October 4, 2015 – Bachelor Patch

“I’m pretty sure we’ll find snow, but who knows” Dan said, referring to our plan to head to Mt Bachelor and see if we could find enough snow to eek out October turns. After the poorest winter on record, we both had our doubts, but remained optimistic as we headed up Highway 58 on Sunday morning. We made a pit stop at the trailhead to Nash Lake on the Cascade Lakes Highway, and it was windy – a sign for what we could expect later in the morning. We pulled into the Bachelor parking lot around 9:00 am, and were hiking shortly thereafter, enjoying the views north and west towards Broken Top and South Sister…

We reached mid-mountain less than an hour later, and soon were hiking above the Pine Marten Lift above treeline. Eventually we worked our way to the Cirque Bowl and found the patch of snow we were looking for. At first, it looked pretty ugly, but after stepping out onto the patch, it appeared it might be better than we first thought…

We hiked to the top of the patch, switched over from hiking boots to ski boots, and strapped in for our first of what would be thirteen runs on the day. The patch had lots of rocks covering the snow, so we put in a bit of time on the first couple of runs clearing rocks for a better skiing experience.

Each lap was better than the one before, and after about 6 laps the snow reached near perfect condition (at least as near perfect as the patch snow could be). We figured the vertical was about 125 feet, and the hike from bottom to top took about 5 minutes, sometimes longer depending on how many rocks we stopped to clear.

The snow on riders left was better than riders right, and consisted mostly of firn with just a hint of newer snow that hadn’t quite melted from the storm a couple of weeks earlier.

At the bottom of the patch, the newer snow was melting hard, and we could hear running water. Looking down, we found a nice ice bath that looked perfect to ice down a couple of beers, so we moved our brews from up top on the next run to get them ice cold for a bit later in the day….

Somewhere around run 8 or 9 we almost lost track of how may runs we’d made, but it didn’t matter, we were having more fun than we thought we would. The goal was to get 1500 feet, as that was Dan’s standard, and this month marked 20 consecutive years of turns all year for Dan.

At lap 10, we took a break at the bottom and enjoyed a well deserved ice cold beer from the ice bath. Sitting in the sunshine enjoying the cold beer, I thought about how there really wasn’t anywhere else in the world I’d rather be than enjoying some nice October turns in the Oregon cascades, and considered myself fortunate to be doing so given the dismal winter we’d just come thru. When our beers were finished, we still had time for a few more laps, and set about making some more enjoyable turns…

After thirteen laps, we called it a day, and started the hike down towards the parking lot, dodging the mountain bikers on the lower mountain running laps in the bike park. Back at the parking lot, we loaded our gear and headed down to the horse camp across from the Todd Lake Road to enjoy a cold beer and some garden fresh chips and salsa. Sitting back in the warm sun, enjoying a cold beer, we reflected back on a day which far exceeded expectations, and felt pretty fortunate to still be making turns in October. Driving home along the Cascade Lakes Highway, we discussed plans for November turns, and as we passed the upper Deschutes River, I found myself looking forward to next year, when the volcanoes will be snow covered again and the long days of summer corn return……..it won’t be too long…….here’s a parting shot from the day…..