An update from the hill

Today's Update from Barry Tucker, VP of Mountain Operations:

The current forecast does not show much for good snowmaking in the near future. (Last night's temperature inversion stopped us around 10 pm.) However our philosophy here at Okemo is not to put too much faith into any forecast, the key is just to "be ready" - because if the forecasters are wrong and the temps drop, we need to be ready to move.

One advantage of running into some of the more marginal temperatures early season is that you have an opportunity to test your equipment, as well as train your new staff. So when the temps come in we are ready to run at maximum potential which is 9200 Gallons, Per, Minute -- and then everyone is running!

It’s all about taking maximum advantage of the brief periods of cold temperatures that we have early season in Vermont.

Think cold, and think snow!

Snowmaking On!

Okemo fired up the snowguns last night around 7:45pm and continued to blow snow all night long.

According to Bruce Schmidt, Okemo's General Manager..."Okemo had a very good night of snowmaking. Snow was made in the summit area, on Countdown and about halfway down Upper World Cup. The plan is to continue to make snow aggressively as temperatures permit."

And, with temperatures projected in the teens tonight we'll resume on Countdown and the summit, and continue onto Buckhorn, Sapphire, and potentially Jolly Green Giant. "If you can envision a line across the center of the mountain where temperatures are cold enough," he shares, "we'll move from the summit down each trail just about as close as we can get to that line."

Looking ahead to the next few nights, Wednesday and Thursday night offer a chance of 1-2" of natural snow, followed by slightly moderating temperatures toward the end of the week, but colder again into weekend. We are moving water, trying to cool it down as much as we can, checking the pumps and compressors and working out any bugs... things looked good for night #1 and we are working towards opening day.

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