BEND, OR -- Unseasonably cold weather halted summer operations at Mt. Bachelor over the weekend and into Monday. "Since summer season really officially kicked off here about two weeks ago, we’ve seen gorgeous, warm sunshine," says Bachelor's Lauren Burk, "And, over the last few days, it looks like almost a little return to winter."

She says it’s still early, so summer operations weren’t yet in full swing. But a lot of preparations were underway. "During this cold snap we put our operations on hold, for the safety of our guests and our employees. But it looks like it’s going to be [a] return to sunshine in the next day or two."

Burke tells KBND News, "Really, what our trail crew is focused on right now is snow removal. There’s still a ton of snow on the upper mountain, so they’ve been working daily to work on our trails, remove snow and get some of our more intermediate, advanced, expert trails open here in the next couple of weeks. So, they’re still out there, working on the hill."

While Father's Day snow isn’t unheard of on the mountain, it is unusual. According to the latest NRCS snow survey, snowpack for the Upper Deschutes-Crooked River Basin is 88% of average for this time of year, which is good for summer irrigators and not so great for the mountain bikers. In comparison, the Hood-Sandy-Lower Deschutes Basin, which includes Jefferson County, is 12% of normal.

Mountain biking and ziplining should reopen at Mt. Bachelor soon. "The rain is really what makes the dirt so good up there," says Burke, "So, hopefully we can get the snow to turn to rain and we can get some of that 'hero dirt' or 'brown pow,' as the bikers like to call it."