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Why Lucas Wachs Is Stoked To Call Mt. Bachelor Home
Growing up in a mountain town tends to be a pretty helpful thing when it comes to pursuing a career as a professional skier. For Lucas Wachs, growing up in the shadow of Mt. Bachelor in the vibrant community of Bend, Oregon, proved to be exactly what it took to kickstart his future as a pro skier. These days, Wachs spends much of his year traveling around the world in search of powder, cliffs, and natural features to showcase his trademark style, but he always enjoys coming home to shred his home hill: Mt. Bachelor.
This year, Mt. Bachelor received some updates with the addition of a series of brand-new Woodward terrain parks. Woodward brought their world-renowned terrain park expertise to a new venue – the perfect pitch and natural terrain features of Mt. Bachelor – to create a freestyle riding experience like none other. Wachs, who started his career as a halfpipe and slopestyle rider, is absolutely stoked that his home mountain has yet another reason to keep coming back for more.
We caught up with Wachs for a quick chat on what makes Mt. Bachelor so special, here’s what he had to say:
TGR: Tell us a little about yourself, where are you from? How did you get into skiing?
Lucas Wachs: I was born and grew up right here in Bend, which was definitely an awesome opportunity to grow up right next to the mountains. Pretty stoked that my parents made the decision to settle down here 30 years ago! I started skiing when I was pretty young, and competed in halfpipe and slopestyle, working my way up to the national level. These days, I’ve definitely shifted my focus more on skiing deep powder in bigger mountains, and take my freestyle skills into the backcountry. I’ve filmed with some production companies for the past few seasons, and am really liking the way I can express my creativity skiing.
TGR: Bend, Oregon has such a great mountain athlete community, what’s it like to share a home with some of the best in the biz?
LW: It’s pretty cool that folks like Sage Cattabriga-Alosa, mountain biker Carson Storch, or snowboarder Ben Ferguson live right up the road from me and I can hit them up to go ride. Sage and I have actually been getting out a bit already this season – it’s always so fun to chase him around because he has such a unique eye for lines in already familiar mountains. I feel like every time I ski with him he finds a new way down.
Outside of just being a home to lots of cool athletes, and a bigger picture of action sports, Bend also has a really laid-back culture. Everything is super easy going here, with easy mountain access, great mountain biking, (usually) good weather all year long, and we have some pretty good beer to go along with it all.
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TGR: What’s your favorite part of the mountain to ride?
LW: That really depends on the weather and where the snow is best! I think when its sunny and there’s good snow, the Summit can’t be beat. It’s pretty cool to be able to get up into the alpine above treeline and ski all the natural terrain features up there. Aside from that, I’m always a big fan of the Northwest Chair.
The mountain is so huge, with like 4000+ acres and a ton of snow every year. To me, I see the whole thing as a huge playground and get stoked every time I go ride up there. We’ve got pow, we’ve got parks, we’ve got it all!
TGR: What effect do you think the addition of new Woodward Parks will have on Mt. Bachelor?
LW: First off, I think that the pitch and the terrain on the mountain are perfect for building terrain parks, so it’s pretty awesome we’re getting the experts from Woodward to come in and build us some new ones. Bachelor is already full of awesome natural features that encourage freestyle riding, so having a well-built area to progress will be awesome for groms and those looking to break into the sport and just have some fun out on the snow. I’m sure that, come springtime, Bachelor will turn into a destination for pro riders to come shred under the sun after their competition seasons are over.
