Getting to Mt. Bachelor Is Worth the Trek : Skiing: The word is out that there’s a world-class resort in the Cascade Mountains of Oregon.

What’s a world-class ski resort doing out here in the middle of nowhere, or in the middle of Oregon, which may be the same thing?

Probably, it has something to do with this mountain that looms out of the Cascades like an overgenerous serving of ice cream, beckoning skiers to come and sample its 31 flavorful delights. So what if it takes a little planning or a lot of driving to get here? Sun Valley has never been all that accessible, either--at least since the Union Pacific stopped running its streamliners into Idaho.

Mt. Bachelor, like Sun Valley, is worth the effort. But unlike Sun Valley, it has only recently become a household name--at least in skiing households on the West Coast.

A joint promotional effort by the mountain and this booming little community, 21 miles--and 2,000 feet of elevation--down the road, has generated a steady flow of skiers, many of whom voted Mt. Bachelor the nation’s No. 3 ski resort in a recent reader poll conducted by Ski Country magazine, behind only Vail, Colo., and Squaw Valley.

Immediately, however, the question arises: Will success spoil Mt. Bachelor--and the town of Bend?

A big part of this area’s appeal has been its remoteness and a resulting lack of the kind of publicity that turned many of Colorado’s ski villages into condo-burbias. But the cold winds of change are already blowing across the high desert, and as elsewhere in the Pacific Northwest, an influx of real estate-rich Californians is being blamed.

For decades, this was a place to get away from it all, to ski uncrowded slopes and, in the summer, to hike uncrowded trails and fish uncrowded streams such as the Deschutes River, which meanders through the center of town. Many visitors liked the place so much, they stayed . . . but not too many. Now, the word is out, and Central Oregon will never be the same.

The ski slopes, at least, are still relatively uncrowded, except possibly on holiday weekends when the weather is good and the highway from Portland is clear and dry.

Oregon skiers comprise nearly half of Mt. Bachelor’s clientele, according to Jeff Lokting, the resort’s marketing and communications manager, and they help to swell the average Saturday or Sunday crowd to more than 10,000. But with 3,200 acres of skiable terrain, there’s usually plenty of elbow room.

For comparison, Mammoth Mountain offers about 3,500 acres of skiing, served by 30 lifts, with three separate base areas.

Mt. Bachelor also has three base areas--West Village, Blue Lodge and Sunrise Lodge--plus an extensive Nordic Center and trail system, but only nine chairlifts that give it an uphill capacity of 19,720 skiers per hour, less than half that of Mammoth.

In many ways, Mt. Bachelor could be considered sort of a less-developed Mammoth. The similarities are obvious:

--Both are at a considerable distance from a major population center and an international airport.

--Both occupy the eastern slopes of a major Far West mountain range, meaning they generally get drier, lighter snow.

--Both can boast unusually high average annual snowfall totals--in Mt. Bachelor’s case, more than 200 inches.

--Both frequently open in late October or early November and continue operating through July 4.

But Mt. Bachelor’s Lokting also cites some differences.

“First, our airport, 34 miles away in Redmond, is bigger than the one at Mammoth Lakes and can handle full-size jet airliners, such as those Alaska Airlines is flying nonstop from both Los Angeles and Seattle,” he says. “And we also have United Express and Horizon providing direct service from San Francisco and Portland.

“Secondly, we are making an effort to attract skiers from other states, while Mammoth is concentrating mainly on its closest major market, Southern California.”

About 22% of Mt. Bachelor’s skiers come from California, with roughly one-third of those from the Southland.

Another obvious difference is the complete absence of ski-in, ski-out lodging at Mt. Bachelor. The nearest overnight accommodations are 14 miles away at the sprawling Inn of the Seventh Mountain, but Lokting said there are no plans to ask the U.S. Forest Service for permission to build any slopeside hotels or condominiums.

“We have enough other projects to keep us busy,” he said. “And we have an excellent relationship with the town and the people there who benefit from the skiers’ business.”

Besides the motels and condo complexes in and around Bend, lodging is also available farther south on U.S. 97 at Sunriver, an all-season resort located 19 miles from Mt. Bachelor via a side road.

Although Mt. Bachelor opened in 1958, it was not until the fall of ’83 that skiing reached its full potential with the construction of the Summit Express triple chair.

This high-speed lift opens up 3,100 vertical feet from the 9,060-foot-high peak, but on a recent weekend, it wasn’t running on Saturday because of high winds. Then on Sunday, when it did operate, most skiers who went up, quickly came down, saying through chattering teeth and frostbitten cheeks that they wished they hadn’t gone up.

Lokting admits that, because of its exposure to the elements, the Summit Express is often shut down during bad weather, but claims that it was operational about 60% of the time last season.

There are three other high-speed chairs, all quads--the Skyliner Express, built last summer; the Pine Marten Express, to the new midmountain lodge, and the Outback Express.

Those three lifts and the Pine Marten Lodge made up Phase I of a $60-million, 10-year master plan that received final U.S. Forest Service approval in April 1986. When the remaining two phases are completed, Mt. Bachelor will have a total of 14 high-speed chairlifts plus a six-passenger gondola that will serve a new East Base development. The mountain’s potential skiable terrain totals about 6,000 acres.

Also, it is expected that by late 1991, the present two-lane road from Bend will be four lanes.

The plan, in the works since 1979, met only minimal opposition.

Said Lokting: “In the planning process, we were careful to include everybody in the loop. We made sure that nobody was left out.”

Although Mt. Bachelor sputtered through the recent Christmas-New Year’s holidays with little more than half of its runs open because of a shortage of snow, resulting in a significant drop in business, the resort is now going full-bore, having entered February with a 110-inch base.

“We’ll wind up with our usual 200 inches or more,” Lokting said.

That, of course, should mean another Fourth of July fireworks show on the slopes, as well as plenty of snow for the U.S. ski team’s early-summer training camp, which has been held here every June since 1963.

Trouble is, according to some longtime Bend townsfolk, it may also entice more cashed-out Californians to come settle in their little backwoods paradise, driving up housing prices even more. . . . People like realtor Frank Ruegg, who moved here from the Bay Area and is now spending his time between escrows writing a book titled, “How to Drop Out of the Rat Race and Survive.”

How? Maybe by selling real estate in Bend.