Nov. 16--Mt. Bachelor ski area is putting a new face on its communications with the public as it prepares to launch its 50th year of operations.

On top of operational improvements made over the summer, the ski area launched a new Web site last week and plans to implement a new cooperative marketing campaign this week with new Bend and Sunriver tourism partners, said Alex Kaufman, marketing director at the ski area .

The steps, among others, are geared toward a skeptical public that voiced discontent last year over operational challenges and the sense that Mt. Bachelor had grown disconnected from the public, according to Kaufman.

Kaufman, Dave Rathbun, the new president and general manager, and others were hired this summer to replace four managers who were fired after a disappointing 2007-08 ski and snowboard season.

"The first step is simply doing better," said Kaufman, 29, who became Mt. Bachelor's marketing director in August. "Some folks we reach out to will reach back. Others, we need to do better first before they even try."

Kaufman and the rest of the marketing department will be based at the mountain this year rather than in the ski area's Bend headquarters, where they have been stationed in the past, because it will give those people who communicate with the public a better understanding of what's happening on the mountain, he said.

As part of its efforts to better communicate with customers entering the 2008-09 season, which is projected to begin Friday, the ski area, owned by Powdr Corp. of Park City, Utah, last week launched its redesigned Web site, www.mtbachelor.com.

The ski area also will employ a full-time conditions and operations reporter who will be in contact with ski patrol and lift operators on the mountain and provide regular updates to the public via e-mail, phone, ski shops and the Web, Kaufman said.

Last season, the weather reporters worked in Bend and gave much more limited information, Kaufman said.

"This will be a key feature to our Web site," Kaufman said. "The person who is responsible for getting information from our operations people is the same person who is responsible for giving the information to the public across all different mediums. It is a position that we have never had."

One item that season-pass holder Justin Geraghty, 30, would like to see is a blog or an online journal that allows customers to voice their pleasure -- or frustration.

"They took that away [last season], in my mind because there was more displeasure rather than compliments," Geraghty said. "That was a cool feature. I put numerous posts on there."

Mt. Bachelor dropped the blog a year ago because it was not properly maintained or moderated, Kaufman wrote in an e-mail.

"The new team is focusing on many new communications upgrades," he wrote. "A blog of the old type is not out of the question eventually, but we have a bunch of new tools to deliver on right now."

The Web site will still be more interactive than last season's version, Kaufman said.

Several new features will help locals or visitors understand what the actual conditions are on the mountain, including:

--"360 Degree Views," an online journal of four volunteers who will tell the story of what it's like to live in Bend and ski at the mountain.

--A link to the new Freeride Web site, which is popular among younger users of the ski area's terrain parks.

--Better, more relevant weather forecasts provided by a new partnership with The Weather Channel.

--User-contributed photos and videos.

--A lodging partner presence.

--A new feature called "Standard Operation," which users click to learn more about how the ski area operates during various weather scenarios.

"After a four-day storm, it could be a bluebird day, but we might have a lot of work to do," Kaufman said. "People who live in Bend have a greatly different climate than we have at the mountain. We need to communicate what is happening at the mountain accurately and in a timely fashion."

The steps Mt. Bachelor is taking are critical for Central Oregon's wintertime tourism industry, which relies upon the ski area as its No. 1 draw, said Doug La Placa, president and CEO of Visit Bend, which markets tourism for the city.

Visit Bend and Mt. Bachelor are contributing $100,000 each toward a $260,000 winter marketing campaign that launches this week with TV ads in Seattle, Portland and the Willamette Valley , La Placa said.

"The program benefits Bend as a whole," La Placa said. "The more closely we can work with them and the more aggressively we can market Bend in the wintertime, the better off we will be economically in Bend."

Lodging properties, including Mt. Bachelor Village Resort and Seventh Mountain Resort, also are participating, matching Mt. Bachelor's offer for three days of skiing for the price of two days with three nights of overnight lodging for the price of two nights, he said.

"The bad side of things is that the economy is going to play a huge part in this," said Diane Wilcox, general manager at Mt. Bachelor Village Resort. "If Mt. Bachelor is doing good, we will all get a little piece of the market."

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