Winter Shall Prevail - guaranteed!

Rumor #1. There will be no winter. FALSE: Winter will arrive at some point. Guaranteed. It is just a little late.

Rumor #2. Christmas is being moved to January 25th to account for Winter being late. FALSE.

So there you have it. Winter will arrive and so will Christmas, although Winter may be a little off schedule!!!

I gathered my team this morning. Using the combined wisdom of Ray (Snowmaking Manager), Barry (VP of Mountain Operations), Eb (Mountain Manager) and myself-- here is the very latest:

• Jackson Gore will not open this weekend. The earliest prediction is middle of next week. Sunburst, Escape and Mountain Road all have a good start on them (with snow).  Snowmaking on Jackson Gore trails will commence tonight.


• And when that cold air settles in… things will go very quickly.


• Solitude lift and trails, including epic restaurant will not open this weekend. Earliest prediction is towards the end of next week.


• The Sugar House will open this weekend.


• The Superpipe will not be open for the Christmas Holidays.


• We will get as many of the slope side lodging trails open as quickly as we can. We all understand and realize their importance, especially to those who have homes located in these areas.


• The galaxy bowl will be worked on beginning Friday – guns are already locked and loaded in that area.


• Wardance is important for racing and all of us would like to have them on their own trail. That will be one of our mid-mountain objectives beginning next week.


• There is a desire to get one of the larger trails off of the summit open. It will most likely be Upper Chief.


• It is highly unlikely that we will have the Nor’easter Terrain Park open. Our plan will be to have some features, rails and other items on different trails if the park is not open. There will be gated entrances to these areas.


• Snowmaking will continue around the free learning carpets in both base areas as we head into the Christmas week.

The weather has surely been chasing us up to higher elevations for snowmaking. The bottom line is that we just make snow where it is the coldest… and we can achieve the best production. 

Christmas week is just 10 days away, and the excitement is building.  Despite the weather not being great, reports from our guests on the hill are very positive. Hope you have plans to join us!  (And if you don’t, lodging tells me there are still a few openings here and there, but not many.)

Bruce Schmidt

Vice-President & General Manager

Okemo Mountain Resort