Mount Bachelor Ski Resort Review: Complete Family Vacation Guide for Oregon Skiing

In this episode, the Ski Moms head out west to explore Mount Bachelor with Lauren Burke, Director of Marketing and Communications at one of the Pacific Northwest's largest ski resorts. Lauren shares her unconventional path into the ski industry, from growing up in San Diego with childhood trips to Mammoth, to falling in love with mountain life at University of Colorado Boulder. After over a decade at Mammoth Mountain, Lauren made the move to Mount Bachelor in Bend, Oregon, where she discovered a unique ski destination unlike any other.

Lauren paints a perfect picture of what makes Mount Bachelor special: affordable lodging in nearby Bend and Sun River, free parking, 410 inches of annual snowfall and 360-degree skiing on a dormant volcano with over 4,000 skiable acres. She emphasizes that spring is the absolute best time to visit, with the whole mountain open through Memorial Day and sunny weather that allows families to combine skiing with mountain biking, hiking, and outdoor concerts.

For families, Mount Bachelor offers year-round daycare, Kids Ski Free passes, extensive beginner terrain on both base areas, and affordable lesson packages. Lauren also highlights the resort's four-season offerings including downhill mountain biking, zip tours, whitewater rafting and fine dining experiences at the mid-mountain lodge.

Quotes:

• "There is no winter destination quite like Bend, Sun River, Mount Bachelor. I just cannot find a comparable ski destination that is anything like this."
• "My number one tip for families visiting Bachelor is come in the spring. It is so good in the spring. The whole mountain's open. The weather is good, you get snow, but when it's not snowing, you get sun."
• "The summit of Mount Bachelor is a tr

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Transcript

Nicole: Welcome back to the Ski Moms podcast. It's season five and we're hitting the slopes. We're sharing real unfiltered stories of motherhood on the snow. From conquering the bunny hill with toddlers to squeezing in your own powder days, this season celebrates every type of ski mom.

Thanks for joining us. We've got a great season lined up and be sure to subscribe so you never miss an episode. The ski moms are taking it out west. Today we're talking to Lauren Burke.

She is the director of marketing and communications at Mount Bachelor, one of the largest ski resorts in the Pacific Northwest.

Before bringing her strategic vision to Bend, Oregon, she spent over a decade at Mammoth Mountain. She's got a new baby, a fur baby who's with us right now, and a clear passion for authentic ski culture.

Lauren offers a thoughtful look into what makes Mount Bachelor unique and how resorts can grow without losing their soul. So welcome, Lauren.

Lauren: Thank you. So excited to be here.

Nicole: I'd love to kick things off with your origin story. Where and how did you learn? How old were you? All of those good things.

Lauren: Yeah, you know, I grew up in San Diego, came from a family of surfers, skiers, snowboarders,

and was lucky enough to spend a big chunk of my childhood in Mammoth. My grandparents had a place up there, so they spent a lot of time there. And, you know, if you're familiar with Southern California, it is hard to get to Mammoth.

So we would pack up, take the seven hour drive in our family suburban with my sister, our dog,

and make the drive up the 3:95, you know, a handful of times a year. And I probably started skiing when I was about 5 or so.

And,

you know, I don't remember loving the actual skiing part of it when I was a kid, but I loved the hot chocolate and the cookies and the seeing the woolly, the mascot.

So, yeah, I was lucky to get rolling at a young age.

Sarah: And do you remember, like, how you learned, did you get put in ski school?

Lauren: Yeah, yeah. So my sister and I, who's two years younger than me,

my parents definitely were winging it a little bit with us. I think they tried to teach us and then meltdowns ensued.

So went more of the ski school route and, you know, we spent time in the Mammoth daycare,

spent time in ski school. We did a lot of mornings in ski school, afternoons ripping with mom and dad. And I have these vivid memories of once we started to get a little bit better,

of my parents just having pockets full of candy where they'd be like, okay,

you're gonna go up chair three, which is like more of a mid mountain lift. And when you get back to the bottom and they'd like flash the candy in their pocket, but they wouldn't give it to us.

And so that was kind of like our, our sweet treat bribery to get us to keep progressing.

