Friday, December 24, 2010

Holiday Update from the Hill

This time of the year around a ski resort is busy. New staff to be trained, weather to contend with and at the same time, we all have our own busy lives preparing for Christmas. It is an exciting time.

As we head into the holiday week after Christmas, we anticipate skiing and riding on 80 trails and operating 18 lifts. The snowmakers are receiving a well-deserved day off around Christmas, it has been 14 days straight for them working! We will be firing the snowguns back up beginning on Monday.


From all reports, the skiing has been good. I have been out a couple times this week and found some good surface, a couple trails a little firm in the middle, but all in all from the edge of one side to the edge of the other, the skiing was mid-winter conditions. The snowmaking effort has been non-stop and our plan during the holiday week is to begin resurfacing some of the terrain. The idea is to make snow for a window of time and then let it be skied. Also in our plan will be to begin making snow on Dream Weaver & Easy Rider (since Upper Mountain Road from Easy Rider on down is skiable).

Some other tidbits...
--Moguls will be seeded on Sel’s choice and Big Bang over the weekend
--The Pipe will continue to get snow, with opening targeted for early January
--The Nor’easter Park will open Saturday with plenty of jumps, rails & features
--Snowmaking will also begin on Black Out & Ledges within the near future.

The Timber Ripper Alpine Mountain Coaster has opened and everyone is very excited. A big round of applause for all the hard work and extra effort that all the Okemo Staff put into this as well as the staff of Wiegand Coasters and Alpine Recreation Ventures. We could not have done this project with out their support or the support of our guests.

All of us here at Okemo want to wish all our faithful skiers and riders a very Merry Christmas and a Happy Holiday season.

Bruce Schmidt
VP and GM
Okemo Mountain Resort

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