Greetings,
It is time to begin some weekly blog posts to talk about what is going on during the summer. I’ll try to not do some shameless advertising, but some of my descriptors may come out of the marketing vocabulary! Either way, I’ll keep you informed as to what is going on.
There is going to be many new things to do this summer in the Adventure Zone. The largest and most expensive addition is the new Sawyer’s Sweep Zip line tour. The new high-flying, treetop tour located on the mountain behind the Resort’s Jackson Gore Inn will feature a rope ladder, suspended bridges, tree platforms and seven zip lines that rise 40 to 50 feet above the ground - the longest of which is 900 feet. Okemo’s zip line tour will operate year round with a different experience in every season, and the tour will take approximately 2 hours.
We have also added a new rock climbing wall. Actually new to us... as we purchased it from Killington. Our very own Diane Mueller did some authentic painting so it looks like a real wall, well almost! The Amp Energy Big Air Bag is also going to be set up for the summer. Purchase a ticket and then climb up the stairs in the staging set up and jump 30 feet into the bag. This should be lots of fun. The last new addition is Segway tours - those two-wheeled, always balanced vehicles. We plan to have tours around the resort area in Jackson Gore.
The mountain operations staff has been helping the zip line contractor set up their poles and string some cables. There are two large 50 foot poles that will be the finish of the zip line and they have already been erected. They have moved on to completing some of the others, with a real tough one near the Moonshadow trail. For this installation, they've had to drag the pole about 300 feet into the woods before being able to stand it up.
Of course all the other mountain work is moving along. All the chairs are now off of Quad A as lift maintenance is doing a normal x-ray inspection of the main haul cable and the grips are being inspected. Work is ongoing in the maintenance shop with the groomer tracks having their belting replaced and the groomers are getting an overhaul.
So that brings you up to date on some things happening around the resort.
Bruce Schmidt Okemo GM