Nicole: Complete respect for that. And I do, before we leave Mammoth for a second,

is it like I 70 that you're, you know, things are calm, there's no snow, you're going along and then all of a sudden winter hits like on a certain pass or a certain point and all hell breaks loose.

Lauren: It's funny. It is not like i70. It is this desolate highway through the middle of the California high desert. Like think Death Valley on one side, Mount Whitney on the other side, going through teeny tiny rural towns and you don't even feel like you're gaining elevation.

And then,

you know, without even really making a turn, you kind of start to see more snow on the mountains and then Mammoth comes into view. So it's really not like a traditional mountain pass drive.

It's just a long straight shot for about seven hours from San Diego and five hours from la.

Nicole: Oh, you just said seven hours. And Sarah and I both shuddered.

Well, that is, that's a conversation for another day of what you would possibly do to keep your kids busy for seven hours in the car.

But we want to talk to you about more of like Lauren's evolution. So.

Lauren: Yeah.

Nicole: Did you know that you were going to go into the ski industry? Obviously, you know, it took a while for you as a kid. Did you go when you were in college, did you study things?

Looking at a career at that was going to be a part of this or how did that happen?

Lauren: No, I was,

I'm going to live on the beach forever. I'm a beach girl.

All my family went, you know, grew up in Southern California, went to college in Southern California. And I was committed to that life and to my parents credit. You know, they really encouraged me to kind of pick my head up and look outside of California for other opportunities.

And we went and visited University of Colorado in Boulder. And I remember landing. If you've ever flown into dia, you're basically landing in like corn fields and there's no mountains to be found.

And I just looked at my mom, I was like, there's no way, like, I'm not going to go to school here. And then driving into Boulder and you just kind of drop over the mountains or drop over a little hill and you see the flatirons come into view.

And I fell in love with Boulder so quickly. And so going to college there, that's really where I fell in love with living in the mountains, you know, access to trails right out my backyard and,

you know, an hour and a half to get to a basin on the weekends and staying in little mountain cabins with my friends.

And I, you know, dated a guy who was such a good snowboarder and so just like lived and breathed it while I was in college. And I ended up studying.

Started in the journalism school and then switched to study English lit, kids communications and creative writing and really didn't know what I wanted to do.

And after all of that and loving the mountain life, I moved to LA after college and ended up right back, right back at the beach for a couple of years.

But yeah, Boulder is really where it all kind of came clear for me.

Sarah: So tell us how you ended up back working in the mountains.

Lauren: Yeah, so after a couple years in la, I was working for kind of a startup media agency doing the classic like LA post college hustle,

working my butt off, you know, not necessarily taking as good of care of myself as I should have been. You know, it was fun. We were young, all my girlfriends and I,

but I just felt like I hit a wall and needed a break and needed to kind of take care of my mind, body and soul a little bit. And I didn't necessarily know how to do that.

So I was just sitting at work one day and I was on Twitter and I saw Mammoth Mountain tweeted that they were hiring for an office manager for their terrain park program.

And I was like, I don't know what that means, but I'm going to apply for it. And ended up getting a call really quickly from the train park manager who happened to be the CEO at the time, Rusty.

Rusty Gregory's son,

who lived in Newport beach and kind of split his time. And he was like, hey, you want to come to Newport beach and we can like chat about this role?

And so I was like, sure. And I told my boss, I was like, I got a doctor's appointment and went and drove like an hour south to Orange county and met up, met up with him and had lunch.

And we ended up really hitting it off. And he was like, I know you don't know anything about the ski industry, but you are smart and you're clearly a hustler.

And I was like, I desperate to get out of la.

And a couple weeks later they offered me the job and I called my dad And I was like,

I think I want to move to Mammoth. And they want me there in five days. I was like, can I,

can you give me a month in the house, in our, like, Mammoth house? And he was like, one month.

Go do it, girl. Go get it. And I was like, okay.

Packed up my car and moved to Mammoth. My sister helped me move out there and kind of the rest is history.

Nicole: That's like a Lifetime movie. I love this, this story. And I love that your dad was like, go for it. That's good parenting right there.

