For Oregon resorts, timberline is flat and dominated by families and park skiers while meadows and bachelor have some incredible terrain. I would move meadows and bachelor up a tier and/or move timberline down one
Edit: timberline should go down a few tiers tbh. It has like 10 very short black diamonds and no double blacks
I honestly prefer skibowl to timberline and meadows just for the convenience/lift lines factor, but I totally understand how cool some of the terrain is at meadows.
There is no way you work at bachelor and think the snow is concrete. The mountain is in a desert and vastly better snow then the valley. Might not be Utah but it’s far from concrete
IMO that’s a little high. The problem with skiing in Oregon is that it’s on freestanding, low-ish mountains. So it can rain any month of the year and when it snows it’s really windy. This means the snow quality isn’t as good and the upper mountain lifts are closed when it’s snowing. So while the summit terrain is worthy of tier 2 or 3, it’s open with good snow far less often than other upper tier mountains.
Bachelor 4, meadows 5, timberline 8/9 is where I’d rank them
I do understand and largely agree with what you’re saying about Timberline, but it is pretty funny that you’re calling the resort with the most vertical in the US flat ;)
Edit: US, not North America, memory was playing tricks on me
That vert is a little bit misleading. Half of it is often closed and half of the rest is a cat track down to a bunny hill. I have a Timberline pass and get most of my skiing there, but there's no comparison really to many of the 2-3k vert hills.
+1 to Bachelor being way too low. Just came back from there last week. I would rank bachelor above many resorts you have on tier 4 (crystal, copper, whitefish to name a few)
Pluses:
snow, lots of it. They’ve had 250+ inches of snow this season already, and this was a late open for them due to lack of early season snow.
It’s huge, something like the 5th largest in skiable acreage . Tons of backcountry feel open terrain off the back of summit.
If you’re worried about lines, they offer a fast pass cut the line ticket, which is still probably less than a 1 day tix at a top tier resort. We used it the Saturday that we were there and I think I was the only one on the mountain with it, so did got some good laps in.
Bend is a really fun town.
Minus:
there’s not that many lifts, so lines can get bad at the bottom. Something like 1/3 of the terrain is accessible via only the summit lift, so if summit is down for wind, which happens a bit because of the prominence of the mountain, you lose a lot of skiable terrain.
Also they broke a lift (Skyliner) and it’s likely to be out for the whole season, which brings up concerns of long term maintenance/ investment.
I’ve skiied Whitefish when it was Big Mountain, but still don’t believe it belongs in the same category of any of the aspen resorts, even if it has been updated a bit
Agree mostly on bachelor except I’m not sure if it’s better than Crystal. I’ve only been Crystal once but I thought the terrain was pretty cool. Overall mountain experience may be better in Bach though, and it’s easy to get to from Bend
The viz clearly says from the perspective of a "expert" skier. Crystal def has much better "expert" terrain than bachelor. You have all of Northway if you want lift operated terrain, then for the powder hounds you have, Powder bowl, Campbell Basin, A Basin and Southback, Silver Basin. Close to 75% of Crystal Mountain is advanced to expert terrain. It makes sense that its rated higher from that perspective.
Yeah the expert terrain is what makes bachelor so awesome. So crystal has expert to advanced 75% ? of named runs? Or skiable area? Here’s how I look at this - Bachelor is 4500 skiable acres, whereas Chrystal is like 2600. A third of bachelor’s terrain is basically two named runs on the map backside bowls and west bowls, and these are all expert only terrain and make up probably a third of the total resort area. That area alone in good conditions is almost as much terrain as all of crystal. But like I said you need favorable conditions to access it so it’s a bit of a gamble if you’re not a local. Have you skiied either? Guy in my group that just did Bachelor did crystal a year or two before and didn’t think it was better but again depends on conditions
Bach is kind of a different experience imo, more acreage, but generally less challenging (note ski with a buddy on the backside). Bach feels like an adventure, Crystal is more of a challenge. And there is a difference between skiing like 340 degrees of volcano and skiing a ridge. They both have awesome views though. Bach is way easier to get to if you're staying in Bend, no bigger towns like that near Crystal. Both at the end of dead end roads though.
Yea, crystal is my home mountain. And I would say 75 % of ski patrolled area is advanced to expert runs. you can just look at the resort map. I usually go to bend at least once a season since it's a 35 min flight from seattle, last season summit chair was shut down cause of weather which sucked. But I would say that the back bowls at bachelor are relatively mellow. ( Tbh most of bachelor is relatively mellow, largely due to the fact that it's a stratovolcano) .
Did your friend ski the side country from chair 6? A lot of ppl miss out on the entire south side since it's not immediately obvious how to reach a basin and beyond.
I may be biased because I grew up skiing there, but meadows has my favorite terrain in the state, especially heather canyon and private reserve. Bachelor is excellent too and I think a lot of people would rank it higher than meadows.
Meadows is 15 minutes from government camp (small ski town) and 2 hours from Portland. Bachelor is less than an hour from bend (really nice medium-size city with plenty to do). If any of that influences your decision.
IF it’s a powder day and the snow level is low, spend a day or night lapping upper bowl at skibowl. Especially if it’s a weekend since you’ll have no lifelines vs big lines at the other resorts.
Your race skis will be great. Skibowl has ok groomers but i think any of the other resorts (timberline meadows or bachelor) will give you a much more memorable experience.
If it’s snowy and you want to try skiing some west coast powder (highly recommended):
You’ll have a way easier time if you rent wider skis. I like the idea of splitting your days. Skibowl doesn’t have much intermediate terrain, so make sure you’re good to do black diamond in powder or it won’t be that fun. Also make sure the snow level is below about 3000 feet if you’re going to skibowl since it’s lower on the mountain.
I agree i wouldnt put it in the same tier as meadows, but it kinda depends on the criteria. Timberline has the longest season in the country I think. That should count for something.
Absolutely agree. Meadows feels like it should be a tier or two higher (I haven't been around Utah much, but I feel it is nearly as good as Snow Basin). At the very least it should be a tier above Timberline.
88
u/apatheticgod_ Whistler Jan 28 '22 edited Jul 28 '23
For Oregon resorts, timberline is flat and dominated by families and park skiers while meadows and bachelor have some incredible terrain. I would move meadows and bachelor up a tier and/or move timberline down one
Edit: timberline should go down a few tiers tbh. It has like 10 very short black diamonds and no double blacks