So in my continuing series on how to summit the easy way, I loaded up the family for the tail end of spring break and headed over to Bend, OR. The weather was gorgeous with just a bit of wind blowing. That contributed to delaying my activation time by an hour due to the lift not yet in service. In the meantime, we skiied the lower slopes. Snow was icy in places particularly the sides of runs and the upper reaches. Once the Summit lift opened, I grabbed my pack and headed up.
After reaching the top, I had to ditch my skiis since the top was closed to skiing due to frozen conditions. I was allowed to hike up past the cordon over towards the summit proper. It's a short hike of maybe 50ft of elevation gain and into the AZ. The wind was really blowing up there so I picked a spot on the lee side out of the wind. I dug a hole in the snow for my fiberglass pole and ran up the 20m EFHW. In the meantime, I was able work Greg KJ7EHA on 2m over on Black Butte (W7O/CM-033) on my HT.
I worked 22 QSOs on 20m over the next 45mins including F4WBN and S57S. I also got a few S2S and some P2P since Mt Bachelor is within the Deschutes National Forest (K-4378). A ski patrol member walked up at some point to check on me.
After that I packed up and descended back to the car to unload my pack and resume regular skiing.
NOTE: This summit is also within the Deschutes National Forest (K-4378) for POTA folks.