So you get the, the terrain park and you did it feel like home immediately. Not the train park, but mountain. This pivot in your career.

Lauren: I don't know if it felt like home, but it re. Energized me. It was something completely new.

I was really confident in my ability to just take whatever they, they threw at me and figure it out. And I had a really supportive management team there. It was wild to be, you know,

25 years old, working in a department of 40 men working in operations. Like coming from the new media world of LA to this world,

it was a whole different landscape for me. But I just loved it. You know, Mammoth taught me how to work hard,

how to, you know, put in my time, how to embrace the challenges that come with working at a ski resort. You know, I was very much at my first couple years there.

I'm going to be the first one in the office, last one to leave. I'm going to learn everything I can about not only the, the operational side, but also the kind of marketing,

athlete,

brand side. And I think,

really think that my time working for the train parks has helped like, build the foundation of my career.

Sarah: Okay, but we want to, definitely want to shift gears and find out when you made the transition to Mount Bachelor and I didn't. I don't know if we talked about how many years you've been there now,

but I'd love to hear. It sounds like you learned a ton at Mammoth,

but what made you change gears?

Lauren: Yeah, you know, after spending some time working in operations in Mammoth and then ultimately transitioning into a full time marketing and PR and advertising role with Mammoth,

I just kind of felt like I was ready for what's next. Mammoth was such a part of me. It was a part of my family.

But I was ready for a new challenge. And again, I didn't really know what that looked like. And then someone had recommended me for the sport role at Mount Bachelor.

I had never been to Bachelor. I had never been to Bend and. But I Had always kind of loosely followed and heard about the culture here about, you know, Bend was always topped the list of, like, coolest small towns and, you know, most remote workers in the country.

And Bachelor had this kind of similar vibe of,

you know, board sport culture and not a fluffy ski resort, you know, kind of that, like, anti veil,

for lack of a better term,

ski resort. So once I made it kind of through the interview process, I applied,

got pretty far through. They flew my partner and I out, and it was April. It was that huge year in the Sierra where we had had, like, 600 inches of snow.

My partner and I flew out here.

It was sunny in town. You know, we landed at the airport. We were like, where's the snow?

Landed the airport. Drove the 20 minutes into Bend. It was sunny in town.

Drove up to the mountain. It had. It was snowing, like 8 inches of blower. Blower, pow. On the mountain.

No one was there. It was a Tuesday.

We. We thought we were skiing on closed terrain because there was literally no one there.

And we were like, what is this place? Like, this rules.

And that was. That was kind of all we needed to see. We looked at each other. I was like, if I get this job, like, are you willing to make this move?

We didn't have a kid yet. We weren't married.

This was two and a half years ago.

And,

yeah, they offered me the job, and now here I am.

Nicole: I love that story, and I love the supportive partner portion of this story as well. And also, Lauren's gonna run a mountain someday, Sarah. I'm predicting it now. We're gonna get her some more operations work down the road.

And we're in 10 years. We're gonna be like GM Lauren Burke, first time you were giving us a little bit of your impressions.

It is. I know we say this about every mountain, but it is unique. Mount Bachelor really is something different. So tell us briefly about the history of the mountain and how a new family would experience it.

From where are you staying? To, you know, pulling up in the parking lot.

Lauren: Yeah. You know, there is no winter destination quite like Bend, Sun River, Mount Bachelor. I.

I just cannot find a comparable ski destination that is anything like this. You know, Bend is 30 minutes away from Mount Bachelor. Sun river is about 30 minutes away from Mount Bachelor.

And it is very much a summer destination town.

So it's quiet in Bend and Son river in the winter.

And you are able to get a flight into our airport here from. I think it's 15 direct flights from major ski destinations. You can fly in, you Know,

from Denver, from la, from San Diego, from Salt Lake City. It's a short, short shot into town.

It averages 30 inches of snow in Bend. And up here on the mountain we see 410 inches of snow. So you don't have to shovel snow. You're not dealing with the implications of closed roads or crazy conditions.

And you can get an incredible hotel or resort in Bend and Sun river at such a low price. You know, at some of these other destinations, you're spending $500 to stay in a Motel 6, you know, in mid January.

