Makin' it Happen

Greetings,

These past few days have seen some different types of skiing no doubt. The old adage of we can’t catch a break is having some true meaning this year. Snowmaking has been continuing aggressively when the temperatures permit. The Okemo snowmakers have been on almost every trail that was opened during the wet weather and resurfaced it with new snow. The skiing was better no doubt on Thursday than it was on Wednesday.

Grooming has been working non-stop to keep up with the snowmaking that is being done. The cats were working on Stump Jumper during the day (Thursday) to get the trail opened in the afternoon. The guys have also been putting in some extra time doing the mid-day groom. There have been positive comments on the mid-day grooming. This is a real commitment from Okemo Mountain to our guests to try and keep the conditions a little better during the ski day.

There have been some questions on the completion of the lodging trails. These ski in/ski out trails are important and we realize that it has been a challenge for some homeowners and guests with not having this direct access. Our plan continues to be to put snow on these trails as soon as possible. Some of the guns we have been using in the South Face area will be moved into some of these lodging trails.

The snowmaking plan for the next few days will be to make snow on Upper and Lower Chief, Sachem, Heaven’s Gate, Exhibition, Boomerang, Moon Shadow, and then head towards Quantum Leap and Vortex next week. The long range forecast is for good snowmaking temperatures during the first week of 2012

I wanted to wish everyone a Happy New Year and thank you for skiing and riding with us during this holiday week and the ski season. Remember Okemo has the "MOST" skiing in Vermont and we’ve got the most snow.

Happy Holidays and see you on the slopes...


Bruce Schmidt
Okemo GM

MOST Snow

Greetings,

I wrote an apology letter to Old
Man winter. I expressed my sincere apologies for all the bad things I have said
about him through my life. The letter
came back as undeliverable! Now that is
concerning…. So back to reality. Okemo has the MOST snow around and we are
proud of it. Heck, even the Abominable
snowman has taken residence at Okemo because we have the snow!

Snowmaking is continuing to be
aggressive. We have been able to open 46
trails which is over 17 miles of ski and ride able terrain. 16 lifts are operating on several mountain
areas. Our plan will be to make snow on
terrain such as Stump Jumper, Vortex, Quantum Leap, Kettle Brook, Chute, and
Lower Chief as well as on existing terrain.
We are well aware of the need to resurface on some of the more popular
trails with snowmaking to keep the skiing and riding up to par. Although there may be some time of no
snowmaking during the next 24 hours or so, once snowmaking resumes on
Wednesday, we are optimistic of having open 50 – 52 trails by the New Year’s
weekend.

Our experiment with mid-day
grooming has been working out well. In
case you don’t know, Okemo has been taking the groomers out around noon and
grooming a few trails to enhance the surface.
This is an effort to make the experience of skiing at Okemo better
during this holiday week.

Work will continue as quickly as
possible on the ski in/ski out trails. There
is no one set of trails more important than the other. We have discussed how we
can best utilize our snowmaking system, length of trail; air capacity and time
of getting snow on the trails as we make decisions on were to make snow.

As the New Year approaches, I wanted to wish everyone a
Happy New Year and thank you for skiing and riding with us during this holiday
week and the ski season. Remember Okemo
has the “MOST” skiing in Vermont and we’ve got the most snow

Happy Holidays and see you on
the slopes……….


Bruce Schmidt
Okemo GM