BEND, Ore. — The pent-up demand for winter recreation is heightened this year due to the pandemic.
Luckily, Mother Nature recently delivered the goods for Central Oregon snow revelers, as area sno-parks had at least 2 to 3 feet of snow late last week for Nordic skiers, snowshoers and fatbikers.
“The first day it snowed, people were up at Dutchman Flat (Sno-park), skiing on 2 inches of snow,” said Larry Katz, the operations manager for Meissner Nordic, the nonprofit that grooms ski trails at Meissner Sno-park each winter. “But now, there is ample snow at Bachelor, Meissner and Swampy (Lakes) for people to start recreating — and they are, immediately. The demand is there, and people are coming out.”
Up to 3 feet of snow at Meissner, west of Bend off Century Drive, has allowed for skate and classic Nordic skiers to hit the snow.
Meissner Nordic will not start officially grooming trails until Tuesday, per its agreement with the U.S. Forest Service, but crews have compacted the snow while cleaning up downed trees, making some areas skiable for skate skiers.
Outdoor recreation areas such as sno-parks remain open and accessible during the two-week statewide pause that runs through Wednesday.
“It’s still November, so we’re still doing trail maintenance and there’s a whole lot of trees that came down in this last storm,” Katz said. “There was too much snow to get around in the snowmobile to do it. So for safety reasons we’re using the grooming machine and driving around to clean up what’s fallen on the trails. We’re out there compacting the snow, and people are skiing on it. But we’re not grooming (until Tuesday).”
Katz said the snow accumulation was the most for mid-November that he could remember in his 24 years in Bend.
Grooming will officially start Monday night for both classic and skate skiing, Katz said. The grooming schedule includes Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays, as well as every day during winter break (last two weeks of December) and spring break.
The lodge near the Meissner parking lot will not open this year due to COVID-19, according to Katz.
The shelters out on the ski trails (Meissner, Swampy and Swede Ridge shelters) are accessible, but Katz said they have not cut any firewood for the Meissner shelter, so as not to encourage skiers and others to gather there.
While conditions last week have brought periods of both rain and snow to Meissner, Katz is not worried about losing the snow base before Tuesday. Only about 10 to 12 inches of compacted snow is needed for Nordic skiing, and the sno-park currently has about three times that.
“It might rain, it might snow, but we have enough base to really hold us for quite a while,” Katz said. “Lucky blessing, good for us, and good for the community that they’re not waiting until the end of December to get their skis out.”
Youth Nordic ski programs with the Mt. Bachelor Sports Education Foundation have also hit the trails at Meissner to get some early season on-snow training. Some 20 to 25 kids have been training there on Tuesdays and Thursdays after school, Katz noted.
Sno-park permits are required during the winter season and are $25 for an annual permit, available at local sporting goods stores.
