In 1976, ski instructor Bob Mathews wrote a one-page memo to Mt. Bachelor president Bill Healy. He was asking for a cross-country ski area at the resort. Healy said yes and sent Mathews off to build it. For the 1976-77 season Mathews laid out two loops. Loop A ran two kilometers along the Cascade Lakes Highway. Loop B traced five kilometers around the edge of Dutchman Flat.
The detail that matters most this winter comes from that history as the Deschutes County Historical Society's February 2026 Homesteader tells it. For the first few seasons, profits from the rest of the mountain kept the cross-country center going. Groomed Nordic trails outside Bend have always run on money from somewhere other than the trails. This season both of the area's big systems hit anniversaries at once: the Mt. Bachelor Nordic Center turns 50 and the Meissner Nordic Ski Club turns 30. That makes it easy to see who pays for each, and why the answer is still different on each side of the highway.
One Memo, Two Loops, and a Mountain Paying the Bills
Those first loops gave Mt. Bachelor the only regularly groomed Nordic system at any alpine ski area in Oregon. Mathews did most of the grooming himself, on the resort's first snowmobile, a Rupp American. The first season drew about 2,000 skier visits.
Healy kept backing its expansion:
| Point in time | Groomed trails | Annual skier visits |
|---|---|---|
| 1976-77 season | 7 km over two loops | about 2,000 |
| 1979 | n/a | about 7,000 |
| Early 1980s | about 20 km | n/a |
| 1983-84 season | about 32 km | over 12,000 |
| 1991, when Mathews left | nearly 56 km | about 30,000 |
The names on today's trail map trace that growth. Beginner's Luck, Jay's, Woody's Way, Easy Back and First Time came in the early 1980s. Zig Zag opened for 1982-83 and took the network to 25 kilometers. Devecka's followed a year later. Oli's Alley, Leslie's Lunge, Rich's Range and Easy Up were among the last, added in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Mathews gives much of the early success to Healy, who backed cross-country skiing when it was still a niche sport that earned only a small share of the mountain's revenue.
The people around the center built Bend's ski culture beyond the resort. Former Olympic biathlete Jay Bowerman helped Mathews lay out a five-kilometer training loop around Old Maid Butte. Bob Woodward ran camps and races with Mathews, including the Cascade Crest Ski Marathon from Bachelor Butte to Little Lava Lake starting in 1979. His articles in national publications brought top-ranked skiers to train here. Dennis Oliphant came to Bend in 1977 and worked everything from instruction to grooming. He helped build the junior racing program, became the first Nordic program director for the Mt. Bachelor Sports Education Foundation, and co-founded Sun Country Tours in 1978.
The Meissners Were Grooming Before It Was Anyone's Job
Mt. Bachelor already had a few kilometers of snowmobile-groomed trail before the memo. They ran between the Black and Green chairs, near where the Skyliner lift stands now. Ski school director Jack Meissner groomed them with his own snowmobile, pulling a track-setter behind it. Virginia Meissner taught cross-country lessons out of the alpine ski school. She took her students onto ungroomed trails around what is now the West Village parking lot.
The Meissners' early trails ran on a ski school director's own machine and an instructor's time. That same model, people paying for trails because they want them to exist, is what Virginia Meissner's name stands for today on the Cascade Lakes Highway west of Bend.
A Wide Spot Called Tangent
In 1977, the area now called Meissner Sno-Park was a pullout on the Cascade Lakes Highway known as the Tangent Parking area. According to the Meissner Nordic history page, the trails mostly followed old logging roads and were marked with blue wooden signs and yellow metal squares. A few of those old markers can still be found on the trails. In the 1980s, Oregon National Guard crews working with the Deschutes National Forest cleared and graveled the parking area. They also built the Nordeen and Swampy Lake shelters.
The sno-park was renamed for Virginia Meissner in 1988. She had served as president of the Central Oregon Nordic Club through the 1970s and '80s, taught lessons and led tours. The club says her best-remembered legacy on the trails is the Wednesday loop.
Community grooming came later. The club started in 1996 as the Tumalo Langlauf Club, took the name Meissner Nordic Ski Club in 2011, and marks its 30th anniversary in 2026. It now grooms 47 kilometers for both skate and classic skiing. Skiers warm up at the Meissner Shelter, Shooting Star, Nordeen, Swampy Lake and Swede Ridge shelters.
