The closing weekend at Mount Bachelor has become a pleasant Bend tradition – two days of fun, games and high spirits to celebrate the end of another ski/snowboard season and the beginning of another summer.
As always, though, there are some idiots who let their spirits get too high and screw it up for everybody else.
Last year, according to Mount Bachelor spokesman Alex Kaufman, there was “a brawl of sorts” on the closing weekend in the parking lot by Skyliner Lodge. Things got so out of hand that the cops had to be called.
“This year on Saturday the area got pretty wild again, with some cars getting broken into and windshields being smashed,” Kaufman told The Source in an e-mail. “That in addition to the usual litter, drinking and other unmentionables.” Once again, the police had to intervene.
Fearing that “Sunday was headed for that or worse,” Mount Bachelor officials decided to take the “preventative” action of closing the Skyliner parking lot and moving all of Sunday’s festivities to the larger West Village parking lot. The move worked – partly. The scene at West Village stayed pretty mellow; “Hundreds partied big-time without incident … and sent off the season in style,” Kaufman wrote.
But again, the situation at Skyliner got ugly. Kaufman reported that some morons hanging out there, apparently in retaliation for the closure of the parking lot, ripped apart seat cushions on the Skyliner lift.
Kaufman added that Bachelor management “in general” was “very pleased with the behavior on closing day and saw a large improvement in that regard due to having the parking lot fun occur in West Village, instead of the small and isolated area at Skyliner.”
Bachelor officials may be satisfied for now, but we suspect they won’t stay satisfied if imbeciles keep showing up at the mountain on closing weekend bent on getting wasted, destroying things and in general behaving like first-class douches.
As Kaufman said via e-mail, “cracking down on our guests and publicly busting lots of people is not a problem-solver either – or a task we can do safely without inviting retribution. … We also have many guests reporting being concerned for their safety in such tight quarters with out-of-control revelers.”
Kaufman seems to think the youth of the crowd that tends to hang out at Skyliner is part of the problem. He’s probably right: The blend of a party atmosphere, alcohol and young men who haven’t yet learned to control their testosterone-fueled impulses can be explosive.
But while youthful hormones might partly explain the behavior that’s been going on at the mountain the past two years, they aren’t an excuse for it. The ski area has been closing every spring for 50 years without its patrons feeling the need to observe the occasion by trashing the place.
So here’s a symbolic BOOT to the yahoos who almost wrecked closing weekend at Mount Bachelor – along with a hope that Bachelor officials will apply a real one to the butt of anybody who pulls the same crap again next year.
This article appears in May 20-26, 2010.
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All words (morons, youth, and their admitted accidental use of knuckledraggers in print) put in my mouth outside of quotation marks – like Kaufman reported X, Kaufman seems to think Y, are The Source opinion. All contact for this story was via e-mail. All words in quotes are quite accurate as my own.
I did not choose to give anyone The Boot or assign blame to any group. If The Source wants to give The Boot – they should take ownership of it – not falsely assign retribution on me who is unlucky enough to be quoted. It’s like you want my windshield smashed next. Leave me and my family out of it.
Sometimes people get out of hand and we did what we thought would curtail that. It worked pretty well. If you want to blame the youth, morons or knuckledraggers, that’s fine, but leave me out of it, and put your name on the story.
The Boot and the Glass Slipper have been a fixture of the paper for years and we hope that no one will confuse our sentiments with those of the people being interviewed or covered. The paper chooses who to Boot or Slipper. As in all journalism, what is in quotes is attributed to those interviewed, which Mr. Kaufman states is accurate.
So you are saying that the phrase “Kaufman reported that some morons” is meant to be a source opinion and not falsely attributing insult via me? I called no one morons, or knuckledraggers, you did. But both say that I reported those items.
Or how about “Kaufman seems to think the youth” is somehow not attributing blame via me?
I did not blame youth, call people morons or knuckledraggers (what you accidentally printed), which you have admitted. With that being the case, I am surprised to have those terms and statements directly following my name, rather than The Source.
Thanks for your explanation. We’ll disagree.
In the interest fairness, if not clarity, I’m posting the entire substance of the Source’s email exchanges with Alex Kaufman prior to the publication of the Boot. Readers can judge for themselves whether we mis-characterized his summation of the events leading up to the Sunday closure of Skyliners. The first email is in response to my query about the situation. The second is Mr. Kaufman’s response to Bruce Miller’s follow up.
From: “Kaufman, Alex”
Date: May 17, 2010 11:21:56 AM PDT
To: “eric flowers”
Subject: RE: Skyliner
Hi Eric,
That’s about right.
Last year on closing day there was a brawl of sorts at Skyliner parking
lot (I did not witness) and the cops got involved. This year on Saturday
the area got pretty wild again with some cars getting broken into and
windshields smashed. That in addition to the usual litter, drinking, and
other unmentionables. Sunday was headed for that or worse. So in a
preventative measure, we made WV the parking lot for all closing day
celebrations. There’s more room for people to spread out and more social
pressure to behave (best tool) in that setting since the people are
diverse and a higher percentage are responsible. Hundreds partied big
time (without incident) in WV and sent off the season in style – me
included. I think it’s likely that will be done again in future years.
As society goes, so goes the isolated and small Skyliner parking lot. We
do our best to manage it throughout the year with education and
enforcement, but cracking down on our guests and publicly busting lots
of people is not a problem solver either – nor a task we can do safely
without inviting retribution.
It was def a bummer that the parking lot was closed. Was it the end of
the world that people parked and partied at West Village? Nope. Of
course a few of these folks saw fit to vandalize as much as possible on
closing day in some sort of revenge. As society goes…
If you are going to cover it – do you expect it to be an opinion or news
piece?