And here you can stay at Sun River Resort for, you know, $200 a night during ski season and have access to a free shuttle. Here we have free parking.

It's really easy to get your lift tickets. We have digital pickup boxes to scan your lift tickets in Bend, in Sun river here on the resort.

And so being able to get from town on snow is seamless, given how easy access is to this area.

And you know, one thing that's different about Bachelor is we don't have slope side lodging.

So it is all about Bend and Son river as our backyard and access to the mountain. But it makes for a less kind of crowded, congested experience getting on the hill up here.

Sarah: I remember, I think it was last year uscsa, the college racing nationals was out there and I was looking at hotels and I just kept thinking, that can't be right. Like, that looks really nice.

How could that be?

Because we end up paying a lot more to stay in like Concord, New Hampshire or Lake Placid and not nearly as nice as what I saw as options in Bend.

So I think that's a huge,

a huge plus. Talk more about when we're driving up or they're just big parking lots and we're getting on a shuttle. How do families navigate this?

Lauren: So there's a number of different options. Some of our hotel partners and lodging partners have shuttles to the resort, which is incredible, like how easy it is. They have ski valet shuttles to the resort.

There's also a park and ride in town that's very centrally located where you can leave your car and hop on a shuttle. There's a ton of shuttles that come up here each day.

It's a straight shot again, about 30 minutes from town or, you know, a family that's driving who has a rental car or drove to the area.

It's a mellow drive up here. You're not, you know, cresting any mountain passes. And we have three different lots, they're all free at our Sunrise,

Skyliner and West Village area. There is premium paid parking for those that want it, but it's a very small segment of our parking lot. And then for the hardcore camping families, we also have slope side RV camping,

which is a very Mount Bachelor experience to be able to camp slopeside in the winter up here, powered and non powered, which is cool.

Nicole: And I'm sure you have to reserve those spots.

Lauren: Yep.

Nicole: As somebody who's experienced Bachelor in the spring, I've, I've only ever been there in May and they're still getting fresh snow in May, FYI.

But it is an incredible parking lot culture.

It is some of the best barbecuing I've seen.

It is really lively and family friendly. I've definitely seen kids who are, you know, they know the neighbors are next door and they're going to grab a burger there and then they're going back to check in with their parents.

And it's also situated between the world class Nordic center, which I would like to call out, and the mountain. It is again,

nothing that I've seen anywhere else.

Lauren: It is so special.

And you know, bend again. It's 110,000 people. It's a big town. Some people call it a ski town, some people don't. But the majority of our skiers here at Bachelor are still from central Oregon.

So there's this sense of community with skiers here that I really think emanates into our destination guests as well. The kids are really independent because they've grown up taking the shuttle here by themselves or camping up here with the same groups of people.

And it has this warm and welcoming feel where I do think a destination guest comes here and just can fall into that culture of, you know, easy,

fun, not taking themselves too seriously,

the spring vibes, the access to the mountain,

and honestly, my number one tip for families visiting Bachelor is come in the spring. It is so good in the spring. The whole mountain's open. The weather is good, you get snow, but when it's not snowing, you get sun.

And you know, we're open through Memorial Day with the majority of the mountain open.

Nicole: Let's touch a moment on the kids programming.

What do you have available? Is there a daycare? Are there full day lessons? What are some of the options that we could find there?

Lauren: Yeah, you know, we're really refocusing on kids and families over the last couple of years here. We launched in May our new Kid Ski Free pass. So essentially, with the purchase of an adult season pass, you get a free kids 12 and under season pass.

So that's been an incredible program for our locals in Central Oregon skiers. We also have year round daycare up here that's open to both the public and employees. My son is there almost every day.

It is the best program. We, I'm obsessed with the girls that run it.

And we also have, you know, daycare plus ski school program. So you can do, you know, a morning lesson and then afternoon with your child in our daycare. And then we have a number of different ski school programs here.

So all day, half day, couple hours,

and inexpensive. Add on lift tickets too. If you're not a passholder, you're able to get a lift ticket any time of year for $50 if you're in a lesson product.

