June 4, 2005, Bachelor Butte, Day 94, Season End

After yesterdays tour on South Sister, we decided we are skiers first and hikers second.  We spent another evening near Sparks Lake so it was a short drive to Bachelor.  We parked at the gate to the Sunshine Lodge along with four other skiers.  It was another blue sky day and the snow pack had frozen overnight. Jill had a blister on her arch from yesterdays climb on South Sister, but she was determined to ski today because the weather forecast after today was so discouraging.  The skinning surface was ideal and direct.  It was enjoyable to skin up versus traversing flats or hiking on dirt.  We skinned the 2700 vertical to the top of Bachelor in just over 2 hours. I have never been to the top when the winds were calm or there were not others around.  Today was the day for both.  We viewed yesterdays route and confirmed that a tour to Broken Top would require way too much hiking on dirt. We dropped from the cirque down #2 chute.  The snow was PERFECT corn with an inch of cream on a firm base.  The slope has a pitch of 40 degrees at the top and provides a great angle to lean down hill and let gravity initiate each carved turn.   We continued down the bowl and barked our way down to the traverse at mid mountain.  The coverage was excellent and we skied down Avalanche trail and finished our decent down Marshmallow trail to the base area.  It was a perfect day with a great descent on corn snow.  After 94 days of skiing this season, it was a great way to end the ski season.  It is now time to see if our boat still floats and to start chasing halibut, salmon and Dungeness crab.  Hope your season continues and you make every trip a ROUND TRIP.  I updated all the trip reports starting May 27 and added a photo. Zap & Jill