One of my favorite places to visit has always been Bend, Oregon. The town is incredible; it’s full of breweries, people who love the outdoors, and a great mountain just down the highway. Mt Bachelor is pretty amazing, the lower mountain has an abundance of tree runs and groomers while the upper mountain above tree line has wide open steeps perfect for a powder day. Needless to say, I was really excited to visit again.
We made it a weekend trip. Hopped a Horizon flight Friday night, rode Saturday, enjoyed town on Sunday and back home in Seattle Sunday night. Since it was raining in Seattle and sunny in Bend, it was the perfect opportunity to getaway to better weather. It really did deliver with the sunshine when we arrived.
It hadn’t snowed in a couple days but that didn’t deter us from enjoying the mountain. We were really surprised that while it hadn’t snowed recently, the snow from the last storm was still plentiful in the trees. We ended up getting a couple laps with freshies on every run. All it took was just riding the trees to get it.
All smiles for sunshine laps!
While the mountain seemed busy in the parking lot, it was not packed on the slopes. Once you got up and made it out to the other chairlifts it was smooth cruising. We made our way over to the newest chairlift, cloudchaser, to check it out. The terrain was super fun and it was amazing how much snow was still to be enjoyed in the trees.
I definitely enjoyed the conditions for the day. This was one of many shots throughout the day, just finding a open spot with plenty of powder and ripping through it with my line. You can see the groomed run right next to this spot. I still can’t believe how many people ignored the powder while riding the groomers…on a SATURDAY!
I’ve been snowboarding for over 20 years (and 10 of which were living in ski resort towns) but Kyle has snowboarded on and off for years and just recently picked up the pace since dating me. Whenever we snowboard together, I match my pace to his since he’s still progressing at intermediate riding skills. Mt Bachelor was pretty perfect because the lower tree runs are perfect for learning to control speed and ride powder in them. It was really fun to watch him try riding through the trees and pushing his snowboarding to the next level.
By the afternoon, we had done lap after lap and were ready to call it a day. We had a blast exploring the mountain. Even though we kept to lower mountain, we had a really great time in exploring all that Mt Bachelor had to offer. Next time, we’ll get Kyle up to the steeper terrain at the top of the summit.
Our ride back to Seattle.
What a weekend in Bend! We had such a good time exploring the mountain and the town. Not to mention, we got our beloved Dutch Bros coffee fix while visiting.
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