So, yeah, you can mix and match a lot of our programs here.

Sarah: And what about the beginner terrain options?

Lauren: Mount Bachelor is known for this kind of flowy, natural terrain that is really gentle for beginners and honestly, for skiers and riders of all ability levels. We are on a volcano here,

so that kind of natural terrain lends itself to terrain based learning really well. So the lower part of our mountain on both sides of Sunrise and West Village has this nice gentle slope.

And it's really not an intimidating experience. Our beginner lifts are right there when you walk up from the parking lot on both sides of the mountain.

And then we have our Woodward Mountain parks as well. So the beginner parks are a great place to learn and have that kind of same gentle slope terrain that helps you progress to the, to the larger, to the upper part of the mountain that is steeper but still has that same fun,

flowy, natural volcanic terrain.

Nicole: Are the two base areas. Is it difficult for families to navigate between those two? Would you recommend that they, you know, make home base? One particular base area? How are we planning for that?

Lauren: Yeah, if you're taking a lesson at Mount Bachelor, you'll be out of our West Village area, which is our larger base area. But if you're a family of beginners, Sunrise is a great place to start too.

Even if you're, if you're not taking a lesson. They both have extensive beginner terrain. And then we have an, a free interlodge shuttle that runs between both base areas every 15 minutes all day long.

So if your kid ends up in one place and you're in the other, it's easy to get back and forth.

Sarah: Are there magic carpets?

Lauren: Yep, we have three magic carpets. One dedicated to ski and ride school, the other open to the public.

And we also have an area over At Sunrise that you can just kind of walk up with if you're a true, true beginner or have a little kid like me who just wants to pull their son around on their snowboard or skis.

There is a little hike area where you can just kind of slide back and forth at the base area.

Sarah: Wait, are you saying you've gotten your nine month old on.

Lauren: Not yet.

Sarah: Snowboard.

Lauren: Okay, we bought him. So we bought him one that has the, the Burton riglet with the handle. Oh yes,

because he's, he's a strong stander right now. So we just need some snow to pull him around and then.

Nicole: Are there any adaptive programs that you work with or inclusive programming there?

Lauren: Yeah, we have an incredible partner, Oregon Adaptive Sports who's based up here on the mountain. They share building space with us at our Sunrise Lodge and they have,

it's the most impressive program being able to bring people with a variety of different disabilities up to the mountain. They have the ticketing programs, they have the equipment, they have the instructors.

We are so proud to partner with them and support them. So Oregon Adaptive Sports OAS there's any type of program you could really ever want through, through them and obviously with the terrain at Mount Bachelor and what.

Nicole: About sort of affinity groups? It seems like the type of place where like on Tuesdays there's like an over 70 group that skis and there's probably like women snowboarders.

Is there a lot of that going on that's formal or informal at Mount Bachelor?

Lauren: Yeah, there's a, there's a mix of both. You know, again, this large community of Bend. These groups already exist within Bend, you know, like art groups or you know, the bar studio that I go work at.

Like everyone's built kind of their own communities within the town and then being able to kind of bring that to life up here on the mountain. So you see, we have,

they're called the over the Hill Gang who are based out of our Sunrise Lodge. It's an amazing group of our super senior skiers who have been here for so long.

And then, you know, more formally we have women's clinics. You know, anything from weekend two day women's clinics that include meetups in town and apres sessions on the hill to more longer term, multi week, six week women's clinics.

But we are always looking at ways that we can either have Mount Bachelor support the community in Bend and vice versa to be able to bring Bend up to Mount Bachelor with, with these groups.

And there's probably a million more that I don't even know exist yet on, on the mountain. Oh, we have another good one.

They, they do, they're called scones on the cone.

And so the cone is our uphill route. So it's a group that meets up, they skin uphill to our cinder cone area on the mountain and then they eat scones in the morning before they go ski on the mountain.

So it's just like little groups like that that I just love to see.

Sarah: And what about a family that's coming? They're going to fly in, spend a week, they're beginners.

And what, what kind of past products or packages and where should they be looking for them?

