Spring Skiing - Corn Snow and Soft Bumps

Corn snow and soft bumps -that's what spring skiing in the ideal is all about, but the uncertainty of weather make this ideal scenario fleeting, at best. However, if we were to wish for a mountain where all the best conditions of spring skiing were present every day what would that mountain be like?

I would wish for sunny all day, cold in the morning to hold the corn snow crystals that have set up over night. By mid-morning the sun would soften the fronts of the moguls that had also set up during the cold night. Late morning to high noon would just soften the snow to a couple of inches for nice and fast cruising and carving. Could these ideal spring conditions that we've stretched into a morning without mentioning the word "slushy" ever be found to hold for the whole of a spring day and, if so, where?

Well, Mark Elling, author of The All-Mountain Skier: The Way to Expert Skiing (McGraw-Hill) and a professional guide at Cat Ski Mt. Bailey in southern Oregon, thinks the perfect spring mountain would have a 360 degree snow peak where, as the sun "dials" around the mountain during the day it's possible to follow the snow conditions around the mountain. Mark says this scenario actually exists at Mount Bachelor, a dormant volcano in Bend, Oregon!

Read more of Mark Elling on spring conditions and techniques in his exclusive essay for About.com Skiing readers - Making the Most of Late Season Skiing.

_{Photograph of Mark Elling at Mt. Bachelor Copyright Kirk DeVoll}