Nordic at its best
Published 4:00 am Wednesday, December 21, 2005
Mt. Bachelor Nordic Center offers cross-country skiing in rarefied form.
Although management can’t control the vagaries of nature, it can groom its trails to a velvety perfection and provide skiers with a quality winter recreational experience.
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Tucked away across the parking lot from Bachelor’s West Village Lodge, the Cross Country Lodge is the skier’s gateway to 56 kilometers of trails. It’s 5,750 feet above sea level at the lodge, 6,350 at the top of the 12-trail system. There’s plenty of snow.
The difference between skiing the trails of the Nordic Center and skipping out the back door can be a lot like the difference between miniature golfing and playing 18 at Broken Top. If you’re a classic skier, like me, your main aims are to get some exercise and to lose yourself (not literally) in a place where the woods of winter offer plenty of solitude and a magical cold-weather perspective. Go ahead, get into a rhythm – glide-step-glide-step-glide – and empty your mind of all but the essential here and now: powder-clotted fir boughs, the squeak and crunch of the snow underfoot and the bracing bite of the breeze on your cheeks.
If you’re like me, before you realize it you’ll find yourself a mile down the trail, breathing heavily and smiling smugly at the good sense and great fortune that brought you out here on a day like this (no matter how cold and windy it is).
Back at the lodge, you can warm up and fuel up at the XC Lodge restaurant, known for its burritos and soup.
The Nordic Center is also the place to go if you want to learn how to cross-country ski, or just brush up and get better.
I took a lesson there a couple of years ago and am still using the pointers. Nordic instructors teach both classic and skate skiing techniques for everyone from age 6 on up. Group lessons are offered throughout the day beginning at 8:30 a.m. and cost $40 (non-holiday) for a pass, rental skis, boots, poles and a one-hour lesson.
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Private lessons, at $60 per hour (non-holiday) are available by appointment.
There’s also snowshoeing on marked trails out of the Cross Country Lodge. Of course, it’s especially important for skiers and snowshoers to give each other wide berth and stay out of the other’s tracks.
Renting state-of-the-art skis is a fine way to see if and then what you want to buy when you get hooked on cross-country skiing. Mt. Bachelor rents ski packages for $18 (adults) and $9 (children) the half-day. Snowshoes are $14 a day for adults and $9 a day for kids. Several Bend outfitters also offer ski rentals. Try Powder House (389-6234), Pine Mountain Sports (385-8080), Sunnyside Sports (382-8018) or Mountain Supply (388-0688).
Learning to ski or snowshoe, and then getting out and doing it, can revolutionize your winter.
If You Go
Getting there: Mount Bachelor is about 23 miles west of downtown Bend on Cascade Lakes Highway
Cost: Cross-country trail fees are $13 for adults ($14 holidays) and $6 for children 6-12 ($7 holidays). Late arrival (noon to 4 p.m.) passes are $11 for adults ($12 holidays) and $5 for kids ($6 holidays).
Contact: 382-2442.