Lauren: Yeah, you know, I think if you're a family and you're gonna ski,

you know, three days. At Bachelor we have a number of different products we have. If you purchase a three day adult ski ticket or more, you get the same amount of days free for a kid 12 and under.

So that's like the best deal for a family. If you're purchasing a multi day lift ticket again, you can take your confirmation walk to any of our digital pickup boxes in Bend, sun river or on the mountain.

You don't have to wait in a lift lift ticket line. You literally just scan the QR code on your phone. It prints your lift ticket right out there. You send your kid to their meeting spot or you guys go ski together.

But those kids ski free. Lift tickets are, are a no brainer. And if you are purchasing early, you know you're getting a lift ticket still here for $120,

which is great for peak season.

Nicole: And then for the more advanced skiers,

what are some of the bucket list sort of iconic things to ski or ride at Mount Bachelor? Like what are we,

what are we striving to or building to on our visits there?

Lauren: The summit of Mount Bachelor is a true bucket list ski experience.

It's skiing from the top of a dormant volcano.

It is unique because you can ski a true 360 degrees around the mountain, which you really can't do anywhere else.

So if you ski off the backside of the mountain, it is this just wide open, almost like moonscape of the longest powder runs you've ever skied. And everywhere you ski kind of funnels you back to the front side.

It is a gnarly lift when we get weather. So it's gets iced over in this December, January, February time frame with the type of Pacific Northwest storms that we see come through here.

But when it opens up,

I don't think there's any terrain like it. You're skiing these crazy long runs and I think that's anyone's Mount Bachelor bucket list for sure.

Nicole: Yeah, I'm glad you, you mentioned that. You know, there's, there's not bubble lips there and I don't think there's a tram or a gondola.

Reminds me of Sugarbush in many ways.

And am I right? Is there an old two seater there that's like super charming or am I making that up?

Lauren: Yeah, we have a couple older fixed grip chairlifts which are, you know, old faithful. They get you, they run in the tougher weather systems. We don't have a gondola here, so it's anything from a high speed six pack to a number of high speed quads to some of our older fixed grip.

There's definitely a number of different lifts. Our goal ultimately is to have here at West Village a mixed, they call it kind of a chandelier chairlift and gondola. So that's in our longer term plan.

But it's a really reliable lift network here. And Bachelor's huge. It's over 4,000 skiable acres. So once you're up on the mountain, skiers really, really spread out, which gives you that feeling like I had the first time of.

Are these runs open? Where, where is everybody?

Sarah: And another one of our favorite topics is food. What, what would be the, the, the dish we have to try when we're visiting Mount Bachelor.

Lauren: So at our West Village, we have the Rock bar, which is a great, like classic ski resort bar, but it also has table service. So on the patio and in one section of the bar, you know, you sit down, you have servers, they have really great rotating specials.

This season we're really taking the food up a notch using local beef and meat. Here from Oregon, the Pacific Northwest, they have, you know, I like, I don't eat healthy when I'm skiing.

Wish I could, but I can't.

And there is something about our cheeseburger here when it's.

You've been skiing all day with the craft beer from Deschutes and it just, it tastes so good. And when it's sunny out, sitting on the patio and being able to do that.

And my husband bartends at that bar too, so you gotta go see him.

Sarah: So the, the skiing options sound absolutely amazing. But I know that Mount Bachelor is a four season resort.

So tell us what else is going on other times of the year.

Lauren: Yeah, we are open year round here and you know, just quickly on spring again,

if you're coming up here in the spring, and you're skiing in the morning.

In the afternoons you can literally go mountain biking,

do a round of golf, go see a show at Hayden Holmes Amphitheater, who brings in some of the best, best acts in the country. There's truly an endless amount of things to do here on a spring ski vacation.

But when we're looking at summer, we have a whitewater rafting business called Sun Country Tours that operates a number of different rafting tours on the Deschutes that are very family friendly, which is awesome.

We have a two hour tour with some mellow, mellow. They're not even rapids, they're rapid, light.

And we have a tubing company where you can kind of just float through the, the river.

We also have a full downhill mountain bike park up here at Mount Bachelor. We do zip tours. So really fun, multi stage zip tours off the mountain. And if you think it's cool to ski the terrain here, it is wild to see it from the sky essentially.

