Special final weekend at Mt. Bachelor

A mixture of snow and dirt lined the base of Mt Bachelor on Friday as resort attendants worked busily to spread what little snow remains onto a path leading to the Pine Marten Express chairlift.

The sloppy and wet smack of skis and snowboards sliding across the melting snow was the only sound heard behind the groan of the of the lift clacking as it whisked passengers up the mountain in groups of two and three.

This weekend will be the last two days the Mt Bachelor ski resort is open for the season.

“How can it get any better? It’s June 29th and we’re skiing, the snow’s good,” said Kirby Lopez, who chose to spend his 50th birthday on the mountain.

“You’ve got to know how to ski a little bit, if you’re going to go off the edges, but I’m right here.” Lopez said.

The sky was a thoughtless gray as thick clouds silently lingered over the mountain. A man in tennis shoes, shorts and a short sleeve shirt stood in the snow, watching the spotted white hillside in front of him. The temperature was holding steady at 68 degrees.

“It’s been fun. It’s been cloudy, but the snow has been great. We’ve been skiing Summit,” Bruce DeYoung said.

His face was slightly red from sunburn, despite the cloudy skies, with rings around his eyes clearly marking where his sunglasses had shielded his face. “(We’ve been) going down off the side. Good corn snow. It’s great.”

This is the second year in a row that Mt Bachelor is open for the weekend before the Fourth of July holiday.

To celebrate the last weekend, the resort will offer T-shirts to the first 250 people to purchase lift tickets each day. Full-season, mid-week and 12-day pass holders can purchase lift tickets at a reduced rate of $20.

“The snow is really good. It’s holding good and the conditions are alright,” said Ben Sparrow, a tall man with a short shout mustache as the piled his skis into the back of his SUV.

A group of snowboarders and skiers stood outside their cars with the back doors open, reminiscing about the day’s runs down the mountain. They laughed, enjoying a few drinks they pulled out of a blue ice-filled cooler which sat in the back of a silver Honda Odyssey.

Leon Adair, a shorter snowboarder with a blue bandana holding his black dreadlock back over his head, smiled. “The run before the last one, I ate it pretty bad. It’s getting a little slushy and when the boards grip, they bite, and they’ll put you down hard.” He said.

As Friday’s runs came to a close, the mountain turned quiet as the lifts came to a stop and the few lingering people gathered up their skis and poles sitting in the dirt as they headed to the parking lot.