As a resident of Bend and a loyal skier at your mountain (I was a season pass holder from 1999-2006 and I still ski primarily at Mt. Bachelor), I find the promotion of animal cruelty in your 2008 pond skimming "championship" video clip to be outrageous (not to mention insipid given the lack of creativity of the participant you chose to highlight). The idea that your corporation, which has recently and publicly suffered from poor mountain management and an indifference to the local ski community, would feature a snowboarder (inanely dressed as "Borat") tossing a chicken from a briefcase into an icy skimming pond after carrying the chicken in the case during the run is not only offensive, but stupid.
Powder Corp. (sic) recently felt the need to shake things up at Mt. Bachelor by changing members of management - well the new crew is off to a really fine start. Perhaps a charge by the district attorney's office of attempted animal abuse in the second degree (or conspiracy on the part of an entity that seems to be exploiting this incident on its website) would seal the fate of this brilliant team of leaders and public relations "specialists" as well.
I have really disliked seeing a previously cool mountain become worse and worse in every way over the past 5 years. Apparently, we can expect the downward spiral to continue if Mt. Bachelor allows this type of ridiculous and cruel behavior to go unfettered on its mountain, and on its website. Oh, by the way, the Oregon Humane Society has been notified.
Robert Doyle, Bend
