# Too much snow???



## killclimbz (Aug 10, 2007)

It has happened more times than you would think. All of the coastal mountain resorts have had this sort of thing happen from time to time. Fortunately it's infrequent. Too much of a good thing can be a bad thing.


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## Toecutter (Oct 11, 2009)

It's like all-or-nothing this year.


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## SimonB (Oct 13, 2010)

WHAT???

We haven't got 5 foot of snow since the beginning of the season....


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## orangatang (Oct 15, 2011)

Im dying to go to bachelor near the end of march. They had 665 feet in mid feb last year when I went. Im hopping for about the same when I go in March.


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## skycdo (Sep 15, 2011)

orangatang said:


> They had *665 feet* in mid feb last year


That's an ass ton of snow.....


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## ThunderChunky (Oct 1, 2011)

I heard it comes down at Bachelor like 5 feet and hour.....on a down day. 665 feet is nothing, KB has ONE MILLION feeeet.


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## nomembername (Mar 21, 2011)

ThunderChunky said:


> I heard it comes down at Bachelor like 5 feet and hour.....on a down day. 665 feet is nothing, KB has ONE MILLION feeeet.


And skiers with lasers attached to their GoPros


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## Peaceryder (Nov 21, 2011)

Wow, common. Resort must be retarded to close with those conditions. Here in Alberta if that happened a lot of people would be calling in sick for work and planning to make a bed and sleep overnight in the pow. Seriously, I don't know why any resort would close. You're going downhill for crying out loud... shut down the beginner green runs maybe...


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## ShredLife (Feb 6, 2010)

there are inbounds slides that happen at 'Bach with this much new snow that go big enough to kill people. 

there are also alot of flat areas that need to be groomed or people will be getting stuck to the point of needing help to get out of. 

with 2" per hour 30-32 degree snow there is simply too much cleanup and control to do - with the power out they'd be reduced to running the lifts on diesel, which they do - but it costs more. 

the meat of the moneymaking season for resorts is over for the year. from here on out its mostly season pass holders over there (except for spring break) and Mt. Bachelor like pretty much every other mountain is controlled by the almighty dollar.


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## WasatchMan (Aug 30, 2011)

Yeah avalanches are a big problem. Today at brighton EVERYTHING was popping


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## mjd (Mar 13, 2009)

time to break out the splitboard.


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## Memphis Hawk (Dec 26, 2011)

If it had been drier snow, perhaps no problems. It snow 6 feet out here at Hakkoda last weekend and they were open.


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## grafta (Dec 21, 2009)

ShredLife said:


> there are inbounds slides that happen at 'Bach with this much new snow that go big enough to kill people.





mjd said:


> time to break out the splitboard.


Not saying anything in particular, just putting two and two together


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## Toecutter (Oct 11, 2009)

Update:

Mt. Bachelor Ski Resort - Mountain Update


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## Peaceryder (Nov 21, 2011)

ShredLife said:


> there are inbounds slides that happen at 'Bach with this much new snow that go big enough to kill people.
> 
> there are also alot of flat areas that need to be groomed or people will be getting stuck to the point of needing help to get out of.
> 
> ...


My local hill doesn't have any flat spots... that could be why things are different. We got dumped on by nearly 4 ft and pretty much all of Calgary was at the hill that day, lol.


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## ShredLife (Feb 6, 2010)

For only the second time in at least two decades, Mt. Bachelor was forced to close and suspend its operations for the entire day on Thursday, January 19th. Unprecedented snowfall rates and strong winds combined to create blizzard-like conditions during a two-day period. The mountain received 35 inches of new snow in the 24 hours period between 6:00am Wednesday and 6:00am Thursday. That is the highest snowfall amount in one 24-hour period on record at Mt. Bachelor.

The decision to remain closed throughout the day Thursday was not an easy one. Ultimately, our management team decided that a number of factors, when combined, created a situation that would be inhospitable and potentially unsafe to our guests had we opened. These factors include:

* Power Outage - Mt. Bachelor lost power at approximately 9:00pm on Wednesday evening. The source of the outage was a fallen tree on a power line somewhere outside of Mt. Bachelor's immediate area. Mt. Bachelor has a backup power generator, and that was used until our primary power was restored around Noon Thursday. With the generator, we can "keep the lights on" and even run some lifts at reduced speed, but it would have been "iffy" to be open for business when solely reliant on the emergency back-up power.
* Disrupted Radio Communications - The storm disabled our radio system - a critical internal communication tool. The power outage was the primary cause of this issue.
* Lift Damage Assessment - The dense, heavy snow and high wind combination resulted in some downed-trees in the area. Our maintenance team needed time to assess whether or not any downed-trees hit any of the lifts. All of our frontside lifts have been checked. Fortunately, no trees fell on any of them. Our westside lifts still have not been checked. The avalanche danger is still too high in the bowls above Northwest and Outback lifts to risk send any of our employees out there today.
* High Avalanche Risk - This storm produced snow that came in "upside down". That means that the bottom couple feet consisted of very light, dry, fluffy powder. But as the temperature climbed yesterday and last night, the top couple feet were very wet, dense and heavy. The heavier top snow can cause the weaker bottom layer to fail and give way - an avalanche. Before any of our maintenance or grooming vehicles could cross certain areas, our Ski Patrol team had to perform avalanche control work to ensure that the snow was stable enough for mountain travel. That occurred earlier this morning on the frontside of the mountain. With a little break in the weather anticipated Friday morning, our Ski Patrol will assess the higher-risk areas on the westside of the mountain.
* Difficult On-Mountain Travel - All snowmobiles were submerged in snow. Time was required to dig them out. Once free, on-mountain travel was very difficult and slow due to the extremely deep, dense snow.
* Buried Signage and Rope Lines - All of our signs and ropes were submerged. Ski Patrol team members needed time to find them, pull them out of the snow, make them visible again, and in some cases, replace them.
* Snow-Filled Parking Lots and Access Roads - It was impossible to keep up with the 2-inches per hour rate of snowfall overnight, so our roads and parking lots were nearly impassible this morning. Our Snow Removal team, despite working through the night, needed additional time to make the roads and parking lots passable - a task that can only be accomplished when there are no cars in the lots.

Individually, each of above factors alone might not have forced the closure. But collectively, the situation was overwhelming. We needed to take a day to catch our breath, recover from the severe storm, and get to the the point where we are again comfortable that the mountain is a safe place to ski or ride. And we're making good progress in our storm recovery efforts.


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## Tech420 (Jul 1, 2011)

SimonB said:


> WHAT???
> 
> We haven't got 5 foot of snow since the beginning of the season....


We haven't even got 5 inches


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## Toecutter (Oct 11, 2009)

I'll be heading up for opening bell tomorrow. The idea of 4' to 6' of fresh is freaking me out a bit as I've never ridden in any snow so deep.


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## ShredLife (Feb 6, 2010)

wax twice, turn less


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## Toecutter (Oct 11, 2009)

ShredLife said:


> wax twice, turn less


LOL, I'll try to remember that!


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## IdahoFreshies (Jul 9, 2011)

LOL this season is fucking retarded. first it hardly snows at all until january, then it just dumps metric shit tons of snow everywhere right after. My local hill in 2 days went from a 4" base, to opening day today with a foot and a half of powder. and my other, further away local hill just got 34" in the last 48 hours!


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## Tech420 (Jul 1, 2011)

Tech420 said:


> We haven't even got 5 inches


WOOO WOOO We got like a 1/2 inch last night! :laugh:


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## Sincraft (Sep 6, 2010)

It's a crying shame that I'm stuck in Pennsylvania. Nothing but snowmaker snow at 3000 feet elevation. OH and that trip planned for tomorrow, canceled. Cold enough to snow but, alas somehow it's freezing rain. Sunday looks good but ALL next week is mid to HIGH 40's...ONCE AGAIN with rain off and on all week.

I've been waiting all Jan for it to 'switch' over but to date, locally at 1000' where I live, all we have had ALL year has been a dusting or an inch. Yes, one inch. However, in October we received 3 inches, ealy october even. Go figure. 

I just want to rip my eyes out and throw them at someone in defiance of this shit. So pissed.

I guess I'll just continue to use my season pass to scrape my windows.


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## Smokehaus (Nov 2, 2010)

I feel you man, Virginia sucks just as bad. I have this brand new Westmark and I can't even go out and enjoy it. You can only wax a new board so many times...


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## extra0 (Jan 16, 2010)

my local, relatively flat mtn gets a couple of 5 to 10 ft dumps of wet snow every year...and they never close. In the 10 ft range, they just groom one or two runs and a trail (which are a ton of fun just for the transitions). 

Truth is though, on the +/-10 ft dumps, it is very dangerous. If you happen to go even slightly off-piste and fall head first, suffocation is a very real risk. On those days, few people make it up to the resort and staff is very busy...you may not get rescued (a guy died here last year).

As snowolf said, with only 5 feet, I can only imagine bachelor's closure was due to a power outage (and maybe their generators weren't working either - it happens), multiple downed trees on the roads and/or failure to plow the roads for whatever reason.


