Mt. Bachelor

Our Take

Mt. Bachelor is a 9,000-foot Cascade volcano 22 miles from Bend, Oregon, and the skiing is as dramatic as the geology implies. The mountain sits as a freestanding peak in the high Cascades with terrain on all sides -- 360-degree skiing off a stratified summit cone, with everything from the groomed west-side cruisers that intermediates love to the steep north and northwest face terrain where the powder tends to sit longest after storms. The 4,318 acres make it the largest ski resort in the Pacific Northwest. The snow is Cascade cement on bad days and Cascade powder on good ones -- the elevation here (9,065-foot summit) keeps it colder than lower Cascade resorts, and the 462 inches of annual snowfall is enough volume that even heavy Pacific moisture produces good skiing most of the time. Bend has evolved into a genuine destination city with outdoor culture, craft brewery density, and an airport that handles direct flights from major West Coast cities. The resort has no base village -- you park, you ski, you drive back to Bend for dinner -- which is either refreshing minimalism or a design oversight depending on your après expectations.

Nerd Stats

Fun Facts

• Mt. Bachelor is an active stratovolcano -- part of the same Cascade volcanic arc as Mt. Hood, Crater Lake, and Mt. Shasta. Skiing a volcano.
• At 4,318 acres, Mt. Bachelor is the largest ski resort in the Pacific Northwest. The next-largest Oregon resort has less than half its acreage.
• The Summit Express chairlift reaches 9,065 feet and serves the summit cone terrain with 360-degree exposure -- you can see four other volcanoes on a clear day.
• Mt. Bachelor's terrain is 360 degrees around the volcano -- unusual in North American resort design and critical for finding untracked lines after storms.