Alex
—–Original Message—–
From: eric flowers [mailto:editor@tsweekly.com]
Sent: Monday, May 17, 2010 10:48 AM
To: Kaufman, Alex
Subject: Skyliner
Yo Alex,
What happened up at Skyliner area over the weekend? I heard third-hand
that there were some issues up there with hooliganism that forced you to
close the area down on Sunday.
— Eric
Sounds like you might be unclear on 3 points.
1) On closing day our parking lots were free of significant issues
– just a good party. That’s because we preemptively closed Skyliner at
the start of the day Sunday based on what occurred Saturday, and on
Sunday of last season.
2) Police were involved in last year’s brawl, and well as for the
vehicle damage that occurred on Saturday of this year. I am not sure
about arrests. We also have many guests reporting being concerned for
their safety in such tight quarters with out of control revelers.
3) On the last day, some “Skyliners” as I will call them, saw fit
to vandalize parts of the Skyliner lift (tearing apart the seat
cushions), seemingly in response to us closing that parking lot for the
day.
In general though we are very pleased with the behavior on closing day
and saw a large improvement in that regard due to having the parking lot
fun occur in West Village, instead of the small and isolated area at
Skyliner. More space and more adults equals much better social pressure
to behave reasonably.
Let me know if you have any other questions. I’ll be plugged in most of
the day.
Thanks
Alex
Thanks Eric. Looks like a handful of folks (just online) will see that I never called anyone a moron, knuckledragger (durogutory term in our sport) or put the blame squarely on the youth. All things that The Source sent to print claming that I had reported it. I know (and hope) it wasn’t intentional, but at some point covering your tracks doesn’t cut the mustard when you are putting other people into harms way.
Alex (or anyone): Is there any truth the the rumor that the liner for the pond skimming contest was intentionally “slit”?
And Alex, while I understand unhappiness caused by being misquoted (I’ve had my share of them) it seems to me that you are overreacting. I highly doubt that your windshield is in danger. And if it actually is in danger then there’s some seriously dangerous morons that should be dealt with with more than putting a public relations spin on the “brawl of sorts”.
Alex – we posted the comments to show that our coverage is accurate. I believe readers can make their own conclusion about our Boot. By the way, what were you trying to say when you wrote, “As society goes, so goes the isolated and small Skyliner parking lot.” Was this positive commentary on the state of our community? Or when you stated, “Of
course a few of these folks saw fit to vandalize as much as possible on closing day in some sort of revenge. As society goes…” We didn’t actually get to cover your thoughts regarding “revenge.” We left that out of our coverage.
Eric,
The timeline and facts of the case are presented as clear as is possible based on your source of details, me. I delicately gave you a clear rundown of why the lot was closed (which was a bummer) without assigning blame or insults to an audience, while yes conveying that it’s just a sign of the times. The coverage of the cusp of the events is quite accurate. I have not questioned that one bit.
What I find regrettable is that direct insults for the people getting YOUR boot (the recently voilent folks) were invented and then attributed to me. That’s a real bummer. And an occurence you first defended as totally ok, and have since changed the subject.
Since there is no way for these printed words to be taken back, and you seem to defend this action, this is all I have left. Of course I wish that an apology would be forthcoming for falsely printing that I called an audience knuckledraggers and placed blame on them for the events, neither of which I did at all and you have confirmed. But that’s not my call. Would you accept if The Bulletin printed that you reported that all people from out of town (half your audience) were degenerates (similar derogutory term)? Esp if you never said such a thing. That would be against the law based on your livelyhood. Defamation that threatens livelyhood.
Of course I did call you and your office this afternoon before posting anything. Never got a call back. Bummer..
Fun Hog – Nope it was nature. It eroded from below and then at 10:24am tens of thousands of gallons vanished.
We get it Alex. You chose not to call the people who tear chair lifts, or vandalize people’s cars morons, even thought that would be the common definition of an average reader, instead you left us to decide the meaning of your term, “Skyliners” who are people who tear apart chair lifts and vandalize people’s cars. And I understand now that it was your intention to let us know that you had a situation on the mountain where these “Skyliners” got so out of control at one of your events that you needed public assistance to control the situation but that you did not assign blame – that was us. You were just the messenger.
I feel confident in saying that we will be reprinting this thread in the print edition so in reference to your comment earlier about our print readers not knowing about this issue, I think that will get taken care of.
Nor did I blame knuckledraggers. If you choose to show all of this thread to do that, of course that’s your call, but you could also just say: Yeah oops, that was our BOOT not Alex’s. He did not assign blame to knuckedraggers or call people morons, we did.
But I guess showing the whole thread it took The Source to get there will allow you to put me on trial instead for standing up for myself.
It’s always our Boot. And I think the thread shows that you did not assign blame to the “knuckledraggers” or “the morons” you assigned blame to the “Skyliners” a breed of ignorant, one might say a “Neanderthal” group of people. Or “a person who is notably stupid or lacking in good judgment” what we at the paper might call a “knuckledragger” (not to be confused with the slang for snowboarder) or a “moron.” We get it.
Cool thanks. All opinions you could have used at will of the Boot, of course without putting my name as having reported them. We’re both bummed at the brain power consumed here – but at least the commenting system led to some resolution, which we know is rare nowadays.
All’s well? Whew, OK, good… Alex, I get it. Your’re in Marketing and as a result, are hypersensitive to perception. I’m not very brighte, but I didn’t walk away from the op-ed with the impression that the derogatory characterizations, however accurate, were yours.
Whaaaa? That was a simple story, initially, but the comments following about who said what and what was attributed to whom was kinda convuluted and, do we care all that much whether Kaufman called someone a moron? No. And I don’t pretend to have read every word of that treatise of comments. That was all a joke, right?