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## wrathfuldeity (Oct 5, 2007)

We get occasional big dumps and the hill says we got 78" in the past week. Most of the time we handle it but once a year we get shut down or have delayed opening and sometimes you have to have avy gear to ride a couple of inbound chairs.


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## Toecutter (Oct 11, 2009)

Snowolf said:


> Did you guys get rain when the warm front hit like Mt. Hood? We got a shit ton of rain after it dumped 5 feet and it was tough going!


Rain? That sucks. It didn't rain down our way. The temp stayed around 30F so the snow actually rode pretty nice. It was dense and heavy so despite being 5+ feet deep you rode in the top 6" or so of it. It was soft cream cheese snow. As long as you stayed upright you were fine, but stepping off the board my leg would posthole down to nothingness. I got stuck once and spent a good 15 minutes swimming out to the nearest track 10 feet away.

The bigger problem was with power outages and high winds. Apparently a main power line 5 miles away got taken out by downed trees, so Bachelor was on auxiliary generator power up until mid-day today. I lined up half an hour before opening and on my first lift ride up the chair stalled so I sat in a freaking wind tunnel for 20 minutes. By the time they got the lift moving I had chilled pretty good. 

We rode over to another lift, which also had broken down. People were stuck on that lift for 45 minutes. I said "fuck it" and ended up walking out about a mile to my car and went home. 3 hours of effort and I only had two runs totaling only a few minutes, but those two runs were exquisite.

All yesterday and this morning Bachelor was just trying to get everything repaired and functional. It was definitely not an ideal situation but I am sympathetic since they got something like 100" of new snow over the past week and they're still getting 10" to 12" per 24 hours steadily in this record-setting storm. The upshot is when the mayhem all gets sorted out the entire mountain will have excellent coverage.


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## Toecutter (Oct 11, 2009)

extra0 said:


> my local, relatively flat mtn gets a couple of 5 to 10 ft dumps of wet snow every year...and they never close. In the 10 ft range, they just groom one or two runs and a trail (which are a ton of fun just for the transitions).
> 
> Truth is though, on the +/-10 ft dumps, it is very dangerous. If you happen to go even slightly off-piste and fall head first, suffocation is a very real risk. On those days, few people make it up to the resort and staff is very busy...you may not get rescued (a guy died here last year).
> 
> As snowolf said, with only 5 feet, I can only imagine bachelor's closure was due to a power outage (and maybe their generators weren't working either - it happens), multiple downed trees on the roads and/or failure to plow the roads for whatever reason.


This storm came in "upside down" too. It initially dropped a layer of light, fluffy, dry snow then covered it with wet, heavy snow. Avalanche danger is super high. I got off my board once and it felt as if I would have submerged all the way past my head if I hadn't held onto my board.

The snow machines were only able to clear about half of the parking lot since the snow was so wet and heavy. Traffic was backed up beyond the property and it was one in/one out by 10am yesterday. The DOT sent crews up there to help remove snow last night. The highway leaving Bend was wet black ice in the morning and it's nothing short of a miracle that no one died in a car crash.


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## Toecutter (Oct 11, 2009)

more photos:

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150499994470817.366744.130989650816&type=1
.
.


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## Argo (Feb 25, 2010)

Just curious toecutter, I assume you live in bend, how do you like it there? What's lifestyle like? I plan to be in vail for another season at least but my wife has it in her head to.live in the PNW at some point. I love the region too but would rather steer clear of Portland and Seattle. The hospital in bend seems to always be hiring and housing is manageable.


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## Toecutter (Oct 11, 2009)

Argo said:


> Just curious toecutter, I assume you live in bend, how do you like it there? What's lifestyle like? I plan to be in vail for another season at least but my wife has it in her head to.live in the PNW at some point. I love the region too but would rather steer clear of Portland and Seattle. The hospital in bend seems to always be hiring and housing is manageable.


I love it in Bend. This city has pretty much everything I need. If you guys are into outdoor sports then this is the place to be. It's a good time to be buying a home here if you're able to. I've been here a decade and appreciate it more each year.


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## Argo (Feb 25, 2010)

What is the drive to Bach like? Length, difficulty in weather?


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## Toecutter (Oct 11, 2009)

Argo said:


> What is the drive to Bach like? Length, difficulty in weather?


20 minutes on a light, clear day. 30-35 minutes in weather and/or traffic. Pretty easy really. It's mostly two lane undivided highway though, so if someone is white-knuckling it up front they can end up with a chain of 30 cars stacked up behind them, and there's always someone pushing the limits of safe passing. If you don't want to drive your own car they have shuttle buses from town. 

If you know where to park you can be literally three feet from the trail. Pull up, gear up, you're riding. If you want to switch out equipment your car is right there next to the run.

Edit: It's about 20 miles.


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