The Same Snow, Two Ways of Paying for It
Fifty years after alpine profits carried Loop A and Loop B, Bend's two main groomed systems pay their way very differently. The difference shapes how locals use each one.
| Mt. Bachelor Nordic Center | Meissner Nordic Community Ski Area | |
|---|---|---|
| Groomed trails | 56 km | 47 km |
| Who runs it | The resort | A volunteer club, with grooming funded by individual and local-business donations only |
| Trail fee | 2026/27 season pass: $449 adult, $169 youth/teen, $289 seniors 65-69, $189 seniors 70+ | None |
| Planned 2026-27 start | Opening day planned for Dec. 4, conditions permitting | First grooming day planned for Dec. 1 |
At Meissner the money is split into separate jobs. The Deschutes National Forest's Meissner page lists an Oregon Sno-Park permit as required to park there from Nov. 1 through April 30. The club explains that ODOT uses Sno-Park permit revenue to plow the parking lot. Grooming the trails is paid for by skiers and local businesses, and the club gets no funding from ODOT or the Forest Service. ODOT currently lists Sno-Park permits at $25 for a year, $9 for three consecutive days and $4 for a day. The club's suggested supporter levels are $75, $125 or $175 for individuals, $125, $225 or $275 for families, and $30 for students. It accepts any amount.
The club's 2025-26 grooming report shows the scale of that work. Grooming started in late December and ended in early March, adding up to 140 hours over 58 days. Costs came in under budget, so the club moved equipment maintenance forward and carried the remaining money into this season.
Mt. Bachelor's anniversary season sends some value back the other way across the mountain. Every alpine passholder gets a free Nordic ticket for 2026/27. The 50th celebration also includes café specials, anniversary merchandise, app challenges and a speaker series with community members who know the center's history. A Grand 50th Anniversary Party will have a ticket price based on rates from 50 years ago. The center that alpine skiing once paid for is now offering alpine skiers a free day on its trails.
"What began in 1976 with a one-page memo evolved into one of the premier Nordic Centers in North America and a beloved cultural institution in Central Oregon."
That is how Glenn Voelz ends his anniversary history in the Homesteader. He also notes that the center is a regular spring training site for the U.S. and Canadian national Nordic teams and the U.S. Biathlon and Paralympic teams, with a season that often runs through the end of May.
The Winter Calendar, Starting at the Gate
The first date on the calendar comes before any trail is groomed. The Bulletin reports that the Cascade Lakes Highway and Paulina Lake Road are scheduled to close at 8 a.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 17. They could close sooner if a major storm arrives. The Cascade Lakes gate shuts the stretch from Dutchman Sno-Park to Deschutes Bridge, and the Paulina gate sits at 10-Mile Sno-Park. Cross-country skiers are still allowed on the closed roads, which usually stay closed until late May. Updates come from the Deschutes County Road Department.
After that, the planned season looks like this:
- Dec. 1: Meissner Nordic plans its first grooming day. Its Forest Service agreement runs December through March.
- Dec. 4: Mt. Bachelor's planned opening day, conditions permitting. The resort has said it will open earlier if snow allows.
- Dec. 18: Elk Lake Resort's winter season starts, with snowcat transportation in.
- Dec. 20: The solstice candlelight ski at Virginia Meissner Sno-Park, with shows at 5 and 7 p.m. Pianist and composer Paula Dreyer plays her Piano Flow Live set through wireless headphones while skiers and snowshoers circle a one-kilometer loop. Classic skiing is recommended. Tickets and headphones are limited and must be reserved through pauladreyer.com.
- Jan. 3: XC Oregon Learn-To-Ski Day at Meissner, 1 p.m.
- Feb. 12-20: Meissner's Snow Dragon event. Its "Awaken the Dragon" night on Feb. 20 lines up with a full moon and a lunar eclipse.
- March 8-13: The USCSA National Championships come to Mt. Bachelor. Along with the alpine and freestyle events, they include Nordic interval starts, sprints, mass starts and team sprints.
This winter's Meissner grooming is funded through the donation box at a trailhead whose trails once followed old logging roads. Before anyone had approved a cross-country program, Jack Meissner was already grooming trails at Mt. Bachelor with his own snowmobile.
Living on land out here, people learn that roads, water and trails all depend on someone keeping them up, and Central Oregon's best winter days depend on the same thing. If you're thinking about a home where the morning drive to Dutchman Flat or Meissner is part of the appeal, Heather Osgood can help you weigh what that access is worth to you. Let's Connect.