And then we've put a ton of effort in the last few years into our hiking trails. So we have some great hiking trails. They're really good introduction into hiking in the area because in central Oregon, to hike in the Cascade Lakes area, you need day permits to be able to hike here.

So you have to apply for a permit either a couple weeks in advance or the morning of advance to be able to hike in this area. But at Bachelor, you can hike up the mountain without a permit on a gentle sloping trail.

You can take the chairlift down, you can take the chairlift up and hike the trail down.

So there's a number of different trail networks across the mountain and it gives you beautiful views of the Cascade Lakes area and shopping and dining up here. We have fine dining every Thursday through Sunday in the summer at our mid Mountain lodge.

So a true elevated dining experience where you take the chairlift up and enjoy a five course meal and then take the chairlift down either at night or at sunset. And it's, it's a really special experience and great for families as well because you can make a.

I think 4:30pm is our earliest reservation, which is right up my alley right now.

Nicole: We really think that some of our families from the Front Range need to go try this out. Our families from the East Coast. I'm looking at you Boston ski moms who want to try something else for your bucket list.

We would advise that they take a week for this adventure, probably five to seven days.

How would you build their itinerary? With a little bit of skiing and some other Adventures built in.

Lauren: With Mount Bachelor being a partner on the Icon Pass, it's opened us up to a whole new network of skiers and families. Icon Base gets five days here. Icon Full gets seven days.

Or if you're just coming on a multi day lift ticket product.

Again, I think spring is the absolute best time.

Come in April where the whole mountain's open. We're typically have, you know, a massive base depth at that time the sun is shining or you're skiing, you know, cold blower, pow.

Like I had only seen in Colorado previously. Yeah. You know, for a family, I would say stay at Sun River Resort where you have access to that free shuttle you have.

They have an indoor aquatic center that's open year round.

Ton of dining options, bike trails around the area where you can kind of split your days. You know, you can spend a day on the mountain and then the next day you're exploring Bend and Sun river on a hike with your family, or, you know, taking your kids to the High Desert Museum,

which is world renowned here,

or walking along the Deschutes in Bend and, you know, checking out one of the many family friendly craft breweries that we have in the area.

There's just so much to do and see in Bend and especially with it snowing so little in town. If you have a rental car, you can just cruise around. If you don't want to drive to the resort, you don't have to, but you can easily drive into Bend and explore,

explore the area.

And in early May too, if you come. Like, I can't say enough good things about our Hayden Homes Amphitheater here, which is an outdoor music venue great for families. You're sitting on the grass with blankets or chairs and watching some incredible music acts.

Nicole: What an amazing itinerary. I love the fact that we're going to be able to lighten up on the amount of stuff that we're packing because we're not going to need all the layers if we're coming out in spring and that there is just so much else to do.

What about on the mountain? Is there tubing? Can we look at snowshoeing?

You know, I mentioned briefly the, the Nordic Center. What about while we're up there?

Lauren: Yeah, the, the Nordic center here, like you mentioned, it is the. Has the longest groomed season of any Nordic center in the country. So if you're coming up here in April and May, the Nordic center is still in full swing here.

You can go snowshoeing, no problem. That's a great family friendly activity. If you Just want to go kind of play in the snow in the woods.

You can take a Nordic lesson with one of our instructors here.

We also work with the forest service. We have free snowshoe tours around the area here through our partner discover your forest. So there is a ton to explore. We don't have tubing again.

Tubing is in our five year plan. So hopefully we'll have tubing here in the next couple of years.

But yeah, coming up too. And every weekend in May we have live music as well. So if you're just going to come sit on the sun deck and while your family skis,

you can eat great food, see a great band on our stage at the base area and go take a walk through the woods too. Get some peace and quiet.

Nicole: Yeah, that's a good reminder when, when we're packing that for a Mount Bachelor spring vacation, we. It can be a 30 degree difference between what's going on at Mount Bachelor versus Bend or more.

Lauren: Yes, totally. You know, you could be in T shirt in Bend and then come up here and again be skiing the whole mountain top to bottom on that perfect corn springtime snow that is almost as good as powder day because it stays good all day.

