Making "Ski Mo" Snow Dreams Come True

It's official, Mt. Bachelor is starting to open and there's no time to lose: grab your winter sport gear and get an early start on that new year's resolution to ski more with help from Mt. Bachelor Sports Education Foundation.

Initially founded as Skyliners in 1927, Bend's first ski club steadily grew into the foundation as it's known today and proudly offers multiple programs in Alpine Skiing, Freeride Ski/Snowboarding, Nordic Skiing and Cycling.

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Courtesy mbsef.org

Mt. Bachelor Sports Education Foundation regularly registers and trains over 700 youth athletes in snow sports during the winter season.

"Snow sports are a huge part of people's lives in Central Oregon," said MBSEF Executive Director Amy Tarnow. "We have a lot of history in ski sports in Central Oregon and we like to say we support those snow sport dreams. For each of these programs we have a development pipeline that offers competition and coaching."

MBSEF has supported those "snow dreams" with notable success. The programs offered have helped hone the skills of elite-level alpine skiers like three-time winter Olympian and current U.S. World Cup Alpine Ski team member, Tommy Ford.

To continue supporting the ever-changing world of snow sports, MBSEF is ushering in a Nordic Ski Mountaineering program in preparation for the sport's Winter Olympics debut in 2026.

To head up this new Ski Mountaineering program, or "SkiMo" as enthusiast call it, MBSEF has tapped cross-training professional running athlete, Max King.

"I'm a runner by profession," King said, "but Ski Mountaineering is a brand-new sport and not a lot of kids know about it. It's a perfect marriage of two of my passions and just to watch the sport grow has been amazing."

With the SkiMo program in its infancy, King stressed the importance of learning the details in order to strengthen the young team's foundations. "We're not putting a huge emphasis on training just yet; we will train but the technical nuances of SkiMo are so new. We're going to spend our time going over that, especially with the start of a program like this— it's all about starting with the basics," said King, "and the big hang-up is gear for this sport. There are great spots in town to get gear, and I'll have some loaner gear that'll be first come first serve as we start out," he promised.