Blister Heads Northwest: Mt. Bachelor

We’re having a great time getting to know Mt. Bachelor. Day 1 was pretty socked in and snowing most of the day, so we primarily stuck to the lower portion of the mountain, finding good groomers and an endless number of rollers and small hits to play on.

Blister Gear Review Trip Report Mount Bachelor
Jonathan Ellsworth on the run “Coffee” at Mt. Bachelor.

Of course, we also went to pay our respects to a skiing icon:

Blister Gear Review Trip Report Mount Bachelor
Red Chair, Mt. Bachelor

Yesterday, Bachelor then went fully blue bird, allowing us to see the entire mountain and the spectacular surrounding area.

Blister Gear Review Trip Report Mount Bachelor
Jonathan Ellsworth, just off the summit of Mount Bachelor.

We’re heading up again now, and it looks like we’re in for a bluebird repeat. (!!!) We’ve got more of the mountain to explore, and more time to put on different skis. But for now, we just wanted to show you a little bit of the place, and tell you about some of the skis we’ve been getting time on.

Blister Gear Review Trip Report Mount Bachelor
Jonathan Ellsworth at Mount Bachelor.

• 16/17 K2 Marksman: So far, so good. The Marksman replaces and updates the Shreditor 102 and 112, and the changes seem to be good ones. The Marksman is lighter and K2’s much-hyped asymmetrical sidecut skis much more consistently than it sounds.

• The entire new ON3P Wrenegade lineup: over the past two days, we’ve cycled through the Wrenegade 88, 98, and 108, getting an initial sense of (1) each of these particular skis, and (2) how the skis relate to each other in the lineup.

The 184 cm Wrenegade 88 feels like a good sub-90 mm all-mountain ski. It carves well on soft snow, but I think it’s going to appeal more to people who care more about all-mountain versatility than those looking for a fatter race ski or the best ski for blue ice.

Today, I’m going to start off A/B-ing the Wrenegade 88 and the new Line Supernatural 86. Should be a very interesting comparison.

• 184 cm Wrenegade 98: Initial impressions from both Cy and me were that this ski is more accessible than those who were most familiar with the first Wrenegade skis would expect.

• 184 cm Wrenegade 108: I had a very good time on this ski yesterday. Skiing around the Chute 3 and Hourglass areas off the summit before the snow had softened up, I was having fun, and the ski was smoothing out the variable snow quite well. I felt comfortable making pretty big, fast turns … and I noticed that I was one of the only people on the mountain who weren’t just sticking to the groomer back down to the Summit Express Lift. I credit the Wrenegade 108 for that, and I’m looking forward to getting back on it today for some afternoon summit laps.

• 184 cm Kartel 108: On day 1, Cy and I both put a few laps on the Kartel 108 just to start getting a sense of it. Cy’s going to be spending most of the day on it today, with the primary question being how the Kartel 108 compares to the K2 Marksman.

Ok, time to go get back on Bachelor…

 

 

 

3 comments on “Blister Heads Northwest: Mt. Bachelor”

  1. Damn, the Red Chair. Originally it was a double chair. Used to be the gateway to the Cindercone so to speak, put a spotter on the cat-track, take as much speed as you could handle from the top and see how far up the Cindercone you could put it. Your tracks could sometimes hold up for days back then. It was a rowdy chair in the late 70’s. I remember getting the Ham’s treatment one spring day, missed landing a helicopter in the mogul field under the lift and was rewarded with a few cans raining down from above. Enjoy.

  2. Sorry for the typo crew, Hamm’s beer spells with two mm’s. Being good, responsible underage beer drinkers back then we drank Miller, which I’m pretty sure I got the spelling correct on that one.

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