8,000-9,000 gallons per minute!

Okemo uses a weather service, called Northwinds Weather. This weather service is used by many resorts in New England and does a really good job of forecasting hourly temperatures as well as elevation weather. Tony, the meteorologist, even visits Okemo to get to know the terrain so he can predict with more precision. Of course that means we blame him when we don’t have good, cold weather! His forecast for the next week? "Partly Cloudy with Flurries" and temps good for snowmaking.

At our morning snowmaking meeting, Barry Tucker VP of Mountain Ops, Eb Kinney, Mountain Manager, and Ray Kennedy, Snowmaking Manager, were all talking about how good things looked out on the mountain. Ray spoke of the fact that he has been able to max the system. That means we are pumping any where between 8000 – 9000 gallons a minute!


Eb spoke of how good the snowmaking was on Upper and Lower World Cup, but he was not happy with how firm things were on Saturday. Barry went out on a limb and said Solitude lifts and trails will be open by this coming midweek, with Jackson Gore by the weekend. Somewhat different than last week and for that matter last year. (If you don't recall, we opened for the season on this day, Dec 5th of 2009.)

Our plan continues to head towards Jackson Gore and add new terrain. We fired up guns on Lower Chief, and Heaven’s Gate and Screamin Demon are almost done so Solitude can open. Over in Jackson Gore, snow has been made to the base of the Jackson Gore Express and we are now headed down towards Fast Track and Inn Bound. Our plan is to work on Quantum Leap and Vortex and open them right along with the Jackson Gore lift and trail pod -- it is just so much efficient to make snow under a lift when its not operating.

These temperatures will also allow us to work in the Clock Tower base area. We expect to have the Basin Carpet and teaching area ready for the weekend as well as expand terrain around the bottom of the lifts, Open Slope and Bull Run. That will go a long way into making this place look more like a ski resort! Work will also began on the mid-mountain trails such as Wardance & Sel’s choice.

At the same time, we are going to keep some guns on existing terrain to make sure surfaces stay in top shape. Lifts operating this week will include Quad B, The Northstar, F-10 Carpet and the Glades Peak. On the weekend, we will add the lifts in Jackson Gore, Solitude and Green Ridge. For those wondering about the slopeside trails, we will be heading to them as we get closer to Christmas... we never forget them. :)

Grooming continues every night. In fact, it's time to take some of the guys off the Mountain Coaster project and get them started on their "winter" job of grooming. Lets all hope Winter is here to stay.

Bruce Schmidt
VP & GM
Okemo Mountain Resort

'Bridging' the gap

Another major step towards finishing the Mountain Coaster was completed today. This morning at 8:30, the Mountain Ops team craned the bridge to the Jackson Gore base into position. Your loyal Okemo Mountain snow reporters got to witness this spectacle first-hand and let me say, the evidence of careful planning and solid teamwork was clear. The bridge was positioned on the concrete blocks in only 30 minutes!

The bridge contains two levels of track. The lower will connect to the 1600' uphill climb, and the top will carry you back across the river on the way down to the Jackson Gore base at up to 25 mph! This is going to be such a great ride, we can't wait to see it completed!

Stay tuned and think snow!

Where we go from here

So we survived the "Noricane" of December 1st in pretty good shape... the trails held up pretty well, the skiing surface was firm, and on the plus side the snowmaking pond is now full!

The wet weather began to subside around 10pm on Wednesday night and the groomers went out around 3am - which is about the same time that snowmaking operations resumed. I am confident that the skiing, while firm on Thursday, will become better with each day of grooming.

The guns will continue to blow snow on existing terrain, but we are moving towards some new trails as well. Our #1 priority is to finish Lower Arrow so we can have two ways down from the summit. We know it has been tiresome to only have Upper and Lower World Cup to get back to the base.

Other priorities will be heading towards Jackson Gore and Solitude. We began this today by making snow on Sunburst. We will then head down Coleman Brook and Escape and onto Mountain Road and Limelight - eventually reaching the base of Jackson Gore. Both of these areas should be open by Saturday 12/11, weather permitting.

At the same time, when the temperatures allow, we will be heading down the Rimrock trail, heading towards the mid-mountain trails of Sel’s Choice and Wardance. The plan is to get spread out and some snow laid down as we head towards the Christmas Holidays.

By the way, do you know our sister resort Crested Butte has had almost 75 inches of snow this year already?

Have a good night, and thanks for choosing to ski and ride at Okemo Mountain Resort

Bruce
GM