out congestion is something the ski resort focused on while devising the updates to its master development plan, said Dave Rathbun, the president and general manager of the ski area.
Others at the meeting said they like Mt. Bachelor’s plan to add new mountain biking and hiking trails, which would run along the north side of the mountain and connect the top of Pine Marten Express to the Nordic Lodge through two trails.
“I think it will bring a lot of revenue into the area” during the slower, summer months, said Cora Gangware, of Sunriver.
People expressed enthusiasm about a plan to add a chair lift on the east side of the mountain. It would be part of the ski area’s first phase of the three-phase development plan.
“That east side is the salvation in bad weather,” said Al Klascius.
Others in the meeting agreed, saying that an east side lift would not only allow them to access better skiing spots, but it would provide a place to retreat to when weather shuts down the west side of the mountain.
Like the east side lift, the new trails are a part of the plan’s first phase.
Overall, officials hope to make more than a dozen improvements in a three- to five-year period starting, at earliest, in spring 2011, Rathbun said.
The development plan could change as Mt. Bachelor officials continue to take public feedback, with two more public meetings scheduled. They also will continue engineering analysis and research for the plan.
The U.S. Forest Service must review and adopt the plan before any changes are made.
Rathbun said he hopes to submit a final plan to the Forest Service by January.
While a new, modern lodge would be built at Sunrise, the current lodge would be converted into a children’s center that would include an area for day care, Rathbun said. A new entrance to the parking lot would also be built. The Sunrise improvements are second phase projects.
At West Village, the tubing area would be moved to alleviate safety concerns, Rathbun said. And the plan calls for an area for children to ride “Mini Z” snowmobiles.
New ground lifts — called “magic carpet lifts” — would be installed throughout the ski area, which many at the Sunriver meeting appreciated.
“I think that your magic carpet lifts are very important to get people where they need to be without them having to climb,” said Patty Klascius. “So they need to stay operable and easy to use.”
None of the 19 people who attended the meeting at Holy Trinity Catholic Church complained or opposed the proposal.
“I saw nothing (in the plan) that needed to be changed and a lot of improvement,” Ashton said.
David Holley can be reached at 541-383-0323 or at dholley@bendbulletin.com.
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