Early season snow had been piling up on the Bachelor webcam for the past few days, and knowing rain and warm temps were coming, Todd and I were able get the day off work on short notice and headed east. A quick stop at the Willamette Pass Pass parking lot revealed a limited amount of snow, so we continued on towards Mt. Bachelor hoping to find more favorable conditions. Pulling into the Bachelor parking lot around 9:45, we were a little surprised to see about 20 other cars in the lot. With about 25 inches in the lot, the decision to grap the splitboard and ditch the snowshoes was an easy one. We skinned up to the Cone in short order, and were riding waist deep powder by 10:30. There was a bit of wind transported snow, but no avalanche danger to speak of since all the snow fell with the recent storm cycle. The depth was a surprising 3 feet, and even with all the cars in the parking lot, there were fresh lines to be had all day long as most people were playing lower down on the hill around the lifts.
It snowed hard all day, and we headed back up to the top after face shots on the first run. Once back at the top, we brewed a pot of Jet Boil coffee before dropping in for run two.
Run two was just as good and we had numerous face shots in the cold smoke. Below is a number of stills I pulled out from the video we shot from throughout the day…
Several more laps followed before our legs got a bit tired and we called it a day, heading down to the truck. On the way down to the parking lot, we passed some people sledding and other snowboarders riding a rail they had brought up to the hill. I love this time of year when the snow starts to fall and the season holds the promise of turning into an excellent year.
Once back down to the truck, we enjoyed the obligatory IPA in the falling snow before making the 3-hour drive home. I wouldn’t have traded the day for most anything, and the best part was this makes 36 consecutive months of snowboarding for me.
