Jack Conde, left, enjoys a ski with his mother Amanda Conde, both of Bend, on the Nordic ski trails at Virginia Meissner Sno-park in January.

The early-season snow has Central Oregon skiers highly stoked, and not just at Mt. Bachelor ski area, which had its earliest opening since 1998 this past weekend.

Halfway to Bachelor from Bend along Century Drive, Virginia Meissner Sno-park has seen eager cross-country skiers enjoying snowmobile-groomed trails for the past three weeks.

What a difference a year makes. Last winter, Meissner Nordic — the nonprofit club that provides grooming at the sno-park — was not able to start grooming in earnest until early January.

“There’s quite a bit of pent-up demand for skiing,” said Steve Roti, board president of Meissner Nordic. “We had close to 200 people at our season kickoff party at Sunnyside Sports. That was one indication. Another indication is that lots of people are heading up to Meissner already to ski.”

Three weeks ago, Meissner had 18 inches of snow, plenty for limited snowmobile grooming of the trails, according to Roti. It has continued to snow since, and some mornings there has almost been too much snow for the snowmobile to groom.

Conditions have been ideal for preseason touring on classic skis, which can handle ungroomed trails.

“Classic skis can go in deeper powder,” Roti said. “That’s what I’ve been doing. I’ve been going out on my classic touring skis on virtually all the trails in the Meissner system. It’s been great. It’s hard work.”

Snowcat grooming starts Dec. 1

But wider groomed trails for skate skiing have also been available at Meissner. Per its agreement with Deschutes National Forest, Meissner Nordic can groom with a snowcat from Dec. 1 to March 31 each winter. Until Dec. 1, it can use a snowmobile that drags a grooming implement.

“We will try to pack the trails down with the big machine,” Roti said. “We won’t be grooming (with the snowcat) until Dec. 1. But if we can just pack this down and retain the snow, then we’ll send the snowmobile out and do some more preseason grooming. We have permission to do snowmobile grooming but not snowcat grooming.”

Snowmobile grooming is more labor intensive and is handled by volunteers. For snowcat grooming, the club has paid professional groomers that aim to groom trails seven days per week, starting Dec. 1.

“We’re just thrilled to be able to do a little bit of snowmobile grooming and give people that opportunity to get out on their skis,” Roti said. “We will assess conditions and send the snowmobile out when there’s enough snow and there’s volunteers available. This is an unusual preseason November.”

Roti said that volunteers have been able to groom about 3 miles of trails, with the main path running from the parking lot to the snow stake at Bitterbrush Trail.

Hoping for a season like two winters ago

Two years ago, Roti said, Meissner Nordic was able to groom with the snowcat every day from Dec. 1 to April 16, getting permission from the U.S. Forest Service to extend grooming into April.

“We’re doing it again!” Roti said enthusiastically. “That’s our goal. We would love to be able to do that again, let’s put it that way. The La Niña cycle has been very good to us.”

Nordic skiing, both in Central Oregon and nationally, grew in popularity during the pandemic four years ago. Roti said that donations to Meissner Nordic, which cover the cost of grooming, increased dramatically during the pandemic and have been on an upward trajectory ever since.

“We’ve had some really good donations in the preseason,” Roti said. “We’re in good shape, at this point, to be able to groom for the entire season.”