So definitely pack, pack the layers, pack the sunscreen. And if you're the family that likes to get dressed up for some reason in the spring, there's always people in their crazy outfits and their,

you know, glitter and you see people skiing around and fairy wings and it's just a really fun,

classic Pacific Northwest kind of culture up here.

Nicole: And, and I think that goes into Bend as well. I know when I've been shopping there and going to restaurants, it's a lot of independent stores,

a lot of boutiques. You're not going to see a lot of huge change. I mean, there is kind of outside of town, there's sort of the big box experience and you can get, you know, cheap groceries if you want.

But I highly encourage people to visit the smaller areas where they can find the sweetest boutiques and great restaurants while they are small, you know, family owned and operated.

Lauren: Yeah. The downtown of Bend is like a storybook. The Deschutes river runs right through the downtown.

It's very walking friendly, so you can walk to all of the shops. There's an amazing restaurant scene of independently owned restaurants. Pacific renowned Pacific Northwest chefs that have now made Bend home.

I think Bend has more parks per capita of any town in the United States. Like the amount of parks that my son and I visit just walking around Bend. And again, you can Visit those during a ski vacation like the.

There is grass year round in the town of Bend which is.

Was mind blowing to me coming from Mammoth where I was buried under my second story house in April.

Nicole: It is possible to rent bikes as well. So I did want to point that out. So if you want this sort of two season adventure, you can, many of the ski shops do switch over to become mountain bike or sort of outdoor adventure places in the spring.

And you can pick up a mountain bike if you want to try it for the day.

Lauren: Yeah. Yes. And again, that's why Bend I think is so. I mean for so many reasons I've said that I think Bend is so cool and unique, but because it is a,

maybe not as much of a ski town,

there's anything you need. It's. It's not like when you're in Tahoe where the grocery stores run out of groceries on peak visitation times. You know, there is anything you could need from you know, grocery stores to rentals to fine dining to food truck lots.

Like there is something for everyone in this town and Bend is a bucket list town. And once you experience this place as a, as a winter destination,

I think people are just going to keep coming back because it has that, that culture that people are looking for when they're planning a vacation if they don't want kind of a built up classic, you know, ski and ski out village type of vacation.

Nicole: And Lauren. So you've finished your ski day,

maybe you're working and then you get in a couple runs. What, what's kind of your dreamy apres ski experience at Mount Bachelor? What does that look like?

Lauren: When I think of opera, I think of spring. You know, I think of being a little bit sunburned after skiing for a couple of hours on the mountain. I think of sitting on the sun deck, taking my jacket off, feeling that like spring sun on my skin,

having a margarita and listening to one of the great bands, local bands that we have playing up here every weekend. It is, it is not the dance party type of opera that we have here at Bachelor, but it's very much that like community culture of just sharing your ski day with the community up here,

enjoying the food, the music,

the kind of tastes and sights and sounds of Central Oregon and Mount Bachelor. So that's what it means to me right now.

Nicole: You've really told the story of Mount Bachelor beautifully. I think a lot of our listeners are looking for a different experience. You know, they're looking to get away from crowds, but they also want that big mountain skiing experience if they do call a smaller mountain home.

And I think that this is just a wonderful adventure for them and I hope we've told the story well and encourage people to check it out and learn some more.

Sarah: So if we want to follow along, learn more about all the offerings at Mount Bachelor, where should we where should we start?

Lauren: Yeah, mountbachelor.com really gives you everything you need to know. We have some great family sections on the website that can kind of direct you to those family lift ticket products, our lesson products.

We have some really fun new family oper events this season, our kids opera events. So helmet decorating, cookie decorating, s'. Mores.

We are launching a mascot this season which I am so excited about. His name is Marty the Pine Martin.

So every Friday,

Saturday,

Sunday we're going to be doing what's called a Marty Party. So it's a short little dance party with our dj, either on the sun deck or in our lodge where our mascot comes out and dances.

So there's a ton to explore on the website and then on social media too. Instagram, TikTok, Facebook at Mount Bachelor, there's some fun stuff that we're doing there as well.

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