Could Mt. Bachelor, now up for sale, come under community ownership? Two locals are trying to make it happen
BEND, Ore. (KTVZ) — Dan Cochrane and Chris Porter are a local duo looking to have local ownership of Mt. Bachelor come into local community ownership.
Their efforts following the announcement last month that POWDR Corporation would be selling the resort.
Calling the initiative “Buy Back Mt. Bachelor,” the two are hoping locals and tourists who love the mountain will step in to save it.
Both are meeting with legal teams soon to discuss the process of ownership - and, of course, how possible it might be to meet a no-doubt high price tag.
Just how tall an order can be seen in this article from The Storm Skiing Journal, a day after they broke the news.
Here's what writer Stuart Winchester said about the resort and who's likely interested:
"Everyone I spoke with agreed on one thing: of POWDR’s three available properties, Bachelor is the prize, a potentially portfolio-defining chest-thumper that could draw skiers from all corners, a pilgrimage-level mecca. Think Big Sky for Boyne or Whistler for Vail or Jackson Hole for the Ikon Pass – that one mountain on the roster that every skier just had to get to once (that impact would be muted if already-stacked Alterra, Boyne, or Vail purchased Bachelor, but a mountain of this caliber could change the trajectory of a Mountain Capital Partners or California Mountain Resort Company). Based on my conversations, there doesn’t appear to be any established North American multimountain operator who isn’t interested in Mount Bachelor.
"And it’s obvious why. From a pure skiing point of view, Bachelor – huge, snowy, (seemingly) forever-open – exceeds anything in POWDR’s portfolio save the un-exceed-able Snowbird. How many North American ski areas offer 360-degree volcano skiing down a 3,000-plus-foot vertical drop covering 4,000-plus acres? One. And this is it," Winchester wrote.
(Our planned story on Friday won't be airing, but we hope to provide more information soon.)
