Well that looks like it really didn't suck!

Awesome, Sam.

What'd you do to go skin up on Bachelor? I tried while I was out there and was told the only open up route was some piddley 600ft thing up onto a cinder cone. They wouldn't let me skin anywhere near the top.

AenigmaI just got back from a trip in the Bend area, and will likely be drying gear out for days to come! We started with grand plans of camping at Green Lake and doing multi-summit days with corn descents, but the weather proved to be more fickle than that. Anyways...

We started out by hiking 1.5 miles or so to skinnable snow, and then made our way up toward Green Lake:

An early start gave us plenty of time for a leisurely afternoon ascent of Broken Top:

We sat in the sun for half an hour or so, then skied this perfect corn all the way back to camp:

The skies deteriorated into a series of rainstorms over the evening and night, and we woke up to an ominous forecast and this view:

So we opted to cruise out and spend the rainy day sampling the microbreweries of Bend. Not quite skiing, but still fun!

The next day brought us 8" of wind-buffed powder on Mt Bachelor, and a couple lazy laps on the upper mountain.

A bit more snow fell that night, and after an evening of more wine and beer sampling, we headed to the Devil's Lake Trailhead at 4am:

Rolling cloud cover gave us some pretty spectacular views, but also made us wary of incoming bad weather:

I hear the view is great from the top, but we settled for this horizon instead:

Standing on top, trying to figure out which way to point my skis in order to go down:

The cloud ceiling lifted just enough for a beautiful ski down, though!

I got a splitting headache and mild nausea at the bottom of the run (from a mild concussion two weeks prior), so I decided to cut the trip a day short and not ski the next day. I feel like I got in enough considering the injury, even though I hadn't had any symptoms up to that point. We camped out in the badlands east of town that night, and cruised back up through central Idaho and back home. The trip certainly did not go as planned, but I think it was still pretty great!

Should be writing these up as articles!

LiteratureAwesome, Sam.

What'd you do to go skin up on Bachelor? I tried while I was out there and was told the only open up route was some piddley 600ft thing up onto a cinder cone. They wouldn't let me skin anywhere near the top.

Sometimes it's better to ask for forgiveness than to ask for permission.

....Looks dope! I love Mt. Bachelor and everything around it. Especially the meth.

We went up Bachelor a day or two after they closed. Apparently you weren't supposed to go up the main runs, but there wasn't really anyone there to stop us, and a few other people were going wherever, so we just zipped a couple runs up to the top until the snow got too goopy to turn in anymore.

nosnowsnakesSometimes it's better to ask for forgiveness than to ask for permission.

I'd usually agree, but in this case, my home hill's uphill policy and the people who give most of the folks a bad name by breaking the rules had me asking for permission. Sometimes people appreciate when you're trying to play by the rules and help you out, and sometimes they slam the door in your face. Too bad for Bachelor, because it left a sour taste in my mouth.

LiteratureI'd usually agree, but in this case, my home hill's uphill policy and the people who give most of the folks a bad name by breaking the rules had me asking for permission. Sometimes people appreciate when you're trying to play by the rules and help you out, and sometimes they slam the door in your face. Too bad for Bachelor, because it left a sour taste in my mouth.

Casual rule-breaking is okay but being an asshole is not. I'm glad to hear you error on the side of being a good person. Too bad it ended with bad feelings, I may be biased because I grew up in the region but I've always thought Bachelor was an under appreciated gem.

if infringing on property rights - ask permission.

if not - fuckem do it your way.